Rating: 
Summary: Laugh Out Loud Funny!
Review: Tessa is not your average heroine. She's above average in every way. From her curvy body which is just much more to love, to laughing through every embarassing moment possible. You laugh along with Tessa as she strives to convince Max she loves him.I laughed out loud for 4 pages after reading her breakfast was beans on toast and then having to be stuffed into a corset. I knew it was coming but couldn't look away! Very few books ever have me laughing out loud. Maybe a chuckle here and there or a smile. But Katie's books are always so funny I can barely continue reading for the tears pouring down my face. If you want a laugh, a good story, and are tired of insipid virgin heroines, Katie's contemporary characters are for you.
Rating:
Summary: Katie rocks!
Review: Oh, Gee, the Medusa Sisters have descended again! Even notice how the INSTANT any Katie Macalister book comes out there are three reviews that go UGLY? They cannot just explain why they don't like the book, they want to have the writer burnt at the stake after months of extreme torture. Sigh, wish people did not have to be treated to this rants that have little bearing on being a review. Macalister's books are a howl. They are not tea-sipping with pinky raised humour, they are laugh out loud fun. They always leave me with a big smile in my heart! This one another witty delight. I love her less than perfect heroines. I am panting waiting for You Slay Me!! Keep them coming! There are not enough giggles in the world!
Rating:
Summary: Corset Diaries - A great book!
Review: Katie has done it again! I loved this book. It's a madcap ride filled with humor, romance and a sexy English Duke. There is a little bit of Tessa in all of us. I highly recommend it to all those with a sense of humor. This is definitely a shelf keeper.
Rating:
Summary: I laughed my way through Corset Diaries...
Review: From the first page, through Tessa's trip over the Atlantic and throughout the month she played the Duchess for the British television show, I laughed. Katie MacAlister's comtemporary characters never fail to entertain me. Tessa, perhaps most of all. She is older, she is "curvaceous," and has suffered a great loss in her life--she seems more "real" than the heroines in other books in contemporary romance. While things start off rough for all the characters in the book (if you think life in 1879 England was all fun and games, think again), it is Tessa that seems to smooth everything out. Sure she has her terribly embarrasing moments, but then again, doesn't everyone? In the end, everyone wins, especially Tessa and her Duke, Max. I feel like I won, too. Thanks to Ms. MacAlister for another fun romp!
Rating:
Summary: Fun and Wonderful Romance!
Review: I absolutely adored this book! I loved the premise of a reality show about the life a Victorian-era duke - and his American duchess (the heroine, Tessa). Tessa was refreshingly funny as she is thrust into the role of Max Edgerton's duchess, complete with a lady's maid who is a stickler for details, and who tries to bully Tessa into compliance. Tessa is immediately attracted to Max, but she attempts to keep him at a distance (unsuccessfully, thank goodness!), considering that she's only just met him. Max is a sexy hero with just enough alpha in him to be interesting, but not annoyingly inflexible. I've read all of Ms. MacAlister's books, and have enjoyed them all - but THE CORSET DIARIES is my new favorite! I highly recommend this book for anyone who enjoys a good spot of humor with their romance.
Rating:
Summary: Katie Macalister Rocks!
Review: Yet another hit from Katie! Highly Reccomend!!! Wonderful, fun read!
Rating: 
Summary: funny at times, but still only a so-so read
Review: I was expecting a lot from Katie Macalister in this book, but it didn't quite deliver like her other two books did. Tessa's bodily functions were not funny, but humiliating, scenes. Both Tessa's and Max's lines to each other seem really forced - who is truly THAT candid with a new love interest? They just laid it all out there and there were no real obstacles to overcome in their relationship. The so-called obstacles were laughable: the five year age differnece between a 39 and 35 year old, the daughter was just a brat, the sister just seemed jealous of Tessa, the brother-in-law was just insane, and the "servants" were just all (to put it British) MAD. I can't believe I really read the whole book. It wasn't endearing that Max was angry at Tessa ALL THE TIME, but still wanted her body anyway - seemed shallow. Just was not a good story line altogether. Read Ms. Macalister's other books instead of this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Wish there were zero stars...
Review: Because this is a zero kind of book. How awful! The premise is so original, it makes the book almost irrestible, because what romance reader isn't desirous of something new? But, this book was so awful, there are no words to describe how awful. But I will try, by saying that the humor was juvenile, the sex was rediculous and idiotic, the main characters were immature and just plain stupid. The dialog was silly and made no sense, the word "smoosh" and all it's derivatives was way overused (along with "gark" and "gah", are these people familiar with the english language?). The plot was way out of focus...I really couldn't find a coherent thought in the book...it was all over the place. The writing was ameteurish and overall it just stunk. Stunk to high heaven. Do not buy the book and encourage the publisher to release any more by this author. I wish a better author had used this premise and we could have really had a great book with a fresh idea, but unfortunately a fresh idea was as far as this one went.
Rating:
Summary: Corset diaries --- not good
Review: I really disliked this book. The heroine whines, whines, and whines some more throughout the book and is, well, borderline stupid; the idea that she was supposed to be a historian was laughable at best. The toilet humor was awful, no humor in it, just gross, and I wanted to slap the heroine everytime she opened her mouth - which was alot, and most of it whining. I forced myself to finish the book only because I laid out hard earned money for it, but there is no way I can recommend this book to anyone, anywhere, at any time.
Rating: 
Summary: Funny Slapstick Kind of Humor
Review: Tessa Riordan, accepted the challenge, or should I say position of playing the part of a turn of the century duchess in a British television reality show. Not that she thought she was actress material, quite the contrary as a 39 year old, nearly 6-foot tall overweight widow. Her friend Roger convinced her that none of that mattered that she was descended from royalty, but in the end it was the pay - ten thousand dollars for one month's work - that was much too hard to turn down, especially as she was so financially strapped. Twenty-four hours later, jet-lagged, and slightly drunk she was to get her first good look at Max Edgerton, a veritable dark sexy Adonis, who was to play the part of her husband, the Duke. She promptly vomited on his foot and thought things just couldn't get any worse. She was wrong! She would have to wear a turn of the century corset and still try to breathe every time she caught sight of the duke! In this mad-cap, screwball comedy of errors, MacAlister sets the reader on a roller coaster ride of the behind the scenes look at what could and does happen behind the scenes of reality TV with a sex-starved widow thrown into a month-long make-believe marriage with a very sexy and very accommodating lusty kind of guy and his brat of an adolescent daughter. Toss into this mix, a bunch of zany characters like, Mrs. Peters, the housekeeper who keeps daily contact with the spirits of the house; a hypochondriac butler; and plethora of screwy like actors, producers, and assistants and you are in for a very amusing read. Funny - absolutely! AND, as a devoted reader of regency era genre, what fun it would be to be cast in this type of a reality show! So, why not a higher rating? I have followed and read just about all of her books, even the very first regency written under Marthe Arends, and totally loved her comedic historicals. My reasons are that I feel in her more contemporary writings, I get the distinct feeling of crassness in her humor i.e. a 'stuffy nose' referred to as a 'snot locker' - Sorry, but that type of humor doesn't really do it for me. Also, I really couldn't believe a 39-year-old widow who nursed and lost a husband to cancer acting like such a featherbrain most of the time, it really seemed a bit unbelievable to me, although towards the end of the book, way at the end, she did start to act more responsibly. Looking beyond my nit-picking objections, and these are just my opinions, devoted fans of this very talented author will enjoy her latest entry at a comedic look at reality TV.
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