Customer Reviews

Valentine's Day Is Killing Me

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Serviceable at best Valentine's Day anthology comprised of 3 authors..two of whom have written work that I've thoroughly enjoyed in the past. Cuffs and Coffee Breaks by Mary Janice Davidson tell the tale of Julie Kaye who, against her better judgement accepts a date with a coworker. And although he's drop dead gorgeous, who would think that people would actually be dropping dead around him? But such is the case, and the rest of this ridiculous tale is spent on Julie trying to prove date Scott's innocence, while ignoring their physical attraction.
Leslie Esdaile tells the story of a group of singles who are close friends, and dreading the Valentine's holiday. Determined to prove that they can survive the day manless, Jocelyn Jefferson plans an evening of pampering to take everyone's mind off of flowers and chocolate. But when the plan falls through and a spontaneous party gets out of hand, it is a delectable piece of very masculine chocolate which casts a whole new light on the day for Jocelyn....
In Susanna Carr's tale, Shanna Murphy has it all planned out. Reservations at the best restaurant in town and a hot date. So what if the date is not with her gorgeous ex-boyfriend, Calder Smith. Shanna seems destined to have a real Valentine's Day after all...until the date cancels and the health department closes the restaurant. Things really take a turn for the worst when Shanna's boss turns up dead....and the gorgeous Calder is right there just waiting to pick up the pieces.
Not being a fan of short stories, my opinion may be somewhat jaded. If not for Carr and Esdaile, this seasonal anthology would have been beyond redemption.


DYB

Ok I have to admit that this was an impulse buy. The cover looked cute and the back cover blurbs were promising. But now? Grrr! $14 down the toilet! Where exactly is the romance in ANY of these three stories? I tell you where....its nowhere! Nada. Zippo. Zilch. Its supposed to be about Valentines Day isn't it?!?! Sexual tension? -barely enough. Love scenes? -blink and you miss them. Just alot of blah, blah dialogue that has nothing to do with romance. The characters were barely likeable (I'm being generous here!) and the plots were just ....whatever, but certainly not interesting. Who cares for smarta*s characters that are extremely rude to each other? Who wants to go out with the 'brilliant' law student who 'accidently' hosts a dope party? And who wants to marry the guy who absolutley refuses to be romantic even for the woman he supposedly loves? Not me! I want..uh..what is it called?...yeah.....ROMANCE in my romance books. Sheesh! You'd think this was rocket science! This one's going straight to the donation bin.

I expected more from this anthology. Overall I am not a fan of the Brava line but I love MJD's work so I expected more. In MJD''s story, "Cuffs and Coffee Breaks", Julie Kay About has been emailing Scott Wythe regarding the greeting cards she designs, as well as insulting his email lingo and lack of proper punctuation when he asks her out for Valentine's Day (V-Day). She has sworn off of V-Day due to numerous disasters but agrees to the blind date only to arrive at the restaurant and find a dead man. Luckily, the dead man is not her date; however, her date is the suspect. Julie bails Scott out of jail, takes him home for sex, and hides him from the cops until the matter is resolved. In Leslie Esdaile's "A 'No Drama' Valentine's", Jocelyn Jefferson and her 3 friends are sick of disasterous V-Days and decide to pamper themselves with their own party. Unfortunately for Jocelyn, her friends bail out on her and she is stuck with the non-refundable Pamper People. The ladies of the Pamper People quickly become caught up in Jocelyn's sob story and, after several drinks, invite their friends to her home to party. Unfortunately, 2 drug dealers being investigated by Detective Raymond Mayfield come to the party and Jocelyn is arrested. Raymond is attracted to Jocelyn and, well, the rest is history. The 3rd and final story, "Valentine Survivor", by Susanna Carr, revolves around Shanna Murphy who is determined to have the perfect V-Day. She even has a list. In fact, she made reservations at her dream restaurant last 2/15! But then her dream restaurant is closed down due to Hepatitis A, her date cancels, and her boss makes her work late on V-Day. Meanwhile, Shanna's ex-boyfriend, Calder Smith, is all she wants in a man- except he isn't romantic whereas Shanna is caught up in the trappings of V-Day. They come to the realization that they belong together, only to find Shanna's boss dead and Shanna the main suspect! Overall, this anthology was disappointing. Most of stories did not have sufficient pages to develop the depth of characters I would prefer to have read about. I wanted to like this one better but.....

My mom got this book for me, knowing that I am a fan of MaryJanice Davidson. I even pointed it out to her and of course there it was on the table on V-Day as a gift. Ugn...I wish she could have taken it back and saved her money.

I really wanted to like it, especially MJD's story but it fell short of being a worth while read and felt more like trash.

Julie Kay, an angst adult who is hung up over how bad her blind date's have been decides to finally cave and date her co-worker who uses the word 'lurrrrrrrrrrv'. V-day arrives and Julie, who in all honest sounds like another Betsy with less fashion sense, arrives at the restaurant only to find that her date is being ushered away by the cops on suspicions of murder! The story quickly takes a turn for the worse as Julie becomes insane, and refuses to take her date back to the cops (who she was allowed to pick up on belief they would show at 1:00 the next day) afraid he'd be arrested again. There is also a would-be half done sex scene that is not worth reading. I highly recommend any MJD fan just back away from this one and continue reading her other stuff, which is much better than this.

While my two star rating is mainly for MJD the other two stories are not that good, and I could barely get through five pages. This is one book that I plan to toss.

CUFFS AND COFFEE BREAKS by MaryJanice Davidson
Julie About is a greeting card writer. After a long series of bad blind dates set up by her sister, she's down on the holidays and no amount of pink lovey-dovey sentiment filled cards will change her mind.

Scott Wyth works with Julie. He's actually never met her but they've exchanged numerous emails and he's been the victim of more than one of her insulting emails. He's still brave enough to ask her out though.

Julie is determined not to allow her sister, Kara, to nag her into yet another disastrous blind date. When Scott's email arrives asking Julie out, Kara jumps on it. After all, if Julie's been emailing with him, he wouldn't really be a blind date, would he? And besides, it's just one date, what's the worst that could happen? Arriving at the restaurant to meet her date, Julie meets Scott for the first time. He's in handcuffs, and the waiter is dead. At least she didn't get stood up.

I absolutely love the emails in this story! Julie is so feisty and doesn't back down to anyone. It's laugh out loud funny. MaryJanice Davidson does an amazing job with these characters. They're smart, fun, and quirky.


A "NO DRAMA" VALENTINE'S by Leslie Esdaile
Jocelyn Jefferson has had it with all the romance drama that goes on every Valentine's Day. She has a fresh new idea for this year. A "pamper" party just for her girlfriends and herself.

Raymond Mayfield is a vice detective. He's not into the Valentine's Day thing either. Too much drama. All he has to do is look around the precinct to know that this holiday draws out the craziness in people.

Jocelyn is so excited about the "pamper" party she's throwing. She's gone way out of her way to make it truly special, only to have each of them call and cancel on voicemail, no less. Trying not to cry, Jocelyn tries to cancel The Pamper People's appointment, but at the last minute she's going to get stuck paying for the service so decides to have them come and pamper just her. Things get a bit wild and since one of the Pamper People had called a stripper friend, when an officer arrives at her door she assumes he's a stripper and grabs the goods. Definitely not a good idea since it lands her in handcuffs and being questioned while she's freaking out!

You can practically see the saucy head rolls and snappy attitude of Jocelyn and her girlfriends in this story. Leslie Esdaile uses slang dialect throughout the story that adds to the realism and makes the whole police station freak out scene so very funny.


VALENTINE SURVIVOR by Susanna Carr
Shanna Murphy has Valentine's Day all planned out this year. She even reserved the restaurant a year in advance. We'll just disregard that she's not actually dating anybody to make her ideal holiday special for her.

Calder Smith is Shanna's ex-boyfriend. He's never stopped loving her, just thought he'd give her some space. Discovering that she planning to spend Valentine's Day with Dominic, a serial dater, isn't going over well with him but he can't figure out how to stop her.

Shanna's ideal Valentine's Day goes from letter perfect to complete disaster a little at a time. One by one every plan she had for the holiday falls through, even her date cancels on her. As if the day isn't going bad enough, her horrible boss dies and Shanna discovers her body. Her perfect day has turned into a nightmare and Calder is the only person she can turn to for support.

Susanna Carr does an amazing job of taking the reader through the various stages of emotions that Shanna experiences. You can empathize with her and laugh through each new crisis.

If you've ever planned the perfect Valentine's Day only to have all your plans blow up in your face, then this is the book for you! Knowing that someone else's Valentine's Day is worse than mine always makes me feel much better. These stories are so comical that they're a pleasure to immerse yourself in and forget about your own troubles for a while. All three stories are very well written by very talented authors. Definitely a book you'll want to add to your keeper shelf.

Chrissy Dionne (courtesy of Romance Junkies

`Cuffs and Coffee Breaks'by MaryJanice Davidson

Julie Kay has bad luck with dates and Valentine's Day. This year has to be different, doesn't it?

`Cuffs and Coffee Breaks' is vintage MaryJanice Davidson. I really don't thinks she could write anything that didn't make me laugh. Poor Julie has hopes for her date, but things don't turn out as expected. It could be for the best because Scott Wythe is just was Cupid ordered.

`A "No Drama" Valentine's' by Leslie Esdaile

Jocelyn Jefferson and her friends are going to have a party for themselves on Valentine's Day so they don't have to worry about being disappointed by men, only to have the party broken up by the police.

`A "No Drama" Valentine's' is a cute story, but I felt the dialogue between the friends was forced. I loved the characters and the story. Ray is just want Jocelyn needs and I'm glad he was there to bust up the party giving her an unexpected chance at romance.

`Valentine Survivor' by Susanna Carr

Shanna Murphy has a plan and nothing can go wrong. This will be the perfect Valentine's Day, or will it?

`Valentine Survivor `is a story of if it can go wrong, it will. Shanna wants everything to be perfect, but she doesn't realize just what perfect is. It will take an ex to help her figure it out and let her know that every day can be romantic, not just Valentine's Day.

Valentine's Day is Killing Me is a fun and light romance that sets just the right tone for a great Valentine's Day. Based on these three stories I would pick up books by these other authors. I already love MaryJanice Davidson and just added Leslie Esdaile and Susanna Carr to my read list.

Jambrea
Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

"Cuffs and Coffee Breaks" by MaryJanice Davidson. Greeting card designer Julie goes to meet her Valentine's Day blind date at a restaurant only to find him waiting for her wearing handcuffs while a corpse lies near him. The cops arrest her date charging him with homicide. Julie debates whether to write it off as another date from hell or to prove he did not commit murder.

"A "No Drama" Valentine's" by Leslie Esdaile. Jocelyn has given up on Valentine's Day at least when it comes to men; instead this year she arranges a pamper party with her female pals, but each has to bow out. However, apparently half the world crashes her "pampering" party including Police Vice Squad Detective Raymond who with one look decides to toss everyone out so he can pamper Jocelyn.

"Valentine Survivor" by Susanna Carr. After her insensitive boyfriend Calder failed her on Valentine's Day one year ago Shanna planned for this year's holiday to be perfect. Everything is in place except she lives up to her surname Murphy as her date canceled and still stuck at the office she finds the dead body of her nasty boss. Desperate, Shanna calls her former boyfriend to help her. Calder readily agrees as he wants his Shanna back.

These three fine Valentine's Day romances contain strong males, beleaguered females and fun twists.

if given to you read it. but not up to par for most of us readaholics.