Calamity Jayne

I did it! I finally finished my first book of the year. Man, I am a slow reader.

I just finished Calamity Jayne by Kathleen Bacus. From her website I think this is her very first book soon to be followed by Calamity Jayne Rides Again with yet, another fun cover!

So let's find a blurby thing: (read at own risk. There are no real spoilers in this blurb but, you know, just in case you decide you like to read a book blind)



HOW DOES A BLONDE SPELL "FARM" ?

E-I-E-I-O

Tressa Jayne Turner has had it up to here with the never ending string of dumb-blonde jokes and her longtime nickname that's harder to get rid of than lint from a belly button. Crowned "Calamity Jayne" by Iowa Department of Natural Resources officer, Rick Townsend, Tressa's out to gain a little hometown respect -- or die trying. Unfortunately for Tressa, that may be the case. She's been handed the perfect opportunity to get "Ranger Rick", the doubting Don Juan of the DNR, and a skeptical citizenry to finally take her seriously. How? By solving a murder no one else believes happened. No one, that is, except the killer.Yup, Calamity Jayne is in it up to her hot pink snakeskin cowgirl boots and matching rhinestone belt--and it's a matter of life and death, respect and reputation, love, happiness, and the whole shebang. Tressa would tell you her momma never raised no dummies, but the jury's still out on that one. And as she has learned in her work at the Dairee Freeze: Sometimes life hands you a big, sloppy ice cream cone. You just have to know how to lick it.


I talked about my shopping spree there a few days back and what sold me on this book was the title and the cover. I glanced at the blurb and read the opening line of the book. Good enough. I decided then and there I had to branch out in my reading and what the hell, this looked like a fun read.

Great news! It was fun read!

You can definitely compare Bacus to Janet Evanovich only Bacus' humour is definitely more high brow and well, you get more bang for your buck here. In the beginning I had a hard time keeping up with the character of Jayne and her wise cracking ways. In one thought this woman could invoke popular culture, politics and religion and have me scrambling to keep up with the jokes. Luckily this trend slowed down near the middle of the book so I didn't feel like I was reading at a full run.

I don't want to put up spoilers and quite frankly it is fun to go into this book blind. Reading the excerpts and stuff at Amazon kind of spoil the fun ( I glanced through them just now to find the blurb and they gave away too much info ).

Tressa Jayne Turner is known as Calamity Jayne to most of the people who know her. It is a name that Jayne has definitely earned but, not in a 'holy crap you are TSTL' kind of way as more of a 'I'm a lightning rod for all things unlucky' way. Seeing as how I am much the same, I instantly liked Jayne. Also, the fact that she is working two minimum wage jobs to foot the bills also gets me to warm up to her. Enough with the heroines who have trust funds or are too brilliant for their own good. Give me somebody clinging to the job market and I'm there with them.

Unless they are a waitress. Too much reality. Been there, done it, have the nightmares.

What else can I tell you that won't ruin the story? Oh, it's told in first person and it's a mystery. I'm not sure why the book was in the romance section at my bookstore but I did figure it would be chick-lit. Didn't expect it to be a mystery.

Sonofa-! Guess what it says on the spine? Contemporary Romance. Uh, okay, not a chance in hell! This book should be labeled, shee-it, I don't know mystery designations but do they have humourous mystery as a category? I should look at Evanovich's spines on her books but that would involve me getting up.

Not going to happen. At least, not right now.

I'm in the zone. *snort*

So to sum up. This book is a funny mystery with a heroine who, although being 24, has way too much in common with my 35 year old self. Bacus' humour is not slapstick, oh wait, there was that one scene but, there were little to no one-liners. I say this because I don't remember any one-liners but they may have been there. Just hedging my bets.

As for the hero of this romance ::cough:: mystery ::cough:: he is the bedeviling best friend of Jayne's older brother and has been the bane of her existence for many years. If this was truly a romance I would be pissed not to be in the hero's head to get the downlow on why he *has* to be the bane of her existence. Is it a case of him never growing up past hair-pulling to get a girl's attention? Anyways, he is cute and can be sweet for all of the few times he shows up in the story.

I am grading this a solid B and I know that I ran into a continuity problem at one point but now I can't remember what it was so I am letting it go.

On that note, I am looking forward Jayne's next book and I can only hope that a bit more romance will end up in the book. I'm not saying there will be but, I am willing to try the next in the series to see if A) Bacus can still bring the funny and B) for the romance.

So there is my take on a book I just happened to find in the stacks.

Out on a limb.

Pretty good find, if I do say so myself.