Customer Reviews

Feet First

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4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
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`Feet First' by Leanne Banks is a fantastic contemporary romance. Jenny Prillaman is assistance shoe designer and finds herself designing shoes for reality TV wedding because her boss is in rehab. Marc Waterson is the VP the Bellagio shoe company and is looking for a wife but find the beauty queens fix-up lacking something. Jenny told herself she gets one hot affair in life and she sets her sights on Marc Waterson and sparks fly. This is a fun quick read with a mix of shoes, laughter and great love scenes. I am off to find more from this author. I would also suggest Body Check by Deirdre Martin , `Drive me Crazy' by Kate Angell ,`She's got the look' by Leslie Kelly and `Saving Allegheny Green' by Lori Wilde.

Ms Banks books are so good that I couldn't go to bed until I finish it although I had to get up early the next day for work. She is a fabulous writer, very entertaining, and funny. GREAT JOB!!!

Marc Waterson is the no nonsense vice president of Bellagio Shoes. He is currently overseeing his Cousin Brooke's reality TV wedding, and he wants everything to run smoothly, which will mean lots of publicity for the company.

Jenny Prillaman loves her job as an assistant to Sal, a shoe designer at Bellagio. Sal unfortunately has a passion for alcohol more than sketching right now, so Jenny agrees to step in for the wedding planning. While Jenny wishes Marc would remember her name, she is both thrilled and distressed at the prospect of working with him - he doesn't know her resume is a sham.

FEET FIRST is a wild tale centered around a company, a wedding, and of course - shoes. Jenny is trying to be low key while working with Marc, but her sassy side keeps popping up. I will admit that if I had been Jenny, I would have written off Mr. Square Pants Marc early on. But their attraction keeps bubbling to the surface, until soon it's boiling hot. Of course, like some foods, sometimes it gets too hot, and must be cooled down before it can be enjoyed. As Marc and Jenny experience the ups and downs of their relationship, readers will be taken on an entertaining ride. What an enjoyable way to spend time -- reading FEET FIRST!

Other characters in FEET FIRST give it even more comedic fun. There is the bride-to- be, Brooke, who sometimes forgets she is getting married. And there are Jenny's friends who are always ready to offer Jenny advice in how to entice Marc. FEET FIRST will have you chuckling out loud, so don't read this one in public unless you're prepared to explain that it's about...shoes. Yes, after reading FEET FIRST you may be tempted to go buy a new pair. <g>

Step into a funny tale of love set among the shoe-haves and shoe-less. Leanne Banks reminds us again how good she is at creating amusing characters and plots. If FEET FIRST doesn't convince you to look at footwear in a different light, then maybe it's time to get rid of your tired old shoes. With witty dialogue and entertaining characters, I highly recommend picking up FEET FIRST today.

Patti Fischer for Romance Reviews Today

Assistant to the shoe designer for upscale Bellagio Shoes, Jenny is given the chance of a lifetime to create the wedding shoes for Atlanta debutante bridezilla Brooke Tarantino when her boss Sal is in rehab. This is an opportunity of a lifetime, as Brooke is being featured in a reality TV show, and the shoes will play a prominent role. Bellagio VP Marc Waterson likes the designs and is impressed with her resume (created by Sal to give Jenny the push she needed) and he offers her a promotion.

Marc has decided that it is time to settle down, so he has his friend fixing him up with one beauty queen after another but after a makeover, soon finds himself attracted to Jenny, who represents the antithesis of his list of desires in a wife. That does not seem to stop his hormones, as he all but jumps her in the butler's pantry. Embarrassed by his lack of control, he is shocked when he is ready to offer an apology, while Jenny offers a no strings affair.

Can Jenny and Marc keep a casual relationship going without their hearts getting involved? What will Marc do when he finds out that her resume and work history for the most part is a fabrication? As always, Banks keeps up guessing with her own charismatic and sensuous way of telling a story. Followed up by "Underfoot."

Design artist Jenny Prillaman works at Bellagio Shoes where she is an assistant to Sal of the Sal Amore line of shoes. Manager Marc Waterson asks Jenny where Sal is; she covers for him saying he ill when she thinks he is drunk. When he asks if Sal has sketched any special shows for the upcoming wedding of the century, she says yes, but hands him her sketches insisting they were done by Sal. He has her stay when the bride, his spoiled cousin Brooke Tarrentino arrives. Marc is impressed as she handles Brooke with ease. Afterward he tells her that Sal called from a rehab center praising her and insisting it was her work.

As they work on the wedding that will be filmed as a reality TV show Marc finds himself impressed with Jenny. His admiration begins to turn to desire; Jenny has salivated over Marc form the first moment she saw him, but assumes someone who cannot resist a second and third Krispy Kreme has no chance. Besides if he ever learns that her résumé is a fabrication created by Sal, he would dump her even if he miraculously fell in love with her as she has him.

FEET FIRST is a fun contemporary romance starring two likable lead characters and the cousin from hell. The amusing story line focuses on how Marc's feelings towards a too confident Jenny evolve as he observes her competence in shoe design and handling people starting with his cousin the Frankenstein bride, her ailing boss, and eventually him. Readers will never look at shoes the same way as Leanne Banks designs a fine tale.

Harriet Klausner

Jenny Prillaman gets the chance of a lifetime when her boss at Bellagio Shoes lands in rehab and she gets to step in and design the wedding shoes for a celebrity wedding. Unfortunately, Sal had embellished her resume a bit and the company VP thinks she not only has a degree from a design school, but that she has experience as well. When she has a chance to come clean on the deception, she keeps quiet because everyone is going crazy over her designs and she's able to escalate her lust for the VP up a couple notches to a full-blown roll in the hay.

Marc Waterson, Bellagio VP, had decided it was time to end his bachelor days and enlisted his friend's help to find a suitable mate. After a parade of beauty queens with fake hair, fake nails, fake body parts and fake smiles, he is drawn in the the spontaneous Jenny Prillaman who amazes him with her talent and soothes him with her ever-present stash of Peppermint patties.

Their relationship moves quickly but Jenny knows she must come clean about the false information on her resume. However, she's falling head over heels for Marc and jumping feet first into what could be disaster. Can she tell the truth, keep her job AND keep Marc too?

Leanne Banks' FEET FIRST is the first of a three-book series set at Bellagio Shoes and is full of fun and passion. The single title format allows for a larger cast of characters and I especially enjoyed Jenny's gay "girlfriend" Chad whose help and advice helped spur her on to greater things.

FEET FIRST will make a great end-of-summer read when you're looking for something flirty and sassy and bold.

Jenny Prillaman is an assistant secretary to Sal, a top designer for Bellagio Shoes. Covering for her boss, who's in rehab, Jenny brings some of her shoe sketches to Brooke Tarantino to inspect for her wedding. Liking the designs, Brooke wants Bellagio to make her wedding shoes. Marc Waterson, the Executive VP at Bellagio, asks Jenny to handle the designs for the account. He promotes her to Assistant Designer and gives her a raise. Jenny wishes the handsome executive would notice her. She would be happy if he remembered her name!

Marc likes things in his life orderly and smooth. When he decides it's time to get married, Marc has a definite idea of what he wants in a wife; low-maintenance, no big ambitions except to please him and raise his family. Jenny isn't it. He believes she's ambitious, and because she's an artist, a bit kooky. He wants sane and predictable in his life.

With the help of her gay friend Chad, Jenny has a complete make over. Marc notices and compliments her. When Brooke calls and invites them both to a party, all Marc can think about is Jenny's body. After watching her do a steamy salsa dance, Marc finds himself in the Butler's Closet with her and things really begin to steam up! The next day Jenny approaches him with an offer. A short, no strings attached affair.

Feet First is a fun read! Marc always forgetting Jenny's name. The characters are wonderful and memorable. Jenny, who is so open and people oriented, Marc who is a type A personality, not to mention Chad her gay friend who's always raiding her fridge, and Brooke the spoiled socialite who has to made a big decision. Ms. Banks writes a book you can't put down because you want to know what's going happen next. I highly recommend Feet First.

Terez
Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

This is the first book in the Bellagio series.

Jenny is a bit of an underachiever in a family full of overachievers. As an assistant to a troubled shoe designer, Jenny is forced to step up to the plate to cover her bosses behind. When Marc, the VP of Bellagio Shoes, realizes that she's the one behind the current designs, he hires her on to take on their biggest client to date. Jenny accepts the challenge despite her misgivings about working directly under her the man she lusts after.

Marc is wife shopping and being set up on date after date. Unfortunately the one woman he needs and really wants is the one he is overlooking on daily basis. The two try very hard to deny and avoid their chemical attraction.

The only other book I have ever read by Leanne Banks was Hot Stuff and based on that disaster I wasn't really curious about her other books. A good friend suggested this series saying it was one of her favorites and she thought I'd like them, too. Well the friend was right (*waves to Tracy*) and I am glad I decided to give Ms. Banks a second try.

The characters are colorful and lovable, eccentric and funny. Jenny is surrounded by a terrific supporting cast and there isn't one person in this story I didn't enjoy tremendously. Marc and Jenny heat up plenty of the pages, but outside of the lovin' there is a great deal of laughter and friendship. I hate the word cute, but that's the best one I can come up with to describe this little tale. It's positively freakin' adorable, I can't wait to read the other two.

Underfoot
Footloose

Cherise Everhard, October 2008

When her boss, the haute shoe designer Sal, is sidelined by a prolonged "illness", Jenny Prillaman's life becomes a Cinderella story. With a reality bridal show needing new Bellagio shoes for their prima dona bride yesterday, Jenny's sketches do more than just fill in as a stop gap measure, they enchant the prickly bride. Moreover, the plain Jane, mousy young lady catches Marc Waterson's eye. He has no idea why she gets under his skin so, even after Jenny undergoes a makeover. Yet, she does, despite the lack of propriety. What begins as simply getting each other out of their mutual systems turns into something stronger, though neither Mac nor Jenny will admit it. The only problem is, their relationship began on a foundation of unwitting lies.

**** Although there are some slightly red moments, overall, "Feet First" is a sweet, old fashioned romance. Most readers will be able to identify with Jenny and cheer her on as her dreams unfold. A delightful secondary romance blossoms alongside the main one as an added attraction. This is, quite simply, a feel good read. ****

Reviewed by Amanda Killgore, Freelance Reviewer.

good book wonderful series. this book is awesome it makes me laugh and smile and giggle and cry totally worth reading. :) You should so read this and i totally recommend it.