- Mass Market Paperback: 250 pages
- Publisher: HarperTorch; Reprint edition (1 Aug 2006)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0060598875
- ISBN-13: 978-0060598877
- Product Dimensions: 17 x 12.2 x 1.9 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 162,863 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
33 of 33 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Smitten was written before Stephanie Plum began. This is the fifth of nine quirky romances that Janet Evanovich wrote between 1988 and 1992.
If you read Smitten without having read the Stephanie Plum novels, you would probably rate the book high for fun and wackiness, above average for plot development and appeal of characters, average for character development and below average for being too predictable. But if you know Stephanie, you have several extra ways to enjoy this book: By seeing how Janet Evanovich has changed her style of writing romantic comedies. That's what moves this warm-hearted, PG-13 novel above average.
Lizabeth Kane is a well-educated 32-year-old daughter of a wealthy family who has been recently been divorced by a philandering husband with pretensions. She also owns a fixer-upper that she doesn't know how to fix. Money needs to come in to meet the mortgage payments to feed her two sons and ravenous dog, Ferguson (a Marley-like misbehaving dog before anyone knew about Marley).
Jobs are hard to find. She's viewed as either overqualified (with her college degree from Amherst) or as inexperienced. Noting that new homes are being added in the neighborhood, she applies to Matt Hallahan, a hunky contractor of her own age who likes Harleys and sports a tattoo in Chinese. She gets the job based on lust at first sight. The romance quickly blossoms.
To care for her sons over the summer while she paints trim and hammers an occasional nail, Lizabeth asks her aunt, Elsie Hawkins, to visit. Elsie avoids funeral homes but she has many features that help identify her as a prototype for Grandma Mazur.
In the background, there's some persistent, goofy flasher who doesn't bother Lizabeth and Elsie . . . but annoys Matt enormously.
The story would have been stronger if the romance had proceeded more slowly . . . as it has with Stephanie and Ranger. But there's a nice feel-good quality to the story that will provide pleasant, easy reading for all but the most critical romance reader.
If you read Smitten without having read the Stephanie Plum novels, you would probably rate the book high for fun and wackiness, above average for plot development and appeal of characters, average for character development and below average for being too predictable. But if you know Stephanie, you have several extra ways to enjoy this book: By seeing how Janet Evanovich has changed her style of writing romantic comedies. That's what moves this warm-hearted, PG-13 novel above average.
Lizabeth Kane is a well-educated 32-year-old daughter of a wealthy family who has been recently been divorced by a philandering husband with pretensions. She also owns a fixer-upper that she doesn't know how to fix. Money needs to come in to meet the mortgage payments to feed her two sons and ravenous dog, Ferguson (a Marley-like misbehaving dog before anyone knew about Marley).
Jobs are hard to find. She's viewed as either overqualified (with her college degree from Amherst) or as inexperienced. Noting that new homes are being added in the neighborhood, she applies to Matt Hallahan, a hunky contractor of her own age who likes Harleys and sports a tattoo in Chinese. She gets the job based on lust at first sight. The romance quickly blossoms.
To care for her sons over the summer while she paints trim and hammers an occasional nail, Lizabeth asks her aunt, Elsie Hawkins, to visit. Elsie avoids funeral homes but she has many features that help identify her as a prototype for Grandma Mazur.
In the background, there's some persistent, goofy flasher who doesn't bother Lizabeth and Elsie . . . but annoys Matt enormously.
The story would have been stronger if the romance had proceeded more slowly . . . as it has with Stephanie and Ranger. But there's a nice feel-good quality to the story that will provide pleasant, easy reading for all but the most critical romance reader.
24 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
This was the 1st Evanovich book I read, bought many years ago before the Plum Series. Giggled and laughed my way through it. Didn't know it at the time but met Grandma (Plum Series) for the first time in the form of "crazy Elsie Hawkins". "Isn't she the old lady they locked up..." "...No, she lived in a gated (safe) community". Met "BigBlue" for the first time as well, driven by Elsie and quite unscratchable.
Lovely story - lots of loveable characters.
Made me buy "One for the Money" in hardback as it was the only edition available and now I'm well and truly hooked on all things Evanovich.
Lovely story - lots of loveable characters.
Made me buy "One for the Money" in hardback as it was the only edition available and now I'm well and truly hooked on all things Evanovich.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Halfway through a 600-page monster of Victorian intrigue, I felt the need for a frivolous respite. SMITTEN was just the ticket.
As author Janet Evanovich explains in a preface written just inside the front cover, SMITTEN was one of twelve short romances - "red hot screwball comedies" - written in her pre-Plum days, nine of which are being re-released. This book in particular was inspired by her experience fixing up a fixer-upper house with her husband.
The heroine is Lizabeth Kane, a recently divorced Mom with custody of two precocious boys, a hyperactive puppy named Ferguson, and Carol the Cat. Lizabeth needs a job, but is either over or undereducated, depending on the prospective employer. She's also, by any standard, unskilled and inexperienced at anything except folding clothes and baking cookies. In desperation, she takes a job as a carpenter with a local building contractor, the hunky Matt Hallahan, even though simply pounding a nail presents her with a challenge. Kane and Hallahan are immediately attracted to each other, and, in short order (and 234 brief and occasionally mildly steamy pages), a relationship erupts despite the periodic intrusion into her backyard of a pesky nighttime flasher.
In SMITTEN, the Evanovich fan can see the evolution of the character types that eventually populate the author's enormously popular Stephanie Plum series. (I know; I've read them all.) Lizabeth is a simpler, but just as delightfully kooky, pre-incarnation of Stephanie. Kane's Aunt Elsie could be the twin sister of Grandma Mazur. And Matt morphs into the more complex and sexually infuriating (to Stephanie) Detective Joe Morelli. There are even the zany action sequences that become fully realized with Plum's involvement. At one point, Lizabeth, Elsie, Matt and Ferguson, in Elsie's battleship of a Caddy, chase after the naked pervert making his escape on Matt's Harley.
If the Plum series is light reading with a capital "L" otherwise denoting excellence, SMITTEN is small "l". Since it can be digested in 1-2 hours, it's a suitably amusing and surreptitious diversion for Sunday church service, especially if the sermon runs inordinately long, but with the caveat that no Real Man wants to be caught chuckling at this engaging chic-lit.
As author Janet Evanovich explains in a preface written just inside the front cover, SMITTEN was one of twelve short romances - "red hot screwball comedies" - written in her pre-Plum days, nine of which are being re-released. This book in particular was inspired by her experience fixing up a fixer-upper house with her husband.
The heroine is Lizabeth Kane, a recently divorced Mom with custody of two precocious boys, a hyperactive puppy named Ferguson, and Carol the Cat. Lizabeth needs a job, but is either over or undereducated, depending on the prospective employer. She's also, by any standard, unskilled and inexperienced at anything except folding clothes and baking cookies. In desperation, she takes a job as a carpenter with a local building contractor, the hunky Matt Hallahan, even though simply pounding a nail presents her with a challenge. Kane and Hallahan are immediately attracted to each other, and, in short order (and 234 brief and occasionally mildly steamy pages), a relationship erupts despite the periodic intrusion into her backyard of a pesky nighttime flasher.
In SMITTEN, the Evanovich fan can see the evolution of the character types that eventually populate the author's enormously popular Stephanie Plum series. (I know; I've read them all.) Lizabeth is a simpler, but just as delightfully kooky, pre-incarnation of Stephanie. Kane's Aunt Elsie could be the twin sister of Grandma Mazur. And Matt morphs into the more complex and sexually infuriating (to Stephanie) Detective Joe Morelli. There are even the zany action sequences that become fully realized with Plum's involvement. At one point, Lizabeth, Elsie, Matt and Ferguson, in Elsie's battleship of a Caddy, chase after the naked pervert making his escape on Matt's Harley.
If the Plum series is light reading with a capital "L" otherwise denoting excellence, SMITTEN is small "l". Since it can be digested in 1-2 hours, it's a suitably amusing and surreptitious diversion for Sunday church service, especially if the sermon runs inordinately long, but with the caveat that no Real Man wants to be caught chuckling at this engaging chic-lit.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Just what you expect from Evanovich!
This book is what you expect Janet to give you - fast moving story line, love, lady with an attitude, gorgous man and a dog thrown in for good measure!
Published 21 months ago by A. Elliott
average
one of the nine romace/comedy novels that evanovich had written before stephanie plum came into existance. the humour and romance are both there but the writing isnt strong. Read more
Published on 14 Feb 2009 by Lindymck
Meet the Precursors to Stephanie, Joe and Grandma Mazur along with a...
Smitten was written before Stephanie Plum began. This is the fifth of nine quirky romances that Janet Evanovich wrote between 1988 and 1992. Read more
Published on 5 Oct 2007 by Donald Mitchell
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