Showing posts with label comedy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label comedy. Show all posts

The Secret Identity of Devon Delaney Review

The Secret Identity of Devon Delaney
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Fans of Lauren Barnholdt will love her newest teen book. It's all about Devon 'Devi' Delaney and her lies.
Devon went away for the summer to get away from things at home and befriended Lexi. She told Lexi a bunch of lies about how back home she's really popular and her boyfriend is Jared, the most popular guy in school. It turns out, Devon is basically a social outcast and now Lexi moves into her town and is going to her school. What's a girl to do? Lie some more to cover up lies already told. Needless to say, things get pretty messy.
It was a very cute book for all teens and I can't wait to read her next book.

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Mom says karma always comes around to get you, and I guess it's true. Because last summer I was a total liar, and now, right in the middle of Mr. Pritchard's third-period math class, my whole world is about to come crashing down. That's because while Devon was living with her grandmother for the summer, she told her "summer friend," Lexi, that she was really popular back home and dating Jared Bentley, only the most popular guy at school. Harmless lies, right? Wrong. Not when Lexi is standing at the front of Devon's class, having just moved to Devon's town. Uh-oh. Devon knows there's only one way to handle this -- she'll just have to become popular! But how is Devon supposed to accomplish that when she's never even talked to Jared, much less dated him?! And it seems the more Devon tries to keep up her "image," the more things go wrong. Her family thinks she's nuts, her best friend won't speak to her, and, as if it's not all complicated enough, Jared starts crushing on Lexi and Devon starts crushing on Jared's best friend, Luke. It all has Devon wondering -- who is the real Devon Delaney?

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Bitten & Smitten (Immortality Bites, Book 1) Review

Bitten and Smitten (Immortality Bites, Book 1)
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This is one of those books with a plucky heroine of the underdog sort nabs the powerful, sophisticated, and drop dead gorgeous hero. I like these sorts of stories if the heroine is sufficiently plucky that I really root for her - but Sarah never struck me as being particularly extraordinary. She's a college dropout secretary of unexceptional looks who is a self-described bubblehead. But she doesn't have, say, the breezy, irreverant boldness of (Undead and... series) Betsy Taylor - a character who manages to wear her faults with panache.
Nor is she really all that bold - she's just very insistent about going to the vampire club that the hero, Thierry, owns, and insisting that she be allowed to talk to him. Every night something happens that causes her to swear she will never return, and every night there she is, standing at the door demanding to see Thierry.
We are led to believe that she has some sort of conversion - that she realizes that she used to be an airhead and has changed her ways and will now approach life with more soul and thoughtfulness. But since the book's timespan is probably no more than a week, I wasn't really convinced.
Thierry is a good enough cold, in-control, bottled up, and uber powerful vampire master. That's kind of the problem. He seems intelligent, mature, and calm - I couldn't figure out why he was bowled over by plucky, which is to say whiny, Sarah Dearly. Not only that, for a good chunk of the novel he is fighting his attraction to her, which consists of being really, really convincingly not interested in her, and kind of contemptuous of her.
It was an entertaining enough read, but I was ultimately too frustrated with the heroine to really empathize with her.

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Devon Delaney Should Totally Know Better Review

Devon Delaney Should Totally Know Better
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I was so glad for a sequel to the first Devon book. I loved DDSTKB and Lauren Barnholdt's writing is hilarious. Devon's voice is distinctive and she's funny, sassy and an original character. Her angst over boys (and getting a cell phone) is so real and like Barnholdt's other books, this is a must read.

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Devon Delaney cannot believe she's lying again. But the thing is, she couldn't help it. Her new boyfriend, Luke, is talking to his (gorgeous) ex-girlfriend, Bailey Barelli (!!!), every single day in mock trial. Devon couldn't just stand by and let him find out that she'd never dated anyone else before. Could she? Oopsie. Too late now.To show how totally unaffected she is by Bailey's obvious Luke hang-up, Devon invents a fake ex-boyfriend of her own: Greg. Fab! What could go wrong? But it isn't long before Devon finds herself in the middle of another supergigantic lie. Can Devon come clean in time to keep the guy? Or will she lose everything due to another lie?

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The Accidental Werewolf (The Accidental Series, Book 1) Review

The Accidental Werewolf (The Accidental Series, Book 1)
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You know when you start to read a book and you get so into it that you forget about eating and sleeping and even your children? This is one of those books. I literally could not put this book down and finished it in 2 days. (It would have been hours, not days but the children did eventually convince me that they needed food.) I cannot wait to read Nina's story. Come on July 2008!!

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The Art of Shen Ku: The First Intergalactic Artform of the Entire Universe Review

The Art of Shen Ku: The First Intergalactic Artform of the Entire Universe
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Imagine, if you will, that you are in the company of a man who has travelled the world, seen many things that are NOT in the guidebooks, been in the company of many people both great and small, taken a lot of hard knocks, learned much to prevent repeating any mistakes, and lived to tell about it.
This is the book he wrote.
Equal parts Boy Scout Handbook, Whole Earth Catalogue and "Junior Woodchuck Guidebook" (the impossably complete reference book that Donald Duck's nephews carried with them), with painstakingly detailed illustrations on each and every page, tinted with Oriental wisdom.
Just a sampling of the contents (with randomly chosen pages): "Asian secrets of walking stick combat", "A traveler's guide to self-hypnosis", "Rapid reference accupressure treatments", "Emergency entertainment for bored, whining or fighting kids", "Effective beauty treatments with simple natural ingredients", "How to survive disaster situations", "How to condition for martial art strikes", "Non-violent child control", "Simple and healthy vegetarian recipes", "How to execute classic Kung Fu moves".
My friend, this is the one! From boating emergencies to avoiding a fight, from preventing food poisoning to physical fitness information, from natural therapies to preventing bedwetting, from Laws of the Sea to preventing skin problems, from tying knots to yoga postures....
I cannot say enough about this book. Buy it. Better yet, buy two and hide one copy. Someone is bound to "borrow" this from you.
(ADDENDUM: I sent a copy to a friend of mine. He has paid me to send him four additional copies to give away as presents.)

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What is Shen Ku? Roughly translated: "Pure Traveler" or "Phantom Passenger." What exactly is the "art of...?" Mastering the skill and knowledge of practically everything anyone comes across while on Earth, including:* Tying knots and enhancing sex* Numerology and self hypnosis * Herbal therapy and forecasting weather * Curing nosebleeds and removing stains* Kung fu and magic tricks* Isometric and breathing exercises of monks* Self defense and catching fishAnd this is only the beginning.Irreverent and quirky, serious and 100% straightforward, The Art of Shen Ku explores hundreds of topics from a broad spectrum of life situations, and gives ingeniously simple advice on how to cope with them, overcome them, use them, and benefit from them. "One amazing book...intensely practical. Offering awesome crash courses in everything from joke telling to acupuncture...if you are a traveler in life, this book is for you. If you have anybody who needs an awe-inspiring present, then this book is for you. In short, buy it!" (The Travel and Leisure Magazine)

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Fat,Forty,Fired: One Man's Frank,Funny,and Inspiring Account of Losing His Job and Finding His Life Review

Fat,Forty,Fired: One Man's Frank,Funny,and Inspiring Account of Losing His Job and Finding His Life
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I had picked up this book hoping for a funny and inspiring story of someone finding himself after a job loss. Unfortunately, I found Fat, Forty and Fired to be tired and somewhat simplistic. The author came across as overly privileged and frankly, whiny. For example, gosh, he had to fly coach using some of his frequent flyer miles during a trip to Europe! And seats only reclined an inch or two! Plus they had to fire the nanny (although the wife already stayed at home). Yawn.
This is on top of short chapters and a stunning lack of detail.
It was disappointing to see how quickly he went back to some of his old ways at the end of the book. Didn't even make the swim race he had talked about for some fifty pages or so throughout the book.
Even more concerning are the rest of the reviews on Amazon. I find it hard to to see how everyone else gave this book 5 stars. But I see 13 of the 16 other reviewers have only this one review to their name. Nigel's friends and family perhaps?

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Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (Persephone Classics) Review

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (Persephone Classics)
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Winfired Watson's little 1938 fantasy has become the bestelling reissue for the terrific Persephone Books imprint in the UK, and its not hard to see why. Basically a Cinderella story set during the 30s, Watson's novel concerns a dowdy governess sent by mistake by her agency to the home of a glamorous and dithering nightclub singer, who comes to rely upon Miss Pettigrew to straighten out her love life. Miss Pettigrew not only rises to the challenge (much to her own surprise), but undergoes a makeover and finds some romance for her own life as well. While undeniably slim (and purposefully so), the novel is just about irresistible: it plays upon the same fantasy as Jane Austen's MANSFIELD PARK, the fantasy of being not only loved but also needed. Curiously, the trappings of glamour in this novel come not from the world of the wealthy and titled (as per usual in British fiction from this era, as in the novels of Waugh and Nancy Mitford) but from a world envisioned in American film: the world of night clubs, self-made men, and cocaine-dabbling gigolos.

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Now a major motion picture starring Frances McDormand (Fargo) and Amy Adams (Enchanted)!

"Why has it taken more than half a century for this wonderful flight of humor to be rediscovered?"—Guardian

"The sweetest grown-up book in the world."—Sunday Times

"Everyone, no matter how poor or prim or neglected, has a second chance to blossom in the world."—Daily Mail, in reference to Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

A major film released in 2008, Miss Pettigrew Lives for Day is a delightful, funny, lighthearted novel. First published in 1938, it was reissued in the United Kingdom in 2000, complete with thirty-five original illustrations, and has sold over 22,000 copies.

Miss Pettigrew, an approaching-middle-age governess, was accustomed to a household of unruly English children. When her employment agency sends her to the wrong address, her life takes an unexpected turn. The alluring nightclub singer, Delysia LaFosse, becomes her new employer, and Miss Pettigrew encounters a kind of glamour that she had only met before at the movies. Over the course of a single day, both women are changed forever.


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I'm Dreaming of a Black Christmas Review

I'm Dreaming of a Black Christmas
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If are a fan a Lewis Black, you will thoroughly enjoy this book. Unlike his classic "Me Of Little Faith" (which ranks in my top 5 of all-time) -- Black Christmas offers a very personal side to Lewis with of course a mix of his impression on the yuletide season. It's a fast read, it is extremely funny in spots but most of all -- the reader gets a glimpse of the real Lewis Black.

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From Lewis Black, the uproarious and perpetually apoplectic New York Times-bestselling author and Daily Show regular, comes a ferociously funny book about his least favorite holiday, Christmas. For most people, Christmas is a time of peace and goodwill. But most people are not Lewis Black. Like Dickens's most famous curmudgeon, Black says Humbug! to carols, holiday dinners, Christmas trees, decked halls, and boughs of holly. In I'm Dreaming of a Black Christmas, he dares to celebrate the holiday season the only way he knows how: by letting loose on all things Yule. From Thanksgiving, when the holiday really begins, through Christmas Eve, when Black takes a moment to determine who in his life has been naughty (nearly everyone), to the saga of his annual visits to friends and their families every Christmas Day, the comedian reveals his most harrowing and hilarious holiday moments, not only inspiring laughter but also bringing into focus the true reason we gather together at this time of year. All new, and sure to delight fans both new and old, I'm Dreaming of a Black Christmas is an instant holiday classic: funny, razor- sharp, the insightful, and quintessential Lewis Black.

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This Book Will Change Your Life Review

This Book Will Change Your Life
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I have devoted much time to the exercises in this book and so far my life has not changed (drats!) but I have accomplished making a complete fool out of myself (which, to be honest, is no real change).
So far I watched a movie starting with an "F" (Fern Gully), imagined everyone naked (which I do not recommend because it eventually becomes rather icky), ignored a day (more difficult then it sounds), glued a spatula to my arm (strangely no one noticed), managed to lure a fly into the box but missed, tried growing another toe (no luck, yet), went on a one minute hunger strike (more difficult then it sounds), applied for a knighthood (no response, yet), imagined myself as that old man of day 362 and realized that no I am not fulfilled plus I forgot to buy a copy of that weeks TV Guide, took the psychopath test (nope, not telling the results), discovered I am not symmetrical, attempted to invent a new color but only ended up with a mucky sort of beige, spent an entire day ticking off each minute (boring yet profound), and a few other things I cannot or will not mention.
Oh! I even combined two days worth of activities by memorizing Aubrey's face and dressing like a tourist. I searched the city for her, while stopping at tourist attractions which made me recognize the need to move to someplace more exciting, but never found her. I really want to know that secret she is supposedly harboring. I feel it necessary to warn you that I truly believe the whole "Aubrey" thing may be a trick.
Oh! A really eerie thing is that an actual photo of me is in this book. Yes, really! They must have "borrowed" it from a friend's website, that is the only way they could have gotten a hold of it. I tell you, it was quite startling to see myself on one of the pages - I didn`t know whether to be flattered or not. Anyway, it gave me a great opportunity to take advantage of the suggestion for day 256 - tearing up all photos that make you look ugly - and ripped out the page for day 130. I request you do the same and forget you ever saw that picture, please. I look much better in person - I Swear!!!
All in all, I suppose I must admit I've rather enjoyed most of the stuff I've tried. I am starting to feel a bit hysterical so I guess that is a sign it's working. But is that a "good" sign? hmmm....

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Is the year ahead looking much the same as the last? Another 365-day grind of meetings, dinner dates, and deadlines? If so, try this book. Part instruction manual, part therapy, part religious cult, part sheer anarchy, This Book Will Change Your Life will help you poke a stick in the spokes of your routine. It's not the soft-hearted kind of book that's interested in what you have to say; rather it contains 365 daily orders, each one of which could turn your humdrum existence into a daily free-fall.

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Pierre: A Cautionary Tale in Five Chapters and a Prologue Review

Pierre: A Cautionary Tale in Five Chapters and a Prologue
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In my family, there is a sin for which there is no name. If someone asks you to state an opinion one way or another, whether you're asked if you'd like a slice of cake or how you would like your hamburger cooked, you give an answer. If you chose to say, "I don't care", however, you are to be subjected to unending torments. For two minutes. The classic Sendakian classic, "Pierre", understands the horrendous nature of this sin. Taking a sort of "Mrs. Piggle Wiggle" type of extremist cure (in this case, getting eaten by a lion) the book examines Pierre's sin of noncommittalness and treats him accordingly.
Pierre is a well dressed lad. Sporting a jaunty blue suit and no shoes or socks whatsoever, he lives with his respectable mama and pop. In the first chapter, Pierre's mother attempts to elicit some sort of a decision from her son aside from, "I don't care!". Failing to do so, chapter two follows Pierre's father, who attempts the same thing. In chapter three a lion appears and the oblivious Pierre is eaten, after much dialogue with the aforementioned feline. By chapter four the parents have discovered the sickly lion (Pierre didn't go down so well, I suppose) and swiftly take the lion to the hospital. Happy ending, chapter five, the doctor merely shakes the lion and out pops Pierre. From then on, Pierre cares.
The book has much in common with the classic Little Red Riding Hood tale. Fortunately, rather than cutting Pierre out, the doctor (looking like nothing so much as a slightly modified Mr. Magoo) removes Pierre by upending the lion. The lion has seemingly learned his lesson as well, and serves as a mode of transportation for the transformed Pierre and his loving, well dressed parents. The story is small, simple, and easy to read. It's also one of the odder morals out there. But then again, maybe it's a lesson that we all should have learned long ago. It is better to care than to remain indifferent. A difficult thing to teach, but by no means impossible. In my opinion, one of Sendak's best books ever.

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Pierre's ‘I don't care!' intrigues a hungry lion. ‘A story with a moral air about Pierre, who learned to care.'

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Everything Is Going to Kill Everybody: The Terrifyingly Real Ways the World Wants You Dead Review

Everything Is Going to Kill Everybody: The Terrifyingly Real Ways the World Wants You Dead
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Name 5 ways we're all going to die. Do it! Right now! Before reading this book I knew of maybe three ways: asteroid, war, or plague. Wait, four--global warming. Robert Brockway details, like, 20, and each one scares you more than the last. I've learned way more about killer volcanos, super hurricanes, and killer robots than I ever actually wanted to know, but at least all this fear-mongering put a smile on my face. So buy the book, get informed of all ways everything and everybody wants you dead, and come join me in my bunker. I have nachos!

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Just when you thought you'd accepted your own mortality . . . Everything Is Going to Kill Everybody is bringing panic back. Twenty illustrated, hilariously fear-inducing 
essays reveal the chilling and very real experiments, dangerous emerging technologies, and terrifying natural disasters that soon could—or very nearly already did—bring about the end of humanity. In short, everything in here will kill you and everyone you love. At any moment. And nobody's told you about it—until now: • Experiments in green energy like the HiPER, which uses massive lasers to create a tiny "contained" sun; it's an idea that could save the world if it doesn't consume us all in a fiery fusion reaction first. • Global disasters like the hypercane—a hurricane so large it could cover all of North America and shoot trailer parks into space!• Terrifying new developments in robotics like the EATR, which powers itself on meat—an invention in the running for "Worst Decision Made by Anybody."

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On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness: Adventure Peril, Lost Jewels, and the Fearsome Toothy Cows of Skree (The Wingfeather Saga) Review

On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness: Adventure Peril, Lost Jewels, and the Fearsome Toothy Cows of Skree (The Wingfeather Saga)
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I'm a big fan of Andrew Peterson's songwriting and music, so when I heard he'd written a novel I had high expectations. On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness delivered. It's not great literature, it's not going to displace Narnia or Lord of the Rings in the canon of fantasy literature, it's not going to be studied in classrooms fifty years from now. But it was a ton of fun to read, and I've continued to think about some of the themes a couple weeks after finishing the book (I plowed through it in about four days earlier this month).
The characters are memorable and well-crafted, the dialogue is perfect (unimaginitive or stilted dialogue is usually where sloppy fiction loses me, and this one kept me throughout), and the plot is fun and tense and touching and a little messy, but in a good way.
I've been told that I frown a lot when I read, not because I'm unhappy but because I'm thinking and processing, and I guess when I get lost in my thoughts my expression looks sour. This book made me smile as I read it. It was fun to read and is even more fun to read aloud (I've read the first two chapters to the kids, and next is Chapter Three: "Thwaps in a Sack"; they cackled when I read the parts about falling hammers and horse nuggets; they'll love toothy cows and Peet the Sock Man and the Fangs of Dang too). But there's also plenty of tension and drama and conflict, which carries the story along.
At times it seemed a little bit derivative of The Chronicles of Narnia, until it reminded me more of To Kill a Mockingbird, but then it brought to mind Harry Potter, except when it was more like Lord of the Rings. Then there were all those times when it was completely original. There's a lot that's familiar and a lot that's original. It's a good mix.
This is Book One of The Wingfeather Saga, a series title that makes a lot more sense after reading the final few chapters. I'm going to recommend this to my friends and their kids (probably appropriate for about age 5 and up to listen to, and for age 7 and up to read), and I'm looking forward to the next book in The Wingfeather Saga.

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Another Roadside Attraction Review

Another Roadside Attraction
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This is my favorite book of all time. I think that the four main characters are absolutely perfect, the way they are written. You can't get more interesting and original. In fact, I consider Amanda to be the greatest fictional character I have ever read about in a novel. Just brilliantly written.
The dialogue is fantastic, and story line and description of the whole book is just perfect. The first time I read this book, I was sitting out front of one of my classrooms with about 15 minutes to kill, so I figured I'd start reading this book that a friend of mine loaned me. When I looked up at the clock after taking a break from the pages, I realized that it was 3 hours later. This book totally captivated me, and I think I have lent that same copy to at least 20 different people over the years, and every one of them agreed with a full heart.
It the single, greatest recommendation I have ever recieved. You have to read it!!!!! Thank you, Mr. Robbins for writing it. I'm totally serious.

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Monkey Business: Swinging Through the Wall Street Jungle Review

Monkey Business: Swinging Through the Wall Street Jungle
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Before going into my review, let me start with a caution. This book is the grossest, most vulgar business book I have ever read . . . by a very wide margin. This book would have been banned in Boston 50 years ago. If that sort of thing offends you, this book is a minus ten stars. Many women will feel this book is anti-female. On the other hand, if you happen to like your humor male, bold and brassy, this book will be one of the funniest you will ever read.
As someone who often works with investment bankers, the descriptions about how business is sold and delivered should be tempered a bit. This book describes pretty much every investment banker as shoddy, shallow, and manipulative. That has not been my typical experience. There are terrifically smart, talented, ethical and humane investment bankers. For example, one of my favorites never used a pitch book during his first meeting with a client. Pitch book preparation is one of the banes of the young investment banker's existence. But like all professions, investment bankers vary a lot. There are certainly some less capable ones, and I have seen their work too. I would describe it much like the authors do.
In terms of the working conditions, they are mostly a reflection of weak management in the industry. Investment banks reward doing deals, not being good managers of the deals. A fellow I know became CEO of a major investment bank, and made much less money after that than when he was just a deal-maker. He found little interest on the part of his colleagues in improving management, so it was pretty frustrating. It just doesn't pay to work on making life better for the investment bankers in training, compared to producing more business.
The book's main point is that many young people enter investment banking without knowing what it is like, and are overly impressed with the financial prospects. If your values really favor having time for yourself, your family, and developing your other interests, this is probably the wrong career for you. There are plenty of other ways to make lots of money. The richest people I know are entrepreneurs, not investment bankers.
The book's other main point is that you should take a look at close yourself before you compromise too many of your values. The authors should have never joined an investment bank. Having done so, they should have left much sooner.
CEOs and CFOs should read this book also, to know what to check out carefully in the work that investment bankers do. Most companies now develop their own ideas, and just hire the investment bankers for implementation. In that role, fewer problems will occur of the sort described here. Perhaps the most dangerous role is having an investment banker help you select and pursue an acquisition. Many expensive mistakes follow under those circumstances. Caveat emptor!
You will probably find the monkey drawings in the book add to the humor. The text frequently refers to monkey-see, monkey-do type examples, and the whole story is seen more usefully as a bunch of monkeys playing in a gilded cage. That takes some of the sting out of the gratuitous grossness.
If you liked the put-downs of investment bankers in Liar's Poker, this book will be irresistible to you.
After you have had a good laugh, take a look at your current job and see how well it fits your values and life goals. Chances are that it doesn't. Be prepared to figure that out, and move onward and upward out of whatever gilded (or not-so-gilded) cage you are in today into the freedom of self-actualization.


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David Sedaris Live at Carnegie Hall Review

David Sedaris Live at Carnegie Hall
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As you would expect from David Sedaris, this disc is completely hilarious and should help tide you over until his forthcoming "Untitled Collection" is released in June. I imagine that many of the essays he reads on this disc (most were originally published by Esquire) will find their way into that book.
As he proved with Me Talk Pretty One Day, David Sedaris is at his best when he's exposing cultural differences, as illustrated through language and tradition (especially religious customs, with all of the associated secular trimmings). From the questions he chooses to ask upon arriving in a new country (his first is always "what do your roosters say?") to his confusion with the languages that humans speak (the French use the same word for chef and boss), his unique perspective shines a different light on some very funny, if not always particularly significant, truths.
If you were moved to tears by his attempt, in French, to describe the basic tenets of Easter, you'll certainly feel the same about his description of the practice of Christmas in the Netherlands. Evidently, though the Dutch think the idea of Santa employing elves is freakish and disgusting, they see nothing wrong with a Santa who is assisted on his yearly journey by "six to eight black men" (according to tradition, they were once slaves, but now they're just Santa's close friends).
My only criticism is that two of the tracks are rereadings of excerpts from The David Sedaris Box Set (they're bonus tracks, originally taken from the Esquire article "Buddy, Can You Spare a Tie?," but they're on the Barrel Fever disc of the box set). Still, at least they're quite funny, so you don't mind hearing them again. You just might wish that the CD were longer and included only new material.

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At David Sedaris' sold-out performance at Carnegie Hall he debuted five new stories, all captured on this CD. They include a parrot who mimics an ice maker, lovers quarrelling over a rubber hand, and a Santa Claus who moonlights from his job as bishop of Turkey.

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The Average American Male: A Novel Review

The Average American Male: A Novel
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It's worth your time to examine the quality of the spelling in the positive reviews of this book in order to form an opinion of what marketers like to call "the target demographic." Ask yourself: do I fit into this group? Do I want to? If you want to read something with a lot of unapologetic masculinity lying around for you to slip in, by all means read Chuck Palahniuk's "Fight Club" or "Choke." If you want to read something with a ton of sex, please treat yourself to Jonathan Franzen's "Freedom." If you want a good, old-fashioned story with great male and female characters and plenty of sex and violence, may I recommend George R. R. Martin's "A Game of Thrones?" Under no circumstances, however, should you read this book.

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Nailed Review

Nailed
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Mandy lives and breathes construction. She grew up in a family that owns their own construction company. When she graduates from high school, she starts her summer job at a site that her brother, Marc, is over. On her first day, she meets the other guys that will be working on the house with her. They are A.J., Larry and a guy that Mandy affectionately nicknames Boston, because of his baseball cap. At the job, Mandy is most interested in the quite Boston, but also loves the attention that she gets from the older A.J. Her brother, Marc, is not cutting Mandy any slack, giving her the clean up work, Marc isn't thrilled that Mandy is on his job. When the guys find out that Boston has sworn off girls for awhile, after getting his heart broken, they all start a bet to see how long that Boston can hold out. Meanwhile, Mandy and her best friend Cam hang out at Barnes and Noble, where Mandy loves to indulge herself in a great cafe drink and read construction books. Cam enjoys reading romance novels to get tips on getting a girl. This is also the place where the two meet to discuss the triangle that Mandy finds herself in. All of this rolled together plus some interesting twists in the book, equals Jennifer Laurens great novel Nailed.
I really enjoyed Nailed. It is a fast paced novel and has great flow to it. I really like Mandy's personality and how she loves construction and everything about it. Mandy is also a great headstrong heroin. In this story, the characters really come alive and I found myself rooting for Mandy and her quest to find out which guy is right for her. Even though the plot is somewhat stereotypical, Ms. Laurens writing is wonderful and adds a new twist on the story. This is a great read to pick up! Also, Jennifer is coming out with a new book in 2009 and it's called Heavenly. It looks good, so be on the lookout for it!
Reposted from http://writersblockreviews.blogspot.com

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One girl. Two guys. Who says three's a crowd? When Mandy takes an unusual summer job-in construction-she has to prove she's just one of the guys. But she gets more than she bargains for being the only girl on the job. The mixture of hot guys, sunscreen, raw wood and testosterone proves to be an elixir she can't protect her heart from. Brooding Boston and flirty AJ find themselves looking at Mandy as more than just a girl who holds a hammer. Mandy soon finds herself not only lost in a whirlwind of a male-dominated world, but also the center of an inadvertently "constructed" love triangle. Mandy must choose between two guys who want her heart. But what's a girl to do when she wants them both?

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