I was really disappointed in David Thorne's latest book, "Walk It Off, Princess". Thorne is normally quite funny, I've read several of his previous books and I keep up with his website and he usually makes me laugh, but this one wasn't funny at all. First off, it was very short, about 150 pages, and his books aren't cheap, so I felt like I got ripped off. And then it just wasn't funny. He talked about finding a friend's dead body (he committed suicide) when he was 21 and getting scammed out of $150,000 by a con artist at the age of 28. Yikes! I mean, I'm glad he's able to get over it and move on, but it just depressed me.
On to more Hannah Swensen! In "Carrot Cake Murder", Lisa and Herb's families are having a big joint reunion at Eden Lake. Hannah is helping out, providing desserts and such. Herb's long lost uncle Gus shows up out of the blue, driving a Jaguar and flashing a Rolex and a diamond pinkie ring, bragging about how successful he is running a string of nightclubs in Atlantic City. Gus left town some twenty years earlier under murky circumstances: he'd gotten in a physical fight with Jack, Lisa's sweet dad who is now suffering from Alzheimer's. He still knows he doesn't like Gus, though, even if he can't remember why. When Hannah finds Gus murdered, Jack is the prime suspect. Hannah goes to work clearing his name, since she knows Lisa's dad couldn't possibly have killed Gus, no matter how much bad blood was between them.
Delores is getting her book published! She's written a Regency era romance, starring some of Lake Eden's residents. Hannah is nervous about how the book will be received, but she's even more upset when she goes to try on the dress for the launch party that Delores ordered for her and finds it doesn't fit. Andrea offers to help her lose weight by going with her to the gym. Hannah takes her up on her kind offer, but she's dismayed when their normal instructor breaks his arm in a car accident and their class is taken over by Ronnie Wood, a sexy fitness instructor from the police department that Hannah just knows Mike has a thing for (not that she's jealous or anything...). Ronnie is an outrageous flirt, and half the wives in town are jealous of her. Ronnie is nasty to all the women in the first class, and Hannah is outraged that she seems to enjoy being hurtful. So when she finds Ronnie drowned in the Jacuzzi the next morning, the list of people in town who *didn't* want her dead is actually shorter than the list who did.
Mike was kind of a big jerk in this one. He calls Hannah up in the middle of the night, waking her up, and all but orders her to meet him downstairs in the parking garage and oh, can she bring fresh coffee and cookies while she's at it? And he does this not once but twice! Hannah was too nice to him, I would have told him to go pound sand. Norman is a lovely gentleman, worrying about her getting enough sleep and eating right since she's on a diet, he goes out of his way to make sure she still gets little treats that aren't bad for her. Hannah, you should marry Norman.
Oh, and she loses enough weight in two weeks to fit in the dress her mom got for her, in fact it's loose.
Now I kind of hate you, Hannah.
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