LauraJ’s review of Tangled Up In Love (Chicks With Sticks, Book 1) by Heidi Betts
Contemporary Romantic Comedy released by St. Martin’s 3 Feb 09

I have been looking forward to this book for months. In fact I have been looking forward to it ever since Ms. Betts announced on her blog that she had sold a romantic comedy trilogy to St. Martin’s Press. When the release day finally got here and I got my hands on my copy of the book I became a bit nervous. Was this book going to live up to the hype I had for it in my mind? I can now answer that with a resounding YES!

I got the book in my hands and made the mistake of starting to read it while sitting at a very long traffic light. Bad idea, Laura, BAD IDEA! From the very first sentence this book this grabbed me and had me laughing, snickering, and even snorting (not a pretty sound, but at least I was not in public when it happened).

If you have ever seen the musical “Annie Get Your Gun” (stage or movie version) , you know the song “Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better.” Veronica “Ronnie” Chasen and Dylan Stone are a modern day version of Annie Oakley and Frank Butler. In both cases, the main characters are both rivals and then lovers. During the song Annie and Frank bicker back and forth that one is better than the other and challenge each other to do harder shooting tricks. Fortunately for Dylan, Ronnie doesn’t challenge him to any shooting matches involving guns, but their challenges to each other do push them past their comfort zones.

For Ronnie she has to bungee jump, go white water rafting and get a tattoo. Dylan is given the tasks of mountain climbing, getting his legs waxed and sent to a biker bar dressed in… well you really need to read that part for yourself. After Dylan’s challenge to Ronnie to get the tattoo she know she has to come up with something that will finally stump him and she will get to keep his precious award trophy. Thanks to her friends, they come up with the perfect plan to hopefully put Dylan “the jackass” Stone in his place and make him finally admit there is something that men just can’t do as well as woman. What Ronnie doesn’t count on is that Dylan will walk into her favorite knitting place during her weekly knitting group night to ask for help.

With the help of quirky, but lovable knitting group member Charlotte (Jenna‘s aunt, alpaca farm owner, and has a “special spinning wheel“ that is said to have some magical powers with the yarn it creates), Ronnie gets “pushed” into giving Dylan private knitting lessons. She agrees but only gives him the very basics in help. As she spends time alone with Dylan, Ronnie learns that he might not be the “jackass” she thought he was.

Besides Dylan, Ronnie and Charlotte, Ms. Betts has created a fantastic cast of characters. Gage and Jenna (Book 2), who are divorced and still hurting from it, and Zack and Grace (Book 3) who are currently engaged. I’m looking forward to see what happens as I believe this is the first time for me that in a series the hero/heroine of the sequels are together or once were before their book begins. Usually those characters will be introduced in the first book and then become a couple in the later books so I‘m anxious to see how this will play out.

There is also Melanie, who is also member of Ronnie, Jenna, Grace and Charlotte’s knitting group and adds wisdom and insight to the Ronnie’s latest challenge to Dylan and the mysterious and sexy bartender Turk. Don’t know how much we will learn of him, but there is just enough of him in the story to make me curious about him (and maybe a story for him later on?).

The banter between Dylan and Ronnie is hilarious but at the same time you can almost feel the spark of attraction coming off them. Besides their very public challenges, they even challenge each other in the bedroom with some fun and very hot results. Both learn that the other is not what they think the other is like. Apart they bring out the worst in each other, but they finally figure out that together they bring out the best in each other. Dylan teaches Ronnie to be less serious and uptight about things and Ronnie helps Dylan find the confidence he needs to go for his dream and write what he really wants to write.

I’m really looking forward to Jenna and Gage’s story in Loves Me, Loves Me Knot out August 2009. Of all the characters they are the two that have yet to show their personalities (mostly because they are still pining away for each other, but neither will admit it. They so need their HEA). Zack and Grace’s story will follow in February 2010. As a bonus, at the end of each book, there is a knitting pattern. In Tangled Up in Love the pattern is for the scarf that Dylan makes for the challenge issued by Ronnie.

I have read other books by Ms. Betts and have loved them all, but I believe these stories are going to be my favorite by her. Her humor and personality really shows in these books and I really hope she will continue to write romantic comedies after this series ends.

Grade: A+

Summary:
ARE THEY FIT TO BE TIED?

Ever since Dylan Stone beat Veronica Chasen out of a prime position at the Cleveland Herald, they’ve been bitter rivals, engaging in a very public war of words in their competing newspaper columns. They routinely challenge each other to go bungee jumping, white water rafting, or into tattoo parlors to see who will wimp out first. But Veronica’s latest taunt may be Dylan’s toughest assignment yet: She dares him to learn to knit.

OR WILL DESIRE UNRAVEL THEM BOTH?

Dylan is not going to let something his grandmother can do scare him off. He’s man enough to make a scarf—and attend Veronica’s weekly knitting circle. But when the infuriatingly handsome Dylan shows up at the craft shop and charms all the ladies, Veronica begins to get all knotted up in something that feels a lot like love… But will the two ever stop needling each other?

Read an excerpt here.