Reviewed for queuemyreview.com; book release: August 2008

Combining humor, suspense, and romance is a delicate balancing act most authors don’t even try. I’m always on the lookout, tho, for those authors who make that effort and I’m absolutely thrilled when I find one who does the job well. I read “All Jacked Up” by Penny McCall and enjoyed it so I picked up her next book “Tag, You’re It”. It’s been almost a year since then and now “Ace Is Wild” is finally out and it’s just as good as the other two.

I need to be clear that McCall’s plots are, hopefully, not intended to be 100% believable. You’ll have to suspend your belief. After all, librarians don’t have hits put out on them (“All Jacked Up”) and wealthy former beauty queens don’t become hermits (“Tag, You’re It”). But I think for sheer entertainment value, her books are hard to beat. With “Ace Is Wild” we’re treated to a former FBI agent whose life is saved, several times, by a psychic. The plot’s not the most puzzling (I pegged the ‘bad guy’ fairly early in the book) and the bad guys are almost as funny as the wickedly witty banter between the hero and heroine, but this book still worked for me.

Vivi is a psychic with a cause! She feels guilty for a mistake she made earlier in her career, so when she begins getting visions of a man being killed she makes it her business to hunt him down and warn him. Once she realizes who he is, she figures out that she will have a VERY difficult time convincing him of both his danger and her innocence. And really, did he have to be so…nibblable?

Daniel thinks the lady who kidnapped him from the bachelor auction is gorgeous, crazy as a loon, but definitely gorgeous. And that’s before she claims she’s having ‘visions’ about his murder. Uh, huh. He’s not sure what her connection is to the pair of killers who appear to be on his trail, but he’s certainly not letting her out of his sight until he knows. And he is 100% sure, absolutely positive, that he is NOT going to act on the attraction. No way…probably.

If you believe opposites attract, then these two are your dream couple. And about halfway through the book Vivi and Daniel (or Ace as she calls him to his endless irritation) realize that they actually complement each other. They each have traits and strengths that work better together and I wonder how many couples go through years of marriage before they (if ever) figure that one out for themselves? If bickering bothers you, this is a book you don’t want to buy as the lead couple spends the majority of their time sniping at each other for the first half of the book. It’s not mean, at least the majority of it’s not, and when a line is crossed there is an apology proffered. The steamy attraction between them practically rises from the pages and the love scenes are beautifully (and heatedly) written. As I mentioned earlier, I figured out the villain fairly early and the mobsters were more reminiscent of Laurel and Hardy than menacing. But if you like heaps of comedy, rolled in with romance, and wrapped up with a mystery…then you should treat yourself to “Ace Is Wild” by Penny McCall. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

To find out more about this about, check out her website at http://www.pennymccall.com/index1.html ( )