Shut Up and Kiss Me [Mass Market Paperback]

Christie Craig (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2010

When PR expert Shala Winters gets hired to increase the tourist trade in a Texas town mostly populated by Native Americans, her schemes stir up a storm of trouble—with both the town’s commanding lawman and someone after Shala’s life!

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Craig (Divorced, Desperate and Deceived) turns her latest smalltown romance into a delightful comedy of errors. Hired by the mayor of Precious, Tex., to do a PR shoot that will draw visitors to the tiny town, photojournalist Shala Winters dodges burglars, would-be assassins, and vandals while tangling with sexy police chief Sky Gomez, who doesn't want her taking pictures of Native American rituals and turning Precious into a tourist trap. Sky doesn't believe in soul mates, though his foster father has prophetic dreams of Sky and Shala together. Shala, orphaned and divorced, is wary of men and furiously defensive of her independence. Many of Precious's standoffish, quirky, nosy residents are of Native American descent, but the culture feels like an afterthought; Craig stays focused on playfulness and sexual tension, and hits all the high notes en route to happily ever after. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

When Mayor Johnson and the tribal council of the small town of Precious, Texas, calls on photojournalist Shala Winters to produce some positive publicity to increase their tourism, she packs up her $8,000 camera and heads straight there. Unfortunately, when she attends a Native American ceremony, her camera is confiscated by Sky Gomez, the most handsome of the dancers. Shala has to retrieve her camera, her livelihood depends on it, but Sky, who's also the sheriff, isn't the only one keeping it from her. It seems that Shala has taken a photograph of something she shouldn't have, and someone's willing to kill her to keep the picture from seeing the light of day. To top everything off, not everyone in Precious is onboard with the plan to increase tourism, and they're making sure Shala knows where they stand. Entertaining Craig shows that both love and danger can pop up when you least expect them, and her breezy style and spunky heroine won't fail to delight readers. --Shelley Mosley

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Lovespell (June 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0505527995
• ISBN-13: 978-0505527998
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #341,070 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Christie Craig is an award-winning, multi-published writer whose non-fiction and photography have appeared in almost three thousand national magazines. A Golden Heart finalist, and a finalist in more than fifty RWA-sponsored contests, she has gained a well-deserved reputation for writing romance fiction that has both witty humor and a suspenseful, sexy tone. Published by Silhouette in the 90s, she recently broke back into fiction in a big way, making four book sales in one day. Her first single title romance novel, DIVORCED, DESPERATE & DELICIOUS published by Dorchester, will hit the stands in December 07. Her second novel, Weddings Can be Murder, comes out in June 08. Her latest non-fiction book, co-authored with Faye Hughes, is to be released September 08, is The Everything Guide To Writing a Romance Novel through Adams Media

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sky's The Limit, June 3, 2010

By 

J. Legacy (Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shut Up and Kiss Me (Mass Market Paperback)

Shut Up and Kiss Me centers on the small town of Precious Texas - but for many of the characters in this largely Native American/Hispanic town - it was anything but "precious". This book started out hilarious and within the first 6 pages had me grinning from ear to ear like a mad fool at some of the antics the characters had to endure especially poor Jose, who was one of many memorable secondary characters. He seemed to be on the receiving end of the funny (or not) torture dished out by the author upon her poor unsuspecting characters. Rushing home to Precious after his father Redfoot sustains a nasty head injury, poor Jose had a car crash, fire ants making a picnic out of his family jewels and then being sprayed by a skunk and that wasn't even half of what he had to endure on his first night back in his not so precious home town (his character must have seriously pissed Craig off while she was writing this book LOL!). Hopefully Jose merits his own story in a future installment about the citizens of Precious because I can't wait to see what additional torture Craig cooks up for him.

Shala Winters just wanted to do the job she was hired to do by the Mayor of Precious; take pictures that showcase the town and prepare a marketing campaign to turn this little town into a Texas tourist attraction. She hasn't been in town a day when her very expensive Nikon camera gets confiscated at the local Indian Pow-Wow by a headdress-wearing, loincloth sporting, hard-bodied, oiled-up bare-chested Adonis who makes her girl parts tingle. So Shala may have broken the strict "NO Picture" policy by not handing over her camera (heeelllo? it's worth $8,000) before attending the ceremony, but she didn't take the flash picture she's been accused of taking. And she certainly can't do her job if the pig-headed, hotter-than-a-firecracker thief won't give her back her camera for a week.

Sky Gomez *sigh*. Yes you may be surprised to learn that Sky is the name of the MALE lead character in Shut up and Kiss Me. Even though it's an unusual name for a man, it actually fits him and don't let his name fool you or deter you from picking up this book to read because he's all man. Sky doesn't believe all the mumbo-jumbo soul-mate crap his foster father Redfoot saw in a dream and has been spewing lately (mmmm wonder who that soul-mate might be?), but when he spies the blond in the crowd at the Pow-Wow, her camera in hand and then an incriminating flash, he senses that trouble is just beginning with the newest addition in Precious. And taking her camera hostage (even if he does believe she may not have been the culprit snapping a photo), he can't help getting a rise out of Shala because teasing her is just too damn much fun.

Who knew one little camera and it's potentially incriminating contents could cause so much havoc in this Precious town. A chain reaction of events puts Shala's life in danger and working together, Sky and Shala attempt to uncover why someone is so hot-to-trot to get their hands on Shala's camera bad enough that they are willing to kill for it.

Sky and Shala had such a fun, sexy relationship and sizzle-worthy hot romance. These two are by far the stars of the show, but the supporting characters are really well developed and contribute greatly to the overall story. You can't help but be captivated by Redfoot, Jose and Maria as well as the secretive best friend Lucas (who I hope gets his own story too!).

Shut up and Kiss Me is the perfect blend of a highly entertaining, funny yet suspenseful romance and if this book isn't on your TBR pile than you are missing out. Shut Up...and go buy this book!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Fun Romp With a Bit of a Bite, June 23, 2010

By 

Tracy "One Good Book Deserves Another" (Fort Myers, Florida, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Shut Up and Kiss Me (Kindle Edition)

Shala Winters was hired by the mayor of the small town of Precious, Texas to create and launch a PR campaign to draw some tourism to his struggling town, but there's no way she would've guessed that there was so little precious about Precious. Within the first twenty-four hours of being within the town's limits, Shala has had her lunch stolen and her leg amorously assaulted by a stray dog, her expensive camera stolen right out of her hands, been followed by a strange vehicle, had a whole town stonewall her, been accused of breaking the rules of a Native American ceremony, forced to dance disco in a disreputable establishment with a lecherous bar owner, pushed into a contentious disagreement with the sheriff of the town...who was the one who stole her camera and refused to give it back to her, almost assaulted by a man carrying a gun, cut her hand badly enough to need stitches, and was forced to go to a hospital, a place that had given her panic attacks since having watched her parents die in one when she was eight years old.

Shala is not having a good day.

Neither is the sheriff of the town, Sky Gomez. Everyone in town knows that his foster father had a spirit dream that pegged Shala as his soul mate even before she reached town, so Sky did what any dedicated bachelor who doesn't believe in love (let alone soul mates) would do (no matter how sexy Shala is). He avoided her like the plague. Sure, he followed her around town...no, not stalking...to keep an eye on her...that's really not stalking...because half the town was quite vocal about not wanting her there...so that definitely means it's not stalking! Then she gets eyeball to groin with him during a powwow and seems pretty enthusiastic about it with that camera of hers. That's against all sorts of his rules. So he confiscated it. Then the entire town starts calling his house to let him know that Blue Eyes is looking for both him and her camera before the spitfire herself shows up on his porch in all her gorgeous...if blathering...glory. Then his foster father is attacked during a break in at the lodge and his own house is almost broken into while he's at the hospital with him. And for some reason, Blue Eyes' camera seems to be the motivation behind all of it. Whatever Shala took a picture of has targeted her for danger and the assaults and danger keep coming. Sky's determined to keep the sexy woman safe and Shala just wants to leave. That's unacceptable to Sky and not just because he's the one who wanted her there to save the town.

With a fast and funny plot that provides a seemingly endless sequence of increasingly threatening events that include some not so funny situations, like a good friend being shot and almost killed and a man murdered, Shut Up and Kiss Me rockets out of the gate and doesn't slow down until the last page turns. The searing heat of a Texas summer pales in comparison to the fiery chemistry that sparks between the prickly and strong willed Shala and the protective and steady Sky. This particular unstoppable force and immovable object relationship provides a surprisingly wide variety of meaty exchanges that are at times sweet and other times sexy as hell as they start to fall for one another.

Around them, relationships of all sorts are also put to the test as the miles between an estranged father and son need to be breached and hearts have to be won for more than one couple. I have to admit, there's a lot that goes on in Shut Up and Kiss Me, and I really enjoyed all of it. I loved Sky and Shala and their relationship as it developed, but I wasn't as happy with the plot threads of his foster father's romance problems or those of Sky's foster sister. I didn't mind them for what they were, exactly, and they certainly added depth to the story as it was happening...not to mention I don't think I've ever read a character be as helplessly beat up as Jose was throughout this book, poor guy...but the resolution of all of those other issues felt, to me, to be a distraction to the conclusion of the suspenseful part of this story and a detriment to the romantic conclusion between Sky and Shala.

Still, the narrative is a fast, flowing, and surprisingly complex piece of work and the plot was built and developed with a lot of meat on its bones, not to mention a lot of really funny moments that made me laugh out loud (sorry, Jose, but mostly at your expense), and the relationship between Sky and Shala was sweet, at times endearingly bumbling, and sexy. I was surprised, actually, that the conclusion to the suspense was as dark as it was, given the tone of the rest of the book, and while I don't think it blended so well, it didn't detract from this charming and fun read.

Shut Up and Kiss Me was my first experience with Christie Craig's books but I can guarantee it won't be my last. This was a solid (if lighter than some) romantic suspense read that had many more comedic moments than I was anticipating. Very nice.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining but..., November 17, 2010

By 

J. Bourne "Mountain High Reader" (Scottsdale, AZ United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shut Up and Kiss Me (Mass Market Paperback)

It was entertaining but definitely not in the same category as Evanovich. It had its humorous parts but mostly I felt that some of the characters were one dimensional. I didn't get a lot of the "whys" characters felt the way they did. Okay, she told us but it wasn't discussed amongst the hero and heroine and you never really felt it. I would read another but probably from the library.