Nerd Gone Wild [Mass Market Paperback]

Vicki Lewis Thompson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 30, 2006

Inheriting a fortune means less to Ally Jarrett than fulfilling her real dream: to take off for the wilds of Alaska and photograph animals. Unfortunately she's also inherited her grandmother's personal assistant-an over-protective nerd who couldn't survive a snowball fight.

As a PI and bodyguard, Mitchell Caruthers is the perfect man to protect his late employer's granddaughter. However, keeping his geek-masquerade-and the secret behind his real mission-isn't easy when the freeze between Ally and Mitchell begins to melt.

Yet all's not well in this sub-zero paradise. Ally's bad seed uncle is staking a claim on the family inheritance with a dangerous masquerade of his own. With Ally's life in danger, it's time for her right-hand nerd to expose the real man undercover, and prove himself to the vulnerable body he's been hired to guard...

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The last person Ally Jarrett wants to see on her first day of her new life in Porcupine, Alaska, is her recently deceased grandmother's nerdy personal assistant, Mitchell J. Carruthers. As the new heiress to the enormous Jarrett fortune, Ally isn't about to let any meddling geek stop her from realizing her dream of becoming a wildlife photographer. What she doesn't realize is that Mitchell's dorky orange pompom hat conceals his true identity as a bodyguard and PI. Hired by Ally's grandmother to protect Ally from her evil uncle Kurt, who's after her inheritance, Mitchell never thought his work would take him from warm Bel Air to freezing Porcupine, or that he would find himself falling for his charge. Mitchell worries that his average background makes him a poor match for Ally, but once she uncovers Mitch's true identity, he doesn't stand a chance. The town of Porcupine, whose citizens use sex to compensate for dark winter nights, proves a sizzling and silly setting for Ally and Mitchell's budding romance, as well as for the over-the-top antics of villainous Uncle Kurt and his highly sexed dominatrix girlfriend. Though at times far-fetched, the third romance in Thompson's Nerd series (after The Nerd Who Loved Me) is a delightfully cozy read for a cold winter night.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Ally Jarrett has been a good girl all her life, mostly to keep from worrying her grandmother. But now her grandmother's dead, and Ally has inherited a fortune, so she travels to Porcupine, Alaska, to try her hand at wildlife photography. Ally doesn't know that her grandmother's personal assistant, and executor of the estate, Mitchell Carruthers, former PI, is supposed to be her bodyguard. To keep his mission secret, Mitch has donned the geekiest of nerd clothes. But Ally soon sees through his facade and insists that she doesn't need his help. But her sleazy uncle is after Ally's fortune, and he'll stop at nothing to get it. In the third book in Thompson's hysterically funny series, following Nerd in Shining Armor (2003) and The Nerd Who Loved Me [BKL Ag 04], a riotous cast of colorful characters--including Ally's oversexed landlady, who specializes in roadkill casseroles; her uncle's dominatrix girlfriend; and the world's worst sculptor--fill the pages with hilarious situations, and hot, creative sex. Shelley Mosley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks (May 30, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312940203
• ISBN-13: 978-0312940201
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,269,884 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not to my liking...., February 19, 2005

By 

Mary Ann (Ypsilanti, Michigan USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nerd Gone Wild (Paperback)

The books story line is great, girl inherits mega bucks and doesn't care; she wants to make it on her own abilities, she meets stud muffin in nerds clothing and sparks fly while he saves her from her evil uncle and his S&M girlfriend. The problem with the book is that it is shallow and fails to achieve the much sought after sexual tension between the two main characters. Almost continuous reference to sex barely covers the fact that there is very little story being told. Dialog between characters is forced and unnatural.

I did not care for the style of the authors writing and suggest that if you are going to read this book that you check it out from a library or buy it at a re-use shop so you do not waste your money as I did.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars amusing North to Alaska nerdy tale, February 1, 2005

By 

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

This review is from: Nerd Gone Wild (Paperback)

Following the death of her beloved grandmother who raised her, Ally Jarrett decides to live her dream. She leaves the relative warmth of Southern California to become a wildlife photographer in wintry Porcupine, Alaska. Not long afterward, her grandmother's nerdy personal assistant Mitchell Carruthers arrives with the pretext he needs her to sign estate documents.

Mitch is actually a private investigator bodyguard hired by Ally's grandmother to keep her safe from her Uncle Kurt. Because she knew Ally would reject a bodyguard, grandma got Mitch to pretend to be a nerd and obtained a deathbed pledge from him that he would keep her beloved safe. As Mitch and Ally fall in love, Kurt arrives with dominatrix girlfriend Vivian pretending to be a famous wildlife photographer for they have plans for the wealth that his stepmother left totally to his niece.

The nerd series has not gone much wilder than this tale that seems to take two Los Angeles citizens and voluntarily places them amongst a rowdy crowd that must have escaped from Northern exposure. The story line is fun to follow as Mitch tries to ignore his desire and love for Ally who thinks he is pathetic until the first kiss. Vivian is an intriguing character though some readers will be turned off by the S&M bondage relationship between her and Kurt. Vicki Lewis Thompson takes nerds where they never gone before with this amusing North to Alaska tale.

Harriet Klausner

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars not enough nerd content for this nerd..., April 13, 2005

By 

James J. Lippard "skeptic" (Phoenix, AZ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nerd Gone Wild (Paperback)

This was given to me for my birthday as a gag gift, but I had to read it anyway, which I did on an international plane flight. I was expecting more "nerd" given the title, but the title character, Mitchell J. Carruthers, Jr. was really a former nerd turned bodyguard, disguised as a nerd. His nerdhood was demonstrated in the book only through references to his skills at financial management and his ability to look up information on the Internet.

I don't believe I've ever read another romance novel, but this seems like a rather stereotypical one, from what I've heard. The ultimate outcome (woman gets nerd) seems a foregone conclusion from the second or third chapter, but there's a lot of tease from there to the actual hookup.

The narrative focus alternates between Mitchell and Ally Jarrett (the female protagonist, an heiress who wants to make it as a wildlife photographer without relying on her millions), and the very simple plot involves an Uncle who wants to obtain some or all of the inheritance for himself. There are some minor characters who are townspeople in Porcupine, Alaska, where all of the action takes place (apart from a brief scene in Anchorage) to introduce some minor subplots, conflicts, and comedy. By my reading, the only one who "goes wild" is Ally in chapters 2-3, though perhaps the inevitable hookup of the two main characters also is meant to count.

This was a mildly enjoyable read, but those expecting more nerd content will be disappointed.