The Barnes & Noble Review from Heart to HeartBestselling authors Janet Evanovich and Leanne Banks deliver pure nonstop fun in this romping romantic comedy that has as its center of gravity a 120-pound bull mastiff named Beast. Talk about your shaggy-dog story! Evanovich and Banks start out with an appealing cast. There's Cate Madigan, age 26, the only unmarried one in a large family. She bartends by night, attends college by day, and likes to make cakes. She saves money by sharing an apartment with Marty Longfellow, a South End drag queen, who performs at the bar. At the end of the bar, looking mysterious, is Kellen McBride -- a mysterious, dark-haired guy at the end of the bar! No wonder her friends in the building call him Mr. Tall, Dark, and Yummy -- or Mr. Yummy, for short. He's an investigator, specializing in retrieving lost property. Then the plot starts to bubble. Once Kellen sees Cate, he becomes determined to finesse himself into her life. Marty bolts for Aruba after receiving numerous mysterious calls, or so the note says. Was he ever involved in stealing jewelry? Beast, the young bull mastiff, is delivered to Cate after Marty's disappearance as a gift from Marty. Cate's apartment is broken into twice, and then there's the dead guy. After an evening of breaking and entering (and dinner with the unruly Madigan family), Mr. Yummy is well and truly hooked. Now they need to solve the mystery. There are some great secondary characters here, including the memorable Pugg, plus Cate's girlfriends Julie and Sharon, and the mysterious Mr. M in 2B, who may or may not be involved. Ginger CurwenThe Barnes & Noble Review from Ransom NotesA lovable and sexy Irish bartender, a mysterious ex-cop (a.k.a. Mr. Tall, Dark, and Yummy), a singing drag queen, a hairy stalker, and a gigantic bull mastiff named Beast are all key players in Hot Stuff, an outrageously entertaining, laugh-out-loud collaboration between mystery icon Janet Evanovich (Plum Lovin', Twelve Sharp, et al.) and prolific romance maven Leanne Banks (Footloose, When She's Bad, et al.). Cate Madigan is a 26-year-old Boston bartender working her way through college in hopes of eventually becoming an elementary school teacher. Desperately seeking space from her close-knit -- and borderline crazy -- Irish family, Madigan has sublet a room from Marty Longfellow, a highly successful South End drag queen with an angelic voice, who regularly performs at the bar where Madigan works. But shortly after Longfellow mysteriously disappears, the red-haired bartender finds herself in the middle of a bizarre mystery that leaves one man dead in her apartment building and another missing. With no one else to turn to, Madigan is forced into the arms of Kellen Koster, a handsome and enigmatic ex-cop who drives a black '65 Mustang and just could be her knight in shining armor -- or not Hot Stuff masterfully blends the best of what Evanovich and Banks have to offer -- offbeat yet realistic characters, consistently fast pacing, a wicked sense of humor, outlandish antics, and, yes, more than a little "hot and passionate gorilla sex." Mystery and romance fans alike will devour this wild collaboration of genre luminaries. To loosely paraphrase an old Reese's Peanut Butter Cup slogan, the writing styles of Evanovich and Banks are two great tastes that taste great together. In a word: Yummy. Paul Goat Allen
Description:
The Barnes & Noble Review from Heart to HeartBestselling authors Janet Evanovich and Leanne Banks deliver pure nonstop fun in this romping romantic comedy that has as its center of gravity a 120-pound bull mastiff named Beast. Talk about your shaggy-dog story! Evanovich and Banks start out with an appealing cast. There's Cate Madigan, age 26, the only unmarried one in a large family. She bartends by night, attends college by day, and likes to make cakes. She saves money by sharing an apartment with Marty Longfellow, a South End drag queen, who performs at the bar. At the end of the bar, looking mysterious, is Kellen McBride -- a mysterious, dark-haired guy at the end of the bar! No wonder her friends in the building call him Mr. Tall, Dark, and Yummy -- or Mr. Yummy, for short. He's an investigator, specializing in retrieving lost property. Then the plot starts to bubble. Once Kellen sees Cate, he becomes determined to finesse himself into her life. Marty bolts for Aruba after receiving numerous mysterious calls, or so the note says. Was he ever involved in stealing jewelry? Beast, the young bull mastiff, is delivered to Cate after Marty's disappearance as a gift from Marty. Cate's apartment is broken into twice, and then there's the dead guy. After an evening of breaking and entering (and dinner with the unruly Madigan family), Mr. Yummy is well and truly hooked. Now they need to solve the mystery. There are some great secondary characters here, including the memorable Pugg, plus Cate's girlfriends Julie and Sharon, and the mysterious Mr. M in 2B, who may or may not be involved. Ginger CurwenThe Barnes & Noble Review from Ransom NotesA lovable and sexy Irish bartender, a mysterious ex-cop (a.k.a. Mr. Tall, Dark, and Yummy), a singing drag queen, a hairy stalker, and a gigantic bull mastiff named Beast are all key players in Hot Stuff, an outrageously entertaining, laugh-out-loud collaboration between mystery icon Janet Evanovich (Plum Lovin', Twelve Sharp, et al.) and prolific romance maven Leanne Banks (Footloose, When She's Bad, et al.). Cate Madigan is a 26-year-old Boston bartender working her way through college in hopes of eventually becoming an elementary school teacher. Desperately seeking space from her close-knit -- and borderline crazy -- Irish family, Madigan has sublet a room from Marty Longfellow, a highly successful South End drag queen with an angelic voice, who regularly performs at the bar where Madigan works. But shortly after Longfellow mysteriously disappears, the red-haired bartender finds herself in the middle of a bizarre mystery that leaves one man dead in her apartment building and another missing. With no one else to turn to, Madigan is forced into the arms of Kellen Koster, a handsome and enigmatic ex-cop who drives a black '65 Mustang and just could be her knight in shining armor -- or not Hot Stuff masterfully blends the best of what Evanovich and Banks have to offer -- offbeat yet realistic characters, consistently fast pacing, a wicked sense of humor, outlandish antics, and, yes, more than a little "hot and passionate gorilla sex." Mystery and romance fans alike will devour this wild collaboration of genre luminaries. To loosely paraphrase an old Reese's Peanut Butter Cup slogan, the writing styles of Evanovich and Banks are two great tastes that taste great together. In a word: Yummy. Paul Goat Allen