Wild Ride

This romance/fantasy mix is crammed with way too many characters, too many obvious "surprises", and too many subplots, all of which weigh down the pace. Along about page 200 or so, most readers will be saying "Will you please just get on with it?", especially since Crusie hasn't yet dropped in one of her patented hot-monkey-love sex scenes. (She does eventually deliver, but it comes about 150 pages too late.)

Basically, the Crusie-Mayer partnership leans way too heavy on the Mayer side here, with the macho military background of one of the main protagonists. (There are at least 13, unless I've miscounted, but 13 seems like an appropriate number for this tale of a demon-haunted amusement park and a shadowy set of "guardians" in charge of show more keeping a lid on everything.)

Readers looking for sassy romance are better off choosing a Crusie-only title, while those looking for fantasy and tough-guy adventures can pull something from the Mayer shelf. This chalk & cheese combo just doesn't deliver. show less

This isn't just a romantic-comedy/action-adventure hybrid, it's a romantic-comedy/action-adventure with demons. If you can deal with that, it's worth a read.

It's a smoother blend than Crusie and Mayer's first collaboration, but it's much more action-adventure than romantic comedy. For one thing, the male lead and the female lead do not end up together. For another, while there are some funny bits, it's much too tense to be a true comedy. There is romance, and it's much more believable than action-adventure romances generally are (that would be Crusie's influence), but the romance is not the focus.

The characterizations are good, the action is as plausible as demon-hunting gets, and it's emotionally satisfying. That's really all one can show more reasonably expect in such a book. Not a keeper, however. show less

This was the last book Jennifer Crusie wrote that I hadn’t yet read (except for the Temptation books; I started Welcome to Temptation and something turned me off and I never finished it). It’s a co-wriiten book with Bob Meyer, and their previous effort Agnes and the Hitman is one of my all time favourite good-time reads.

But I avoided this one for years because I’m not a fan of carnivals and amusement parks as story settings. Stephen King might have ruined this for me, but there’s just something WAY too creepy and seedy about them in books. Nevertheless, I had bought this and after years of languishing in a forgotten corner of the TBR, I found it just in time for Halloween Bingo, and the setting was perfect.

Mary Alice (Mab) is show more just finishing up a massive restoration of an early 1920’s amusement park, putting on one of the last touches, when she’s attacked by a giant iron clown that calls her by name. The owners of the park seen unsurprised, though they pass it off as a hallucination. Soon, however, there’s no escaping the truth: the park is the prison for 5 untouchable demons (all from the Etruscan mythology, it seems) and two have escaped. It’s up to Mab and her fellow Guardia to re-capture them and keep the other three from escaping.

Believe me when I say there is nothing deep or philosophical about this book. It’s pure silliness and funnel cake fun. It’s not nearly as well plotted or written as Agnes and the Hitman, but it’s well written enough that it kept me reading and the eye rolling only happened a few times.

I doubt I’ll ever re-read this again, though it did make me want to climb that ladder to grab Agnes for a re-read. show less

I'm a little conflicted—I think I would have enjoyed Wild Ride more if I had been in the right mood for it. I was cranky and down and wanted some of Crusie's blend of comedy and romance and snappy dialogue to cheer me up and give my brain a rest. There is some comedy in here, and some romance and even one or two enjoyable bits of verbal humour, but despite the wacky premise (five Etruscan demon gods who have been imprisoned for all eternity in an ageing amusement park in Ohio are trying to escape and wreak havoc), the tone is fairly serious and the book is tilted more towards the action-adventure than the romantic-comedy.

It's a much smoother effort than Crusie and Mayer's previous collaborations—I think you can see the seams less, show more maybe because Crusie helped to give the male lead a little more personality this time around—but I think oddly that makes the book fall between two stools in terms of genre. It felt neither traditional enough nor subversive enough. There might be too much fantasy wacky (demons and vanquishing powers inherited over generations and possessed stuffed toys—very Buffy) for people who want action-adventure; not enough emphasis on romance for those who want the escape of it. There's also the fact Crusie and Mayer are trying to write against the conventions of the romantic genre—it's not giving much away to say that the male and female leads don't end up together—but those conventions are so strong that I spent the first half of the book, at least, confused and almost reading against the story.

Maybe I did just go into this in the wrong frame of mind—I was looking for cosy familiarity and got something quite different—but it didn't engage me as much as I was hoping for. That said, I would love to see this in movie and/or TV miniseries form—I think the change of media might really make it work. show less

All amusement parks have something a bit magical about them, but this one's got a real doozie of a secret: five demons locked in wooden chalices are contained inside the iron figures fronting the parks signature rides. The demons will destroy the world if released, but they can't be killed, only contained. The Guardia, five guardians whose powers pass on when they die, are in charge of keeping the demons from getting out and wrecking havoc.

Mab, the artist whose temporary job it is to restore the park's rides, statues, etc. to their former glory, knows nothing of demons. But when the giant statue of FunFun which guards the park entrance comes to life and bumps into her, she knows something strange is going on.

For Ethan, whose tour of show more Afghanistan ended with his unit dead and himself on borrowed time, coming home to the park wasn't a wish - more like a necessity. It's the only place he could think of to go where he could spend the rest of his numbered days drunk and oblivious. Too bad no one else is planning on cooperating with his plan.

Snappy dialogue, intriguing characters, a plot both comic and suspenseful - what more could you ask for? A fun afternoon's read that doesn't take anything too seriously. show less

Came across this while I was searching for (nonfiction) books on amusement parks. Instead, I found this: a fascinating "hilarious paranormal" (as the DJ says, I'd call it a "semi-historical paranormal romance") novel about restoring an old park that just happens to be a demon prison.

Altogether, I found it enjoyable, if not "hilarious." (I guess I'm a bit biased, because I've always wanted to write about amusement parks--fiction and non--but when it comes to novels, I'm having a hard time coming up with plots that can fit in the confines of a par.k) Historic amusement park, mystical calling to a higher duty, a main character who makes a living restoring old amusement parks... what keeps me from giving it more stars is a certain weakness show more in the creation of the park itself.

For one, "The Double Ferris Wheel is from 1926 (p 7). I can't find any evidence of a double Ferris wheel predating the 1960's. Annoying when someone gets the history of a significant subject wrong. More significantly, why shape the keys into something whose absence is glaringly obvious and put the "keyhole" in a prominent place where everyone sees it, and it practically cries out to be fixed? Gratingly illogical in a park otherwise perfectly designed for its task.

Though I'd really love to read the "origin story" of this--both the park and the Guardia. show less

Normally I really enjoy Jennifer Crusie's books but this never grabbed me.

All of the characters were stereotypical and if Crusie and Mayer had just stuck with that they would have produced an undemanding thriller which would have been perfect holiday reading, or in my case listening, however the addition of the demons changes this story from being daft to plain stupid.

Jennifer Crusie is one of my favourite authors but this is not her best work.