Customer Reviews

How to Knit a Wild Bikini

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Nikki is a chef whose days in the restaurant business are numbered---her bum knee makes it impossible for her to endure the grueling hours on her feet any longer. She lands an opportunity with Jay Buchanan, wealthy playboy. The problem is, he's sworn off women and wants a lesbian personal chef to make sure he won't be tempted to stray from that resolution. Nikki is about to lose her one and only job nibble when, in order to make the neighbor think that he has a new girlfriend, Jay kisses her. She uses the opportunity to introduce herself as his chef and, once the neighbor's gone, to pretend to be the lesbian he was hoping to hire.


I gather there will be follow-on books in the 'Malibu & Ewe' series (that's the name of a central yarn shop), and some of the relationships in this book were used as set-up for later books rather than pay-off in this one. Unfortunately this resulted in some relationships feeling hurried and shallow; there was too much to fit into this one volume.

That said, Christie Ridgway has a knack for uproarious (often scandalous) dialogue and pours plenty of it into How to Knit a Wild Bikini. As Nikki pretends to be a lesbian and Jay pretends to believe her, they have some of the best and most fun lines in the book.

While the side plots did a good job of working certain parallels and complicating the main plot, there were too many side plots and a few too many convenient coincidences. It gave things a rushed and orchestrated feel. Ordinarily that would have bothered me more, but the hilarious dialogue, fun chemistry between the main characters, and so on made up for it. I heartily enjoyed the story, and couldn't put it down once I started!

This was cute enough. I admit that I picked this up on a Friday night at Target mostly because of the title. I'm a knitter. I like a good romance novel. What's not to like?

It was a cute enough book - oh, I said that already. I think she tried to do too much with one story. The chef gimmick AND the knitting gimmick AND the playboy bachelor AND the faux-lesbian thing AND the mysterious injury AND the emotionally absusive parent AND the rape at a young age AND... you get the picture. Take two, maybe three of these circumstances and flesh them out and you'd have a richer story. But all of them together just became a mishmash of unrealized potential.

And a book with a title like this I kind of expected to have a story centered around, well, knitting. But the shop that the main character "escapes to" (as said on the back of the book), I think she goes to two, maybe three times? But it's not really fleshed out, just more like "then she learned to knit. Other people were there and they were knitting too." As a knitter, I would have loved to see the character get hooked on knitting. As it was written here, she learned to knit mostly because the shop owner told her to, and then she just kind of kept doing it, like it was homework or something. But I think that was the fault of Too Many Plot Elements, like I said above.

All this said, the characters I found the most intriguing were Shanna and Jorge. They needed their own book as they renovated that old house together...

I had purchased How to Knit a Wild Bikini before I read the reviews. What I saw multiple times was a mean description of the hero. Since I had already paid for the book I decided what the hell I'll read it anyway. Let's just say I did not expect much. The hero far exceded my low expectations.

Jay Buchanon starts out as one of those rich jerks who we all know exists. He promises the male readers of the successful magazine he owns that he will stay away from women until he finds 'The One'. Nikki Carmichael is a personal chef with a lot of emotional baggage. This witch - an endearment, there is no bipitty bopitty boo in this story - with one blue eye and one green eye will do anything to continue being Jay's stay-at-home chef. Including convince him that she is a lesbian and others that she is his girlfriend.

The side plots are interesting but are better because they are terse (even possibly suck). This book was able to bring me back to reality a bit. The following is what it opened my eyes to - even if temporarily:
-Sometimes two people being so blissfully wrapped up in each other means they neglect their friends and family.
-Even jerks fall in love. Yes, Jay was sometimes crude and sex-obsessed but most guys are.
-We can't always blame negative personality traits on genetics. Yea your dad may have been distant but you can be a loner because it has suited you well in the past.
-More than grandparents become young through their relationships. Nikki is 28 to Jay's 32 and yet it was terribly entertaining to see them act like teenagers. Well, they did have often raunchy sex uncommon in high school but there was that puppy-like love.

So those are the things I liked. What I did not like was:
- Jay seemed to lose some of his charming cockiness. At the end he even seemed a bit mushy.
- I felt like I had accidentally skipped a huge chunck of all three sideplots. None of them were majorly important but if there had been more meat (figuratively) to the stories, it may have reached that unspoken requirement of most romance novels to be 350 + pages. Though maybe that feeling of being left behind was intentional. It was what really hit home the idea of friends and families being neglected.

I probably lost a lot of readers by now but if your still reading then I want to say this was a good book. I liked it and it wasn't as cliche as I was dreading.

This was my first time reading this particular author and I would have to say that although she deserves an honorable mention as a good author that could wind up hooking me for the long haul, she has a ways to go before reaching her full potential. Her breezy, snappy & bold style of writing echoes that of Rachel Gibson who is one of my favorite comedic romance authors of all time. I was entertained by the character of Jay (or Hef Junior as he's known to his friends and former lovers.) I enjoyed the chemistry of Jay and Nikki. I LOL at much of the banter. I felt some of the steam rising from the pages detailing their romantic interludes. I even liked the secondary character of Shanna. The *choke...gasp* Paris Hilton/Tori Spelling of her time. I did find the overall storyline however, to be too "busy", with too many ingredients left unstirred which took away from the overall recipe for success. I'm intrigued enough to pick up the other titles in the Malibu and Ewe series. Intrigued enough to keep faith in this author. She got to first base with this book, but it will take some time and practice to hit a home run that some authors are famous for.

I almost did not read this book because of all the reviews - but it was funny and had some interesting twists and turns. The comments about the knitting not being in the story - it was a meeting place for most of the characters. This story was about Nikki who had a bum knee and needed a personaly chef job - she landed one with Hef Jr aka Jay editor of men's magazine. Jay gets Nikki to pretend to be his girlfriend and she pretends to be gay. The cast of characters will continue - check out her next book Unravel Me due out Nov 4, 2008.

It's an ok light read - the first book in a trilogy. I didn't care for the h/h and felt no zing between them. The author had to many things going that it was distracting - especially concerning Fern. The only characters I want to see/have seen more of were Gabe and Cassandra who will have their own story in the third book.

Nikki quits her job as a chef because [an old knee injury]she's unable to stand for long period of time so she opts for being a personal chef Enter our hero [who I'll refer to as Hef jr] who is in need of a personal chef for 5 weeks unfortunate for Nikki when she arrives the next day for an interview he just swore off women. Needless to say she gets the job only by posing as a lesbian.

Hef Jr. is a shallow and self absorb as can be, to the point he isn't aware of what is happening to his niece.

I'd recommend buying this book used if you want to read it. I'll pass on the next installment but will p/u Gabes & Cass's story.

This was one of the funniest books I've read in ages. Just buy it. It's a laugh a minute and I can't wait to read it. Again. And yup, I'll buy further books from her with no worries. It's a relief to read just for the pleasure of it, and Christie Ridgeway makes that part easy.
Oh and don't be drinking anything while reading her books...snorting milk out your nose is very unattractive.
=)

Nikki Carmichael is lonely but not truly realizing it. Not knowing what exactly she is looking for, she knows it is time for a life change. Her knee can no longer handle her being a chef in a restaurant. The offer of a personal chef position with her friend's former boss is a nice way to keep herself going until she can find a more permanent position or decide where she is going in her life.

Jay Buchanan lives his life as a young Hugh Hefner. He owns a men's magazine and writes articles on women. He has taken a year off women. A year that is tested the moment he meets his new personal chef.

How to Knit a Wild Bikini is a darling and perky novel of rebirth and finding oneself when you do not realize you are lost. I enjoyed the background characters who were all well-developed and I hope to see more of them in the future. How to Knit a Wild Bikini is a cup of tea to sit down and enjoy on a Saturday afternoon or after a rough day of work. A lovely escape.

Emma
Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

I absolutely loved this story! I just finished it last night and I'm now downloading the second in the series (Unravel Me) onto my Kindle so I can keep going with these great characters. Ms. Ridgway creates excellent characters with unique voices and blends the secondary plotlines in perfectly. I'm always thrilled to discover a new author, especially one that has a backlist!

I enjoyed this book. While it is not the best book I've read by Christie Ridgeway, I enjoyed it.

I liked Nikki though I wish she had become more accessible earlier in the book and thought she had fabulous chemistry with Jay.

I also liked Shanna and Jorge but wished more time was spent on Shanna finding herself.

I especially liked Cassandra and Gabe and hope they get their own book. Their relationship can't be done justice as a secondary romance in Unravel Me.

I did not like that Nikki had such emotional scars from sexual abuse though I did like that she dealt with those fears in helping Fern.

Overall, this was a good read and I am looking forward to Unravel Me in November.