Authors: Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer
Totally awesome book. And yes, I read it last year pretty much the day it came out. Myself and two friends actually managed to read the book within three days with all of us sharing one library copy between us. It was that good.
A cranky food critic, with a penchant for going into blind rages and hitting her cheating fiances in the head with frying pans, runs into some trouble involving a wedding, a deceitful bitch trying to steal her house, thugs trying to kidnap her dog, and yet more thugs trying to simply kill her. Logically, her former-mobster pal Joey, calls in his estranged nephew (and government hitman) at the first sign of trouble to "protect his little Agnes." Eventually, Agnes learns to channel her anger and embrace her crazy in a good way and Shane finds comfort and stability and family, things he never knew and never really knew he needed.
After a second read, it's still a great book. Agnes is still totally fucking awesome (and easilly my favorite Crusie heroine so far) and Lisa Livia is even better than I remembered her being. The collaboration between the authors is also incredibly tight. It's one damn cohesive novel. The only bits that stuck out involved Shane going off and doing "guy stuff" like shooting people in the woods or engaging in boat chases. I think that had a lot to do with the fact that Shane left the house and I couldn't help but sit there and heckle "But Agnes is back at the house! Get back to the good stuff!"
My favorite scene is still the one where Agnes and L.L. are in the kitchen and L.L. lifts a bucket of cake icing and is all "Dude, what's this sticky red stuff, oh god it's blood." And Agnes, without skipping a beat, promptly leans over, wipes it with a dishrag, and nonchalantly explains that "Shane picked it up for me" because no further explanation is needed. And L.L. responds in a tone laden with "Which one of us is mob princess? Well, whatever makes you happy." Hee.
Note: I meant to post my favorite quotes, but I forgot and returned the book to the library before I could snag them so I'll just post them in a separate post later. (In an effort to truck on through these damn reviews and get caught up).
See, I picked up a different novel with the same authors collaborating, since it was $6 and I was like "Well, Tabs likes her," and I'm not entirely impressed. The problem may lie with her male collaborator who writes all "manly man"-like. I don't know. It's not very subtle. I'll finish it, since it's all I have to read right now, but part of me wants at LEAST half of what I paid back.
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