Princess Charming

Rating:
Summary: Heller's Weakest Mystery-Romance at Sea
Review: Heller has always been a 4 star comedic read for me. I can always count on her for a good evening's entertainment. This is the one time she failed me. Even then I can't say that this is badly written or that I couldn't finish it. I made it through without any big problem but I was disappointed when done. There hadn't been much LOL either. Essentially this is a tale about 3 women friends, all divorcees or about-to-be, who take a cruise together only to discover that one of them is the target for a hit-man by an ex-spouse who wants to get rid of her and his obligations to her. The lead woman meets a man onboard, who she starts having a shipboard romance with, only to ultimately wonder if he is the hit-man. Yes, it is a pretty lame idea, especially for Heller. Well, everyone has a miss and this was hers.

Rating:
Summary: Very cute!
Review: Heroines: One average, one plump, and one extremely tall and thin (main character)

Pat, Jackie, and Elaine, a trio of divorcées known as the "three blonde mice", escape the bitter New York winter and set off on a tropical cruise upon the "Princess Charming", a ship caught in a 1980s interior decorating vortex whose passenger and activities lists are filled with every cruise stereotype imaginable.

A series of mishaps, an overheard phone conversation, and an anonymous note slipped under a door makes it plain that one of the women is the target of a planned hit by her embittered ex-husband. But which gal is at risk? And which passenger was hired to send this unfortunate lady to sleep with the fish? The polyester-clad-disco-king-has-been? The used car salesman with the short-lived short-term memory? The fastidious, well-to-do, bird-watching bachelor?

What worked for me:

  Ms. Heller's writing gets to the essence of the subject quickly, distilling the key pieces of information and throwing them out at the reader in startling combinations. It's amazing what she can convey in her effectively succinct yet descriptive phrases!

I loved the tongue-in-cheek humor in this story. Elaine was the epitome of the catty, witty friend you love to hear talking about others but secretly pray that she never talks in that way about you.

There were a slew of wacky, true-to-life characters in this book with plenty of choices for possible bad guys to keep you guessing.

And I enjoyed the burgeoning romance between the man-wary Elaine and her new friend Sam, but I enjoyed their octogenarian tablemates far more. We should all be so lucky in our love lives!

Size-wise the ladies were varied. The main character had some reservations about her six foot height and slender build, but mainly because she had lost her luggage and was forced to wear clothes that didn't fit her correctly.

What didn't work for me:    

    Some folks might not care for the first person point-of-view, but I personally thought it worked very well in this book.

Overall:

This outrageously funny mystery seasoned with a dash of romance makes for excellent light reading. I recommend it to fans of the mystery and romance genres alike.

Warning: there's a bit of coarse language and a couple of sexy scenes.

If you liked "Princess Charming" you might also enjoy "Infernal Affairs", "Plum Girl", The Stephanie Plum mystery series, and "Fast Women".

Rating:
Summary: Another winner
Review: I am such a big fan of Jane Heller! All of her books provide you with laughter (till you cry) mystery and romance.

Rating:
Summary: I love Jane Heller's books
Review: I liked this book, it was alot of fun and in light of all that has gone on in the world, I needed alittle light reading. There is enough braindraining information continuiously on the news!!

Is is an award winner, no- does it pretend to be....NO, it just fun reading, which makes readers want to read her books.

Enough SAID

Rating:
Summary: It Just Went On and On.....
Review: I was hoping for a fun and charming "mystery-romance" book for the beach. But, this was not it. It just went on and on....and, I didn't think it would ever end. So, I skipped to the back, found out who it was and just ended it. It's way too long, and just not exciting enough. I couldn't care less who the culprit was or who was going to get killed....that's a bad sign in a mystery book. Not worth it.

Rating:
Summary: Hilarious cruise ship intrigue....
Review: I've gone on high end cruises, and low end cruises and Jane Heller has hit the cruising scenerio perfectly!

Adding mystery, suspense and romance to a fun storyline really makes this, my first Jane Heller book, a delightful and quick read.

Rating:
Summary: Love boat chapter 5865
Review: If you saw on TV The Love Boat, you already read this book no matter what chapter you saw, but if you still want to read this book let me tell you that the first 150 pages (more or less) are really boring, I really don't know why I finished the book, but after those pages is going better and better, but it still is a chapter of The Love Boat.

Rating:
Summary: The Goldern Girls on The Love Boat
Review: This is exactly what this book reminded me of. But, I know that the 'Three Blond Mice' weren't quite the age of the Goldern Girls, but Bea Arthur makes a terrific Elaine.

This is a very light-hearted story of three friends who, every year, go on a holiday, and this yr they have chosen to go on a cruise. Basically, the three middle-aged women have ex-husbands and they just want to get away from life for a while but the opening of the story introduces the reader to the fact that one of the women are going to get killed, commissioned by her ex-husband. The rest of the story is really about the three women, the men that they meet and of course, finding the killer before it is too late.

This is a very easy to read book, but I found that it wasn't very exciting and it nothing really happened. I really did conjure up Bea Arthur on The Love Boat, and if you liked those two shows, then you will love this book. Personally, I thought that 'Infernal Affairs' was much better and quite funny, where this is quite flat and uninteresting. Unless you are a huge fan of Jane Hellar, don't bother with this one.