Customer Reviews

To Kiss a Frog

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

 

 

Dragged from his bed in the middle of the night, Craig Thibodeaux finds himself facing the bayous Voodoo Queen. When he is cursed for NOT being interested in her granddaughter, Craig thinks it's a joke until he wakes up the next morning a frog! Suddenly he starts taking the Voodoo Queen seriously and realizes he has less than two weeks to get a woman to fall in love with him or spend the rest of his life as a bullfrog, and he doesn't have a prospect to even start with.

Elaine Smith is a genius dedicated to her research. But when she finds her fiance making out with another woman and he accuses her of being more interested in her work than him, she realizes the truth in his statements. So, rather than sending an intern to collect the water samples she needs from Bayou Miste, she decides to get out of her laboratory and goes herself.

I liked Craig as a human because while he knew he had to find some one to fall in love with him, he wasn't out to hurt or use anyone to break his spell. Elaine walks into his life and seems like the perfect target but because she is so innocent and naive he didn't want to break her heart because he didn't want to settle down. I got more than a few laughs from his frustration of being a frog - getting stuck in a room because he couldn't open the door, for one.

Elaine does a lot of growing as a character - she gets out of her lab, associated with other people that aren't scientists and learns that just because she is a child genius, she didn't have to give up her life as an adult too. Another reason I like Elaine is because she is easy to fluster - Craig is one of the best looking guys she has ever seen. So sometimes her brain mixes the yummy thoughts she has about him with the actual conversation she is having with the man. Some of her misspoken words were funnier than others, but this was hilarious!

Elle James has written a truly enjoyable fractured fairy tale with her version TO KISS A FROG. This was such a fun read! The story has a quick light pace and even the final confrontation was humorously written. If you are looking for a light funny read this is a book that I would recommend.

reviewed for: pnr.thebestreviews.com

I am the type of person who has to read before I go to sleep. It relaxes me, takes off the stress of the day.

I am also the type of person who has to have a solid seven hours of sleep to function. Not something that happened while I was reading Elle James's debut, To Kiss a Frog.

Craig Thibodeaux has been a bad boy, and he messed - or didn't mess - with the wrong woman, a woman whose grandmother is a voodoo priestess. A woman who had the priestess put a spell on him because he wasn't able to fall in love. Craig is wary, but it isn't until the following evening when he wakes up - not quite himself - that he realizes what has happened.

He's a frog by day, a man by night, with only a matter of weeks to find a woman who can love him, warts and all, to end the curse. Otherwise, he'll be on a permanent fly diet.

Elaine Smith comes upon Craig just as he's making the transformation from frog to man, and since frogs don't wear clothes, well, she gets an eyeful. But the plain Jane scientist has come to the bayou to find the source of a pollutant in the swamp, not handsome naked Cajuns. She's also using the trip as a bit of an escape since she found her fiance making out with a very attractive secretary. Men are not high on her priority list.

But she needs someone to take her out to the bayou, and Craig has evenings free. You know, of his frog skin. So he takes her out to the bayou, where they investigate the cause of the pollution and find themselves in danger up to their eyeballs.

I love the Cajun setting, and could actually feel the swamp water in my hair - not pleasant. Craig was a fun hero, both as man and frog. You know he's got to be great if his dog even loves him in frog form. Elaine blossomed on the page as she fell in love with Craig and learned to like herself as well. The secondary characters added texture to the story.

To Kiss a Frog is a fun, sexy read, and I'm looking forward to great things from Elle!

The Voodoo Queen warned playboy attorney Craig Thibodeaux not to play with the affections of her granddaughter or else she will curse him. When Craig rejected the granddaughter, the Voodoo Queen declared he did not know love so she hexed him. Craig will be a Frog during the day and a man at night, but if he fails to find his true love by the next full moon, he will turn into an amphibian permanently.

Craig initially scoffed at the curse until he finds that flies are a delicacy. He realizes that the clock is short and needs to find someone to love him. His only hope is environmental research scientist Elaine Smith, who is in the Bayou studying pollution. Craig manages to get the job of her guide, but soon becomes her protector as someone wants the professor stopped before she learns who the prime source of the Bayou pollutants are. Craig has fallen in love, but the curse requires the woman to love him and what intelligent person would want a pond frond as a home.

This fairy tale romance, the winner of a Golden Heart award, is a fine story that readers will enjoy because of the lead male's inadequacies as a hero. Craig is more frog than lion yet courageously will risk his life to keep Elaine safe; sort of mindful of the hero in My Demon Lover. Elle James provides a wonderful fantasy romantic suspense with two delightful lead protagonists, an intriguing Voodoo Queen, and some baddies to round out a fine novel.

Harriet Klausner

I purchased this book because of the raving reviews about it. So I said what the hey, I'll give it a chance... Yeah...I'm still giving it a chance. I bought this book about five mouths ago and I still haven't finished it considering that I usually finish a book in a couple of days. I keep picking it up to read then put it down to read something else. I guess the story is very juvenile to me. It makes me wonder, how old is the author. Is she in high school?

I have to give the book this, the concept of the story is cute. It's about a playboy, named Craig. He gets turned into a frog by a voodoo witch cause he was messing with her granddaughter, I think. (I read it so long ago I'm not sure how it happened). He's a frog by day and a man at night. Then, Elain, a scientist comes along and they meet then yada yada yada it goes on from there.

The thing that bothers me about the story is the way the author tells it. It feels like I'm reading a book written by a sixteen year old. The dialogue and some of the scenes are just so LAME! I'm just have such a hard time getting through the book. There was only one scene that I found really enjoyable and it wasn't the sex scenes (which were lame too)......On second thought, the sex scenes weren't soo bad but the characters talked too much JUST BE QUIET AND MAKE LOVE! LOL Maybe this story isn't for me cause I see a lot of people enjoyed this book which is great. I'm glad for them, they can have my copy. All I can say is read it at your own risk.

Craig Thibodeaux has finally messed with the wrong woman - the granddaughter of a legendary VooDoo Queen. Determined that he learn the error of his bad-boy ways, she casts a spell on him. Frog by day - man by night, unless he can find someone to love him before the next full moon. Enter brainiac Elaine Smith. She's come to the bayou to expose an ecological terrorist. Craig figures the shy bookworm will be easy to seduce into loving him to break the curse. And the fact she keeps finding him naked can't hurt either.

Not so fast, frog boy! Elaine only has eyes for the amphibians she's dissecting. Love? Not in this lifetime.

With a wonderfully colourful cast of characters, charming humour, clever dialogue, and a who-dun-it twist at the end I never saw coming, To Kiss A Frog is a great debut novel from Elle James. I can't wait for her next book!!

Elle James' first novel is a wonderful, witty, lighthearted caper with a mystery and a voodoo twist. I literally couldn't put it down until I finished it and, although I lost several hours of much needed sleep, it was worth it!

Given two weeks to find a woman to love him, the deliciously described hero, Craig, has to comply or spend his life eating flies and dodging the dangers of the Louisiana bayou as a frog. Enter Elaine, a scientist on a mission. She finds him wickedly tempting but she isn't there for a fling with a local heartbreaker. And they're off! Off to a wonderfully heated adventure through the Spanish moss and slow moving waters of the swamps as Craig has to decide if he can put aside his fear of commitment and win his life back from a Voodoo priestess' curse.

There were times that the story had me laughing so hard, I scared my dogs. Other parts of the book needed to come with their own cold shower! It was the kind of romance story that has a little of everything in it and was thoroughly enjoyable. I can't wait to see what Elle comes up with next!

Bayou bad boy, Craig Thibodeaux, learns the hard lessons of love when he rejects a local voodoo queen's grand-daughter. She cast a spell that turns him into a frog each day and back to a man every night with a warning that if he doesn't find a woman to love him and to love in return then he'll remain a frog forever. Enter clumsy, awkward and water shy environmental research scientist Elaine Smith. Elaine has landed in Craig's pond for research on the bayou pollution. Craig manages to get himself hired as her guide but soon turns into her lover and then bodyguard. Because someone is determined to stop Elaine from finishing her research in the bayou.
Ms. James has done a great job of combining humor, suspense and the paranormal. I can't wait to see what comes out of her fertile imagination next.

Elle James' debut novel is a light-hearted romp through the Louisiana swamp. Or hop, depending on the time of day. You see, sexy Craig Thibodaux, high-priced attorney was visiting his uncle when he angered the Voodoo Queen, who put a spell on him: he is a frog by day and a man by night until the next full moon. If he is not able to find a woman to love him he will be croaking forever!
Lovely Dr. Elaine Smith has come to the swamps to investigate deadly pollution. Craig takes her into the swamps at night for research and magic happens! A dog named Dawg, bad guys polluting the swamp, an ex-fiance and predatory females complicate this fun read. I expect to see more from Elle James!

A bad boy's rougish ways come to a crashing halt when he rejects the wrong woman, the granddaughter of a voodoo queen. Cursed now to be a man only at night and a frog by day for the next month, at the end of which he will be just a frog if he hasn't found true love, Craig Thibedeaux is aided in his quest by his uncle, Joe, and a dog who makes his amphian self a pet. True love turns out to be not exactly his usual type of girl. Rather than a vapid and easy young woman, his salvation takes the form of a brainiac scientist with zero self confidence in her appeal, even though she has a lot of it. Her passion in life is science and research, but under her own self imposed curse has never known love. Each one needs the other to set them free.

** Using classic techniques and traditional jokes associated with the Bayou, Ms. James delivers a subtle message underneath this, showing that curses often are blessings in disguise. **

Although Amazon put this book in the Time Travel genre it is not! It is a fantasy about a twist of the old fairy tale of a person turning into a frog and he looks for someone to kiss him and change him back. I read the whole book through, thinking perhaps somewhere it had something to do with time travel and it didn't. The plot was minimal at best and only the character of the man who changed into a frog was really explored. Interesting from the frog/man's point of view, but not "ribbiting" enough for a whole book.