Getting Rid of Bradley by Jennifer Crusie

Hero: Zack Warren
Heroine: Lucy Savage
Category: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 248 pages
Grade: B+
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Her cheating husband, Bradley, lobbed the final insult when he stood her up in divorce court. A dye job gone wrong has left her hair green. And someone is trying to kill her. To top it off, sexy cop Zack Warren is certain the very same man Lucy is trying to wash right out of her hair is the same Bradley he wants to arrest for embezzlement.

When someone shoots at her and then her car blows up, Zack decides she needs twenty-four-hour police protection. Next thing Lucy knows, Zack has moved in to her big Victorian house, making them both sleepless . . . and not just from things that go bump in the night!

I read two pages of this book last week before I started Strange Bedpersons and I didn't think I could get into it so I started what I thought would be the better book. As you can tell, I was sadly mistaken in that because I only marginally liked Strange Bedpersons and now that I finished Getting Rid of Bradley, I can say with an absolutely surety that I really liked this book. I liked the characters, especially Zack and Lucy, I swear their little romance blossomed right out of nowhere and at such an unbelieveably short amount of time that there was hardly any time for me to come up for air, but even though their romance took off at such a fast pace, it didn't take away from the story and it didn't leave me with a bad taste in my mouth.

You see, Lucy Savage was stood up for her divorce hearing. She caught her husband cheating on her with some blonde chick and she immediately set out to divorce his stupid ass, but when it came time for their court hearing, he didn't show up. He signed all the necessary paperwork and told her he'd be there but he never showed up and Lucy was feeling all kinds of salty about it. He tells her to meet him at some sleazy diner and she goes there with her sister, who is this kick ass woman who browbeats everyone who tries to harm those closest to her. She's the biggest bitch in the world and gosh I loved her for it. She went to some drastic measures to ensure her sister's safety, but you couldn't really hate her for it, since it was more than apparent that she really did in fact love her sister.

At the same time that Lucy is at the diner, the cops who are hot on the track of an embezzler who embezzled money out of California and brought it to their hood, in Riverbend. The embezzler's name is Bradley and so is Lucy's husband so Zack puts two and two together and he closes in on Lucy and when they're shot at, he takes Lucy in and protects her from those trying to harm her.

Lucy and Zack's relationship started out with a bang! A bang from a gun who shot at them and their lives really aren't the same after that. They form this bond with each other and just seeing them fall in love so fast with each other, is charming and I got so wrapped up in their romance that when it was all coming to an end, I was a little miffed with myself for reading this book so fast.

What I liked about the book was the hero, Zack Warren. This guy is an aging cop (really he's only 36, but to him, that's old, okay whatever) who sweas he's losing his edge and his instincts. He swears he's getting old and he wants nothing to come with growing up, he doesn't want to get married, he doesn't want responsibilities and he most definitely doesn't want to care enough about anyone that he might lose, so he wants to steer clear of maturing into an adult.

When it comes to Lucy though, all bets are off. Not because he's fallen head over heels in love with her at first sight or antying like that but because the woman is a menace, she beat him up (or didn't beat him up depending on who you're asking) with her purse, her hair is the color of bad carpeting and she needs a keeper. He finds himself stepping into the role and not really caring one way or another what happens after that.

The closer they got, the cuter they became. They fought like there was no tomorrow and they laughed and joked with each other and she didnt let him get away with anything, I really liked that. Nobody understood her love for dogs, dogs that needed her care like Zack did and I just found that to be totally adorable.

Something else that I thought was entirely too cute was when Zack is pissed to high heaven at Lucy because she didn't stay put. The following quote was such a simple little thing, but I thought it was too cute:

""I thought you were dead," Zack grabbed her arm. "I thought somebody had grabbed you. I thought I was goign to have to raise your damn dogs..."

He thought he was going to have raise her dogs and after the trouble she went through with her husband, I thought that was too cute for Zack to say. It totally made me go softer on him than I already was.

Something that gave me pause throughout the book though was the Zack's enthusiasm for a commitment with Lucy after the first time they made love, I wasn't expecting that from someone like Zack and even though I breezed over that, it didn't give me pause for a bit because I wasn't expecting it and it was a bit unbelievable but it just gave me pause, I didn't let it bother me though.

I highly enjoyed this book, it was just the book to read after reading a meh book by Jennifer Crusie, it has given me the hope that I need to get over a book like SB and I'm glad for it. This book was a hit with me and I'm sure it will be with you, it's short, it's light and it's funny, a real treat, I recommend it on hot summer nights, it's the perfect thing to get you through.