Be careful what you wish for….
On her thirty-fourth birthday, Daisy Minor decides to make over her entire life. The small-town librarian has had it with her boring clothes, her ordinary looks, and nearly a decade without so much as a date. It’s time to get a life — and a sex life. The perennial good girl, Daisy transforms herself into a party girl extraordinaire — dancing the night away at clubs, laughing and flirting with abandon — and she’s declared open season for manhunting. But her free-spirited fun turns to shattering danger when she witnesses something she shouldn’t — and becomes the target of a killer. Now, before she can meet the one man who can share her life, first she may need him to save it.
When Daisy decides to do something that woman gets to work. She decides to change her image and within 2 weeks she’s gotten a new wardrobe, a new hairstyle and color job, moved out of her mother’s house and is taking steps to let everyone in town know that she’s available. I definitely had to admire Daisy’s drive – she didn’t second guess herself too much, she went for it.
While all of these changes are being made she is getting to know the chief of police, Jack Russo. Daisy doesn’t like Jack at all. He’s a Yankee for one and that’s about 1000 points against him because he’s not from the south. Then there’s his invasion of her personal space which she’s not a fan of, his cursing which is just not mannerly and he just gets on her nerves in general. For Jack’s part he thinks that verbally sparring with Daisy is probably some of the most fun he’s had in a darned long time and wants it to continue.
Daisy has very few dating prospects in her small town of 9,000 occupants so she heads off to a bar in the next town to dance and go husband hunting. During her second time at the bar she sits in her car to work up her nerve to go in (a fight had broken out while she was there the first time and she’s afraid everyone will remember her and either point and laugh or throw her out). While she’s sitting in her car she sees 3 men walk out of the bar and meet up with another. She thinks that the 3 men are helping the 4th man get into the back of the truck because he’s drunk but she’s really just witnessed a murder. Though she doesn’t realize what she’s seen, one of the men who sees her get out of her car decides that she needs to be “taken care of” to destroy any chance of him being caught. Jack discovers that Daisy is now being watched, though he doesn’t know why, and he must keep her safe.
I was a little afraid when the book started off with Daisy deciding that she wanted to be a party girl. I’m not a huge fan of women deciding to “bad” but it worked. Daisy ended up being classic rather than trashy with a bit of help from a local man who everyone thought was gay. Though he wasn’t really he did have great taste and turned Daisy from mousy to memorable.
With Jack I think the thing I liked about him the most was that he had really looked at Daisy before her makeover. He’d seen her beautiful smile and her intense multi-colored eyes (she had one blue and one green) and wasn’t put off by her mannerisms. He liked her feistiness and decided that she’d be great in bed. Did he know that he’d fall for her? No, but of course, I did. lol
Then there was the suspense portion to this book which had many different sides to it. There was the sex trading, the murder that Daisy witnessed, and then another part of the story that dealt with GHB usage. It did get a tad cluttered for my taste but I appreciated the attention to detail that Ms. Howard provided.
This is one of the books that Ms. Moonlight chose for her DIK list. I’m not a huge romantic suspense lover but it was Linda Howard so I figured I’d give it a try. I’m glad I did. I love reading books where I laugh out loud and though this wasn’t a comedy it had enough of a fun twist that it hit most of my good spots. 🙂 I thought that the book was very good and enjoyed reading it so much.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Hmm. Not for me at this point in time. 🙂
I have this book in my TBR pile, Tracy. I'm really looking forward to reading it… love my romance suspense. 😀
I love this book! It makes me laugh out loud and I return to it at least once a year.
I loved this book! One of my favorite heroes is Jack 🙂
Chris – No romantic suspense for you?
Hilcia – It was good! Like I said the suspense part got cluttered for me but I liked it.
Chudney – It made me LOL as well. I loved listening to Jack and Daisy with their bantering!
Mariana – He was great, that's for sure. 🙂
I like romantic suspense – it's more the "but am not reading anything other than m/m right now" thing.
Ah – got it. No girlie bits. 🙂
I loved this book. I am so Daisy, just without the makeover *grin* Oh, and not fiesty 🙂 Question – have you read Linda Howard's Cry No More? Amazing IMHO!
No girlie bits. 🙂
LOL!
I listened to this last year. It was really enjoyable, but I accidentally picked up the abridged, and it felt a bit rushed. Duh. lol
I keep meaning to read more by LH, but haven't gotten around to it yet. I keep hearing great things about Mr Perfect.
Orannia – Daidy w/o the makeover and feistiness? So you're a quiet unassuming woman with impeccable manners? That's wonderful, but I'm guessing there's more to you than that! 🙂
Nope, I've not read Cry No More but I'll look it up, thanks!
Viki – And you.
Renee – I bought 2 LH books at the UBS because I thought I hadn't read her before but my goodreads thing says I've read Dream Man. I don't remember it at all! lol Maybe I hit the wrong book? 🙂 Anyway, I'll definitely be reading more of LH.
Well some people just can't do party person LOL.
I think Daisy changed just enough for her life to feel new 😀 and that's what matters 😀
Loved the romance in this one 😀
I'm so glad you enjoyed it Tracy!!
It's a "re-read" on my keeper shelf for me.
I love everything Linda Howard does, but this one is one of my very favorites.
🙂
MsM
Nath – Yeah, that's me – I can't do party girl! lol'
I really liked the way Daisy changed. She did a lot but she did it subtly and I thought it was great.
Ms M. – I'm so glad that I read it. I will definitely be keeping her work in mind when I get a hankering for a romantic suspense novel. 🙂
So you're a quiet unassuming woman with impeccable manners?
Errr. Ok, maybe I'm not as like Daisy as I thought *grin* And Cry No More is amazing IMHO!
Cry No More is my favorite books of all my favorite books and everyone should read it 😀 I love love love that book. Definitely should read it… in my humble opinion.
Orannia – LOL you're funny. Ok, I'll get CNM soon with that recommendation!
Marianna – Sold! I'll be getting it soon, thanks!