The first collaboration between Crusie and Mayer, this is readable but not very successful. I liked the main character, Lucy, an awful lot—she's a self-assured film director who has a vague resemblance to Wonder Woman.

The sections from J.T.'s point of view, those written by Mayer, are much more awkward than the sections from Lucy's point of view and Mayer's discomfort at writing sex scenes are almost palpable. In both sections, however, the plot is fairly impenetrable, and I still don't understand why certain things happened.

(I also wish that some editor would have drawn a big red line through the manuscript when one of them decided that the villain should be an 'IRA terrorist' with a background that was sketched out in about two lines but which was still so implausible as to make me strain my eyes, I rolled them so hard.) ( )

Lady Wombat says:

Too much Bob Mayer, not enough Jenny Crusie for my tastes. Or perhaps I just don't go for those strong, silent, gun-packing men.

http://reneereads.blogspot.com/2006/0... ( )

She’s a commercial director who came in on the last few days of a movie shoot to save her ex-husband’s ass and help her sister and her niece. He’s a hardened combat vet who thought he was taking a cushy job as consultant/stunt double for a minor Hollywood star. They fight terror! Or something. It’s cute, but not as cute as Crusie on her own. (I sort of wonder whether Mayer was uncomfortable writing sex scenes that would be read by romance readers; the ones from the guy’s perspective leave a lot more to the imagination.) ( )

I only read about 130 pages before giving up. I kept hoping it would get better. This was only the second Crusie book I'd read and I hope the other ones I picked up at the used book store are better. I found the situations ridiculous, and the characters grated against me like an annoying pebble in my shoe. And all that Wonder Woman crap just made me want to throw the book across the room. ( )