Customer Reviews

Mad About Maddie

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This should have been a great romance novel. However, it is so bogged down in stupid dialogue that I wanted to scream "Doesn't any publisher use editors any more?" The same old discussions go on again and again and sometimes the dialogue is just a groaner. Example: After a discussion about an upcoming meeting. He: "Do you have any questions?" She: "Did Adam have a navel?" and the a page is spent with the heroine wondering why she asked such a dumb question. Indeed, I wondered that, too.

I always finish a book but just couldn't stand anymore of the interminable dialogue and snail's pace of this one. Definitely don't buy at full price. This isn't one for your personal library.

Maddie Copeland was wary of men. However, one of her est friends was an elderly man named James Madison Sr. For the last three summers James had rented one of the run down cottages on the beach of Hanscomb Harbor, Connecticut. He was one of the best customers of Maddie's Gifts and Maddie loved his sense of humor best. James even made Maddie promise to have his body cremated and his ashes poured into the hollowed-out belly of a hideous, red-glazed, ceramic lobster clock (he even showed Maddie how to do it) instead of an urn. Maddie honored that wish. But she had no idea how rich James was until the reading of his will! Maddie had become rich! The question was: How rich?

James "Hank" Madison III was used to buying off the young blond women who often tried to marry his grandfather for his money. Hank believed Maddie was no different. Hank was even too busy being CEO of his Fortune 500 company to do as the will demanded of him. But Hank had no choice. Unless he spent six weeks away from New York (in Hanscomb Harbor) with no phone, fax, computer, or anything, his company and all his inheritance went to someone named Maddie! Even James and Hank's close friend and attorney, Jim Thornton, agreed with the deceased Madison, the traitor!

ut it seemed Madison Sr was matching up Hank and Maddie from the grave, like their own guardian angel ... or devil.

**** I found this story to be a true delight until near the end. Once the pair finally got together, it became too long winded. However, up until the last page this story was filled with humor. In fact, I found myself chuckling out loud several times and sharing pieces of the more humorous sections with my husband! Readers will get a hoot out of this one! Great book!

Maddie Copeland was wary of men. However, one of her est friends was an elderly man named James Madison Sr. For the last three summers James had rented one of the run down cottages on the beach of Hanscomb Harbor, Connecticut. He was one of the best customers of Maddie's Gifts and Maddie loved his sense of humor best. James even made Maddie promise to have his body cremated and his ashes poured into the hollowed-out belly of a hideous, red-glazed, ceramic lobster clock (he even showed Maddie how to do it) instead of an urn. Maddie honored that wish. But she had no idea how rich James was until the reading of his will! Maddie had become rich! The question was: How rich?

James "Hank" Madison III was used to buying off the young blond women who often tried to marry his grandfather for his money. Hank believed Maddie was no different. Hank was even too busy being CEO of his Fortune 500 company to do as the will demanded of him. But Hank had no choice. Unless he spent six weeks away from New York (in Hanscomb Harbor) with no phone, fax, computer, or anything, his company and all his inheritance went to someone named Maddie! Even James and Hank's close friend and attorney, Jim Thornton, agreed with the deceased Madison, the traitor!

ut it seemed Madison Sr was matching up Hank and Maddie from the grave, like their own guardian angel ... or devil.

**** I found this story to be a true delight until near the end. Once the pair finally got together, it became too long winded. However, up until the last page this story was filled with humor. In fact, I found myself chuckling out loud several times and sharing pieces of the more humorous sections with my husband! Readers will get a hoot out of this one! Great book!

From the back cover:

She didn't count on inheriting a fortune...or worse, a man.

Everybody in picturesque Hanscomb Harbor knows about pretty shop owner Maddie Copeland's bad luck. Getting bitten by a dog has made her absolutely phobic about the critters. Getting left at the altar has made her just as scared of romance. But when a summer resident, a clear, yet quirky, old man named James dies and leaves a will behind naming Maddie as his heir, her luck starts to look up--that is, until she meets James's handsome, bachelor grandson...

When Henry "Hank" Madison III hears the terms of his wealthy grandfather's will, he is outraged. If he wants to remain acting CEO of James's corporation, Hank must live in Hanscomb Harbor for six weeks, without a laptop in sight. And if that isn't bad enough, he has to share his inheritance with some blonde bombshell! But Hank isn't about to let some gold-digger rob him of what's rightfully his--even if she does take his breath away every time she is near...and even if he is hopelessly losing his heart to her.

And my review:

After reading and greatly enjoying Sara's Bounty by this author, I eagerly snapped up everything of hers that I could find. Now, four disappointing reads later, I'm starting to wonder if the first book was a fluke.

As another reviewer has said (and I quite agree), this book dragged on and on. It needed serious thinning. The heroine kept going into these long drawn-out internal rambles that drove me insane. I wanted to tell her to stop babbling, even if it was just mentally. I think this book would have made a good catagory romance if all the extra padding had been removed. I just wanted the author to get to the point.

What bothered me the most was the hero. Why do so many romance authors think that sleazy innuendoes = sexy hero? It doesn't. It just makes the hero sound lame. For instance, the hero and heroine have barely met, next thing you know they are kissing like there's no tomorrow, and the hero is saying, "I want to lay you down right here and take you." And instead of acting like a normal woman and slapping his face, she's instead melting and gasping, "Oh Hank, we can't." Huh?

It gets worse. Just before all the kissing, the heroine had been startled and spilled her wine on the hero's shirt. After all the desperate kissing, her clothes are also wet. And she says, "I'm all wet." To which the hero replies, "If you weren't, I'd think I was slipping." Am I supposed to swoon now? Was that supposed to be sexy? That sounded like the lamest bar line, and if any man used it in real life, a woman would probably laugh in his face, not melt all over him. And this exchange takes place less than 40 pages in! It was just not believeable.

It's not that I have a problem with sexual tension. In fact, I've been annoyed at many a book for having no spark between hero and heroine. Chemistry is important in a romance novel. But it can't be forced or rushed, but that's what happened here. A romance novel should make you sigh with happiness, not snort in disbelief.

I will be finishing the books I have left by this author on my to-be-read shelf, but I'm not going to be buying any more. So far, I've yet to come across another book by this author that measures up to SARA'S BOUNTY.

"Mad About Maddie" deals with Maddie Copeland, a small town girl who inherited a fortune from an elderly friend who died. Maddie was shocked to hear of the news and even more shocked the meet Hank Madison, the grandson and heir to the fortune that she inherited. Hank, was a city guy, no time to relax, busy at work and very ambitious. Hank assumed that Maddie was one of those women who conned his grandfather. What was more shocking was the rest of the will which said that Hank could inherit the holdings and companies if Hank agreed to stay in the small town under Maddie's supervision for six weeks, and not suppose to work at all. It was in other words, a set up by his grandfather. This was how Maddie and Hank grew to like each other and eventually fall in love.

This is a slower paced "chick lit," and if you are looking for a fast paced, and lots of action, this is not the book for you. However, slower pace is not necessarily a bad thing as the characters were well developed and you get to know them better. Another thing I like about this book is that, the relationship between Maddie and Hank was slowly developed and was not rushed like other books and I think that is great. Also, the secondary characters in this books are fun and very charismatic. Lastly, the writing is clear and concise and I think this is not your usual romance book and it is quite refreshing.

For the past three summers Maddie Copeland, owner of Maddie's Gifts, enjoyed the friendship of octogenarian James Madison, a visitor of Hanscomb Harbor, Connecticut. The deceased's grandson Hank thinks the mysterious bimbo is another gold digger who got lucky when James died. When they meet, he treats her accordingly though she finds herself attracted to him, but quite angry at his behavior towards her.

Further shocking Maddie is that James named her in his will. She inherits the entire mega business that she never knew James owned if his grandson fails to take a six-week vacation in Hanscomb Harbor with no business conducted there. If he succeeds, Maddie gains James' personal fortune if she spends six weeks in New York. In both cases, they must report to one another. James had felt that Maddie and Hank are perfect and is playing matchmaker form heaven.

Readers will be mad about Cheryl Anne Porter's delectably humorous contemporary romance, quite a change from one of the top historical authors. The story line is very amusing as both lead characters are attracted to one another and connected through their love of the recently departed, but neither trusts the intentions of the other. Ms. Porter takes an old theme and brings freshness to it through the antics of Maddie and Hank to adhere and circumvent James' iron clad will.

Harriet Klausner