Nerd in Shining Armor

Rating:
Summary: Cute.. but so cliche
Review: I got this book solely because of the title. I started reading it and I thought it was kind of cute. The writing is pretty good, and overall the book flows well.

My biggest problem is that the entire book has no guts - everything is a copout. Instead of making the hot girl fall for a true nerd, the "nerd" turns out to be just like in the movies, a total babe with his glasses and shirt off. Just like in the movies how the "nerd" girl wears glasses, a ponytail and overalls - the minute she lets her hair down she's hot. When in reality, she's hot with the glasses and ponytail! Complete copout on the writer's part. And the "nerd," Jack, doesn't dress bad because he's a nerd, he dresses bad cause he is colorblind. Another copout. I would have preferred to see the sophiscated hot women fall for a true nerd. But maybe that's just me? :)

The storyline is a little farfetched, but I don't mind too much. I think it's a little unbelievable that Nick and Gen/Jack end up on the same island (especially since he jumped out of the plane WAY before they crashlanded!), and that Nick escapes the hospital so easily. Anything for confrontation I guess! I thought the romance between Gen and Jack was really cute, especially the insecurities they had about each other. It was fun to read about their adventures on the island, especially their "romance" scenes.

Overall, the book wasn't bad. I expected better, but I wasn't completely disappointed. :)

Rating:
Summary: **Loved**Loved**Loved**
Review: Have you ever wanted to be stranded on a deserted island with someone of the opposite sex? No computers, no telephones, no animals to take care of, no cares in the world? Then, you've GOT to read this book! I absolutely loved this book! Not to mention that it was on sale and [cheap](I would have paid way for it) is always a pleasant surprise.

This story will take you to a far away place to forget your daily grind. I wish that I would have been close to a beach when reading, because it would have been the perfect scenario to read.

It's like a mix between Survivor meets Blue Lagoon. The passion between Gen and (the nerd) Jack is so believable that you will instantly feel like you've known these characters for years.

This is my first read by Vicki L Thompson, but will definetley NOT be my last! BRAVO!!

Rating:
Summary: Pure drivel...
Review: I must admit I'm not much of a romance reader, but I can appreciate a nicely written "beach read". Unfortunately, I found nothing nice about this book.

There's no real character development, and much of what is done doesn't paint a very empathetic picture.

From the beginning we're supposed to be excited for Gen's big opportunity with the boss-man after just a few short pages. We know nothing about him except that he's good-looking, wealthy, and a womanizer. Not much to have you rooting for him / them.

We'll skip over the implausibility of Nick taking 2 possible witnesses along on his D.B. Cooper adventure, the hocus-pocus of Annabelle & Lincoln's "psychic" powers, and the atrocious attempt to throw in a little "hillbilly-ese". (Honestly, those alone are reason enough to warn future readers to run away.)

But, let's delve further into the book (not head first, way too shallow for that...)

We have two central characters, Gen and Jack, neither of which is all that likeable.

Gen is a sex-starved, superficial, egotistical, condescending, hillbilly whose years of shame over her roots are supposedly overcome in just a few short hours.

Jackson / Jack is a hapless, love-struck puppy who puts up with Gen's bad behavior because he's so enamoured with her. For the life of me I couldn't figure out what he saw in her. We are to assume a nerd is smart - shouldn't he be smart enough to demand a woman treat him with respect?

So, despite her poor opinion of him, Gen is pawing at Jack within mere hours of her stranding. But before she does, she must smugly assume that she is a master at lovemaking and the poor nerd must be wholly and completely inexperienced. Because really, who on this Earth would deign to be with a man who isn't fresh off the pages of GQ? Oh wait, now I remember: intelligent women who care more about being with a good man that treats them well than about being with the prettiest man around.

I tried hard to like this book and I tried equally hard to put it down. But, unfortunately, once I start something I must finish it, so I was stuck with Gen and Jack and Nick and Annabelle and Matt and Lincoln till the bitter end. Curiously, the only characters I actually identified with were Matt and Lincoln, but they were mere afterthoughts.

I understand this was the author's first attempt to move beyond Harlequin-type romances. Perhaps she was daunted by the empty pages at hand, perhaps she thought the extra pages would allow for multiple sub-plot development, perhaps she got side-tracked with all the various characters with their various gimmicks, perhaps she was struck by Grisham-itis and found she had 5 pages to wrap up a 300 page novel. Who knows? All is know is that it didn't work.

Rating:
Summary: No wonder I love nerds
Review: Very good attempt for a first time romance writer. I fell in love with Jack ... although Gen bothered me at times. I love the fact that all women think they're going to be the ones to change a womanizing jerk. And why, WHY?, do women feel the need to try and sleep with their boss. Other than that it was very sweet. A lot of southern terms that I don't even think are actually used. They detracted from the book a bit because there were just so many of them, but other that, a very fun read.

Rating:
Summary: WOW, this was painfull
Review: Like a few other reviewers I too had great expectations for this book. I am not very experienced in the romance genre, so I felt this book would be a breath of fresh air. Well not so fresh as, stinky. This book was a huge let down. I will spare you all of a synopsis, since there is one just above. Instead I will talk about the characters and "plot". The characters were one dimensional and there were too many of them. I usually skipped the part with her mother and her half-wit brother. The hill-billie talk was more than I could take. I wonder if the author has ever even had a conversation with someone from the backwoods? I have ties to Oklahoma and Tennessee, and I have had my fare share of hearing silly backwoods sayings. But I have never heard any use of the word "tarnation".
I was hoping for a description of the island they were staying on. I dredged through half of the book, nothing. I have been to Hawaii and the landscape is nothing to leave out!! I was utterly disappointed. It was very predictable. I could see alot of the things coming for miles, and the ending? PLEASE!
I also love Kelly Ripa. I didn't know it was one of her chosen books until after I had started. In someway I have lost some respect for her. I actually could feel my intelligence seeping out the farther I got into the book. I read the book requirements for Kelly's book club and the books are to be an easy read with no heavy message, well she pegged this one right. It fits perfectly with those requirements.
Given, I didn't read the book word for word. But I couldn't. The dialogue was stagnant, which i just skimmed through. And the action scenes were laughable and not believable.

Rating:
Summary: Nerd in Shining Armor
Review: Excellent book for the summer bag. Easy reading and hard to put down.! Of course I fell in love with the characters.

Rating:
Summary: Doesn't ring true
Review: I was really looking forward to reading this book, but after finishing it, I was left with a blah taste in my mouth. So many little mistakes and irritating gaffes soon added up to the feeling toward the end that I couldn't wait to finish the dumb book and start something a little less tacky.
1) Both main characters are supposed to be nearsighted, and yet the heroine uses the nerd's glasses to start a fire. that only works with FARSIGHTED glasses.
2) We are cheated out of the big rescue scene off the island, which should have been the climax of the book, what with the bad guy being tied up and the nerd emerging a hero and all. Big disappointment.
3) The cover shows Gen in a purple dress, although in the book she is wearing a striped sun dress or a swim suit (or nothing!) while on the island. and the glasses weren't black rimmed but wire-rimmed.Everytime I looked at the cover this bothered me, how the illustrator couldn't even read the book closely enough to get these key points.

4) The bad guy pretty much got away with stealing the money, robbing me of the fairy-tale ending I was hoping for regarding Gen's mother and her boss Matt. That whole story line fizzled out at the end, and we never do get to find out what happens...not even in the epilogue.
5) The bad guy's accomplices get away with lying to Matt and Gen's mom and brother about anybody being on the island. And we never find out WHY they won't rescue them when they find out that Nick, the bad guy, isn't there to be picked up. I don't think they even get questioned or caught.
6) Gen's brother Lincoln is a freak with red, white, and blue hair. We are supposed to like him because of this. The book never gets into Lincoln's head about why he chooses to look like this. Lincoln is supposed to have ESP, yet he is clueless about how everybody else in the book thinks he looks like an idiot.
I could go on and on about the problems in this book, but suffice it to say that they are major, and interfere with the whole plot. I was rooting for the nerd, but after landing the plane in the water, the only qualities that are useful to him are muscles from working out and a huge sex drive. He turns from a nerd into a jerk.

Rating:
Summary: nerd in shining armor
Review: I absolutely loved this book! I read it in 1 day could not put it down! Great love scenes, some humor and good storyline.
Great summer read!

Rating:
Summary: Great Hero, Stupid Heroine
Review: I loved the hero of this novel. He was great, sexy, funny, and much much more. I love nerds. I married a nerd. I think that more romance novel heros should be nerds. Jackson (Jack) has only "been" with two women, he is color blind so his clothes don't match, and it sounds like he has attention deficit disorder. I thought he was absolutely GREAT! He was sweet and brilliant and very real. This is a character so well rounded that I wanted to meet him.

The sad part of this book is Gen who is a ninny. She wants to sleep with her boss, always a stupid idea, even though he has proven he is a womanizer she thinks she will be the one to change him. Aack! This is beyond dumb and since she is 26 years old she should know better by now. She is shallow in her treatment of Jack for half of the book. One of the main bits of character development is that when she is stressed she has a southern twang from the "hollow" in Tennessee where they didn't have electricity and were moonshiners. O-okay. This was completely unbelievable and her phrases and references were also unbelievable and stupid. Unfortunately, most of the book is from her perspective so there are tons of these hick phrases (I happen to know hicks and like hicks and they DON'T speak this way). This is grating to say the least.

There is also a sub-plot involving her mother which I was bored and unimpressed with. She used many of the same unbelievable phrases as her daughter and she treated Matt, a good guy, pretty shabbily. Like mother, like daughter, only mom is WAY more stupid, but at least she knows it.

I really wanted to like this book, but I cannot. It would have been only two stars except for Jack being such a great hero. I found myself skimming through much of this and I didn't feel as if I missed anything by doing so.

Rating:
Summary: AWESOME book
Review: This book had to be one of the best romance novels I've ever read. It was funny, and still managed to be sexy. Both of the main characters were extremely well-mannered and very likeable. My favorite detail in this book was how Genevieve came from a very small part of tennessee, it really added to the humor of the book.