Sunday, January 07, 2007

Sizzle by Jennifer Cruse

Emily Tate is something of a marketing whizz kid, with her last campaign being wildly successful. One thing she is not good at is keeping to her budgets and so the company brings in Richard Parker whose job it will be to keep tight reins on the money side of things. Of course Emily and Richard clash immediately, but it isn't long before their attraction to each other can't be denied, and something will definitely begin to sizzle!

Whilst Jennifer Crusie doesn't deny that this book is in existence, she doesn't exactly proudly claim it as the following quote for the FAQ page of her website shows when asked if there will be reprints of some of her older books:

DO NOT ASK FOR A SIZZLE REPRINT. That damn book is following me around the way early porn films follow actresses.

Whilst I can see where she is coming from, because there are definitely some major flaws in the book (or more precisely novella given that it is less than 100 pages long), I am glad that I tracked it down. The heroine is smart, attractive and funny, a Jennifer Crusie prototype for some of her later heroines if you like.

One of the major problems in the book is that Richard is never given his voice - the whole story is told from Emily's point of view and therefore Richard comes across as somewhat two dimension, or almost like a characiture of a hero in some ways. He was also a bit of a one joke heroine - that being that he never seems to really listen to Emily's point of view. Having said that the picture I have in my mind is of a really sexy bloke....so he wasn't a complete failure character wise.

One of the differences between this book and many of her others is that this one is a whole lot hotter and sexier. The sex in this one was a lot more explicit than I remember many of the others I have read being, although that could be a case of selective memory in my case. There are a couple of desk scenes in particular that are very steamy!

I am not sure that I completely like the idea of a perfume that heats up on your skin either, which is where the title of the story comes from, but overall it was a fun, very short read, that is worth going to the trouble of tracking down if you are a fan. I'm glad I didn't pay 20 or 30 dollars for it though!!

Oh, and just in case you think that I have lost the plot completely, I am aware that I have put a picture of the cover for Anyone But You in this post, but there is a reason I promise you! A while ago Harlequin Australia rereleased Anyone But You with this horrible green cover, but they also included Sizzle in with the book. There is however no mention of this on the front cover, so if you are looking for Sizzle and see this horrible cover on Ebay and it's going for cheap it might be worth getting hold of it just to read Sizzle. That's what I did and it definitely wasn't a waste of the $5 it cost me! Who knows, one of these days I might even reread Anyone But You now that I own it!!

Rating 3.5/5

13 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is one of Jennifer Crusie book I haven't read but will eventually....

    I have read few of her other books and like them :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. It can be a bit difficult to find sometimes..going for extortionate prices on Ebay!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Emphasising that she doesn't want reprints of Sizzle will probably just make people want it more.

    BTW, I'm in Melbourne for the week. Drove around the Grampians last week and it was SO HOT. I've never been so happy for "normal" Melbourne weather! *lol*

    ReplyDelete
  5. Marg - wish you luck at ebay !

    Kat - you might be right, that might make people want to hunt for it and get it for their collections ;) :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Understand exactly what you mean Kat! Today has been such a relief!

    ReplyDelete
  7. My favourite Crusie is Welcome to Temptation. Having re-read it last year, I can say the sex scenes were pretty hot, so this one must really 'sizzle' (ha ha).

    ReplyDelete
  8. See I don't remember the love scenes being all that hot in most of her other books...maybe I just need to reread some of them. Any excuse right?

    ReplyDelete
  9. I may have to see if I can track this one down, Marg. Sounds like a cute, short read.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Looks like you started the year off with a bang! I've got a Jennifer Crusie book looking at me from the shelf! Bet Me. Hmmm...may have to pick it up at some point!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Stephanie, these are still last year's books!! LOL!!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Stephanie - I like Bet Me ---one of my favorite :)

    And Marg - yep any excuses to do re-read -- is okay ;) :)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Last years books? You said you were behind!! Yeah....Bet Me is moving up the pile fast!

    ReplyDelete

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails

  © Blogger template Simple n' Sweet by Ourblogtemplates.com 2009

Back to TOP