Isn't It Romantic by Ronda Thompson

First, I have recalled the flying monkeys I sent out to poop on Renee and Kristie for recommending this book. I'm going to write this one without re-checking their reviews so maybe there was some warning of what was coming and I missed it. Of course, maybe it's my fault for never reading the backblurbs - I just checked and I guess I would have had a clue before the opening scene of the book but, whatever, let's get to it.

Cindy Blurb: Basically you have two sworn enemies (a romance writer and a reviewer/columnist) being forced to date each other and create a he said /she said 5 part mini-series for a newspaper. The dates were hilarious - thus the reason I whistled for the flying monkeys to abort their mission.

This story was one hell of a roller coaster ride and by that I mean it in the 'I'm so going to puke' kinda ride. The opening scene had pretty much every element that pushes all my 'oh crap' buttons.

1. A precocious eleven year old.

2. A romance novelist as the heroine (Lord have mercy on my soul)

3. A huge misunderstanding in the opening that had me cringing with embarrassment because even though I had never met the eleven year old girl in the book, even I knew that her comments would have someone thinking the worst.

At this point I was wondering what Renee and Kristie were drinking when they read this and where the hell I could get some! This might surprise you but I had faith that the book had to get better, cause like I said, R & K (who have read and loved many of the same books as I have!).

It did get better even though the heroine (whose name is Katrine which of course got my brain stuck on the work latrine and well, I had to mentally change her name to Kat every time I came across her name - every once in a while I would read it as is and think 'latrine'. I know, I'm hopeless) took just a little too long to loosen up. I'll also mention that she is a writer of hawt romances and yet, she was only ever married for six months and basically they hadn't got to all the good stuff before she became a widow at 19. This would be what, the fifth hot button for me?

The hero, Trey, was far from perfect also in that he thought nothing of telling Kat how horrible she was as a mother (when her and Trey weren't even friends) and then getting her daughter one hell of a big dog without asking Kat. Uh, hey, pets aren't disposable commodities - okay, pet peeve but really, how many of you have shown up at someones home and brought them a new pet? Especially knowing that one of the people would have said, hell no!!?

As to Kat's backing up of the romance genre? No thanks. I think I'll speak for myself if that's the way Kat really feels. Oh! And get this (and maybe it's the authors way of sticking it to reviews) Kat sued the newspaper that Trey worked for when he gave a bad review of one of her books. The newspaper settled. I was left thinking 'what a drama queen!' AND THEN!! There is a scene where Trey goes to the bookstore with a cabby that needs to buy the latest Kat book and ends up being yelled at by some of Kat's fans - WHO HAVE ROLLERS IN THEIR HAIR!!!!

Okay, this is looking like the book was really bad but in reality it just had an unpolished feel about it. I wonder if this was Thompson's first book?

I'll say this, when Trey and Kat get to the dating part their chemistry is hard to look away from. Trey is doing everything he can to ruin the dates and yet, Kat manages to get the last laugh. Hell I was laughing after the first date and seeing as how funny is hard to do, I can appreciate it.

I guess I would say that Thompson's strength showed when the H/H were together (even though they fought fairly dirty) BUT, I found that Trey became a little too much like a 'cliched romance hero' in the way he expressed himself. I don't mind words of love if they feel right for the character but hearing the words coming from Trey just had me wondering who the guy is that just showed up at the end of the book.

In all honesty, maybe it was the authors intention to write this with her tongue firmly in cheek and well, sometimes that kind of stuff goes right over my head.

So here's where I'm going with the grade. C+ I was going to go with a straight C because the book was half good, half bad but I did manage to enjoy the date scenes and it made me laugh.

Okay, now Renee and Kristie can take off the gloves on any books I have recommended that made them wish they could hunt me down with a dull spoon.

Good news?

New author to me - check.

Another book read - check.

Walls have no new dents - check.