Cassidy Burke is not having a terrific 32nd birthday. One of her two employees at her cleaning service quits when her paycheck bounces. Her massive cowardly dog eats her breakfast sandwich. Her ancient washing machine grinds to a thunking halt spewing water all over the kitchen floor and her dog barfs up the stolen breakfast sandwich.

Then Cassidy receives two very unexpected visitors. The man who got her pregnant when she was sixteen returns to town to rekindle their relationship and abruptly learns that he has been a father for fifteen years to her math genius daughter Thea who had been told by Cassidy that her father died a hero. Both of them are more than irked with her.

But the real clincher is when Jasmine, supposedly a friend of her grandmother's, arrives to tell Cassisy that she is the next in a long line of demon dusters who is tasked with removing evil demons from the Earth. She takes to the task as eagerly as Buffy the Vampire Slayer which is not at all. Cassidy doesn't have time for this. She's trying to win a new client who owns a sex club in town.

The potential new client turns out to be a hottie named Devlin who is, incidentally, a demon himself. They begin a spicy relationship which she has to juggle with her ex Logan's attempts to also rekindle their relationship. All the while, dusting evil demons who have painted a target on her.

This was a fun, quirky, urban fantasy story with a main character who is in over her head. Cassidy is funny and the picture of a harried suburban mom only with demons. Her romantic relationships need to step to the side when the head demon targets her daughter Thea though. Cassidy turns mama bear with a vengeance when her child is targeted!

This book has been on my TBR pile since 2008 and was a fun, quick-paced story. ( )

On Cassidy Burke's 32nd birthday she's in for a big surprise when the father of her 14 year old daughter (who didn't know he had a daughter) returns, she gets hit on by a sexy new potential client for her cleaning business and her grandmother's friend stops by to inform Cassidy she is her generation's new "demon duster".

I found this to be a rather enjoyable book with some exceptions. Cassidy manages come across as both annoying and likable, which is a feat for any character. I liked how she considered her daughter, Thea, a friend while continuing to maintain a completely mother like stance in their relationship. I also liked both Devlin and Logan, I can see where she'd have a bit of an issue trying to decide between the two. Up front I was kind of irritated because of the main character's justification of keeping both Thea and Logan in the dark about the existence of the other. Ultimately I did understand her justification and it did help that she did feel rather guilty about the whole thing. However, my major issue with the book is "hoo-hah", I guess you'd just have to read it to understand.

Ultimately this book reminded me most of the "Betsy the Vampire" books with a marginally less irritating main character (unfortunately I could find no redeeming qualities in Betsy). It is cute and campy enough that if I should run across the sequel I will certainly read it. ( )

I love Maureen Child and her contemporary romances, especially THE MARCONI SISTERS trilogy and the CANDELLANO FAMILY trilogy.

Unfortunately, I didn't like this book a bit.

I don't know if it was the first-person narrative, the paranormal elements that were more irritating than funny, or the fact that Ms. Child introduced TWO fairly likable heroes for the heroine to decide over, but MORE THAN FRIENDS just wasn't for me.

Hopefully, other readers will enjoy it a whole lot more than I did! ( )