Rating: 
Summary: Too bad there's not a 0 star rating
Review: Nepotism, thy name continues to be Carol Higgins Clark. It's sad that there a good, talented writers who can't get published while this one continues getting published solely on her name.
I'm not sure which is worse -- the shallow cartoon characters that appear in each of CHC's books or her complete and utter lack of writing talent. After six books, Regan has still never been flushed out as a character, other than being a PI and the world's most perfect daughter. It's also gotten exceptionally silly the way CHC has to manipulate things so that all these characters show up in one place to be part of the story, including Regan's mother, "the best-selling author." I can only think of one book in this series where her presence has made any kind of sense to the story and wasn't just designed to shove her in there somehow to coo all over her perfect daughter. And the writing just gets worse and worse -- why can't people ever just say things instead of crying, declaring and piping in? Why is so much time spent on every silly little detail, such as what type of pajamas Regan put on when she got to her hotel room or the flavor of Chap-Stick found on the floor? Draw me a picture...don't drown me in words.
In the case of this particular book, it was by far the worst of the bunch. It was easy to figure out which couple would be declared the winner since all the attention was on them throughout the book. It was easy to figure out what would happen with the two shows at the end. And it if was designed to be some kind of zany slapstick, CHC fell far short of her goal.
Don't waste your time or your money. Stick with Mom.
Rating:
Summary: Horrid
Review: Reading this book was work. I kept asking myself, will this ever get better? It didn't. There are waaaaay too many characters about whom I did not care at all, and every time I read the words "Aunt Agony and Uncle Heartburn" I winced. The concept of the book was a good one but the writing was juvenile at best. Not this author's best work. Give it a miss.
Rating: 
Summary: TV competition and hot air balloons
Review: Regan Reilly, P.I. in L.A., gets a call from Danny Madley, an old school friend, requesting she fly to Las Vegas to help him out. He is producing a pilot for a reality TV show featuring three married couples. They have all had some problems in their marriages but say they want to make it work. They are vying for a chance to renew their vows in a wedding-cake-shaped hot air balloon and win one million dollars. Apparently things haven't been going very smooth. Many things have happened and he wants Regan to come help him keep any more things from going wrong.
He is in competition with Bubbles who is producing a pilot for a comedy TV show. Unbeknownst to him, she has been having trouble with her actors and things haven't gone smoothly for them either.
Many things continue to happen including Danny's parents arriving only to lose a bag of mail for advice columnists helping on his show. Worse than that, his mother read one of the letters and if the advice columnists don't pay overdue alimony, his pilot might not be finished in time. Since his parents helped cause some of this trouble, they find themselves in deep to help resolve it.
Regan begins to question whether all of the married couples are truly who they say they are. Then there's Roscoe, the man behind the contest of the two pilot shows. He is a real character and Regan doesn't really trust him. She has her boyfriend, Jack who is a New York Detective, checking into their backgrounds.
While I liked this book, first one I've read by this author, it was definitely not your normal mystery. There wasn't any murder. There was some investigation into the various characters, but not the normal investigation to solve a crime or murder.
I found this book to be an easy read and enjoyed the story line as it was different than anything else I have read. Even with many characters, I felt the author did a good job of describing them so that I was able to keep everyone straight. I recommend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Delightful screwball farce
Review: The owner of Hot Air Cable Roscoe Parker has two television shows competing against each other for a slot on his network. Bubbles Ferndale is producing and starring in a sitcom she hopes to get on the air while her competition Danny Madley is trying to get his reality show on Rosco's network. Danny has three married couples competing to see which one should renew their vows in a hot air balloon and cash in a million-dollar check.When malicious pranks start happening on the set, Danny is worried enough to call his friend private investigator Regan Reilly to learn who is sabotaging the show. Many, but not all the tricks, can be attributed to Roscoe who loves stirring the pot. However, someone outside of his control is trying to hurt the contestants and he wants to discover the culprit. Between escalating pranks, each team trying to outwit the other, and team members trying to outsmart the competition, Regan has a hard time keeping everyone alive. The judges of the reality show Uncle Heartburn and Aunt Agony are just two of the funny, quirky and eccentric characters that populate the pages of POPPED. This is a delightful screwball farce that will have the audience in stitches of laughter. Nobody gets killed and no blood is shed so fans that don't like violence in their mystery novels will want to read Carol Higgins Clark's lighthearted satirical cozy. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: I put it down!
Review: What a disappointment. I have read this author's work in the past and found several of her books very enjoyable. This book is miserable. I read 3-4 books per week and I have NEVER failed to finish reading a book. This is a first. I've been reading the book for the past week and a half and I finally realized that I just don't care what happens in the end. I put the book down at page 175 and I am not even slightly curious about what happens. This one is going straight to the used bookstore for trade in!
Rating:
Summary: Dreadful.
Review: With this book, I did something I haven't done in years: I gave up and put it down in the middle. It's just too much work to read. The characters are one-dimensional charicatures and have very few distinguishing features, the plot is silly, and at this point, I'd give anything to be the one sabotaging the idiotic TV shows.
Because I cannot finish the book, I'll never know whodunnit, and frankly, I couldn't care less.
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