Mad About Max [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Lisa Plumley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 2006

In this laugh out loud romantic adventure from bestselling author Lisa Plumley, a kooky vintage clothing store owner and a designer - clad businessman cross paths...and discover that opposites really do attract! Sushi for pooches, belly dancing, men in their underwear. It's all in a day's work for Lucy Logan...and so is getting unemployed folks spruced up with designer duds at the charity shop Successfully Dressed. Anyone who knows Lucy knows her heart is always in the right place. But the guy who shows up wearing nothing but tighty-whities and a frown doesn't know Lucy - or understand why she won't just let him buy back his "lucky suit." Instead, she insists he earn it back through volunteer work. Of course, Max Nolan's killer abs and effortless charm have nothing whatsoever to do with Lucy's good intentions...From minute one, Max can't keep his eyes off the skimpy-skirted, boho-punk vision that is Lucy Logan. She's a woman of ideals, while he's a man of action - but that doesn't mean they can't collaborate on...any number of things. Beyond getting his suit back, Max figures he can make some great contacts with the shop's rich benefactors, exactly what he needs to get his pampered pets boutique off the ground. And if he gets a little - okay, a lot - closer to Lucy in the process, well, that's a sacrifice he's only too willing to make...

--This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Max Nolan has a closet full of designer suits but only one "lucky" suit, which he wears to broker deals and make career-level decisions. Then the unthinkable happens. His current lover decides that if Max's business wardrobe disappears, he'll spend more "fun" time with her, so she dumps all of his clothes into the nearest donation collection box. Max is upset, especially about losing his precious lucky suit. Purple-haired, multipierced Lucy Logan is thrilled that someone has donated so many designer suits to her charity, Successfully Dressed. When Max demands his wardrobe back, she tells him he has to "earn" it by performing five days of volunteer work. Soon the zany, laid-back female and the conventional, uptight male discover that there are many things to respect--and even love--about each other. A cool cast of secondary characters adds much to the story as clever Plumley, who is already known for her entertaining romantic comedies, presents another winner in this humorous and engaging tale about a man who literally loses his shirt, but finds his heart. Shelley Mosley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

Review

Mad About Max is a madcap adventure with a wonderful message. Don't miss this grand, feel-good story! -- Fresh Fiction

Mad About Max is another vintage Plumley, a zippy, smart, well-written and often humorous story that’s a joy to read. -- Bookloons

Mad About Max kept me laughing from beginning to end. What great characters! Very highly recommended. -- Romance Junkies

Plumley offers us entertaining secondary characters to enjoy, along with a lot of funny one-liners. -- Romance Reader at Heart -- Four Rose Read! --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 531 pages
• Publisher: Thorndike Press (December 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786291273
• ISBN-13: 978-0786291274
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,863,595 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars starts of light and fun and ends up infuriating, August 4, 2006

By 

mlle. x (California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Mad About Max (Mass Market Paperback)

I was really enjoying this book. It flows really easily, Lucy and Max were both really fun characters, I understood the attraction, the plot wasn't exactly probable but it made enough sense.

Eventually, however, Lucy stopped being a fun, smart, free-spirit and started being a misguided child.

Lucy is this real goody-two-shoes and she is always yammering about how what matters are good intentions. Her moral code is not much more complex. When Max tells her - in his first big vulnerable emotional moment - about how his parents neglected him consistently despite their "good intentions" Lucy tells him that his parents couldn't be that bad if they meant well, and insists on it despite the fact that she's hurting Max a great deal.

She is also the manager of this used clothing store, Successfully Dressed. For a while it had a really substantial area with high-ticket vintage designer clothing. Lucy thinks that having this clothing in the shop is intimidating or discriminatory against the less affluent customers, who come in looking for interview clothes. They're the real purpose of the store, who it's supposed to benefit, so she doesn't want to do anything that would make them uncomfortable.

But the store is on the verge of going out of business because it's making so little money. They sell these intervew clothes at a deep discount, and they don't have enough customers. Lucy's worried about having to close the place down. And yet, she refuses to let one of the other employees solicit these big-ticket donations, and when some come in she actually hides them in her desk drawer. So while she's wandering around weeping about people being out of a job when the store closes, she's actively preventing the place from making money. I wanted to slap her.

She also gets really, really angry at Max for running seminars on how to budget, how to do interviews, all sorts of useful things for people on the job market and coincidentally bringing in a ton of customers - because he's "trying to take over the store" - and she's so offended that she bursts into tears and runs away. Her brilliant ideas, which she feels have been crushed, include inviting an astrologer and baking brownies.

I could go on but I will stop. At some point, I was so angry at Lucy that I stopped enjoying the novel. And the end is just one long fight. I don't need to find out that the hero is a competent groveler in order to believe in the happily ever after. In fact, that pretty much guaranteed that I didn't believe in the happily ever after.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lucy runs away with Max's LUCKY suit!, December 8, 2006

By 

Babs Ferret "a reading of romance fan" (Northern CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mad About Max (Mass Market Paperback)

I thought this was a great book! I knew I was in for a fun time from the first words! Poor Max wakes to Ms Trantrum, Sarabeth, donating his clothes to the Successfully Dressed donation box in front of his great new apartment in Phoenix. Standing in his Tightie-Whities trying to get his clothes back as the truck from Successfully Dressed shows up with Lucy Logan behind the wheel. She did have a real laugh!

Lucy tried to take life as it comes with her good intentions. She had purple (lavender) hair, a tattoo and several piercings. Max is straight-lace he is a salesman and can seem to sell anything.


Complete opposites do attach in this story! I loved Lucy and Max with their madcap adventures together. All their friends and co-workers are real characters too. Two very wounded souls learning to love and finding each other. I had a great time reading it

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars lighthearted romantic romp, July 5, 2006

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mad About Max (Mass Market Paperback)

In Phoenix Max Nolan believes not to tempt luck; if a suit brings you a break that becomes your lucky suit to wear when you need good luck. However, the superstitious pet boutique owner Max angers his girlfriend of six months Sarabeth over a trip to Aruba with her vs. a pet boutique business venture with his partner Oliver Pickett. In a fit of pique she gives away his clothing including his lucky suit to Successfully Dressed Donations, a charity shop. Desperate to at least get his winning suit back, Max dressed as "Mr. Tighty-Whities" pleads with manager Lucy Logan to cut him some slack and return his suit to him; he even offers to pay. Lucy needing volunteers to work the store blackmails Max into helping out.

Max and Lucy think the other is gorgeous, but neither wants an involvement with the other sex at this time. Meanwhile Max finds he enjoys working at the store especially meeting and helping people. He makes new friends including pals of Lucy, who believe they are a perfect match and plan to see that the newcomer and the manager come tougher romantically.

The relationships between the lead couple (opposites do attract) and another between zany support characters make for a fine lighthearted romantic romp. Max and Lucy cannot resist one another though he insists to himself he is using her charity shop to gain clients from her wealthy donors. Their spats and kisses make for a fine tale that contemporary fans will enjoy (and be reminded to donate those items in the closet not being used - at least give away his that is).

Harriet Klausner