Review: Fun
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 10 18, 2012
I nearly didn't buy this book because at least two reviewers said the heroine was annoying. One quoted the heroine saying the room felt "embarrassed" because of a minor imperfection in the flooring. I thought that sounded quirky and since I'm known to be a little quirky myself, I decided to give the book a try. I'm glad I did.The story is well-written and entertaining. For the first time in a romance story I got irritated by the make-out/sex scenes because they were interrupting the story and I wanted to see what would happen next! Even though it was quite obvious to me who the villain was, I still wanted to know how the person would be discovered and what the consequences would be. I was a little impatient with the characters--especially Ellis--for being unable to guess the person's identity, but I guess Ellis has a blind spot as she likes to believe the best of others.The unmasking of the villain turned out to be a bit of an anti-climax, though. When incidents escalate, the police are called in, but we are never clued into what is going on with the investigation. One day the police are interviewing our hero and heroine, then a week or so later, the police turn up and arrest the villian and cart the person off the premises. We are not even allowed a glimpse of the arrest scene, so there just didn't seem to be a strong enough resolution to the whole mystery, even though we know who did it and why it was done.As for the romance between Simon and Ellis, it was satisfying to me. I thought she was a little eccentric where her work was concerned, and a bit of a perfectionist, but not unreasonably demanding. Simon's a hard-working guy who takes pride in the work his company does, and he recognises that same element in Ellie. So, while he may get exasperated with Ellie's requests, he doesn't hold them against her. The two of them fit together quite well. I thought the author was going to get Simon to meet Ellis' family, since Ellis' mother was mentioned, but that didn't happen. A pity, because it would have been great to see them get together outside, away from the whole construction/interior decorator setting. I do agree with another reviewer that Simon shouldn't have flirted with Cynthia but I think he wasn't sure how to extricate himself from her when she cornered him--and being that I'm a woman and I've seen how some women can be, I can find it in myself to feel a little sorry for the poor guy!Overall, I liked the story a lot and I would read other works by this author.