Love in A Nutshell by Janet Evanovich and Dorien Kelly

Love in a Nutshell

Love in A Nutshell by Janet Evanovich and Dorien Kelly

  • ISBN-13: 9780312651312
  • Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
  • Publication date: 1/3/2012
  • Pages: 320
  • Source: Purchased

Synopsis:

Number one bestselling author Janet Evanovich teams up with award-winning author Dorien Kelly to deliver a sparkling novel of romantic suspense, small-town antics, secretive sabotage, and lots and lots of beer

Kate Appleton needs a job. Her husband has left her, she’s been fired from her position as a magazine editor, and the only place she wants to go is to her parents’ summer house, The Nutshell, in Keene’s Harbor, Michigan. Kate’s plan is to turn The Nutshell into a Bed and Breakfast. Problem is, she needs cash, and the only job she can land is less than savory.

Matt Culhane wants Kate to spy on his brewery employees. Someone has been sabotaging his company, and Kate is just new enough in town that she can insert herself into Culhane’s business and snoop around for him. If Kate finds the culprit, Matt will pay her a $20,000 bonus. Needless to say, Kate is highly motivated. But several problems present themselves. Kate despises beer. No one seems to trust her. And she is falling hard for her boss.

Can these two smoke out a saboteur, save Kate’s family home, and keep a killer from closing in…all while resisting their undeniable attraction to one another? Filled with humor, heart, and loveable characters, Love in a Nutshell is delicious fun.

My Thoughts:

This was a very quick read, one of those stories that just moves and flows.  I tend to get frustrated with books written by two author because it always seems that I can tell when the transition happens.  I am very pleased to say that is not the case with this book.  YEAH!  I would absolutely read another story written by these two ladies.  It is seemless and romantic, very well done.

I really like that this story is set in my home state of Michigan.  It made it so much more interesting to read because I can completely picture most of the locations in the book.  I love to get away to Traverse City and know how much it has grown over the last few years.  And I live not more than 20 minutes from Royal Oak.  It made for an extra fun twist on reading.  The second part I love is that Kate wants to make her family’s vacation home into a bed and breakfast, while this was not more than passing comments in the story and it was much more about Matt’s microbrewery.

This book was a great mix of mystery (who is out to ruin Matt’s business) and romance.  It all starts when Kate is let go from the part time bartending job because of some apparent bad beer she served and makes her way down to Matt’s Microbrewery to demand since he got her fired, he should give her a job.  At first Matt is tempted to turn her away and then realizes that she would make the perfect “spy”, lots of little accidents have been happening around his place and he needs to know what is going on.  Kate has spunk and he thinks it will work.  Kate, on the other hand, sees this as an opporutnity to save her house, which she has to bring the mortgage up to date or it will go into foreclosure.  She tells Matt that she will do it as long as she gets a $20,000 reward if she solves the mystery.  Little does Matt know he is the one who owns the mortgage on the property and Kate is going to get under his skin.

There was nothing I didn’t enjoy about the story, and I didn’t figure out who was at the root of the problems, a huge bonus for me, I hate figuring it out before the story unfolds.  Everything was just very natural about this story.  Great work!

My Rating

4 Penguins

2 thoughts on “Love in A Nutshell by Janet Evanovich and Dorien Kelly

  1. I was wondering about the two author aspect! Will give this one a try.

  2. I’m glad you really enjoyed this one. It is always difficult when there are two people writing a book, a lot of the time you can tell.

    Thanks for the great review!

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