Gone With the Nerd

I absolutely adore Vicki Lewis Thompson's NERD Series. As a woman married to a man who would, in all likelihood, be described as a nerd, I know first-hand how hot these guys can be! Ms. Thompson has served up another steamy slice of nerdiness in GONE WITH THE NERD.

Zoe Tarleton is a movie star known far and wide for one thing-- playing the bombshell. With her beauty and first-class body, she's made plenty of films--but she's tired of being known as nothing more than a pretty face. Then the chance of a lifetime falls into her lap--the chance to audition for the role of Vera in an action-adventure movie, a part that could, if played right, earn her a Golden Globe. The only problem is that Vera, a chemist working on a miracle drug, is a flat-chested, bland, nerdy woman. To turn her bombshell into a dud, Zoe needs to learn how to be a nerd, and she knows the perfect person to help guide her--entertainment attorney Flynn Granger. She's spent plenty of time with Flynn over the past few years, working out contracts, and she knows he's just the man for the job.

Flynn has always been attracted to Zoe in an off-hand, it-could-never-happen sort of way. After all, she's Zoe Tarleton and he's, well, a nerdy accountant with glasses, a monochrome wardrobe, and a Honda Civic. So when Zoe suggests spending the weekend in Long Shaft, California, home of the Sasquatch, for him to advise her in nerdiness, Flynn agrees, on the condition that he can tell his almost-fiancee, Kristen, what they're up to. The only problem is, even before they reach Long Shaft, Flynn's realizing that being in close proximity with Zoe--dowdy or not--is a real danger to his libido.

GONE WITH THE NERD is an absolute riot, and Zoe and Flynn are adorable characters. The steam these two generate is enough to erupt a volcano, and the suspense and paranormal aspects thrown into the story add an exciting mix. I love how Zoe realizes that there's more to life than fame and fortune, and how Flynn comes to understand that blending into the background of life isn't necessarily the best way to go.

You won't go wrong with this nerdy tale, and I for one am eagerly anticipating the next one, TALK NERDY TO ME. ( )

All of the nerd series books have something that they're the best at, and something that they're the worst at.

The good thing about Gone with the Nerd is that it's the first book in the series that nerds up the heroine over the course of the story instead of just un-nerding the hero. The hero doesn't un-nerd so much as he relaxes a bit.

Also, it has a Jimmy Hoffa joke. I'm irrationally fond of Jimmy Hoffa jokes, though I know that's probably not the kind of information that is useful to most people reading this review.

Now for the bad: although nerdiness is talked about in a better light in this book than in Nerd in Shining Armor, it's largely irrelevant to the attraction between the hero and heroine. In fact, nothing besides attraction really seems to be relevant to that attraction. The naming of the town in which it takes place "Long Shaft" is also illustration of the fact that this series is starting to step into a world where sexual references come from places that they usually don't in the world in which we live. (This isn't to say that I don't drive past the exit for Big Bone Lick State Park whenever I'm taking the interstate through Kentucky, but it's a sad fact that in fiction, things have to be more appropriate than they are in real life.) Worst of all, this is one of those stories where we are supposed to forgive the hero for cheating because a) it just means the heroine is his real true love, unlike the woman he was originally with, and b) the breakup which takes place after the cheating is amicable.

This book is slightly less entertaining than others in the series, but not enough that I'd be willing to get rid of it. That means it's still a step above Nerds Gone Wild, which I never bothered buying in the first place. ( )

I would have liked this book better if it had a lot less explicit sex, but tastes differ. I initially thought that these characters were pretty promising. I liked the idea of nerd as unlikely romantic hero; I expected this to be a cute story. And if Bowlder had edited it, it probably would have been. I gave up after 100 pages that could easily have been cut to 50-75.

As a general rule, "They shut the door behind them" is explicit enough for me. This is for a variety of reasons, but the one that I emphasize here is that sex scenes tend to slow down the plot, unless that IS one's idea of a plot. I want to see the growing emotional relationship. I want to see the development of the humorous situations. But any time the narrative gets going, it grinds to a halt for several pages of moaning, groaning, and (never acted upon) guilt.

In this case, our sex-crazed characters are particularly unsympathetic since, as they both know, the man was about to propose to someone else. There is a line on the cover about the brain being the largest sex organ, but one couldn't prove it by these two. It's not as if the actress is seduced by the witty and intelligent conversation of the male character, or that he is struck by her unexpected intelligence.