Rating: 
Summary: a cute read
Review: I had trouble getting into this one. I know there is another one out but I just getting find it as funny as I would have like. Not a bad book, just not real funny.
Rating:
Summary: Not bad
Review: I had trouble getting into this one. I know there is another one out but I just getting find it as funny as I would have like. Not a bad book, just not real funny.
Rating: 
Summary: Terrific read
Review: I just finished readisng THE TROUBLE WITH MARY and loved every delicious page. The story is fast-paced, humorous and at times, touching. Ms. Criswell does a fabulous job of combining laughter and emotion and Mary and Dan make a dynamite couple, so curl up in front of the fire and start reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Cain't Wait for the Next Book
Review: I loved this book!!! I have read it twice now and find it hilarious both times...Mary's family takes the cake!!! If you like humour mixed in with great romance and great supporting characters....namely Annie and Father Joe....then you will love this book!!!! I hope Millie Criswell continues writing more books like this one...pick it up you won't be sorry!!
Rating:
Summary: Laugh out Loud Read!
Review: I loved this book. From page one I was hooked! If you want a funny, romantic comedy, that reminds you of movies of old. Buy it and read it now! You won't regret it! I can't wait for Millie Criswell's next book about this delightful Family and Friends!
Rating:
Summary: Nothing Special
Review: I may be in the minority, but I found this book "OK". Plot a little thin, 33 year-old virgin??? Everyone else has regurgitated the plot so I won't add my inexpert synopsis..maybe I am getting jaded with all the so-so books out there but I just couldn't get into the characters (although the meddling mother was somewhat familiar)
Rating:
Summary: The Italian-American Catholic Family Year 2000?
Review: I needed to read a light, funny book after reading "Scandalous Risks," the serious May-December adulterous affair novel by Howatch. This one fit the bill and I enjoyed it. However, it was an uneven reading experience. While I was enjoying it and racing right through it, nagging questions kept running through my mind. Some of this undoubtedly comes from being raised in a similar Italian-American Catholic family. Although it was only the maternal end of my family, it certainly overwhelmed the New England English paternal end! Here are some of the things that were nagging me: (1) Mary is 33 yet the problems she is encountering with her family seem more like the problems that she would have encountered a few decades ago rather than now. Everyone in my family who is as "old world" as the people in this book are either dead or in his or her 70s to 90s. Mary should be really a woman in her 50s to be surrounded by this family. (2) As old world as Mary's family is presented, they never mention the fact that Dan, the hero, is divorced and that it might be a problem for their daughter to date or marry a divorced man. If his prior marriage isn't recognized by the Church (even though he's presented as a now lapsed Irish Catholic), the author should have told us that fact. That her family would never even bring it up is totally unbelievable, especially since their son is a priest in their neighborhood. It would be their first question. (3) a big conflict in the book is whether she can still keep her own business yet marry and have children later....huh? What year is this; right, 2001, not 1950-1970. I would fault the novel more seriously for these 3 flaws if it were not comedic. This is obviously intended to be a light romantic comedy that you quickly breeze through in an evening and Dan and Mary make a very likable couple. The family and setting in Baltimore remind me of the comic family in Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series set in Trenton. This novel, like Evanovich's novels, succeeds in being a good, light evening's entertainment. If you want to try an Italian American romantic comedy with more dramatic elements, that also ends happily, you ought to try Rita Ciresi's "Pink Slip." That one I felt caught the Italian American Catholic experience for a late 20s, early 30s type woman surrounded by her family in the eastern seaboard area perfectly. Read both books for that matter and then compare and contrast them as I'm doing in my head now. One bonus to Criswell's book: there's a treasure trove of actual recipes in it for your Italian cooking pleasure.
Rating:
Summary: So wonderful.....kept me smiling all the way through!
Review: I picked up this book by just browsing the shelves and I'm so glad I did. I related to Mary and the characters were amusing and so much fun. Millie Criswell knows her Italians! This book was sweet and fun and was easy to relate to. The thing I love about Millie Criswell is that you can see other relationships forming through her books. By the end of this book I was so happy for Mary and Dan but I couldn't wait for the next book about Joe and Annie. I'm currently reading her third book about these wonderful characters -The Trials of Angela. You can't put the books down! My mistake is buying the books as soon as they come out...now I have to wait another year for her next one! Great stories, you fall in love with the characters. I totally recommend all of the books but start with this one first!
Rating: 
Summary: The Trouble? Flat Hero...Tried too Hard for Laughs...
Review: I really was looking forward to this book, I really was. I come from a large Italian family and the character's family's traits were so similar to their comments and beliefs and criticisms that I thought for certain this would make me crack up and I did, for the first two chapters, but somehow it started to taper off.
The situations began to get a bit much and the heroine was IMO a little too good for the hero. The friend Annie, which coincidentally is the character for the sequel, 'What to do About Annie' was just annoying. I couldn't get past her weird tendencies long enough to like her. The constant going back and forth of 'pow' and 'zing' and 'oy vey' that was supposed to be hysterical got tiresome in the least.
The romance between the hero Dan and Mary the heroine was unconvincing and almost boring. Dan got on my bad side right from the beginning when he thought the woman who owned the restaurant he criticized in his food article was 'short, fat and had hideous red hair and a mouth like his '97 Explorer,' which wasn't true, we never figure out who he is talking about anyway and it definitely is NOT Mary. I am guessing he means Annie, but IMO it was shallow and he was unworthy of being a hero. Especially when Annie is supposed to be the heroine of the sequel. So in other words, Mary's new boyfriend thinks her best friend in the whole world is 'short, fat and hideous'. Nice guy.
I also noticed the author seemed to try to convey a similar writing style to Janet Evanovich which I thojght was ridiculous.
Even though I wasn't crazy about the hero and the story became riddled with forced humor, the writing was decent and the author did try. It was clear she comes from an Italian family herself.Mary Russo is unemployed and her huge Italian family is driving her crazy. She has no love life and no social life. She decides to open her own Italian resteraunt without the blessing of her family and recieves a blow immediately when a 'food critic' and former sport's writer says her resteraunt was lousy and that the food was noting great.
Mary is furious and goes after this critic, only to discover that he is gorgeous and there is a weird attraction brewing between them. The trouble with all this? They can't stand one another, yet they can't keep their hands off one another... Tracy Talley~@
Rating:
Summary: The Trouble? Flat Hero...Tried too Hard for Laughs...
Review: I really was looking forward to this book, I really was. I come from a large Italian family and the character's family's traits were so similar to their comments and beliefs and criticisms that I thought for certain this would make me crack up and I did, for the first two chapters, but somehow it started to taper off.
The situations began to get a bit much and the heroine was IMO a little too good for the hero. The friend Annie, which coincidentally is the character for the sequel, 'What to do About Annie' was just annoying. I couldn't get past her weird tendencies long enough to like her. The constant going back and forth of 'pow' and 'zing' and 'oy vey' that was supposed to be hysterical got tiresome in the least.
The romance between the hero Dan and Mary the heroine was unconvincing and almost boring. Dan got on my bad side right from the beginning when he thought the woman who owned the restaurant he criticized in his food article was 'short, fat and had hideous red hair and a mouth like his '97 Explorer,' which wasn't true, we never figure out who he is talking about anyway and it definitely is NOT Mary. I am guessing he means Annie, but IMO it was shallow and he was unworthy of being a hero. Especially when Annie is supposed to be the heroine of the sequel. So in other words, Mary's new boyfriend thinks her best friend in the whole world is 'short, fat and hideous'. Nice guy.
I also noticed the author seemed to try to convey a similar writing style to Janet Evanovich which I thojght was ridiculous.
Even though I wasn't crazy about the hero and the story became riddled with forced humor, the writing was decent and the author did try. It was clear she comes from an Italian family herself. Mary Russo is unemployed and her huge Italian family is driving her crazy. She has no love life and no social life. She decides to open her own Italian resteraunt without the blessing of her family and recieves a blow immediately when a 'food critic' and former sport's writer says her resteraunt was lousy and that the food was noting great.
Mary is furious and goes after this critic, only to discover that he is gorgeous and there is a weird attraction brewing between them. The trouble with all this? They can't stand one another, yet they can't keep their hands off one another... Tracy Talley~@
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