Faking It

Rating:
Summary: Overboard with the antics
Review: I'm a fan of this author, but she tried too hard to make this book funny and it came off lame. It was also boring. Davy was wonderful in "Temptation" but he was different here, totally lacking in sex appeal and personality.

Rating:
Summary: Just Awful...
Review: I like this author but this book wasn't up to par. There were too many characters and J.C. tried to make each one more weird than the next. It was terrible.

Rating:
Summary: This book hooked my on JC
Review: I picked up this book in the library, then went out and bought it and anything else I could find by Crusie; I rarely buy romance novels. What a great, light confection. It's not about reality, but thank God, it's also not about fabulously wealthy and glamorous people. Davy and Tilda meet in a closet while both are on a "heist" and both with good reason. I'm fairly sure that Crusie was channeling the old Audrey Hepburn/Peter O'Toole movie, "How to Steal a Million" in the beginning. She openly admits (see her website) to often using old movie plots as a starting point. She quickly spins Tilda and Davy off into their own story,one which is witty and smart. I was instantly charmed with this writer and have enjoyed all of her books I've gotten my hands on (with the exception of Crazy For You which which had an obsessive sub-plot which gave me the creeps). If you like the wit and loonesy of the best of old movies and you like a sense of humor and intelligence with your romantic fiction, you can do no better than Crusie.

Rating:
Summary: Nobody tops Jennifer Crusie for humor
Review: I just read another book by Jennifer Crusie, "Getting Rid of Bradley", and I thought that that one was the best and funniest book I have ever read, until I read "Faking It". If a book can be better than five star, this one is it.

What this book is about is fun. Not complex characterizations, not suspense, not serious stuff. It's not even meant to be realistic. (It IS a little strange that all the Goodnight's tenants become part of the family.) But isn't that part of the charm of the Goodnights - all kinds of weird and crazy things happen to them, things that will never happen to the rest of us serious and responsible and normal people, because they really aren't serious and responsible and normal.

This is a REALLY funny book, Jennifer Crusie is a great writer. She writes great one-liners, and when I try to remember them to repeat it, I can't. I get the words wrong, the tone wrong - it doesn't come out right, somehow. But in this book, it's perfect!

I am a quick reader, and usually can finish a book in two-three hours, but Faking It took me three days. Not because it didn't pull me - I was walking around with it all day just waiting for that minute or two on hold that I could sneak another page, but because each word is saying something. If you skip a page or two, you lose the thread of the story, plus you lose out on some really good dialogue. So I had to read each word, and then go back and read the page again, just to make sure I got everything straight. This is actually NOT a bad thing, it's a sign of good writing, that she could make each word count. Some writers could spend thirty pages just describing one scene - and while that's not a bad thing necessarily, I think Jennifer Crusie is the more brilliant writer. And it happens that I really enjoyed this book in a way that I haven't enjoyed a book in a long time.

I did NOT think that there were too many characters, it made things more interesting. You just have to read more slowly to get everthing straight, and that's more pages of fun, isn't it?

My favorite scene in this book? The part where Davy is giving Dilly a lesson on salesmanship (is that what it was?) Dilly is a quick learner, and promptly turned the table on Davy.

If you have a sense of humor, like to laugh, and can suspend disbelief for a few hours, you will really enjoy this book. If you like funny, quirky characters, you will really enjoy this book. If you love brilliant dialogue, (and the book is mostly dialogue), you will really enjoy this book. But if you are looking for a serious book with complex, deep characters, or a book that is on the darker, or more suspenseful side, there are plenty of other authors for you to try. For the rest of us, thank you, Jennifer Crusie!

Rating:
Summary: My 2nd favorite Crusie book thus far
Review: "Bet Me" was the Jennifer Crusie book that turned me into one of her biggest fans, but out of the four Crusie books I've read thus far, "Faking It" is a close second. While this book seems to take a little while to get started, this is a great read and is worth getting past the somewhat-slower-than-normal beginning.

Rating:
Summary: Best Jennifer Crusie book I have read so far.
Review: Although I love all of her books, this is one of the best I have read up to this point. I couldn't put it down.

Rating:
Summary: I faked it
Review: My first Jennifer crusie book and I hated it. I was actually unable to read it through and started skimming halfway. The characters are intentionally quirky but uninteresting and otherwise the outcome of their lives is typical.

Rating:
Summary: Insipid.
Review: An obnoxious, uptight heroine named Tilda is the focus of this book. She's an art forger trying to steal back her fake paintings before she gets in serious trouble, and somehow ends up with a new love interest along the way. Many of the events in this novel are simply inane, from the very beginning of the story, a ridiculous encounter in a closet. Tilda's family is nearly as annoying as she is, and the book spends far too much time getting to any kind of climax. Should've been edited by at least 100 pages, considering I completely lost interest about that far from the end and couldn't even force myself to finish this snoozer. Not funny, not entertaining, and not recommended.