this is a re read for me.
It's a little predictable but still light hearted and good read. ( )

This is an early Evanovich romance, and fans of the author will recognize her tropes: quirky leads with engaging personalities, surrounded by straight-laced parents, the fat friend/sidekick, the crazy old lady with a gun in her purse, the sexy and newly responsible heartthrob who used to be the town womanizer.

Her writing is humorous, and the leads are engaging, but I've soured on these types of romances where people fall in love impossibly fast and women are considered old maids if they aren't married by 27. ( )

I prefer Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series to this earlier book, but after reading other reviewer's comments I now see some parallels between her Plum characters and this book. Elsie and Grandma Mazur do have some similarities: both don't always have verbal filters and both have a tendency to carry large, loaded guns in their purses. Maggie is a bit like Stephanie in that she doesn't conform to the norm for women--Stephanie doesn't want to get married and be a housewife--instead she's a bounty hunter; Maggie isn't so sure about marriage herself but mostly she wants to fulfill her promise to write a book based on her Aunt Kitty's diary--and to get away from her mother, aunt, and the other ladies of Riverside who want to put her into a mold.

Evanovich claimed this to be a "screwball romance"--I didn't see it as particularly screwball. Even the romance part of the story relies on a tried and true plot formula for the genre.

The way Hank gets the loan makes me wonder why he didn't ask his mom to apply pressure to his dad without having to go through the sham of hiring someone to be his wife to show his stability. (Since it seems she is the one who ends up pushing his dad into providing the loan--of course, that is based on his father's remarks that caused a misunderstanding, but still . . .)

What I liked: There are a few funny moments within the writing

What I disliked: The lie of pretending they are married when they are not; that they decided to have sex within the "fake" marriage (they weren't really married legally); how many times Maggie changed her mind about really getting married to Hank and the excuses she gave for it; Maggie's pride in that when she realized how lonely she was and wondered if she'd made a wrong decision to push Hank away, she doesn't find a way to go to him to apologize or see if there's still a chance--it also seems she was free to travel once she had her car--something she'd said she wanted to do (as in going shopping)--and she doesn't do it, so that wasn't really her excuse for not wanting to stay in Skogen; Hank seems to have days filled with things to do and doesn't alter them to spend time with his "sham" wife. He doesn't stand up to Bubba and say no, today I'm taking my wife on a drive and I'll get to so-and-so's car after that etc. I could see it maybe for the first time it came up since they'd only been "married" for 3 days at the time but after that, he certainly should have been able to shift some of his commitments to other days to have time to spend with his "wife"

So--given the above--I couldn't honestly rate this more than average. ( )

A cute, wacky romance story filled with zany characters and a crazy plot. I love the Stephanie Plum series and this gave me the same warm feelings. A fast, enjoyable read. ( )

This was a silly book. Things that could have been funny just seemed to be forced. I felt no chemistry between the leads, or much emotion from them either. Maggie seemed to enjoy sulking and feeling sorry for herself which I don't enjoy in a lead character. That said Elsie the housekeeper was a bit amusing and the towns people were somewhat sweet. I thought this plot had good potential but was sadly let down. ( )