The morning of her 34th birthday small-town librarian Daisy Minor wakes up and realizes that her life is slipping away. Everything about her is boring---her hair, her clothes, her job. All boring. Worse, she's lonely and hasn't had so much as a date in forever. She still lives at home with her mother and her aunt. She loves them, but knows that if she ever wants to have a family of her own she's going to have to make some changes. She decides that in a small town she can't afford to wait for Mr. Right to just show up so if she wants a man she's going to have to go out and find one. She decides to do a total make-over. She moves into a place of her own and enlists the help of the only gay man she knows to transform her clothes, hair and make-up from frumpy librarian to sexy party girl.
Jack Russo is the town's new sheriff. He was brought to run things after a corruption scandal ousted the previous sheriff. He's still getting to know the town and it's residents and he doesn't make a very good impression on Daisy. She considers him rude, demanding and more than a little intimidating. Of course he's also the sexiest man she's met in a long time. In spite of that she decides that she would be better off ignoring him and going ahead with her plan to visit local clubs to meet men. Her first try is less than a complete success, but she's willing to keep trying. She finds herself with worse problems than bad dates when she witnesses a crime and becomes a target in need of Jack's protection.
This is not one of Howard's more intense books. The mood is similar to the lighter parts of Mr. Perfect, although I preferred that book to this one. In this book the mystery works well enough, the characters are basically likable, and there are a few funny scenes. However, there were several things about Daisy and Jack's relationship that bothered me.
Soon after they started sleeping together Jack considered the possibility of not using a condom and getting Daisy pregnant so that she would marry him. I would consider that unacceptable no matter what, especially because they barely knew each other. What made it worse was that at that point Jack's motive was simply to stop Daisy from dating other men. He wasn't thinking about commitment as much as he was thinking about possession. Later Daisy and Jack do have unsafe sex, with the usual idiotic conversation about how they're sure it will be OK. Soon they were actively trying to get pregnant even though they had known each other only a couple of weeks and had been sleeping together only a few days. I found that so ridiculous that it ruined the end of the book for me.
Grade: C-
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