Lavender's Blue
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Average rating4
15
Ratings1
Average rating4
From the NY Times Bestselling duo that wrote Agnes and the Hitman, the first book in a new trilogy. Liz Danger has come home after fifteen years to deliver a giant teddy bear for her mother’s birthday (color: Guilt Red) when a cop with a great ass picks her up for speeding, fixes the missing lug nuts in her back wheel, pulls her out of a ditch, doesn’t give her a ticket, and helps her avoid her family. This is a man with real potential. The rest of the day goes downhill, starting with her finding out that the only man she’s ever loved is getting married to Lavender Blue, the most beautiful woman in southern Ohio. Really, the best thing in her day is that cop with the lug nuts. Vince Cooper is still not sure about being a cop in Burney, Ohio, a place he just moved to six months ago, since Burney is full of some fairly odd people spaced between long stretches of boredom. Still, considering the dangerous, difficult life he had before Burney, boredom is good. Then he picks up Liz Danger for speeding and life gets a lot more interesting. And when he picks her up again in the local bar the next night, he starts to realize that “interesting” doesn’t begin to describe what’s going to happen to him if he pulls Liz into his arms and his life. As Liz navigates her dysfunctional family, her flamboyant boss phoning in from Chicago, her still-interested ex, her bridesmaid dress from hell, a dachshund with issues, a disaster of a wedding, assault, murder, and three hundred and ninety-three teddy bears, Vince shows up to get her through, even though he knows that the real peril for him in Burney is the one who came with her own warning label, Liz Danger.
Featured Series
2 primary booksLiz Danger is a 2-book series with 2 primary works first released in 2023 with contributions by Jennifer Crusie, Bob Mayer, and 2 others.
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I was never a huge fan of Jennifer Crusie's collaborations with Bob Mayer ([b:Agnes and the Hitman 384457 Agnes and the Hitman (The Organization, #0) Jennifer Crusie https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388277284l/384457.SY75.jpg 1734360], etc.), but after not hearing from her for more than a decade, I was willing to take whatever I could get. Lavender's Blue features some of the old Crusie magic, with small town Ohio setting, wacky secondary characters, rapid-fire dialogue, and an ugly dog. The FMC reluctantly returns to her hometown after 15 years of deliberately avoiding it. Secrets are revealed, new boundaries are established with her alcoholic mother, and someone is murdered (the last part is typical only of the Crusie/Mayer books, not her solo releases). But sadly, the book didn't make me squee like [b:Bet Me 854757 Bet Me Jennifer Crusie https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1316129534l/854757.SY75.jpg 1616066], [b:Welcome to Temptation 33727 Welcome to Temptation (Dempseys, #1) Jennifer Crusie https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1312011677l/33727.SY75.jpg 2563621], or other Crusie gems. There are too many secondary characters, and I was frequently confused about their relationships to the MCs and relevance to the story. The FMC, Liz Danger, becomes uncomfortably dependent on being rescued from danger by the MMC, who happens to be a policeman. When did Crusie's tough, wisecracking heroines become damsels in distress? For God's sake, her name is Liz Danger - let her live up to it! The fact that MMC Vince Cooper (chapters written by Mayer) is a cop who shoots out the tires of a teenager's car because he won't stop talking lands a little differently now than it did during Crusie's heyday of the 1990s and early 2000's. Mayer obviously tries to make his policeman more “woke” - Vince states that he doesn't pull over women or minorities unless they are a safety hazard, and his BFF is a beautiful Black woman with whom he served in combat (Sassy Black Friend cliche alert!). He is a little more emotionally open than some of Mayer's previous heroes, but a cop is a cop, and that's a red flag for me. Obviously YMMV. I will read the rest of the trilogy, because I've missed Crusie's unique voice, but I will feel a bit guilty about doing so.
