The Nerd Who Loved Me

I had read the first book in Vicki Lewis Thompson's Nerd series about a year ago and can't say that it tickled my funny bone in quite the way I had hoped, so I wasn't entirely sure what to expect when I picked up the next book in the series. Fortunately, I liked The Nerd Who Loved Me quite a bit better than Nerd in Shining Armor. The characters, in general, had a bit more depth, and the heroine, in particular, was much more likable in my opinion. The plot was still pretty light and frothy and required the suspension of disbelief a few times, but in general, I felt it had more credibility. I also appreciated that the story wasn't overburdened with extreme cliches and absurdities. Even though there were some things that I thought could show more have been better, overall, The Nerd Who Loved Me ended up being a pretty enjoyable read.

I absolutely adore nerdy heroes, so Harry was the cat's meow for me. He's an extremely smart accountant for a Las Vegas casino where he secretly (or so he thinks) watches Lainie's shows every night from a private back table. They also live in the same apartment complex, and when he finds out that Lainie is having baby-sitter issues, he volunteers to watch her son. Harry is wonderful with Dexter, completely connecting with this little whiz-kid on an intellectual level, yet being good with him in a more general way too, which made me believe that he'd make a fabulous father someday. Of course, this gets him up close and personal with Lainie who he has a major crush on, but doesn't think she'd ever consider going out with a nerd like him. Harry is tall and reasonably attractive (what I imagined as cute), but I liked that physically he was more on the average side, nearly blind as a bat without his glasses and no longer buff since he gave up working out. He's also fairly reserved and not given to taking risks or living spontaneously until he gets mixed up in Lainie's life. Harry's just a really sweet guy who is very sympathetic of Lainie's predicament and would do anything to help her out. Once he really starts falling for Lainie, he does have a couple of alpha protective moments when he thinks her life is in danger, but overall Harry is a gentle beta. How could I possibly resist a nerd with a great butt who's an amazing lover? Come to think of it, I can't, since I married one.;-) Hubba, hubba!

In spite of being a showgirl, Lainie didn't come off as being an air-headed bimbo. She actually had some depth of character. She's obviously a wonderful loving mother to Dexter, and has tried to do everything she could to keep him safe and happy. She also recognizes his intelligence and tries to mentally stimulate him as much as possible. I loved that Harry had been starring in Lainie's sexual fantasies for quite a while which I thought showed that attraction, for her, was more than skin deep. Granted she had fallen for a looser like Joey five years before, but she was young and naive and her parents weren't very supportive of her. To me, she was a woman who had made some bad choices in her youth, but now was trying her best to grow up and be a mature adult. The only thing about Lainie that gave me pause was that she seemed a little too quick to give up on a possible life with Harry and give in to Joey's suggestion even though she knew she'd be absolutely miserable and Dexter probably would too, all for the sake of Dexter possibly inheriting a fortune someday from Joey's parents. Part of me understood that she was trying to be a selfless mother, but another part of me knows that there were other options for her. In this respect, I thought she reverted back to her old naiveté, because she obviously had lots of people on her side ready to help in any way they could. Otherwise, Lainie was a very likable heroine.

I liked Harry and Lainie as a couple too. Harry had been having difficulty finding a woman who could satisfy him both intellectually and sexually, and Lainie seemed to fit the bill. She knows how to deal with intelligent people, since she has a child prodigy for a son. She has a photographic memory herself, and physically is the type of beautiful girl that usually floats Harry's boat. I do wish that the intellectual connection between Harry and Lainie had been explored a bit more though, because I think it was present but took a back seat to the physical. However, I really liked their love scenes anyway, because they always gave so freely of themselves to each other. I thought this showed what great chemistry they had as well as how much they cared for each other even if they weren't ready to admit it. In my opinion, the sexual tension in the early part of the story could have used a little more subtlety. Based on the two books I've read by her, Vicki Lewis Thompson seems to have a tendency to hit the reader over the head with it rather than giving it more nuance. Also, during the early part of the story, Harry and Lainie repeatedly went back and forth in their minds over whether they could, should or would have sex which became a bit grating. I definitely commend the author for taking the time to write safe sex scenes (a big pet peeve of mine), but the condom countdown (which also happened in Nerd in Shining Armor) was perhaps a bit much. In spite of these last couple of issues though, I thought that Harry and Lainie were a very well-matched and appealing couple.

The Nerd Who Loved Me had a broad and fun palette of supporting characters. Harry's mom, Rona, is an ex-showgirl with a penchant for matchmaking and a burning desire to be a grandma. Her long-time boyfriend, Leo, has a bad-boy persona (everyone thinks he may be a mafia boss), but Rona has him totally wrapped around her little finger. Rona's friends, all of whom are ex-showgirls who've dubbed themselves the TITS (you'll have to read it to understand), are a hoot. Even Rona's little dog, Fred, gets into the act. Dudley, a kind-of jack-of-all-trades at the resort, was an interesting mix of annoying when in salesman mode, and somewhat endearing when he's helping to save the day. Lainie's little boy, Dexter, is as cute as a button and pretty much how I would expect a precocious four-year-old to be. Lainie's ex, Joey, is a total jerk of a villain, who much to my amusement, got taken down a couple of pegs in a rather mad-cap finale.

The Nerd Who Loved Me started out at a pretty snappy pace, but got a bit sluggish through the middle sections. I think there was a little too much padding in both the dialog and narrative, but it did ramp back up somewhat for a fun and satisfying ending. Overall, it was an enjoyable read that I would recommend to anyone who is looking for a light, easy romance with entertaining, likable characters. The Nerd Who Loved Me is book #2 in the Nerd series, but it is my understanding that there are no interconnected plots or characters within the books, only the nerd theme, so they could easily be read in any order or as stand-alones. show less

All of the Nerd books have something that they're best at, and something that keep them from being the best of the series.

The Nerd Who Loved Me has the Physically Best Nerd Hero. That's not by general "physically best" standards, that's by "most appropriate for a nerd hero" standards. Some of the Nerd men are rather unrealistically buff- a nerdy guy might look after his health, but he has better things to do with his time than body build. Harry is a reasonably handsome man, but he has what Thompson at one point describes as "motherboard abs." It's been about ten years since he was working out on any kind of regular basis. But he doesn't have to rely strictly on "inner beauty"- it's just that the kind of description he gets is being show more "safe" or "comforting." I like it much better when Thompson talks up the attractive points of a basic nerd than when she tries to make them hot based on standards of women who like jock types. Furthermore, Harry's nerdiness is almost always presented as a good thing in this book (except for one instance of him not being as romantic as Lainie would like), unlike Jackson's in Nerd in Shining Armour, where it is generally presented as something that needs to be overcome.

Also in the good column is Leo, Harry's mother's boyfriend of the past twenty years, who neither confirms nor denies any connection to the Mafia. Thompson has a talent for secondary characters, and Leo may be her best. This book also gets points for sticking to fairly realistic comedy (meaning I at least recognize the universe in which it takes place as being the same as my own) and for sex mostly coming up in contexts where it might be expected. These last two things can't always be said for the later books in the series, but they have their own good points.

The bad: this is still the stage of the series where nerdy women are presented as unsexy. Lainie is smart, but nerdy is a subset of smart, not a synonym. Nerdy requires smart, plus a nearly obsessive inclination towards the academic and/or intellectual, to the exclusion of spending any time or effort on being mainstream cool. As far as I can tell, the only nerdy women mentioned in this book are the "mousy" ones Harry usually dates, who are intellectually stimulating but not physically. show less

Enjoyed the "fish-out-of-water" aspect of it- conversations were realistic and there were some genuine laugh-out-loud moments that have put this book on the "keep and read when glum" shelf in my life. I truly enjoyed the part where Dexter (the four-year-old son) isn't sure if the former-showgirl ladies will like him if he beats them in poker or if he should let them win just so they will keep playing!

Harry has been helping out his neighbor with some babysitting for her 4 year old son. He is an accountant at the casino where she works as a showgirl. He has a sizable crush on her. When her ex comes looking for her to claim his son for financial reasons, Harry steps in to help. So begins quite an adventure with some interesting side characters. This was pretty predictable but a fun read.

This was rather disappointing. I love brainy characters, and I enjoyed the first book in the Nerd series: Nerd in Shining Armor, but this one fell flat.

Harry, the Nerd from the title, has, according to the cover: "...an I.Q. higher than Einstein's..." We get told this very often, but the only evidence we see of it is that he works as an accountant, and can lose at chess to a 4-year-old. Most of the time, he's just a stereotypically unathletic doofus, except when he gets protective about Lainie, the heroine.

Likewise, his big problem is that he hasn't found a woman he's attracted to who can keep up with him intellectually. I actually like this problem, because I think being able to communicate is hugely important in a relationship. But show more again, we never really see it. A couple of times, he tries to convince Lainie (and himself?) that her photographic memory and intuition means she's smarter than the rest of her fellow showgirls, but we never, for example, see him trying to talk to someone who just can't keep up.

The bulk of the story is taken up by Harry's retired-showgirl mom, her maybe-mafia boyfriend, and their group of friends while they try to keep Lainie's ex-boyfriend and father of her son from catching up to them.

There are some funny moments in the book, none of them really having to do with the apparent main characters. The laughs are worth the reading time, and if you subscribe to the notion that smart people are really doofuses, you'll probably like the book a lot better than I did. show less

You get a real sense of deja vu when you read this if you've also read the first one. Take one super hot chick (who is also intelligent) and one nerdy guy (who also happens to be a genius and tall with broad shoulders and a large... package who is a god in the sack) who would probably never get together under normal circumstances.

Add one villian (who is super hot btw and either at one time involved with the chick or she wants to be involved with him) who creates a situation where the nerd and the chick need to leave behind their old life (temporarily).

Continue with lots and lots of awesome sex while in their own little world where they realize that not only is the sex great but they love each other... but it would never work outside show more their created paradise. *sob*

Throw bad guy into the mix again and have the older, more experienced man (did I mention there is an older couple (50's)) save the day. The main couple is now in limbo regarding their relationship although they both admit (to themselves) that they love each other. They separate temporarily when, out of nowhere, the bad guy pops back into the picture and tries to kill the chick. The nerd then appears all manly and rescues his woman.

Then they get married and live happily ever after.

And even knowing where this was going right from the beginning I still liked the book. It didn't make me think in any way, shape, or form but it was still fun to read. show less

This story had an interesting plot, good finish and was sprinkled with humor but characters thinking about why their love couldn't be got a little repetitive making my rating 3.5* Genius Harry is babysitting for showgirl Lainie when her ex-boyfriend starts banging on the door.