Beverly Brandt

A light-hearted chicklit that neither strains your brain nor insults your intelligence.

Sure, they Meet Cute (she’s wearing a fish costume and about the be struck down by a runaway gelato cart), sparks fly, there’s The Misunderstanding (she’s misinformed about his sexual orientation), the Slow Build (complicated by The Misunderstanding), followed by the Big Reveal, the Hot Monkey Sex, and The Menace to It All, which has to be defeated before the Happy Ever After.

That’s all formulaic stuff, but Brandt’s light hand and a heroine who’s not a ditz – a little klutzy, yes, and a bit slow on the uptake, lift this one above the average for the genre.

Heroine Savannah Taylor is a bit of an anal-compulsive, planning her wedding to Mr. Obviously Not Right with the care and precision of a Moon shot, only to have her big day ruined by a pesky arrest warrant ending in cuffs around the wrist rather than a ring on the finger. It gets cleared up – her identity has been stolen, and those unpaid bills and questionable financial dealings aren’t hers at all – but not until Mr. ONR has decided she’s too much trouble for wife material. She decides the answer to her broken heart and oh-so-boring accountant job is to take off for Florida and run down the woman who stole her identity and ruined her life, and maybe kick up her heels a bit along the way.

To support herself while she’s chasing down her nemesis, Savannah takes a number of unsatisfying jobs (see fish costume, above), rents a room in a sleepy motel suddenly overrun with spring-break college students, and ultimately goes back to boring old accounting where – in a roaring coincidence that actually turns out to be less coincidental than one might think – she finds her identity thief, which is when things begin to get way too real for comfort.

Okay, the ending doesn’t bear a whole lot of real close examination. What do you want – great literature?

Just crank up the tunes, slather on some sunscreen, pour yourself an umbrella drink, and enjoy.… (altro)

This was a collection of four short stories, tied together as they all have something to do with weddings. In order of preference:

Heaven Can't Wait, by Pamela Clare (4 stars)
This is #1.5 in the I-Team series, and it's interesting to read a non-romantic-suspense story involving those characters. (Although, I do have to be honest that I was wondering how it was going to work to have each of those reporters, investigative though they may be, become a part of a believable life-in-jeopardy story without too much repetition. I love that Pamela Clare handled Lissy's story in this way. I just wish I had read it in order so that I could appropriately appreciate Lissy and Will in I-Team #2.) It was also refreshing to read about a committed couple in a healthy and realistic relationship. Yes, there is the conceit that Lissy comes up with, but I loved how Will understood what she was going through, even if she didn't. O.k., full disclosure, I just loved Will.

Brides Gone Wild, Cathie Linz (3.75 stars)
This story seemed a little old-school, but it was enjoyable. There were some laugh out loud moments, and I liked how Pam and Michael related to each other. It wasn't my most favorite short story I've ever read, but I liked it enough to look up other books from this author.

So Caught Up In You, Beverly Brandt (3.5 stars)
This story gave me whiplash. It started out lighthearted but was then about... human trafficking? And Tasha goes to the wedding to look after her sister and immediately senses what is going on and what she needs to do to help save people? By exchanging meaningful looks with the wedding planner/[alleged] human trafficker/ hero-in-disguise ? Oh, and I still don't get how the monkey did it. Despite all of this plus the Weekend at Bernie's flashbacks (that doesn't do much for the whole romance aspect of the story, I have to say), I was entertained. In reading one of the reviews I got the sense that the author threw in a whole lot of things that are done more exclusively in longer books. And I think that I might be o.k. with the romantic suspense if it didn't come along with the slapstick humor. So it's only 3.5 stars, but I do think I'll look this author up again.

The Wedding Party, Whitney Lyles
This one just didn't speak to me. As my daughter said back in her toddler days, "I can't like this." The secondary characters were pretty appalling, although for no good reason I could see. More importantly, however, I just couldn't relate to Meg at all.… (altro)

Katya Morgan was raised to believe that money equals love. Sent away to baording school upon the death of her mother at age 10, her father has always been absent in every way but one. He's always provided her with every material possession that money can buy. And when he dies and disinherits her, even having her stepmother Jillian take back everything that his money ever paid for, Katya is not only devasted, but broke. When sexy Alex Sheridan, the general manager of the premier Royal Palmetto hotel in Arizona, offers her a job in the housekeeping department, Katya knows she's sunk to a new low. Once a guest, now a lowly housekeeper, Katys is truck with the realization of just how much money it takes to survive. Throw in a saboteur trying to take over Alex's job at the hotel, the hotel owners dimwitted son Chris, a slew of Alex's family, and a drooling dog named "Daisy", and you've got a story you're not likely to forget.

I loved ROOM SERVICE. Whether it's due to the fact that Ms. Brandt obviosly did her research on the daily runnings of a hotel, or just the fact that the story is a wonderful one, this is one book you won't be able to put down.… (altro)