easy read, kept my interest

Corny book about a mother falling for a small business owner who builds houses. It was good corny. Janet really knows the fine line between over the top and believable. (This one was a little more unbelievable and had some plot holes, but it was fun nevertheless.)

There was a cute guy and a puppy and while amusing it was way too predictable and “surface level”. Maybe I should’ve read it while on the beach instead of in one day while sitting in bed and munching chips and crackers.

I have just read a whole load of Evanovich's early romance novels, and this was one of the less good ones (along with Foul Play). Found the characters less believable than usual, as we ll as less likable and the situations, which are usually exaggerated but believable in other books, to be just too unbelievable and contrived. Not one of her best :-(

Audiobook Review- Evanovich always has a way with telling humorous romances. Love at first sight stories that are quick reads/listens.
CJ Critt is great with voices and story telling. Timing is essential and she has it down. However, sometimes the lead woman’s voice is slightly grating.
Music at the end and over the beginning reading of the book is so annoying. If I wanted music I would listen to the radio. It is louder than the performer and makes the first few sentences of the chapters annoying. It is like a commercial whose volume rises higher so your constantly turning hit down and back up.

3.5★s
Smitten is a pre-Plum novel by popular American author, Janet Evanovich. It is the second book in the Elsie Hawkins series, on whom, Evanovich says, Grandma Mazur was modelled. Fans of the Stephanie Plum series will also be interested to know that the precursor of Uncle Sandor’s ‘53 powder-blue Buick features in this instalment: Elsie drives a virtually indestructible ‘57 powder-blue Cadillac.

Divorced mother of two, Lizabeth Kane needs a job. None of her last fourteen interviews has been successful, so now, with her Aunt Elsie looking after Billy and Jason, she’s answering an ad for a carpenter. Matt Hallahan’s partner has a broken hip and he’s snowed under with work. Lizabeth, sweet and pretty, does not fit the bill at all, but the attraction between them is immediate, and he can’t help himself. It starts out as lust but soon becomes more, on his part. For Lizabeth too, but she’s wary after the first man she picked to marry couldn’t keep it zipped around other women.

This fluffy romance has a flasher, a delinquent dog, a hunky hero, two cute kids, a nasty ex-husband, some sexy bits and plenty of laughs. A fun read.

Like all the pre-Plum books it's got a lot of flaws but it was just a bit better than OK so I'm rating it 2.5 stars rounded up to 3.

I don't understand the ending  where it turns out her ex-husband is behind the flasher: his motive was what, now?

What a disappointment! For one thing, I made the mistake of starting with the audiobook, forgetting that I find the voice completely wrong for protagonists this age--she sounds like a heavy smoker who is over 50 and nothing like a 30 something woman. Plus I don't care for how it's read, either. I would have never liked a single Stephanie Plum book if I had listened to any of them.

This is not as good as the Stephanie Plum series (I tired of that because I got sick of the back and forth between the two men, no matter how sexy they are--that only works for so many books for me, and even then, most of the time I don't care for that highly overused trope anymore.) I did enjoy Elsie, but she isn't in it enough to save this for me. If I read another Evanovich, it will be a Stephanie Plum one, even though many times there isn't enough of her grandmother in them. Also, frankly, I found  the reason for the flasher inane and not at all funny.

Great, quick, funny read.

**MINOR SPOILERS**
This is the second book of the Elsie Hawkins series by the author. The books do not appear to be related other than the Elsie Hawkins character. In this book, she is the aunt of Lizabeth.
This was a quick, easy read, but many times the humor was done at the expense of the story. Matt and Lizabeth’s relationship could have been developed more.
Matt, one of the main characters, is a good guy. He runs a construction company and hires Lizabeth as a laborer because he is immediately attracted to her but also to help her out. He knows he has fallen in love with her very early in the story and tells her so. He has a painful past and one scene where he talks about it was helpful to understanding who he was. It was done without humor which made it better and more effective.
Lizabeth, the other main character, is a guileless charmer. The story begins with her looking for a job and she tells Matt that she cannot work in an office because she has no skills. Later, she takes over office duties for him. Lizabeth is hesitant to get into a relationship with Matt because of her prior marriage. She is afraid to commit to Matt but slowly gets won over by his steady presence in her life and his connection with her kids. Very early in the story, she kisses Matt at work, and I thought that was inconsistent with her overall hesitation. Also, workplace romances with your boss are not always a good idea.
The dialogue is pretty good but suffers from the occasional humor over content issue. The pace is good. Lizabeth’s sons and her aunt are interesting secondary characters. Her ex husband makes a brief appearance and is a bit of a stereotypical jerk.
Lizabeth has a flasher that frequently comes by her house at night. For some reason, she believes he is not a bad guy. Though it is an opportunity for Matt to be supportive and protective, I am not sure the way this man was handled was the best.
One plot hole that could have been explained but was not overly important was why Lizabeth waited so long to get a job. She had been divorced for six months, separated for a year before that. Another was why Matt’s partner was not back during the story. He is in the hospital at the beginning of the story, but by the end of the story I think he could have made an appearance.
I had read books by this author in the past but, had not followed her mysteries. I will likely not go out of my way to read books by her going forward. If you are looking for an upbeat, superficial beach read, this one would fit the bill.

Smitten is a quick, easy read about a newly single mom, Lizabeth, a silly, nuisance of a dog named Ferguson and a construction manager named Matt. Lizabeth is a headstrong, interesting character who insists upon making her own way no matter what the circumstances. There are a lot of funny, sweet and often surprising moments throughout this book.

Listened to on CD and laughed my head off at more than one part. :)