The Thing About Men [Mass Market Paperback]

Elizabeth Bevarly (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 30, 2003

Three things about men:

They think dinner comes in a box . . .

Claire Willoughby, nationally famous lifestyle diva, knows what it takes to cook luscious meals from scratch, stencil a wall border from a grocery bag, and create beautiful holiday ornaments from common household items. But then her Number One Fan leaves her custody of a small, rambunctious toddler, and suddenly the style goes right out of her life.

They never ask for directions . . .

And it gets worse. Enter, on a Harley, wearing ragged jeans, a diamond stud earring and a black eye, hell-raiser Ramsey Sage . . . the child's uncle. And though Ramsey claims he wants custody of the little tyke, Claire is plenty certain he doesn't know his way around a nursery. . . .

They never admit they're wrong.

But she quickly learns he sure knows his way around a woman -- those tempting kisses and scorching gazes turn up the heat hotter than Claire's test kitchen on a summer's day. He seems all wrong for her, but he feels so right. How can it be that Ramsey, despite all his faults, might just be perfect for her?

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

FAKE: ont face=arial>Elizabeth Bevarly is an award-winning romance author with over a dozen books to her credit. Her novels have been translated into fourteen languages, and there are over three million copies of her books in print worldwide. Elizabeth lives with her husband and young son in Louisville, Kentucky.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Avon (December 30, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060509465
• ISBN-13: 978-0060509460
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,399,234 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Elizabeth Bevarly is the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of more than sixty works of contemporary romance. Her books have been published in two dozen languages and three dozen countries, totaling more than ten million copies in print worldwide. Although she can't remember wanting to be anything other than a writer, her career side trips before publication included stints as a salesclerk, waitress, bartender and editorial assistant. She has called home places as diverse as New Jersey and Puerto Rico, but now lives in her native Kentucky with her husband and son.

She is delighted to be offering some of her out-of-print works on Kindle and is looking forward to the publication of her first women's fiction title in trade paperback. THE HOUSE ON BUTTERFLY WAY will be published by Berkley Trade in February 2012. Visit her website at www.elizabethbevarly.com or, even better, "like" her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ElizabethBevarlyReaderPage.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Where's an editor when you need one?....., June 23, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Thing About Men (Mass Market Paperback)

Reviews of this book promised a light, humorous romance in the genre of Susan Elizabeth Phillips or Susan Anderson. Instead it is overwritten, with far too much exposition. I found myself desperate for a few lines of dialog, even when it was badly written and failed to advance the story. On the plus side, Bevarly is fairly adept with character creation; I liked Ramsey Sage. Claire, on the other hand, had little going for her, in my opinion. Basically, she's a phony. Front woman for a Martha Stewart-like TV show and magazine--the concept of her friend, Olive-- Claire seems to have no real skills and not much personality. I liked Olive a bit better but her situation was overblown; it was a little hard to believe anyone would seriously still be searching for this woman after 25 years. Her romance with the social worker had promise, I thought--as did he, whose story is touched on but never really developed--but it went nowhere. We are just told, at the end, what happened to them. Also, the baby who brought the couples together in the first place is largely overlooked except for being described as destructive beyond belief. I had to wonder how much experience the author actually has with children, since she insisted that a 13-month-old child could do all the damage the author assigns to her.

Bevarly has some skill as a writer but her over developed narrative and exposition bogs the story WAAAYYYYY down. About 100 pages in, I lost patience and skipped my way to the end.

Romance authors who manage to build a fanbase sell millions of books; why is it they suffer so from bad or absent editing? Publishers apparently believe the romance-novel audience either doesn't recognize bad writing or doesn't care about it. Wrong. We recognize it and we care about it. With a good editor, this book by Bevarly could have been much better--in this reader/writer's opinion.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Parody, January 10, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Thing About Men (Mass Market Paperback)

I love Elizabeth Bevarly's books and have given them great reviews in the past, but this one seems to be a parody of her style.

The story is lots of fun. The hero is wonderful. The problem is that she uses her style of interrupting introspection with cute little asides--well, you know what I mean. She does this far too often. Should have used a FIND and cut out at least half of them. All her novels are beginning to sound the same and that gets old after a while--and in this one, just too much.

One other problem is that three of her characters have a great deal of unpleasant baggage which Ms. Bevarly handles very well. Unfortunatley, she has to give the secondary male baggage, too. His problem is dropped into the end of the story and completely unneccessary. It would have been nice to have one normal person here.

If you haven't read Elizabeth Bevarly before, you'll enjoy this novel. It's just when you've read her most recent ones that you notice she's not fresh anymore.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A bit long in the narrative, but overall a good read, June 27, 2005

By 

Tracy Vest (Northern California) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Thing About Men (Mass Market Paperback)

Claire Willoughby is a lifestyle guru in the same vein as Martha Stewart. Except this guru is nothing more than a figurehead - in reality, she does not know how to cook and those great crafts are produced by her staff.

After her #1 fan is killed in a car accident, Claire discovers that she has "inherited" the woman's child. She knows less about children than she does about crafts, but she takes the kid in until the long-absent can be found.

Enter Ramsey Sage, 100% pure all-American beefcake. From the barb wire tattoo, tight jeans, Harley, and ripped t-shirts, he is not what Claire expected as the prospective guardian to this child. She is completely attracted to him, but decides to keep custody until Ramsey can prove that he is not a deadbeat. Ramsey tells her that he will do anything to get baby Annabel, even if it means getting closer to uptight Claire. But will he go as far as to divulge her secret? Turns out Ramsey has plenty of secrets of his own.

The story is cute, and has a little too much narrative. Although, the narrative and introspection can be downright hilarious at times, it can also be tedious and bog down the story. But it captured my attention and I loved the way that the characters in the end got exactly what they deserved. It is a really funny and quick read.