Anyway, that's beside the point. Today, I officially start going back on track for blogging and reviewing. Vacations are over and the Olympics as well :( - by the way, I can't imagine how well this worked out LOL :) I've been reading, blog-hopping and commenting... no reasons I can't blog and review as well :) So let's start with Crazy for You by Kate Angell :) It took me a while to get my hands on this book and in the end, it was total disappointment :(
Crazy for You by Kate Angell
published by Love Spell Dorchester in April 2005
Crazy
From the moment she spotted his hamburger-and-french-fry emblazoned boxers with the word supersized on them, Bree knew Sexton St. Croix was trouble. Here was a man with just one thing on his mind, but Sex had hired her to do a job and she'd let nothing get in her way. Not even a sudden insatiable craving for fast food, the hotter the better.
For You
Sexton St. Croix had a big problem. His luxury ocean liner was haunted - by the ghost of an unflappable flapper named Daisy. Now, in an effort to persuade Daisy to "cheese it," he'd opened the ship to a veritable psychic circus. With every type of paranormal phony swarming the decks, he was counting on Bree's "clairsentience" to save his bacon. Her exquisitely sensitive fingers could detect the emotional vibrations of an 80-year-old love triangle and the unsolved murder that had resulted, while her tender touch unlocked secrets in his own heart. Here, at last, was the woman to convince the pleasure-before-promises playboy of the virtues of good, old-fashioned romance.
Genre: contemporary romance, psychics, ghost
Series: none
The Story: Surprisingly, the blurb with all its references to fast food summarizes well the story :)
My Opinion: I've been a fan of Ms Angell ever since I read her baseball Boys of the Summer series. Ever since, I've tried to collect her backlist, thus Crazy for You. Personally, I thought the blurb was very cute with its fast food references and so I thought the book would be really enjoyable... I guess that's why I'm so disappointed in the end.
Actually, Crazy for You is not that bad. As a whole, the storyline is pretty good. Through Bree's visions, we see what happened 80 years ago and how Daisy the ghost fell in love with Sexton's ancestor. That part was pretty good and I was introduced to a period/character that I didn't know very well - the flapper. The premises weren't bad at all either. Sexton wants to get rid of the ghost and therefore invites a bunch of psychics. Where I thought the book sunk is the romance, the characters and all the sex innuendos.
First the romance. I didn't feel the chemistry between Bree and Sexton. Other than lust and her being hard to get, I don't know why Sexton was so into Bree. I like Bree for holding off as long as she did... but yeah, their chemistry wasn't great. I also didn't like how Sexton hired Bree to get rid of the ghost, but wouldn't believe in her abilities and what she saw. His pre-judgment of Daisy was annoying.
Secondly, I thought the characters lacked depth. It's one thing to see them on the boat, but what about outside of the boat? How are they? There were some brief mentions about Bree's life, but it doesn't cover it all. I mean, she's clairvoyant, so how does she deals with it? What do they both do in their everyday life? It made Bree and Sexton less realistic to me. At the end, Ms Angell tries to salvage Sexton's image to the readers by making him more than a playboy. Although it was a good idea, Ms Angell should have emphasized more on that part in my opinion, drops more hints.
Finally, the sexual innuendos. I don't mind sexual tension and all and I think that Ms Angell tried to do this in a comic way... however, I thought that all the sexual innuendos made the book a bit vulgar. It didn't work well. Maybe if they'd been less comical and a bit more classy? I know this is supposed to be a fun book, but still... For example, guess what Sexton likes to be called? Of course, Sex. It's just little thing... Perhaps some people enjoys this kind of innuendos, but not me.
The secondary characters were okay and completed the pictures. The one that I enjoyed most was Daisy :) She was really fun to read. As I said, the whole storyline is quite good and I did laugh here and there. Not totally a bad book, but not one that wowed me.
My Grade: C. In the end, I think that Ms Angell was trying to hard to write a book that was both sexy and funny that it felt forced... and so I ended up disappointed because I've seen her doing sexy and funny and this wasn't.
