Rating: 
Summary: IF THIS HAD BEEN IN PAPERBACK, IT WOULD HAVE FLOATED AWAY!!!
Review: Bennie, Mary and Judy are back and Anne is the new kid attorney on the block. Anne is smart as a whip, but as flaky and insecure as only "a wet behing the ears" new attorney can seem to be. Her facade only serves to hide the inner turmoil with which she has lived all her life. This book certainly fits the category of light summer reading and, if you are a true Scottoline fan like me, you will certainly enjoy it.
Rating: 
Summary: A big disappointment
Review: I don't like to review books that I don't really like, I normally just review the ones I read that I can give at least 4 stars too.But....this book was such a disappointment. I normally like her books, I like the characters in the law firm that Ms. Scottoline writes about, and I normally like the stories. This book, however, was silly, very silly, and very hard to get through. Hard really to explain, just not a good addition to the Lisa Scottoline library.I felt like it was rushed and the characters were portrayed as silly and shallow. Not like themselves at all. It won't stop me from reading her next ones, but I might wait for other reviews or paper before I rush out to purchase it! So...Ms. Scottoline, if you are out there, try again, and any new readers to Ms. Scottoline, try her others before you read this one, I'm afraid this one will discourage you from reading her others, and I hate for that to happen.
Rating:
Summary: It is what it is...
Review: Attorney Lisa Scottoline's ninth and newest thriller is lighter than air, set in Philadelphia over a Fourth of July weekend. As these things go, it's a well-crafted and totally readable book.Her heroine is a troubled beauty, Anne Murphy, a recent hire in the all-female law firm featured in earlier Scottoline mysteries, who's come East to escape a stalker (or "erotomaniac"). In a case of mistaken identity, Murphy is thought to have been murdered at the outset of the weekend. She evades the media, reveals herself to a few trusted associates, and sets out to catch the killer, presumably the stalker, and thus ensure her future safety. Along the way, there are little nuggets of wisdom -- the importance of family and so forth. Here's a book that you could whip through in an afternoon on the beach, or a three-hour plane ride. It's entertaining enough, in a cotton candy sort of way. It's nicely done, but like cotton candy, it just sort of melts away.
Rating: 
Summary: Different, but still very good
Review: There is not a great deal of suspense in this novel, even though it has a mildly surprising ending. Actually it has two endings. The penultimate chapter containing the second, surprise ending, almost seems to have been added by the author in order to create a twist. The book, however, is an enjoyable read whose focus is on bonding among high powered female lawyers. The interplay between the characters is sharp and witty. While a female lawyer is always at the center of Ms. Scottoline's novels, each has their own distinctive personality. She has an ability to put into the minds of her principal character thoughts, which if the character does not really have, she should have.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: There were some many things in this book that were unbelievable that I almost put the book away. The author goes overboard with how beutiful the main chartacter,Anne Murphy is. It appears she may have stolen her love for shoes from Sara Jessica Parkers chartacter on Sex and The City. So happens they are both obsessed with same over priced brand of shoes and shoe poor. The relationship she develops with her associates was very irritating to me. AND her quotes for "I Love Lucy" were so lame. "I have some "splainen" to do." Yuk! I think the Author was trying to write Anne Murphy as a wacky Lucille Ball Chartacter. Although, the ending was surprising and tender it was ruined when the chartacter returned to her home to do her own "clean up." It was truly disgusting.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I don't know, but it strikes me as a sign of desperation or laziness when an author abandons her previous lead characters and adds a brand new one out of nowhere, particularly when it is a best-selling author such as this. I mean, the reason the previous books were best-sellers were because people grew to love the characters, right? But this is what happens in "Courting Trouble," and the result is a very thin and unsatisfying read and a heroine who is very one-dimensional and uninteresting. I have to put this book in the category not of a novel but of an extended plot-outline...a book created not by its own internal growth or logic or thought but by adding a bunch of paragraphs to a plot outline previously submitted to a publishing house in order to reach a certain number of pages. Just because the author gives heroine Anne Murphy a background as a.) having been born with a cleft lip; b.) an unloving mother; c.) a stalker; does not in and of itself give her an interesting character. I loved the previous books but I found this book to be irritating and shallow and unbelievable, and I am not sure I will read future books in the series. (And it is certainly not a legal thriller, potential purchasers should be aware of this.) In terms of recommendations of alternative books, anyone who enjoyed this book will undoubtedly also enjoy the books of Stuart Woods.
Rating: 
Summary: A MUST read!
Review: Young attorney Anne Murphy is the newest addition to the law firm of Rosato & Associates, and while she is smart and savvy, she is also wet behind the ears when it comes to practicing law. After performing a pre-trial stunt that works in her favor, Anne decides to take a Fourth of July weekend vacation and prepare for the high-profile trial she is working on, but as fate would have it she reads a newspaper headline claiming she has been murdered. Who was the woman found dead in her apartment? Who would want Anne dead? Does any of this have connection to the current case she is working on? Puzzled with questions, Anne begins looking into her supposed murder, but in order to do this she must play dead to stay alive, and out wit a killer who is tracking her every move. 'Courting Trouble' is another suspense masterpiece from best-selling author Lisa Scottoline. Chapter one lays the ground work for this unstoppable thriller, and for three hundred more pages the reader is plunged into a page-turning race of action, suspense, wit, and twists galore; complete with a surprise ending. Lisa Scottoline squashes the competition when it comes to creating original legal thrillers, and her newest novel is her best to date. A MUST read! Nick Gonnella
Rating:
Summary: excellent crime drama
Review: Beautiful, sassy and bright lawyer Anne Murphy left California and moved to Philadelphia, where she took a job at the legal firm of Rosato & Associates. In her present case, she is representing her old friend in a sexual harassment lawsuit and is particularly pleased when a legal point goes her way. She decides to head out to the Jersey Shore for the Fourth of July Weekend and has her friend Willa is cat-sitting her precious feline. When she reads about her own "death" in the newspaper, Anne immediately realizes that Willa was shot in the face and since there is a strong resemblance between them, the media and Bennie and friends thought it was she who died. When she reveals herself to them and explains it was probably her stalker who followed her to Philadelphia after he escaped from jail, the gang puts a ring of protection around her. Although she is grateful for their friendship and kindness, she is determined to take control of the situation, which comes to a head on the night of July 4th. Lisa Scottoline, renowned for her legal thrillers, has written an excellent crime drama starring characters from previous novels. The friendship between the women is a beautiful thing to behold and is only one of the reasons readers will stick with this book until the perpetrator either is caught or succeeds. COURTING TROUBLE is Ms. Scottoline's best work to date. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Loads of fun.
Review: What do you do when you see the front-page headlines screaming that you've been murdered? Tell the police it's all a mistake, of course. At first blush, yes. But think this through. Whose body showed up with holes in it, and why do the authorities think that it's you? Besides, who has a motive to see you dead? When you look at all the possibilities, maybe you want to back off of that first impression, dig into the facts around the whole situation before making a hasty, and possibly fatal, decision. That's just where Anne Murphy, a beautiful, young Philadelphia lawyer, finds herself.
The day before the nation's birthday celebration, Anne pulls off a gutsy coup in the courtroom, winning a motion in a highly unconventional way. Heady with victory, she looks around for someone with whom to share her triumph, but since she doesn't have any friends, no one comes to mind. So, despite her aversion to exercise, she forces herself to work out at the gym on her way home. There, she befriends Willa Hansen, a petsitter, and arranges for Willa to take care of Mel, her personable cat, over the Fourth of July weekend. Fortunately, for Anne, she finds an apartment at the shore at the last minute. Now she can escape the bedlam of patriotism on Independence Day in the City of Brotherly Love, and get some work done preparing for the big trial on Tuesday. She spends the evening enduring holiday traffic, arriving late at her quiet retreat.
On her early morning jog the next day, Anne glimpses the horrifying words at the newsstand, "Lawyer Found Murdered." As she reads the subheading, she discovers, to her total bewilderment, that she is the victim. It slowly dawns on her that Willa must have died in her place, and her suspicion is that Kevin, a deranged stalker from her past, must have gotten out of prison early.
Anne realizes early on that she will need help. She turns to three members of the all-women law firm where she works. The rest of the holiday weekend is filled with the capers of these four gorgeous lawyers chasing clues around Philly in a red Mustang convertible. Bennie Rosato, the firm's owner, becomes the voice of reason among her young associates. Curbing their sometimes harebrained schemes, however, proves too much even for her. With Anne falling in love with opposing counsel on her largest case, Bennie has her hands full keeping everyone focused on what's important.
The final plan, however, is Anne's alone. While it works fairly well, all does not go exactly as hoped. Then comes the surprise.
Ms. Scottoline's fans, especially those who have awaited the return of Bennie Rosato & Associates, will find this an easy summer read.
The bottom line is that COURTING TROUBLE, unlikely plot or not, is loads of fun, lots of good girl talk, with a sexy car and a great wrap-up.
--- Reviewed by Kate Ayers
Rating:
Summary: The shoes fit
Review: If Lisa Scottoline's Philadelphia-based, all-women law firm novels were breakfast cereal, they'd have to be Rice Krispies. Because no matter how implausible some of the antics may seem, the plotting and prose just snap, crackle and pop their way off the page. And "Courting Trouble" (2002), Scottoline's 9th such adventure, showcases the author's both snappy and careful work.
Scottoline does a fine job broadening her character base and the range of activities under foot. We don't get too many stories about one lawyer and we don't get too many long-running romances either. It's good craftsman ship accompanying zippy and compelling prose.
So, enter Rosato and Associates's newest lawyer, Anne Murphy. Murphy is smart, gorgeous and young and her law is "dress for the Milan runway in your mind, not the one at your local airport, even though it keeps her in credit card hell. So young is she that the firm's regular "kids" Mary and Judy seem seasoned and boss Bennie Rosato almost middle-aged, but not quite. All the women in Scottoline's series are vibrant and delicious, no matter their age or hair color.
Murphy and her Monolo Blahniks don't fit in and she knows it. But she's battling a stalker from her past and gets in deep. Just as the stylish redhead is about to drown, the "older" women realize that they're as guilty as any male lawyer in any shop - they're not willing to let women in as equals, particularly if they're way better looking and know it.
So the four hatch a plan that, as so many do, relies on Mary DeNunzio's old world Italian parents. It also relies on hair dye and shoes.
Socttoline introduces the "internal memo" device that works splendidly. It's Murphy's signature and she's either sending silent mental memos to herself and others, ("Memo to Bennie: don't buy clothes where you shop for food.) or she's actually announcing them.
As always, the pace is brisk, the characters multi-dimensional though humerous and the plot gets scary, but won't gray your hair.
Memo to potential reader: "Spend your money on Bennie, not Blahnik."
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