August 18, 2008

Review: The Ex-Debutante by Linda Francis Lee

Divorce lawyer Carlisle Wainwright Cushing returns home to visit her family and is lured into taking over her mother’s current divorce case and the family sponsored 100th Annual Willow Creek Symphony Association Debutante Ball. The bad news is that the once highly regarded ball was disgraced last year when conductor Rinaldi was caught slipping on a $10,000 ball gown that belonged to one of the debs by a reporter who snapped a photo that ran on the front page of just about every newspaper across the state of Texas.

To make matters worse, opposing council in her mothers divorce case is none other than the bad boy, Jack Blair, who prompted Carlisle’s abrupt move to Boston three years earlier. Carlisle tries to overcome her feelings for Jack by remembering that both she and Jack are engaged to seemingly perfect partners.

This is my second book by Lee. I absolutely loved The Devil in the Junior League and was highly anticipating this book which didn’t disappoint even though I feel the story wasn’t as original as The Devil in the Junior League. The ending was typical but the story was a lot of fun and Lee’s writing was witty and entertaining. I recommend this book to fans of chick-lit.

August 12, 2008

The California Roll by John Vorhaus

Updated: February 2, 2023


What do the Merlin Game, the Penny Skim, the Doolally Snadoodle, and the Afterparty Snuke have in common? They’re all the work of world-class con artist and master bafflegabber Radar Hoverlander. Radar’s been “on the snuke” since childhood, but he’s still looking for his California Roll, the one big scam that’ll set him up in sushi for life.
 
Trouble arrives in the stunning, sassy package of Allie Quinn, either the last true innocent or a con artist so slick she makes Radar look like a Quaker. Radar’s hapless sidekick, Vic Mirplo, a lovable loser who couldn’t con a kid out of a candy cane, thinks Radar’s being played. But if love is blind, it’s also deaf, dumb and stupid, and before Radar knows it, he’s sucked into a vortex of double-, triple-, quadruple-crosses that’ll either net him his precious California Roll or put him in a hole in the ground.