Review: Great read. I know, right?
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 6, 2013
This is the second outing for Johnny Smith, the nice guy who makes all the girls sick. He's a guy's guy who in the previous novel by Lauren Baratz-Logsted was introduced as having killed his mother during birth and irritating all the women he'd ever been attracted to. The only one who'd put up with his by-this-time-engrained bachelor behavior was his lesbian neighbor and sole employee, Sam. He's a smart guy but went into painting because that's what his dad Big John, now wheelchair bound, wanted and because "paint never lets you down." The reader is introduced in the first book to a slew of characters who are eclectic as hell. But none resonates as well as Stavros the Greek, the dementia-ridden old shop owner he takes into his home. This book starts with Johnny's storybook honeymoon cruise with Helen, the assistant district attorney who saw enough to marry him. Nothing goes as planned. But Johnny's a nice guy. He does the right thing even if it appears he's shooting himself in the foot. Helen is a royal ass pain. Pretty but seriously self-centered. Enter Willow, a little girl on the cruise ship who reappears sporadically to provide sage-like advice almost like a guardian angel. Loved that touch. Suffice to say that Johnny soldiers on. The dialogue is great as are the interpersonal interactions between well-developed characters.