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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A delightful pair of stories from a talented duo, July 30, 2000
Light on conflict but filled with appealing, believeable characters and loads of chuckles, both TRYST OF FATE by Isabel Sharpe, and the second in Carrie Alexander's "The Cowgirl Club" series, COUNTERFEIT COWBOY, are guaranteed to chase away the blahs.Rosemary Jenkins, the winsome, starry-eyed heroine in TRYST OF FATE, has determined it's time to fulfill Her Destiny. . .which she at first believes is manifest in an old high school jock she had a crush on oh-so-many years ago, and who has now returned to the tiny Maine town where Rosemary grew up. So, in a cloud of rose-colored fervor, she hotfoots it back to Lazy Pines. . .only to discover that, in fact, her REAL Destiny lies with her old buddy Jordan Phillips, who's harbored fantasies about Rosemary for the same number of years. Except, newly published author Jordan has just arrived at the profound -- and extremely inconvenient realization, considering Rosemary's sudden revelation -- that sex gives him writer's block. With a deadline looming for his second book, what on earth is he going to do? Ah, but determined, ever-optimistic Rosemary has a cure, right up her rose-colored sleeve. . . Isabel Sharpe's wry writing style reminds me of a cross between Elizabeth Bevarly and Jennifer Crusie. Her characterizations are superb and amazingly complex considering the length of these books, and her vivid, laugh-a-minute prose breathes life into the goofy, quirky, slightly nutty town of Lazy Pines. And Carrie Alexander continues her charming "The Cowgirl Club" miniseries, this time focusing on "average" Molly Broome, slightly overweight, plain brown hair, plain brown eyes. . .the type of woman you can rely on to fix whatever needs fixing. Except, when Molly signs on as lodge manager for the decrepit Triple Eight Dude Ranch, everything she tries to "fix" somehow manages to go wrong. But maybe that has something to do with Raleigh Tate, the lodge's head wrangler whose cowboy persona doesn't quite ring true, somehow. . .maybe because he's actually a Fed investigating a possible counterfeit ring that leads right back to the Triple Eight. Ms. Alexander also has a knack for creating, with a minimum of words, delightfully eccentric and easy-to-see characters. Etta Sue, the lodge's so-called "housekeeper", is a scream, as is the big-haired, big-bosomed, country-singer wannabe Sharlene Jackleen, the lodge's erstwhile housemaid. And Raleigh, a to- die-for hero if ever there was one -- gotta love a big, strong man with kittens crawling all over him -- sees in the "ordinary" Molly the woman of his dreams, giving hope to women everywhere carrying a few extra inches on their hips! Add a cozy little mystery to solve, and you've got another really fun read. Another pair of highly enjoyable stories from Duets!
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