Customer Reviews

Jack With A Twist (Red Dress Ink Novels)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a fun story written by the talented Brenda Janowitz. She has a knack for storytelling in a way that makes reading like listening to a funny girlfriend go on and on about her trials and tribulations. As in her first novel with these characters, Scot On The Rocks (Red Dress Ink Novels), she takes time out to have her narrator address the reader with regular comments like, "oh come on now . . . like you wouldn't do the same thing in my situation."

Well, in most cases I probably wouldn't, but that didn't take away from the enjoyment of Brooke Miller's farcical tale of a neurotic New York attorney planning her wedding, while at the same time preparing a super-secret, tabloid-worthy partner dissolution case with her fiancé, Jack Solomon, as opposing counsel.

I recommend reading Scot on the Rocks prior to this sequel because the main characters, Brooke, Jack and Brooke's best friend, Vanessa--all likeable characters--will definitely feel more developed through this next phase of their lives together. The secondary characters in Jack With a Twist are necessary, but borderline cliché--the mother who never met a glass of champagne she didn't drink; Brooke's loving, kosher butcher father; the snobby, lobster-loving mother-in-law-to-be and her equally-snobby daughters with their matching husbands; the big-to-do Judge father-in-law-to-be; the southern belle villain attorney assisting Jack on the case . . . even the French fashion designer, all fell a little flat for me. Much of the story was predictable; however, the writing style and the voice of Brooke overcame these weaknesses and made this an overall fun, light, and quick reading experience.

Brenda Janowitz has a fan here and will, I'm sure, develop many additional fans with this style and these characters. I won't be surprised to see the third book in this series . . . first comes love--then comes marriage--then comes . . . ? Looking forward to it.

Michele Cozzens is the author of It's Not Your Mother's Bridge Club.

Charming voice, fun characters, crazy scenarios...exactly what I want in my chick-lit.

Brooke takes on her fiancé and his parents, her parents and a few assorted other characters in an attempt to dominate in a legal battle, get what she wants for her wedding gala, and still appear to be a sweet, glowing and enviable bride.

Is that too much to ask? Surely you don't know Brooke if you think it is.

Reads a bit like a blend of fashion magazine, Idiot's Guide to a Trial, gossip rag, young Jewish New Yorker's guide to wedding kosherosity and angsty diary. Fun. Fun. Fun.

Attorney Brooke Miller has her hands filled planning her wedding - she's busy trying to find the perfect dress, the perfect menu, and the perfect hall, as well as accommodating the wishes of two sets of parents. But when she lands her first big case, she can't turn it down, even when she finds out the opposing attorney is her fiancé Jack. She thinks dealing with Jack will be a piece of cake, but he starts playing dirty and she starts fuming. Add in Jack's sexy assistant Miranda Foxley and Brooke begins to wonder if there will be a wedding at all.

"Jack with a Twist" (the sequel to Scot On The Rocks (Red Dress Ink Novels)) is a very funny novel about a couple stressing out not only about their wedding but their respective careers. The book is written in the first person from Brooke's point of view so she is often the more sympathetic character. Her search for the perfect wedding dress is very realistic, as are the conflicts with her future in-laws (who are very unsympathetic to what is acceptable for food at a Jewish wedding), trying to find the perfect location for the wedding, the right flowers, and all the other various components of a wedding (author Brenda Janowitz no doubt used some of her own wedding experiences - she got married while writing the book). Brooke's worries about Jack's relationship with the not so subtly named Miranda Foxley are also very realistic - especially for a stressed out soon-to-be bride. Jack is a bit on the clueless side - he never seems to have actual discussions with anyone about any topic.

There is a nice sense of humor throughout the entire book. Some of it is very realistic - Jack's behavior while registering at Tiffany's is typically male - and at other times the humor is a bit too over-the-top - Brooke is a bit too casual in her search for a wedding dress. The Brooke vs. Jack in the courtroom plot is funny but again over the top at times. Too often Brooke and Jack just seem to let things happen without questioning them or discussing things with each other. If this was non-fiction rather than fiction, I wouldn't give their marriage a chance of lasting. Finally, while the ending of the novel is very cute, it too is over the top.

"Jack with a Twist" is a very funny, sometimes over the top romance.

have recently reviewed Scot on the Rocks and loved it! Jack with a Twist is the follow up to this storyline.

We find again our main character Brooke. She is still working as an attorney and is now, herself, in the midst of planning her own wedding to a wonderful guy - Jack. Everything is all romantic and serene, until (and you knew there had to be one) Brooke and Jack are pitted against each other in a court law! No problem thinks Brooke.

Unfortunately! problems galore! While Brooke initially tries to take the high road (separating work and love), she soon discovers that her fiance is in it to win and will do whatever he needs to do to win (or just about). This, uncovers facets of Jack's personality that make Brooke take a step back and seriously reconsider her wedding plans.

The humor that we found in Scott on the Rocks is still present in this book, but it is somewhat toned down. Jack is more or less a pleasant character at times (a tad too sarcastic and condescending for my taste) and Brooke seems to be struggling to find her footing earlier on in the book.

The writing is witty and charming as always, but I just found as though this book just was not as heartwarming and charming as the first one in the series. Still, it was a good read and I have rated at 3.5 stars.

This follow-up to SCOT ON THE ROCKS finds Brooke Miller working at a new, smaller law firm, while engaged to and living with Jack, the floppy-haired accent bungler from the first book. We've got some new characters, as well as the old favorites.

Brooke's still not the most professional lawyer, but she's working harder now that she's stumbled into her first big case, arguing against Jack as the opposing counsel. Jack and his new underling, a real hussy, have her sweating like a ho in church. But at least she doesn't have time to worry about her non-existent wedding dress, right?

Jack's parents are probably the most WASPy Jews ever with an abiding love for lobster.

Brooke's mom is a champagne hound who'd never hesitate to tell you that you could stand to lose a few pounds. My mom's like that too! She becomes less insufferable as the book progresses, fortunately; otherwise I'd be wondering whether they serve champagne at The Home.

Brooke's dad is a lover of meat, just in a kosher, non-sexual way.

Vanessa and Brooke both face the dilemma of how to be a good, considerate friend planning a wedding while the other friend's marriage is falling apart.

Jack wants to make his mark in the firm as a newly made partner, and pulls some real weaselstein moves to do it. Against Brooke! He obviously wasn't worried about the state of his testicles.

Anyway, I really enjoyed this book. Clashing families, her first big legal case, naïveté by the boatload, and doubts about her fiancé keep Brooke from becoming yet another Bridezilla. Check it out, folks!

Another triumph both for Brenda Janowitz and for Brooke Miller! Janowitz's second novel is every bit as satisfying as the first...Brooke Miller is older and wiser, but is as impulsive and sweet as ever. Again, Janowitz draws a clever and poignant portrait of a classic battle of the sexes--one that is always fresh, always funny...and full of surprises!

Working with one's partner can be a great experience, but not for Brooke and Jack. "Jack with a Twist" is a love story of two lawyers. Feeling they are destined to be together, they are engaged to be wed. And if marriage was the only thing on the table, things would be simple. But then they find themselves on opposite sides of the courtroom in a case that could make or break their careers. A story of love, career, and the problems when the two mix, "Jack with a Twist" is a fine twist on the typical romance, highly recommended.

I read this book without reading the first novel in the series featuring these same characters, Scot on the Rocks. I don't think reading the first book was necessary, as author Janowitz does a nice job of providing a brief overview detailing the history between main character Brooke and her fiance, Jack. However, given that ultimately, readers learn very little about Jack in this book (he never appears without Brooke), reading Scot on the Rocks might've provided a bit more insight into Jack's character.

In Jack with a Twist, Brooke and Jack are engaged to be married, and at first, everything is wonderful--that is, until the two, attorneys for different firms, learn that they are opposing counsel on the biggest case of both of their careers. What starts as a friendly competition quickly becomes something more, and as the pressures from both the case and planning the wedding build, Brooke begins to ask herself whether Jack is really the person she thought he was at all.

This book combines your typical fun, light romantic comedy humor with some more serious moments, although the latter sometimes feel a bit forced. Although the story might seem a bit predictable at times, if you tend to enjoy boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy apologizes for his mistakes and gets girl back in the end tales, you're sure to like this one as well. I'd give it an overall rating of about 3 1/2 stars for a fun, quick, light read.

Brooke Miller is an attorney preparing for her wedding and quite naturally, there is a high level of tension in her life. Her fiancé Jack is also an attorney and they are madly in love with each other and mildly in love with their careers. When Brooke gets her first chance to work a big case on her own, she is overjoyed at the opportunity to impress the partners. The case is a bit unusual in that the female side of a wife-husband business wants to terminate the business relationship. Since the structure of the business was drawn up in what appears to be an airtight legal form, Brooke believes she is on fairly simple legal ground and that the case will be resolved quickly.
Boy is she wrong! The wife and husband are social stars with a level of celebrity status so high that paparazzi have a 24/7 stakeout of their residence. It also appears that Brooke has not made the appropriate sacrifices to the legal and wedding gods because the husband side decides to make a serious fight about it and selects Brooke's fiancé Jack as his attorney. Throw in a friend for life that is getting a divorce, her father as a kosher butcher whose idea of a quality present is a high quality cut of meat, her mother with a slim figure while Brooke's is not, Jack's parents as socially prominent figures who think nothing of violating kosher rules, relatives that are sometimes copies and other times colorful and this story contains a manifestation of just about every anxiety that a potential bride can encounter.
Harried is too mild a word to describe Brooke's life as she is forced to work horrendous hours in an attempt to respond to the discovery requests of the opposition. Her love life turns into a rapidly fading memory and after the lover's equivalent of ultimate fighting, the wedding is called off. Fortunately, there are some people who exhibit sense on occasion and everything is eventually brought back to some form of normality.
I found this book unusual in that it is clearly an example of "chick schtick", yet I enjoyed it, which is unusual because I generally do not like such material. While it may not sound like great praise to say that I read it all, given the subject matter, the sound in this case is deceiving.

Jack With a Twist is a wonderfully humorous and entertaining look at the delicate balancing act undertaken by Brooke Miller (lawyer/fiancé/daughter/friend and woman extraordinaire) as she undertakes planning her wedding while simultaneously trying to keep fiancé Jack happy and succeed in her new job. Brenda Janowitz's little tome manages to successfully regale her readers with an incredibly insightful look (liberally peppered with much welcome humor) at one woman's attempt to "have it all".

In the book, Brooke repeatedly compares she and Jack to Holly and Paul in Breakfast at Tiffanys or Tracy and Hepburn in any one of their numerous movies together, but in actuality our two protagonists are more Carrie Bradshaw and Mr. Big of Sex and the City fame. (Note: Brooke loves food, seeks independence and success in her own right, loves her Manolo's, fashions by Nanette Lapore, Cynthia Steffe and Vera Wang, shopping at Saks and all things synonymous with contemporary chic while Jack (Big) loves and supports her but also has certain career aspirations of his own to pursue.)

In general, I enjoyed the droll humor and comic aspects of this novel and if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Candace Bushnell should definitely consider herself genuinely and wholeheartedly lauded. The one thing that I found particularly off-putting in the story was Brooke referring to Jack as "Jackie" at certain points in the story. It seemed too manipulative or, to make another movie comparison, just a little too Scarlett O'Hara. Oh fiddle-de-de......this is, after all, chick lit!!