Bubbles Ablaze

Rating:
Summary: Better than Evanovich!
Review: This is the best Bubbles book yet! There is more depth to the characters here and a better mystery. Buy the book and see for yourself!

Rating:
Summary: A must-buy--great fun reading!
Review: This is the third in the Bubbles series, one of the few series of books that I buy instead of waiting to get them from the library. If you're a fan of authors like Crusie, Evanovich, Heller, Bartholomew, Hayter, etc., you'll love these books. I love this genre--the humorous romantic mystery-and am always on the lookout for new authors to read, and was happy to discover Bubbles a couple of years ago. I totally recommend Bubbles books (Bubbles Unbound, Bubbles in Trouble, and now Bubbles Ablaze) to anyone looking for a fun read.

Rating:
Summary: Lighthearted amateur sleuth mystery
Review: This one reminds me a bit of Nancy and Ned in the old Nancy Drew books. It's hard to take a mystery seriously when the main character is named Bubbles and the guy's name (well, his last name) is Stiletto. Bubbles, true to her name, looks frothy and wears Spandex, but we're to believe a mind hides beneath the hair spray (reminiscent of Legally Blonde) as she investigates what appears to be theft, extortion and maybe murder.
Totally silly, but fun.

Rating:
Summary: Bubble-icious great fun
Review: You don't have to know Pennsylvanians to love the "Polish-Lithuanian Barbie" hairdresser/reporter/detective/single mom Ms. Bubbles Yablonsky, but it helps. Richard North Patterson's The Dark Lady covered the soulful gritty intrigue of Steelton, Pennsylvania. Sarah Strohmeyer's comic mystery introduces us to Slagville and Lehigh, to the coal miners, the hairdressers, the old Nag 'n Feed matrons, the conspiracy theorists, the comfort food (hoagies and Entenmann's rule), the batty academics, the small-town-girl makes good reporters, the small-town police chiefs, the union men, and the spoiled-brat Kenneth Lay-type coal bosses. Spend a few days in places like Conneaut Lake and Sharon, PA and you'll understand. Or you could just read about the mystery misadventures of Bubbles.

Bubbles, who only learned how to peroxide her hair and roll cigarettes in high school, has the common-sense wisdom and love of fashion of Princess Diana, enshrined forever in the hearts of the working-class American woman, the muckraking of Michael Moore (except she's funnier and dresses better), the proletariat loyalties, and the stubborn determination and sense of right and wrong that crack the case. The only unbelievable note is Steve Stiletto's vow of chastity. You have as much chance of resisting the ebullient Bubbles as she has of giving up hoagies.