Knock Me Off My Feet - Susan Donovan

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Knock Me Off My Feet - Susan Donovan

Description~
Autumn Adams honors her mother's deathbed wish when she takes over her role as famed Homey Helen, domestic diva of Chicago's WBBS-TV station. Coaching her mother's fans on the finer points of homemaking is the last thing Autumn wants; she'd much rather be kicking a soccer ball around a field or running a marathon. Fortunately, she has Marjorie Stoddard, her mom's faithful secretary, to pick up the slack. But Marjorie isn't much help when a twisted fan starts sending death threats in the form of grisly household hints, one of which advises her on the proper way to freeze human remains. Autumn receives protection in the form of handsome Detective Stacey Quinn, who thinks Autumn just might be the perfect woman for him. Winning Autumn's affection isn't as easy as he anticipates, however. Marjorie's bad track record with men-"It's like after seven or eight weeks some green slimy and hairy thing with eleven eyeballs suddenly jumps out of the top of my head and the men start running for the nearest exit"-may keep her from pursuing the one man who won't run away.

I think you all know by now how much I love Susan Donovan! :o) The woman always knows exactly what buttons to push…and when to push them! This book was adorable! Autumn ‘Audie’ Adams and Stacey Quinn were the typical odd couple for me, and while this book was both entertaining and exciting, it fell a tad bit flat in my eyes. Don’t get me wrong…like I said I love SD’s work and I’ve loved every book she’s written! BUT there comes a time when you have to speak the truth. I liked this book, just didn’t love it.

You meet Audie. On her mothers deathbed she promises to follow in her footsteps and become the famous Homey Helen (basically Martha Stewart) which is a HUGE façade for Audie. Audie can’t cook or clean…let alone walk somewhere without falling! But never the less her peers around her help her adjust and keep on the mask. Everything is going well until Audie starts receiving death threats by mail and finally has to involve the police!

You meet Quinn. He is a straight laced detective…prim, proper and def follows the rules. This man is everything Audie isn’t! lol Hes been burned in love (by a man that comes into the story b/c…SHOCK he ALSO dated Audie) and when he sees Audie for the first time thinks that she is his own little God-send! Little did Quinn know when he got assigned to her case that he would learn the true woman that is Autumn Adams. BUT the catcher is that even though this is the woman he never would’ve thought to be with he cant seem to stay away!

Ok one thing I HAVE to say is I absolutely knew who the stalker was from the minute this person came into the story. Ive actually read around and a lot of people feel the same way. I wish that SD would’ve laced the story a little differently to where it wasn’t so clear. That’s one thing I love about romance/mystery books…the surprise element. BUT there wasn’t one for me.

One thing I did like was the characters…Audie and Quinn were totally adorable. It felt like every time Quinn was with her he was mesmerized by her charm and beauty. He truly felt lucky to have her in his life. I loved how she got to meet his family and feel right into place. Audie had the typical rich kid childhood that was loveless and lonesome so when she gets to meets the Quinns it all sorta a shock! As was a relationship that was so intense. And that’s how the boat starts to rock. Audie gets scared off by her intense feelings…but as she learns to let herself love things fall into place.

Another thing I didn’t particularly like about this book was that I felt the two issues were too separated. Issue 1 – stalker Issue 2 – relationship. I felt the two weren’t intertwined seamlessly. It felt very choppy and therefore I was able to put the book down without remorse. So for me the book just had flowing problems that should’ve been addressed.

I did however like the fact that Audie was doing something that was totally foreign to her. I liked knowing she lived like a slob, always ate out, and hated wearing prissy clothes! She didn’t even write the columns for Homey! BUT even though I liked this aspect I felt they didn’t let you dive into it with her experiences. The furthest you go into her messiness/lack of home knowledge is knowing she has a messy house…SO I felt that SD should’ve also elaborated on this.

Ok so overall I felt this book was…hot…ya pretty hot, ive had better from SD…cute…OH YA adorable!...outta this world…not so much. You wanna read that’s not to in depth and EXTREMLY light and fluffy, then go for this but for me it was TOO light! :o)

I give this book a total of...