I Think I Love You [Mass Market Paperback]

Stephanie Bond (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 7, 2002

So there's some bad blood and bruised egos among the Metcalf sisters. At least they're reuniting. A cause to celebrate? Not for Justine, Regina, and Mica. Their parents are splitting up and the family business is going on the auction block--just a little reminder of how much they really have in common...

Take the local bad boy who proposed to Justine, seduced Regina, and ran off with Mica. Add the unsolved murder they witnessed when they were young girls, and their vow to keep it a secret. Toss in their knack for being drawn to shady men, and there's only one thing left for them to do--put the bonds of family loyalty to the test.

But it takes courage to outsmart a murderer, know-how to avenge the cad who betrayed them, and patience to bring their parent back together. Three talents. Three sisters. And who knows? Maybe even three new chances to fall in love when Justine, Regina, and Mica discover how much they're willing to risk--and forgive--in the name of sisterhood...

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Bookish Regina Metcalf isn't the most exciting heroine to ever grace the pages of a romance novel, but compared to her strung-out, back-stabbing sisters, she's certainly the most well-adjusted character in this rollicking comic mystery from Bond (Got Your Number). There's nothing ordinary about the goings-on in Monroeville, N.C., despite the book's familiar premise: three sisters torn apart by a man meet up years later, ostensibly to make amends. Events quickly snowball out of control when Regina learns her elder sister has been shot at; her younger sister has an abusive boyfriend; and her parents are in debt, splitting up and auctioning off the items from their antique store. To top everything off, the man who was convicted of murdering Regina's aunt 20 years earlier has requested a new trial, and the appraiser the bank has sent is sexy, funny and, for some odd reason, interested in Regina. But when an unsavory character with ties to the Metcalfs turns up dead, the sisters are forced to come to terms with a secret from their past and the knowledge that a killer may be after them. Near palpable romantic sparks and whodunit tension hold the reader's interest, and the book's humorous antics leaven an otherwise sober story line. With its energetic prose and cozy Southern setting, this read is a sterling source of laughs and lighthearted fun.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

"The new queen of romantic comedy."--Deborah smith, author of The Stone Flower Garden

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks (July 7, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312983336
• ISBN-13: 978-0312983338
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,297,765 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Stephanie Bond was several years into a corporate computer programming career when an instructor in her night school MBA program remarked that she had a flair for writing and encouraged her to submit one of her projects to academic journals. "But," Stephanie says, "all I could think was 'I wonder if I could write a romance novel?'" Bond grew up on a farm in eastern Kentucky where the entertainment choices were few. Luckily, she had a beloved aunt who shared her passion for reading. "When she visited once a year, she brought boxes and boxes of books by Victoria Holt and Phyllis Whitney and lush historicals--I was in heaven! I think I learned most of what I know about world history from historical romance novels. So suddenly thinking about writing in the genre of the books I loved so much was very exciting." After writing every spare moment for two years, Stephanie sold her first romantic comedy manuscript, IRRESISTIBLE? to Harlequin books. Two years later, she walked away from her corporate career to write commercial fiction full time. To date, she's published over 60 romance and mystery projects with various New York publishers, and is most well-known for her BODY MOVERS humorous mystery series. Stephanie lives in midtown Atlanta and is probably working on a new story at the very moment.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars I wish I liked it more. *sigh*, August 30, 2003

By 

D. Rizzo (United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: I Think I Love You (Mass Market Paperback)

I picked up this novel after reading a charming but uncomplicated romantic-comedy novel by the same author. However, this particular book has significant depth and authenticity; my previous experience with this author gave no clue that she could write a book such as this one.

While the author may have meant for this novel to be funny, it is, in my opinion, more of a straight fiction book. The story concerns a highly dysfunctional North Carolina family of three illegitimate adult daughters, their bohemian parents, a live-in-boyfriend/ former fiance/ object of teenage desire all wound up in one dubiously deserving man, an uncle with political aspirations -- and his late wife, who was murdered while the girls were still in the teens, and whose murder the trio unfortunately witnessed.

As is usual in any fiction book, a problem arises... in this book, about five problems arise concurrently. First, the bohemian parents, while never married, have separated, necessitating the liqidation of their antiques business. Eldest Daughter is dodging the angry wife of her latest conquest. Youngest Daughter is dodging the rather psychotic aforementioned live-in boyfriend. The sisters are askance at a resurgence of interest in their late aunt's murder. And Middle Daughter, the "good child," is cajoled into help liquidate the antiques store, assisting a rather attractive and engaging appraiser hired by her mother.

In a masterful and clever way, the stories converge for an ending that's satisfying as it leaves positively no loose ends. I can't imagine the work and effort that went into this novel.

Now, I took off two stars because IN SPITE of everything, I had next to no affinity for these characters. Mostly, I wanted to spank them, or I wished that someone would stand up and say, "Hey, grownups don't act like this" and walk out. The Middle Daughter is wishy washy, the oldest and youngest are harpies, the parents are infantile, and the peripheral characters are pure stock. The only one who's vaguely interesting on his own is the engaging antiques appraiser... he'd be a good candidate to walk out. Instead, throughout the story he's vaguely amused.

I think this a book downright EXCELLENT for plot and mediocre for character... depending on your tastes, this could be a sure bet for you.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant!, September 3, 2002

By 

HeyJudy "heyjudy" (East Hampton, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: I Think I Love You (Mass Market Paperback)

I had thoroughly enjoyed OUR HUSBAND, Stephanie Bond's earlier book, so I expected to like I THINK I LOVE YOU. Yet I more than liked it, I was awed by it.

The story was far more detailed than one expects a genre romance to be. Ms. Bond lets the reader know right from the beginning that she was inspired by the Nancy Drew mysteries of our collective youths, and I THINK I LOVE YOU is very much a Nancy Drew book for the modern woman.

The tension among the three sisters who are the focus of this novel is altogether plausible, and its history is well-explained. The separate plots concerning each of the three sisters also are compelling, and the backstory of small town Southern life is extremely interesting. I was awed by Ms. Bond's imagination and I cannot wait to read the sequel that the final pages of this novel promise already is in the works.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So what am I so afraid of? I'm afraid that I'm not sure of a love there is no cure for, November 2, 2008

By 

Courtney Rabideau (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: I Think I Love You (Mass Market Paperback)

Justine, Regina, and Mica Metcalf are the daughters of a couple that ran an antiques store and never got married.

The summer Justine was 17 Regina was 14 and Mica was 12 they saw the murder of their Uncles wife. The vowed never to talk about it to anyone and they didnt, for 20 years.

That summer a man named Dean came to work for the girls parents. The girls liked him and soon he and Justine were an item. Several years later they were engaged, but then he left to go to California with Mica (whom he had been sleeping with for years)

Many years later Regina, Mica and Justine are back in their small North Carlina home to deal with the bankrupsy and split of their parents.

Soon thought they are dealing with somethig different when Dean comes to town and then turns out dead, and Justine is scared about the deranged wife of a man she slept with. With the help of the man hired to apraise the antiques (who just happens to be a non practicing lawyer)Justine, Mica, and Regina soon learn they need to get along to find out about the death of their Aunt and Dean and figure out if there is a connection between the two.

A very intersting book that has a surprise ending it is hard to put this book down.