Welcome to Temptation

by Jennifer Crusie #8

Temptation is the name of the town. It has a phallic water tower. I don't know why, but those two things are what strike me as being over the top in a novel that also has con-men, cold-blooded murder (fresh AND years old), outrageous sex scenes, pool matches, a conniving town council, a documentary turned soft-core, really ugly wallpaper, a black-mailing weather man, a bookstore-owning mayor, a body in a shower curtain (that also gets run over at least twice), and much, much more. Actually, when I list it all out like that it sounds like a Carl Hiaasen novel with a featured romantic plot. All that's missing is some sort of land scheme, which they almost but don't quite get to in this book. Anyway -- this is one of Crusie's most popular books, and I do like it, but there's so much going on that it feels a little crowded. It's kind of like someone is spinning 10 plates on tall sticks on EVERY PAGE. I'll have to think about which of hers is my favorite.

I like Crusie a lot -- she writes funny, sexy, and smart. Her characters are more three dimensional than are often found in romance, which is perversely part of my problem with this book -- she's got about 4 sets of great characters that could carry more of the story, only they're too busy acting suspicious or talking about the water tower. Unlike some authors, Crusie doesn't keep going back to the well -- once the story is done, it's done*. There's no "And now, we feature the hero of the last book's best friend, an ex special-forces lone wolf who just found out he is the heir to a gigantic Scottish estate. And he is a magician," which is a really common practice.

*except, of course, in this case -- one character DOES go on to a different book, but that was a one time thing... (and he did NOT inherit a Scottish castle)