Customer Reviews

Blame It On Cupid

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Merry Olsen has just been awarded guardianship of eleven-year-old Charlene Ross. Merry knew Charlene's father, Charlie, when he lived in Minnesota, but they lost touch after he moved away. Upon learning of Charlie's recent passing, Merry packs up her life and hightails it to Virginia to show Charlene that someone is looking out for her. She buys her gifts, cute girly items she's sure Charlene will adore, and plans to recreate Christmas because Charlene missed out due to her father's death. Unfortunately, Charlene is not quite the typical girly eleven-year-old Merry was expecting.

Charlene, call me Charlie, Ross is gangly, dresses in her father's old clothes, and has a short hair cut reminiscent of a boy. She's not into the latest boy bands, make-up or gossip fests. Instead, her interests lie in math, science, computers and everything Merry knows nothing about. But Merry won't give up, she's going to bond with Charlie, no matter what it takes. Merry may have been flighty and a bit fluffy in Minnesota, but she's not going to leave this lonely and hurt girl in the lurch.

Enter neighbor Jack Mackinnon. He can't believe some of the zany stuff Merry is doing. He's sure she won't last long as Charlie's guardian, but he doesn't mind viewing her delightful personality through his kitchen window. However, both Jack and Charlie have a lesson to learn when it comes to Merry. She's going to make this work and she's giving it her all. But will it be enough to help Charlie?

Blame it on Cupid is just plain fantastic! Merry is in many ways a true girly-girl. She chose her car based on its color, she loves to shop, she doesn't hold jobs for long, and she's a consummate flirt. However, she truly has a heart of gold and it shines through on every page and in all her interactions with Charlie, Jack, and his twin boys. Readers may be amused by some of Merry's antics but they will surely be impressed with her determination to see Charlie settled, safe, and as happy as she can be.

Jack proves to be a good match for Merry. He's a divorced single father with a good job. He enjoys poker, loves his two sons, and enjoys romantic evenings out with women. But he's also a good shoulder for both Merry and Charlie to lean on. I enjoyed watching him fall under Merry's spell and come to see that there was so much more beneath her surface than he expected. He may not give her enough credit initially, but that ends quickly when he sees how Merry is doing her best to be a mom to Charlie.

Blame it on Cupid is just pure, plain fun. It's a wonderful contemporary romance that gives readers a strong plot, enough spicy romance, and characters that you will enjoy spending time with. Jennifer Greene has hit a bulls-eye with this engaging read. It has a small connection to another of her titles, Blame it on Chocolate, but this book wonderfully and adeptly stands on its own. Well worth your hard earned money.

Merry is the delightfully carefree and somewhat 'ditsy' friend of Lucy, from the first book, Blame it on Chocolate. She is a loveable woman who floats from job to job, boyfriend to boyfriend. Things change when an old friend dies and she is appointed guardian of his 11 year old daughter, Charlene. Not only does Merry inherit a child, but she has to pack up her things and move to a new city. To say that Merry is a fish out of water is an understatement. She attacks this new challenge with gusto. She buys books, shops for healthy foods, tries to be this little girl's friend as well as guardian.

Of course a good romance wouldn't be worth anything without a little conflict and a few obstacles along the way. This book has that, although I won't reveal what. Merry gets some much needed help from a handsome neighbor who seems to always show up when she needs him. Jack is a divorced father of two twin 15 year old boys. He's gorgeous, charming and a much needed white knight. He also helps to supply some steamy sex scenes. :)

Charlene is a smart vulnerable little girl, trying to cope with the loss of her father anyway she can. I found her very sweet and endearing. Throughout the book I just wanted to hug her. Jack's boys Kicker and Cooper are adorable! Kicker is the extroverted teen who thinks about nothing but girls and sports. Cooper is the introverted quiet one. Both have their father's looks and charm. They may be teens but they are also very gentlemanly. They are very good with and to Merry and Charlene. There is a side story that involves one of the teens. It is an excellent addition to this book.

What I liked best about this story is that the secondary characters were as enchanting as the main characters, without taking the focus off Merry and Jack. I hope that Ms. Greene will let us visit Charlene, Kicker and Cooper when they are older. I'd like to read their stories as well. This was a great book. It was funny, sad, touching, heartwarming and romantic. The characters and the storylines were both gripping and entertaining.

Years ago when Merry had agreed to be the guardian for her friend's daughter, Charlie, in the event of his death, she didn't really think it would ever happen. Now she's guardian to a grief-stricken eleven year old who is by no means happy by her arrival. To add more trouble, Merry's new neighbor, Jack, doesn't seem to approve either. As time goes on, Merry, Jack and Charlie, along with Jack's two sons, become closer and closer, but Jack's ex-wife had put him through an emotional ringer and he's not sure he wants another relationship. Just when Jack is deciding exactly what he wants from Merry, everything begins to blow up in their faces when Charlie's deadbeat mother returns and attempts to gain custody in order to claim the inheritance that Charlie's father has left her.

I loved Blame It On Cupid! Merry is a delightful mess that readers will quickly come to adore, while Jack is everything a romance hero should be! Jennifer Greene has penned a romance that will keep you smiling all the way through and sad to see the last page. A quirky and fun romance, Blame It On Cupid is one book that romance lovers will want to add to the top of their "to be read" pile!


Melissa
Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

I read most of this book while sitting in the waiting room at the local urgent care and found it to be a delightful diversion from the minor problem I was there for. Merry Olson is a warm, charming, giving person whose response to learning she's been named guardian of a friend's daughter is "Of course I'll come." Her first thought is for Charlene (aka "Charlie"), the eleven-year-old whose care she is now responsible for. While others might think she's doing it for the money, Merry isn't worried about that, but about helping Charlie through these difficult days. Jack MacKinnon, her next-door neighbor, proves both a help and a sexy distraction as Merry tries to fit into her new role. Conflict comes from the change in her free and easy lifestyle to being responsible for a young girl who's on the brink of teenagehood and who's trying to cope with the loss of her father. For Jack, he's definitely got an eye for his new neighbor, but he has his own romantic hurts to deal with, as well as two sons from his own failed marriage. While Merry seems to him more the type of woman he was looking for than his ex-wife, her singular focus on making certain Charlie is okay (and dealing with a disapproving court-appointed guardian ad litem) hits all the wrong buttons for him.

As I said, this is a delightful diversion that kept me thoroughly entertained. Jennifer Greene crafts charming characters you want to like (though Mrs. Innes, the court-appointed guardian ad litem, seems a bit too chut from the Dolores Umbridge cloth for me), and there is a solid conflict on the emotional level as Merry and Jack try to deal with their conflicting emotions as it impacts their rapidly changing daily lives. My only quibble is that the ending felt a bit rushed with everything suddenly and neatly tied up, but that is not enough to keep me from seeking out the previous book, Blame It On Chocolate (Hqn Romance), or from picking up Ms. Greene's next book when it comes out.

Merry Olsen is the last person anyone would assume be assigned a guardian to a preadolescent girl as everyone who knows the forever optimist affectionately call her "Ditzy". Yet her friend the late Charlie Ross did just that. Merry drives from her home in Minnesota to Oakley, Virginia to take charge of eleven years old Charlene, whom she never met before though she has no legal obligation to do so.

The seemingly coldhearted lawyer Lee Oxford assumes Merry is in it for the large trust fund that he has insured is iron tight and used for Charlene. The bureaucratic state appointed ad litem caseworker June Inness thinks Merry is too ditzy for the child. The single dad next door Jack Mackinnon and his teenage twin sons think the Minnesotan needs to go home as she suffers from "suburbia allergy". However though she falls in love with Jack, the worse condemnation comes from Charlie who expects the outsider to leave just like her mother did; except mommy dearest is back claiming love of her offspring with a court date to make her case.

Readers will enjoy this family drama starring a modern day DC area Mary Poppins as she bring merry cheer and love to one and all. Jack knows she has his heart beating and his sons think the northerner is the greatest. Whereas young Charlie has doubts about the enthusiasm and nurturing, she too is infected by the eternal cheerleading optimist. Though the youngsters at times sound too adult, fans will enjoy this upbeat contemporary tale.

Harriet Klausner

Overall, this was a great read, a fun story. I found a few scenes with Merry's helplessness a little annoying but I still liked the character. My emotions tended to mirror her emotions as I got into the story.

Footloose and free spirited Merry Olson didn't expect that the guardianship agreement she signed on a napkin a decade ago would ever result in her pulling up stakes in Minnesota and haring across the country to Oakburg, Virginia, but when the lawyer of her friend Charlie called and informed her of his sudden death, she had exactly one thought: to get to his daughter as soon as humanly possible and wrap her up in as much love as the eleven-year-old could stand. Not that the young, childless Merry had the first clue about raising children, but she'd been a girl of eleven once and she knew the pain of losing a parent at a young age, so she figured she could relate, and she was sure that all Charlene needed was understanding and love, sympathy for her tragic loss, and some girl bonding. And that's exactly what Merry was going to give her.

Unfortunately, it didn't take long for Merry to realize that she is completely out of her depth with the unnaturally reserved tomboy with the shaved head and over-sized clothes and who wants to be called Charlie, has no clue how to handle the soccer mom gig in an upper class suburbia so far outside of her ken as to resemble foreign soil, and is terrified by the legal mumbo jumbo related to the court appointed guardian ad litem who she's convinced will judge her unworthy to care for Charlene. Merry is way over her head and sinking fast. Thank goodness her neighbor Jack Mackinnon is such a hero. She doesn't know what she'd do without him.

The woman is a big fluffy female menace who gets lost trying to navigate her own driveway and is a danger to herself and everyone who knows her. It took Jack all of about five minutes to figure Merry out. Well, five minutes and the fully decorated pink Christmas tree...in the middle of January. Still, it's like his new neighbor is some mysterious vortex and he just keeps getting sucked in. Maybe it's because she's so darned pretty. Maybe it's because she's so obviously clueless but so determined to provide for his friend's daughter. Maybe it's just because Merry touches his heart in a way that he hadn't realized he'd needed his whole life. Whatever it is, he's captivated, and the longer she's in his life, the more he realizes he doesn't ever want her to get away. Telling her that, though, may be a little harder than he'd ever dreamed.

Every once in a while I come across exactly the sort of book I most need at exactly the point I most needed it. Laid up with the flu for days, coughing up a lung (or two), feeling icky and ready to do just about anything to brighten my mood and take my mind off everything, I went looking for a light romantic comedy or a light contemporary romance. I was hoping for something on the empty-calorie side of brain candy. My sweets craving got more than satisfied by Blame it on Cupid.

I have to admit, as a longtime and proud tomboy myself, I related a little more with wounded Charlene (and I'd want to be called Charlie, too, regardless) than pink bunny slipper-wearing, petticure-loving, fluffy Merry, but there was something about the woman that drew me in. Flighty women like her usually annoy me pretty quick, but she was so big-hearted, so earnest in her care for Charlene, so dedicated to do as good a job as possible...and funny. Merry was funny. By the end I sort of adored her.

And then there was Jack. Sweet, clueless, hit-by-the-Merry-truck Jack. A bit of love 'em but don't love them sort at the start, a guy still feeling the sting of an ex-wife who cared more for her job than him so he doesn't get emotionally invested, he's also the guy that stomps across the yard in the snow, cursing Merry the whole way, only to shut the door she forgot to close, or the guy going over to the dark house to find out why the electricity isn't working despite having a date, or the one who is slipping into his jacket to go lend her a hand even as he's questioning his sons about why they think he'd do exactly that.

I loved him. I loved them together. And I flat-out adored how Greene developed their relationship among some other very valid and sometimes surprisingly deep plot points and threads. Issues such as the unique pain of losing a parent at a horrendously young age, gender identity, teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease, the heartache of first love, raising children in a modern age when sleepovers are coed, the often ravaging but sometimes subtle damage that divorce and parents' choices can have on impressionable children and teens, and several more very significant and relevant issues were all touched on to varying degrees. They added a surprising amount of depth and quite a bit of meat to a story that could have stuck with a more superficial but humorous romance and still been entertaining.

There was just so much I enjoyed about this book. Yeah, I had the flu, and I sure wasn't feeling at all good when I read it, but it kept me entertained through it all, and kept my mind off feeling cruddy. Call it chick lit, call it fluff, call it brain candy... I'll just call it a whole lotta fun when I needed fun the most.

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Reviewed for One Good Book Deserves Another.