What The Lady Wants by Jennifer Crusie

Hero: Mitchell PEATWICK Kincaid
Heroine: Mae Belle Sullivan
Category: Contemporary Romance
Page Count 250
Grade: B+
Buy It: Here, Here or support your local independant bookstores by searching for What The Lady Wants, Here.

Nothin' like a dame . . .

Mitch Peabody was learning pretty fast that the life of a private detective was not all it was cracked up to be. Cheating husbands, suspicious wives, unsuspecting mistresss — case after case left him cynical and disillusioned. This was nothing like the world of tough-talking detectives and smart-mouthed, stunning dames he'd envisioned . . . until she walked through the door.

Right down to her stilettos, Mae Sullivan was a knockout with a lethal body — and a lethal family to go with it. There was something not quite on the up-and-up about her, but she came with a case he couldn't afford to refuse . . . and left him with a case of lust like he hadn't had since high school. It didn't take long for him to fall for her, hook, line and sinker. But was Mae only interested in catching the double-crossing crooks who murdered her uncle . . . or did the lady want to catch him?

I enjoyed the hell out of this book.

But first off, one thing that got on my hot damn nerves was that Mitch's name was NOT at ANY time Mitch Peabody, but Mitch Peatwick. On the blurb in the back of the book it says Mitch Peabody so I was expecting to read about that guy and ended up reading about and falling head over heels in love with Mitch Peatwick Kincaid.

This book had me laughing from the time it started to the time it ended. Mae Sullivan is one fantastic heroine and Mitch was actually my favorite thing about the book.

You see, Mae needs a stupid PI to investigate her Uncle's death. She makes up some bogus story about him being killed (he died of a heart attack) and then wants to seduce a PI into investigating it to cause all kinds of hoopla so that they'll find Armand (the dead uncle's) diary...into the story comes Mitchell Peatwick, Private Investigator.

Mitch needs a little over $2000 to put him over the top to win the bet that he drunkenly took one year ago. He has fantasies of his last case not only putting him over the top but also being one whopper of a case by a beautiful woman with fantasy breasts.

Mitch of course takes the case, doesn't think Mae is the beauty he was looking for from his fantasies although she does have the fantasy breasts, they become a team and in true Jennifer Crusie magic, their story wraps you in and tickles your funny bone, the same time that she's making your heart sigh by how sweet it is.

As the story progresses, you can't help but fall for the characters, for me, it was all about Mitch. Mitch and his "pipeline" and his "gotta go see what's out west" bit had me cracking up and then the change in Mitch from the beginning of the book to the end of the book is just one hoot after the other, he transforms into this man that gets you all excited at the same time, he's saying something outrageous to make you laugh out loud.

Mae, she wasn't this dumb broad who didn't have a brain inside that head of hers, she was a smart mouthed, snobby chit but you didn't hate her for it. Oh no, she's got things she needs to do and people she needs to take care of, she doesn't have time to be stupid. Or do stupid things, she does what she wants and I totally dug that about her.

My favorite scene, well one of them happens when Mitch and Mae are getting shot at and Mitch tells Mae that she needs to hide and not move, he emphasizes many times that he doesn't want her to do something stupid like those heroines in the movies, he wants her to stay put and the funny thing is, she does. And when she almost gets shot more than twice and she's still staying put, Mitch finally loses his control, yells at her and then goes to save her sorry hide.

The whole time they're yelling at each other and Mitch is scolding her for not moving, he asks her, "Why didn't you move out of the way?" She yelling at him, "Because you told me to stay put, OMGosh Mitch I could've died"

And with him saying, "Serves you right"

It just had me laughing and laughing, Mitch's relationship with Carlo, Mae's cousin, is something else that cracked me the heck up, his relationship with Newton, his best friend is a hoot too. Oh and a surprise which came for me, is that Nick Jamieson and Tess Newhard, well in this book she's Tess Jamieson, from Strange Bedpersons made an appearance in this book. Nick is actually Mitch's lawyer and Tess is a good friend of his, we meet them again when they both come to Armand's memorial service, it was a hoot to see them again and I actually liked them both way better as secondary characters than I did in their own story as the main characters. What a riot.

Well anyway, this book was a good one, it had me laughing all night and I was more than a little pissed that the book was coming to an end but I totally recommend it to anyone looking for a light, funny story to read. It's a good one.

A real treat.