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"Kate Appleton needs a job. Her husband has left her, she's been fired from her position as a magazine editor, and the only place she wants to go is to her parents' summer house, The Nutshell, in Keene's Harbor, Michigan. Kate's plan is to turn The Nutshell into a Bed and Breakfast. Problem is, she needs cash, and the only job she can land is less than savory. Matt Culhane wants Kate to spy on his brewery employees. Someone has been sabotaging his company, and Kate is just new enough in town that she can insert herself into Culhane's business and snoop around for him. If Kate finds the culprit, Matt will pay her a $20,000 bonus. Needless to say, Kate is highly motivated. But several problems present themselves. Kate despises beer. No one seems to trust her. And she is falling hard for her boss. Can these two smoke out a saboteur, save Kate's family home, and keep a killer from closing in...all while resisting their undeniable attraction to one another? Filled with humor, heart, and loveable characters, Love in a Nutshell is delicious fun"--… (more)
User reviews
Kate is divorced and trying to keep her family home so she can start a new life and career. Matt is focused on keeping his career successful and not interested in a relationship. He comes off as a genuinely nice guy, trying to help other business owners and not a cut throat kind of guy. The reason why someone is trying to ruin his business is not immediately obvious. The story unfolds at an easy pace with just enough activity to keep the reader interested. Kate also seems fairly normal, not a walking catastrophe, who finds herself attracted to her boss even though she knows it is not a good idea. There are supporting characters that are interesting but the main focus stays on Matt and Kate.
This is a great book to just sit in a comfy chair with it, drink a nice glass of wine (or hot chocolate), and spend a few hours enjoying a story that will make you feel good at the end.
I hope that Janet only put her name on this to help a friend because if Janet wrote this then her skills as an author have eroded significantly. If this was written primarily by Dorien Kelly (and I suspect that it was) then she needs to find some more honest people to critique her writing. My cynical brain can only think of one reason this was published by a major publisher in hardcover - to make more money off of the Janet Evanovich brand.
I thought the main characters were fun and likeable. Also, it was narrated by the amazingly
Like most of Evanovich's co-authored titles this one has some spots that don't have her trademark bubbly snark percolating through them. But it's not to bad for an fluffy afternoon curl-up with a cat and a hot cup of tea book.
It was a fun read, nothing terribly deep but fun.
Heroine moves into her parents' summer lake house, a rambling falling down thing in Michigan, to renovate it into a b&b after she gets a divorce & loses her magazine editor job & is broke. Her parents are behind on their mortgage (despite the fact that they seem to be wealthy, all the heroine's siblings are wealthy, and they've owned the 2nd house for 30 years, so ???) and want her to let the private investor who has bought the mortgage to take it instead. Heroine needs a job so marches into local brewery and gets one from the hot owner, who likes her sass & asks her to work undercover and spy to find out who is sabotaging his brewery. She'll be paid minimum wage and get a $20,000 bonus if she finds the saboteur. Hot brewery guy and heroine fall in love and find the saboteur amidst a bit of danger and nice family relationships.
Irritating factors: Evanovich seems to think minimum wage is $10 an hour. No. Not even here in liberal Oregon. It's $7.40 in Michigan. When you're broke, you know the difference between $7.40 & $10 per hour, trust me.
Also, hot brewery guy, smart enough to invest in other breweries and to have a booming successful business, yet too stupid to think of buying security cameras.
No interesting house renovation details at all, just a few "ooh sewage overflow" type mishaps.
And finally, the hero has a tough three legged rescue hound dog, while the heroine misses her dog terribly which turns out to be a fussy mini poodle who appears to be the alpha in the human-heroine relationship, and then also alpha over the hero. Ugh. And these people need to seriously read some dog training books.
Review: This was a wonderful piece of fluff. The characters are entertaining and fun. About a third of the way through the book the number of suspects had dwindled to two, but that didn't make the read any less enjoyable. The final scene is a bit of a surprise. This is classic early Evanovich.
This is a sweet, light hearted and very wholesome romance/mystery and a very quick read.
Kate has just been fired from a bartending job, something she had to take to earn some money while she is trying to fix up her parents old B&B on Lake Michigan. She stomps off to confront the
But Matt has been having some troubles of his own and decides that Kate would be the perfect person to ‘spy’ for him. There has been a rash of vandalisms at his micro-brewery/restaurant..
As the vandalism escalates Matt decides that Kate is the one for him, and despite her reticence with men since her very nasty divorce she starts having feelings for Matt too. Can she get beyond the fact that he is holding her mortgage and wants to turn her property into a restaurant?
This novel has an interesting story line and a mystery that had me going trying to figure it out. The writing team of Evanovich and Kelly threw in a very plausible red herring and I bit like a hungry grouper! The characters are very likeable, to the point that I would love to be friends with them. The writing is nice and tight, the story holds ones interest and even the secondary characters are enjoyable.
I truly liked this book a lot, and I hope that these two collaborate again in the future.
Kate moved into the family vacation home. It is big but needs a lot of work if she wants to open a bed and
Matt Culhane owns brewery and few other businesses someone is trying to ruin the brewery. He hires kate to see if she could learn what is going on in his brewery.
It has humor and romance.
Kate has moved back to Keene's Harbour after her divorce with a plan to refurbish her parents summer house and open a B&B. In order to fund the
As long as you don't look too deeply at plotting details or expect too much depth, you'll find a breezy, quick read. Jennifer Crusie is the undisputed queen of this particular genre, but this would not be a wasted check-out from the library.