BOOK REVIEW: Faking It by Jennifer Crusie

I've always considered "Welcome to Temptation" to be Jennifer Crusie's best book, so I was very interested in reading the sort-of sequel, Faking It.  Taking up with the life and career (if you can call theft a career option) of Davy Dempsey, the charming scoundrel from Welcome... Faking It is the story of struggling artist Tilda Goodnight and her family.  She's not struggling in the usual sense of starving in a garret- rather she's struggling to keep her artistic and personal integrity in the face of family pressures.  She desperately needs cash to pay the mortgage on the family art gallery so she's selling her soul copying famous paintings onto rich people's walls- but has a basement full of art that she can't sell for mysterious reasons...  When her niece accidentally sells one of the forbidden artworks, things seem to be getting worse and worse.  Tilda's bored, tired and put upon, so the last thing she needs is to bump into Davy Dempsey in a darkened cupboard when they're both trying to steal the same painting. 

Things get even more complicated as Tilda and Davy's paths keep crossing, and she becomes suspicious of his motives- is he trying to discover her dark secrets? Is he hiding something of his own? Are they really attracted to each other- or is one of them Faking It? 

You know I'm not going to tell you the answers!  But I will tell you what a GREAT book this is.  It's not up there with Temptation, but it's close- and fans of that book will love the way Crusie's fleshed out the character of Davy.  As you expect from this author, there's love, sex (oh yes! - and no-one writes it better than Crusie), excitement, scandal and lots of dastardly double-dealings along the way to a happy ending.   She excels at creating offbeat characters with hearts of gold, and there's plenty of them here: from a precocious teen with a Lucille Ball fixation to a cross-dressing brother in law.  But they're just part of the fun!  Crusie's wit and the heat between Davy and Tilda (short for Matilda, if you're wondering) make this a fabulous read for summer- or any other time.  If you're a Crusie fan, if you wanted to know more about Davy after Welcome to Temptation, or if you just like intelligent, fast-paced, funny and sexy women's fiction (and if you don't...?) you'll really like this book.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Like this? Try Welcome to Temptation by Jennifer Crusie, Don't Look Down by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Meyer.

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