Customer Reviews

Tall Dark and Cajun

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

When her relationship with her fiancé goes up in flames, Rachel Fortier sets their furniture and exercise equipment on fire. Then she heads south in a rented red pickup truck with a vanity license plate reading "Redhot" and a bumper sticker reading "Decorators do it better". Rachel looks forward to meeting her birth grandmother Gizelle and enjoying some down time. Rachel expects Tara, she gets swamp and a Voodoo grandmother who does not approve of her new love interest.

His face disfigured during Desert Storm, pilot Remy LeDeux expects rejection, not the heated response of this Yankee woman. Remy needs to buy some of Gizelle's adjoining land so he has enough acreage to meet DEA requirements so he can do aerial surveillance for the government. Instead, all he can think about is Rachel applying Feng Shui to his houseboat in the bayou, thanks to his Tante Lulu's interference. The explosive heat building between Remy and Rachel threatens to set the bayou ablaze, but they really know very little about each other, and their erotic promise may reach an unexpected peak as they discover the magic of the bayou.

From senior citizen diva Tante Lulu to local Voodoo witch Gizelle, author Sandra Hill creates a rich cast of characters guaranteed to entertain in TALL, DARK AND CAJUN. Outrageous antics and lively hilarity keeps the pace brisk as Remy and Rachel discover the heat of the Louisiana bayou. Author Hill has a gift for combining humor and sensitivity in a rich tale that will keep the pages turning. While TALL, DARK AND CAJUN is the sequel of LOVE POTION, it works just as well as a standalone. With a rich Cajun flavor adding just the right zest, TALL, DARK AND CAJUN comes highly recommended.

The characters were great in this book! All of them totally unique and not a boring one in the bunch! It's hard to decide who was my favorite!

Remy had been in a helicopter crash while fighting for his country, was severely burned, had 17 operations and was permanently scarred. After knowing each other for less than two weeks, Remy trusted Rachel enough to tell her his accident resulted in sterility. He'd never told anyone before and it was apparent this bothered him deeply and made him feel lacking as a man. Rachel's reaction is to break up with him because he hadn't "been honest" with her. What she should have done was be happy that he was able to share this with her and reassure him that it didn't matter if he couldn't father a child. Instead she validated his fears and made it look as if her real reason for leaving him was that he couldn't give her children. While I understand her need for honesty it was unrealistic of her to expect a person to blurt out something like this when they first met.

But irregardless, I really enjoyed this book. It was a great follow-up to "Love Potion" and I'm looking forward to Charmain's story!

Feng Shui decorator, Rachel Fortier, decides to ditch her fiancé and head to the Louisiana Bayou to meet her grandmother. She was thinking Tara and found something closer to the Beverly Hillbillies. As soon as she steps out the car, she meets Remy LeDeux. Both of them feel like they've been struck by lightning.

The first 10 pages were amusing, and the rest of the book was downright laugh out loud funny. Imagine putting Grandma Mazur in the Bayou with a wad of tobacco in her mouth and you'll get the idea. The SHEWIE level was off the scale. You'll need to splash ice water on yourself between giggle fits. The novel has everything from drug runners, to big hair to keep you interested from beginning to end.

If you like Jennifer Crusie, Carly Phillips and Janet Evanovich, you should love this book.

After dumping her fiancée, Rachel Fortier leaves D.C. in a red hot truck, and heads for Louisiana, the home of the grandmother she has never met. When Rachel reaches her destination, she finds eccentric, little old ladies, a machete-welding cousin, and Cajun hunks. One hunk in particular catches her eye and she is awestruck!!

Remy LeDeux, equally awestruck by the sexy redhead, now has more on his mind than talking a crazy old lady into selling him some of her land to secure his business deal with the DEA. Remy is sexually revved up, and Mais oui, he wants Rachel bad!

Regardless of Rachel's intial reluctance, she becomes quite fond of her stay in Cajun country. As a Feng Shui decorator, she takes on a couple of jobs for LeDeux family members, one being Remy's houseboat on the bayou. During all the craze, Remy and Rachel hit it off, and the sex between them is sizzling hot. However, they each have emotional scars that threaten a lasting relationship.

Oh, wow...this book was fantastic!!! Like it says on the cover, it is spicy and fun!! Remy and Rachel's story is awesome but also characters are revisited from The Love Potion, such as Luc and Sylvie, their marriage is still going strong. Tee-John is growing into quite a sexy young man, he will one day make a yummy Cajun hero for sure. Also, Tante Lulu, what a riot that little old lady still is! Sandra Hill out did herself with TALL, DARK, AND CAJUN and happily the next LeDeux story is set up, which is sure to become as eagerly anticipated by readers as Remy's story was. Don't miss this book! L'aissez les bon temps roulez...let the good times roll.

The long anticipated sequel to "Love Potion" is everything I'd hoped it would be and more. Plenty of humor Sandra Hill stlye and tons of romance and all that cajun sex appeal mixed into one firecracker of a book.
We get to catch up once again with the funniest family in Loo-zee-ana, whoo-ee! The infamous Le Deuxs of the swamp.
Tante Lulu; the aunt who loves to change her hair color every day it seems and doesn't care if she's 80 or not.
Charmaine; the sister who has Texas hair even though she's in cajun country and goes through men faster than you can say Mason Dixon.
Little Tee-John and Rene who don't know the Civil War is over.
Luc and Sylvie from 'Love Potion'; they prove the more kids, the merrier.
Last but not at all least, the hero of this tale, Remy Le Deux. Bachelor extordrinaire and hottest cajun man in the swamps! Oh yeah, also former Air Force pilot and flew in Desert Storm...looks great in uniform and has a secret...hmmmm....
What could make this even better?
Well, mix in a woman who practices Feng Shui, or as Tante Lulu says, 'fungus-way', from D.C who goes down to meet her grandmother for the first time, also the rival neighbor of the Le Deuxs and ex-taxidermist Gizelle Fortier, oh and her cousin Beau who thinks mullets are what all the hot guys are sportin' this far south and you have what decorator Rachel Fortier thinks is one screwy bunch of people.
Fresh from a break-up with her doctor fiance who thught her butt and abs needed toning, Rachel embarks on a trip down south to meet her family for the first time. What she finds is her grandmother holding a shotgun yelling at two strangely handsome guys dressed up like a cowboys in the overgrown yard and the 'mansion' she envisioned in her mind's eye as the Gone With the Wind Tara is a cabin on stilts!
Things only seem to get weirder when she finds herself attracted to one of the 'cowboy rivals' named Remy who also seems deeply attracted to her.
Trouble brews when these two find out that the families aren't too happy about this and to avoid another civil war they try to cool their heels and get in even deeper.
Can the mini-skirted great-aunt bring these two together at last? Or will grandma Gizelle shoot Remy before he can cross the porch?
A bundle of laughs and some truly touching moments that only Ms. Hill can deliver. As funny as the prequel 'Love Potion' and just as sexy. Ms. Hill lives up to her nickname once again as the Queen of Romantic Comedy!

Sit back, enjoy this romp through the bayou once again to Bayou Black and the crazy Le Deuxs and meet the equally funny Fortiers. Trust me, you wont be sorry.
And as Remmy would say...Laissez les bon temps rouler. Let the good times roll! ...

Sandra Hill continually trods where no tepid writer dares and gives some wonderfully original books. I loved many of her Time-Travelling Vikings who refused to stay put in their own time, and her last - Very Virile Viking was one gem! It's hard to do humour and get consistent good reviews, because what strikes our funnybones is free-ranging and vastly different from person to person. Having been raised on both sides of the Pond, I see Yanks not get Brit humour and Brits sniff at what passes for American jokes.

I was raised in Scotland and Britain and I delight in the humour and their quirkiness. Same for the places I have lived in the US, mostly Kentucky - truly full of characters. But I have a great aunt down near the Big Easy, so New Orleans and the area holds a soft spot in my heart as well. Another place that truly appreciate humour and the offbeat. Believe me, I have a younger brother who thinks he is a Party-on-down-Cher, Cajun!

So, I was really looking forward to Hill's Tall, Dark and Cajun. And I must say, I hurt from laughing after reading this wonderful, charming and witty book!

Thoroughly Yankee Rachel Fortier wants romance in her life - and her jerks fiancé thinks keeping her buns and abs in perfect tone is romantic. The snooty decorator decides a change of pace is needed - and a change in men, and envisions dropping in on her gran's cabin in the bayou is a picturesque destination. Only her bottled water ways is about to come a cropper as she lands on grannie's bit of swampland. The log-cabin on stilts - al la Clampete decor - and is hardly what she had in mind. Neither were some of the other complications. There is a whole mess of cajun characters angling for the old ladies land, including the sexy, bedroom eyed, Remy LeDeux. Rachel's rapidly comes to the conclusion her stay is going to be a passel of trouble and rightly so, as Remy is about as spicy and hot as Cajun hot-sauce! what woman could resist that them Alpha-Male pheromones?

However, his mini-skirted great-aunt, is ready to marry him off, and beadily eyes Rachel as the perfect candidate, only in the love-never-runs-smooth catch, Rachel's shotgun totting Gran is ready to shoot Remy the instant he put foot on her front porch. Toss in an Alligator named Useless (must be a cousin to Crockett's Elvis!!) and you have all the fun mix to rival cajun gumbo!

Party on down, Cheri! It's one steamy hot time!! Way to go Ms. Hill. Don't wait too long to you take us back to bayou land!!

It's not often that I give a contemporary, humorous novel a five star rating. Often, they seem to be truly paper cutouts - all the same with different names. But this is Sandra Hill and she can write humor with such a unique flair and keep her leads real and charming AND interesting. I really have enjoyed her hilarious yet touching Viking books

Remy LeDeux, the hero, was badly injured in a helicopter crash during the Gulf War where he served as a pilot. That crash led to more than a dozen surgeries and lifetime physical scars. He now lives in a Louisiana bayou and owns a helicopter surveying business. He is surrounded by a very colorful family but prefers to keep mostly to himself. Remy is self conscious of his scars and knows that they can startle people when they first see him. Wanting to expand his business, he visits his neighbor, a crazy old woman who hates all LeDeux men, and proposes to buy additional acreage from her. She vehemently denies his request but Remy keeps asking. One day, visiting her at the point of shotgun, a beautiful woman drives up and addresses this crazy woman as her grandmother. Remy is surprised at his immediate strong attraction to this new arrival to the bayou and a little embarrassed for her to see him is such a situation. But he does wonder how this irrational, old woman could have any normal relatives and tries to dismiss the entire incident from his mind.

Rachel Fortier is meeting her grandmother for the first time since locating her and has come to stay for a while. She needs a break from her life in the Washington DC area where she has just broken up with her long time, live in boyfriend and works as an interior designer of a different sort. When she sees her grandmother, for the first time, holding a shotgun on an extremely handsome man, she is more than a little dazed. So this is her grandmother - umm - okay. And who is that gorgeous mans who lures her so? Oh, well, the last thing she needs in her life at this moment is another man.

Of course, Remy and Rachel meet again and are soon in agreement about the strong pull of attraction both of them feel for the other. Remy can hardly believe that Rachel can find him so good-looking and Rachel cannot understand his total acceptance of her beautiful body. After all, her last boyfriend was obsessed with it and constantly trying to improve it through exercise and diet. But regardless of scars, failed relationships, and many other vulnerabilities, the two sense their relationship is "for keeps" and forge ahead. As the reader, you suddenly sense that things are going too smoothly too early in the book and begin to look for the event that will separate them.

Before, during, and after that required romance trouble spot, you will find yourself laughing again and again. This is a highly enjoyable book but it does take a serious turn and some rather sad pages follow. Both of the leads are very pleasant characters and there are pages and pages of delicious dialogue and interaction between them. Sandra Hill is up to usual form with the sensual scenes and they rate a solid 4.0 out of 5.0 (see More About Me for rating guidelines).

Tall, Dark, and Cajun is not a perfect book but it is pure fun and hard to put down. Some of the situations seem too contrived for believability and some of the secondary characters are a little too eccentric. It is the sequel to Love Potion and the hero from Love Potion appears quite a bit in this story. I think you will find Tall, Dark, and Cajun a notch above even the most popular light contemporary romances.

Feng Shui decorator, Rachel Fortier, decides to ditch her fiancé and head to the Louisiana Bayou to meet her grandmother. She was thinking Tara and found something closer to the Beverly Hillbillies. As soon as she steps out the car, she meets Remy LeDeux. Both of them feel like they've been struck by lightning.

The first 10 pages were amusing, and the rest of the book was downright laugh out loud funny. Imagine putting Grandma Mazur in the Bayou with a wad of tobacco in her mouth and you'll get the idea. The SHEWIE level was off the scale. You'll need to splash ice water on yourself between giggle fits. The novel has everything from drug runners to big hair to keep you interested from beginning to end.

If you like Crusie, Phillips and Evanovich, you should love this book. It is rather like cloning those three with Jessica Speart.

Feng Sui expert Rachel Fortier has reached her breaking point. After years of submitting to diets and various exercise regimens decreed by her plastic surgeon fiancé, Rachel snaps when David announces he's had a vasectomy without even discussing it with her. After making a bonfire of her Butt Buster and his collection of vitamins and Rogaine, Rachel decides to follow up on a recent letter she's received from her Cajun relatives. Hitting the road in a bright red classic pickup truck, Rachel heads for Bayou Black in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana. Picturing a gracious, elderly grandmother in a Plantation house setting, Rachel arrives to find a log cabin on stilts surrounded by racks of various freshly skinned animals. Oh dear. As for that kindly grandmother of her imagination? The witchy looking Gizelle Fortier is holding a gun on two very fine looking men and one of them is looking at Rachel like she was dessert. Oh my.

Thanks to his father's tomcatting ways, there is no love lost between the LeDeuxs and Fortiers. Unfortunately, if he is going to make a go of his new helicopter business, Remy LeDeux needs old Gizelle to sell him some of her land. When he and his brother Luc arrive to talk business, however, the old woman meets them with rifle in hand. Just as things get dicey, a red pickup truck arrives and out comes a vision that leaves Remy thunderstruck and his Tante Lulu whispering thanks to St. Jude. But can this sizzling attraction survive this bayou family feud and other secrets yet to be revealed?

A sequel to the very popular THE LOVE POTION (Luc's story), TALL, DARK, AND CAJUN is a rootin', tootin' blast. The story is rife with humor and Southern charm (not to mention idiosyncrasies that are mind boggling to this Yankee reviewer), but there are also moments of poignant intimacy to be found. The characters are loud and larger than life from tiny Tante Lulu with her ever changing wardrobe (the description of the Madonna t-shirt complete with cone breastcups is engraved in my memory) and hair color to Rachel's cousin Beau with his mullet cut and wrestling aspirations. Ironically, my one problem with this book is the behavior of its hero and heroine at a critical juncture in the story. Their behavior rang false especially Rachel's. However, things work out well in the end and that slight misstep takes nothing away from the sheer fun to be had with these Ragin' Cajuns.

Part comedic farce, part regional guidebook, TALL, DARK, AND CAJUN is all about love at first sight, lust at first kiss and happily ever afters...Cajun style, of course. Laissez les bon temps rouler!

TheSchemer

This was a great escape read. I thoroughly enjoyed it and can't wait to get my hands on the other books from Sandra Hill!! I will be reading ALL the others. I love her cheeky writing style--it's just what I enjoy!!! Read this book!!!