- Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
- Publisher: Kensington Publishing; New edition edition (25 Jun 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1575668823
- ISBN-13: 978-1575668826
- Product Dimensions: 17.5 x 10.8 x 2.5 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,262,125 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Maggie By The Book (Maggie Kelly)
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Product Description
Review
"Kasey Michaels creates characters who stick with you long after her wonderful stories are told."
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
According to Maggie Kelly's Law 1, just when things seem to be settling down, the other shoe drops...with a vengeance. And in this case, it's more like a Regency-era riding boot belonging to Alexandre Blake, Viscount Saint just, hero of the bestsellers Maggie writes. When he defied all laws of time and space by walking out of Maggie's dreams and into her living room, she figured there was a way to get him back home to the corner of her fevered imagination from which he'd escaped. She was wrong. Then, although the members of WAR - We Are Romance, the country's largest romance writers' group - kicked Maggie out of their club, she still got an invitation to their Manhattan conference. How Alex convinced her to go - and take him along - is another story. But Maggie just knew it would be a bad thing. Bad for her blood pressure...and very bad for her budding flirtation with NYPD Lieutenant Steve Wendell.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
8 reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
wonderful, funny, and upbeat satirical mystery
4 Aug 2003
Format:Hardcover
She was doing well writing historical romances but when her sales plummeted she switched genres and is happily writing one historical Regency mystery a year for seven figures. Maggie Kelley, writing as Cleo Dooley, has a New York Times best selling series starring the handsome, suave and devil may care amateur sleuth Alexandre Drake, Viscount Saint Just and his Watson, Sterling Bader. Maggie's imagination made these two characters so realistic that they appeared in her living room one day and never left.
Saint Just decides that all three of them are going to attend the annual WAR (We Are Romance, Inc.) because he wants to win the prize more for the costume and sexiest cover model. From the start, the conference proves to be unsafe, as conventioneers are electrocuted, inundated with prank phone calls, and overwhelmed by an infestation of mice. When a romance reviewer is murdered, it is up to Saint Just and company to figure out whom is the prankster and who is the killer.
If the heroine was more secure and if she believed that Saint Just wouldn't disappear, she might allow herself to care for him. Since she is afraid she tries, sometimes successfully, to ignore the attraction she feels for her creation (shades of Dr. Frankenstein). Kasey Michaels has written a wonderful, funny, and upbeat mystery that satirizes the romance and mystery publishing industries and the conventions they spawn.
Harriet Klausner
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Why you love Bernie, Mare & Sterling even more.
26 Mar 2005
Format:Mass Market Paperback
While I hold "Maggie Needs an Alibi" a little higher than "By the Book", I adore this one as well.
Having read the first book (as one should before reading the second), it was only slightly more difficult to figure out Whodunnit in the second. So, that is why it is only slightly less satisfying than the first. HOWEVER, in this book you get to see more of Bernie, Mare and Sterling, and that is cause for rejoicing. (Not that there's anything wrong with Maggie or Alex, but I always hold a special place for fun background characters.)
The other day I had one of my overwhelming urges to re-read this gem. I even went as far as to clean my room. No dice - so I'll have to buy the book again. It's worth the second buy!
Looking forward to the third book!
Having read the first book (as one should before reading the second), it was only slightly more difficult to figure out Whodunnit in the second. So, that is why it is only slightly less satisfying than the first. HOWEVER, in this book you get to see more of Bernie, Mare and Sterling, and that is cause for rejoicing. (Not that there's anything wrong with Maggie or Alex, but I always hold a special place for fun background characters.)
The other day I had one of my overwhelming urges to re-read this gem. I even went as far as to clean my room. No dice - so I'll have to buy the book again. It's worth the second buy!
Looking forward to the third book!
Killers to the left of me, hacks to the right, here I am...
27 July 2010
Format:Hardcover
"Killers to the left of me, hacks to the right, here I am...stuck in the middle without a clue." This is a taste of the wonderful sense of humor Kasey Michaels infuses into her protagonist Maggie Kelly in this second entry of the series after Maggie Needs An Alibi. If Maggie's frustration is peeking out a bit, it's no wonder. She has finally started to adjust to having the characters from her popular Regency era mystery series; Alexandre Drake, Viscount Saint Just, now calling himself Alex Blakely, and his sidekick Sterling Balder, brought to all too real, living breathing life, when she finds herself roped into attending a writer's conference, topped off with finding out Alex has entered himself in the cover model contest! Shenanigans, accidents and murder - Oh, My!
This book, for me, is primarily about the characters, followed by the mystery. Michaels' characters, including the secondary ones, are fresh and vibrant, no bland, lifeless personalities here. The emotions felt by the main characters are so understandable and relatable; Maggie's frustrations at herself for her creating the exasperating strutting, self-assured, perfect man Saint Just and Alex's confusion at what Maggie could possibly see in "Left-tenant" Steve Wendell. My favorite is the bumbling, bewildered, but lovable Sterling as he continues to adjust to modern colloquialism. And his stint at becoming a rapper you must read for yourself, I don't want to spoil one moment of the transplanted Regency gentleman's attempts at modern song. While Sterling offers a great deal of humour, it is his understated insights about his companions that gives the book its heart and soul. I also liked the touch of Sterling's first person accounts in the prologue and epilogue.
I was in need of a good, light, fun read and this book filled the niche perfectly. I wasn't sure if Michael's would be able to keep the same unique freshness and novelty as she had in the first book but, no need to worry on that front, she easily succeeds. The author is known mostly for her romance novels, which I have not read, but if you are looking for a cozy mystery with quirky, lovable characters, a completely unique twist and just a touch of romance than give this series a try. Do your self a favor and start at the beginning so you don't miss one delightful moment!
This book, for me, is primarily about the characters, followed by the mystery. Michaels' characters, including the secondary ones, are fresh and vibrant, no bland, lifeless personalities here. The emotions felt by the main characters are so understandable and relatable; Maggie's frustrations at herself for her creating the exasperating strutting, self-assured, perfect man Saint Just and Alex's confusion at what Maggie could possibly see in "Left-tenant" Steve Wendell. My favorite is the bumbling, bewildered, but lovable Sterling as he continues to adjust to modern colloquialism. And his stint at becoming a rapper you must read for yourself, I don't want to spoil one moment of the transplanted Regency gentleman's attempts at modern song. While Sterling offers a great deal of humour, it is his understated insights about his companions that gives the book its heart and soul. I also liked the touch of Sterling's first person accounts in the prologue and epilogue.
I was in need of a good, light, fun read and this book filled the niche perfectly. I wasn't sure if Michael's would be able to keep the same unique freshness and novelty as she had in the first book but, no need to worry on that front, she easily succeeds. The author is known mostly for her romance novels, which I have not read, but if you are looking for a cozy mystery with quirky, lovable characters, a completely unique twist and just a touch of romance than give this series a try. Do your self a favor and start at the beginning so you don't miss one delightful moment!
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