Sandy M’s review of Divorced, Desperate and Dating by Christie Craig
Contemporary Mystery Romance published by Love Spell 25 Nov 08

Since we’re smack dab in the middle of the season where we look back and remember, thinking over the past year, for me, Christie Craig is the jewel of my finds when it comes new authors to add to my favorites list.  Her characters draw you in immediately, make you care about them in no time flat, and her humor is to die for.  This is Ms. Craig’s third book within this past year and each one has made me laugh out loud more than any other supposedly humorous books and I remember their characters and storylines to this day, which doesn’t happen with a lot of the books I review.  If you haven’t read a Christie Craig book yet, you’re definitely missing out.

We met Sue in Divorced, Desperate and Delicious.  She’s good friends with the heroine, Lacy, and along with their friend Kathy they make up their Divorced, Desperate and Delicious club, one for girls only to talk girl talk — you know, men, sex, vibrators, whatever strikes them.  Sue also met Jason in that book.  They shared a spine-tingling, toe-curling kiss on Lacy’s patio and Jason asked for her number.  And never called.  Yeah, now you get why these ladies have their club.  We’ve all waited on that end of the phone for the call that never came.  Sue took it to heart because she not only really liked that kiss, she really liked Jason.  But the time came for her to get over both, so four months later finds her working on her current book and that’s when things begin to spiral out of control.  And when Jason comes back into her life.

Since everyone, except his last foster mom, in his life has always walked away from him, Jason has learned to never really want anything.  He had enough heartache as a child and now won’t take a chance of having it back in his life at all.  Even when he met Sue, the one woman who made him feel things he’d never felt before, he just couldn’t take that extra step toward her no matter how badly he wanted to.  But when he finds out she’s being stalked and the local police aren’t taking unusal happenings seriously, this Houston detective takes matters into his own hands to keep the woman safe.  Of course, he hopes for a little extra fun while he’s with her.  Why guy wouldn’t from someone as beautiful as Sue.

He finds that particular want not that easy to fulfill, however. Sue has had her own heartache, men being at the core of it all, of course.  But the more she gets to know Jason as he moves into her home to protect from an unknown killer, she knows her heart will get broken all over again.  But she falls anyway.  The relationship between these two is just terrific.  And it was such fun watching Jason’s evolution from a man who’s longest relationship had been three months to a man who would give everything to this woman, a man who would die for her, a man slowly falling in love and he can’t figure out what’s happening to him.  But when he does figure it out and when he does something about it is one of the best scenes of the book.

We do get more of Lacy and Chase from the earlier book, which is very nice to see how they’re doing and just have them around as friends, do things together as friends.  Most books just give us a glimpse of characters we love from previous books, but suddenly they don’t seem to be great friends with the current hero and heroine anymore.  Not here.  They’re all friends and they act like it.   We get to follow the mystery of Sue’s stalker right along with Jason as he investigates and we’re thrown for the same loops he is.  Other secondary characters are all done very well, especially the moms we get to meet.  We all have issues with our mothers and these characters are no different.  And it’s all done with the best humor.

It’s the laughter thoughout the book — each of Ms. Craig’s books — that keeps me coming back for more with each new release.  It flows so effortlessly off the page.  The way Sue keeps an early suitor from kissing her is just bloody genious and so hilarious.  This time Ms. Craig also had me misty eyed.  The scene near the end of the book when Jason’s mom tells Sue about their trials together was so tender and you have the same aha moment Sue does.  I checked the author’s site to see if we’re going to have Kathy’s story next.  I sure hope so.  I’d love to see Kathy meet up with her plumber again, Christie!

Ms. Craig is an autobuy for me and every book of hers is a keeper.  She’s not let me down once in what I’ve come to expect from her.  I doubt she ever will.

Grade: A+

Summary:

GOOD COP

Sue Finley murdered people…on paper. As a mystery writer, she knew all the angles, who did what and why. The only thing she couldn’t explain was…well, men. Dating was like diving into a box of chocolates: sometimes the sweetest-looking specimens were candy coated poison. After a breakup with a bank robber and a divorce from a cross dresser, she gave it up for good. Then came Detective Jason Dodd.

BAD BOY

Raised in foster homes, Jason swore never to need anyone as much as the parent who abandoned him. That was why he failed to follow up after experiencing the best kiss of his life: real passion was addictive. But when Sue Finley started getting death threats, all bets were off. The blonde spitfire was everything he’d ever wanted—and she needed him. And though this novel situation had a quirky cast of characters and an unquestionable bad guy, he was going to make sure it had a happy ending.

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series: