Agnes & the Hitman by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer
Take one food writer named Cranky Agnes, add a hitman named Shane, mix them together with a Southern mob wedding, a missing necklace, two annoyed flamingos, and a dog named Rhett and you’ve got a recipe for a sexy, hilarious novel about the disastrous side of true love…
Agnes Crandall’s life goes awry when a dognapper invades her kitchen one night, seriously hampering her attempts to put on a wedding that she’s staked her entire net worth on. Then a hero climbs through her bedroom window. His name is Shane, no last name, just Shane, and he has his own problems: he’s got a big hit scheduled, a rival trying to take him out, and an ex-mobster uncle asking him to protect some little kid named Agnes. When he finds out that Agnes isn’t so little, his uncle has forgotten to mention a missing five million bucks he might have lost in Agnes’s house, and his last hit was a miss, Shane’s life isn’t looking so good, either. Then a bunch of lowlifes come looking for the money, a string of hit men show up for Agnes, and some wedding guests gather with intent to throw more than rice. Agnes and Shane have their hands full with greed, florists, treachery, flamingos, mayhem, mothers of the bride, and—most dangerous of all—each other. Agnes and the Hitman is the perfect combination of sugar and spice, sweet and salty—a novel of delicious proportions
If I was on twitter and wanted to review this book…
Humorous beyond belief, great story, and keep for reread on blue days.
I know I’m late getting to this one. And I regret it. I laughed out loud several times while reading this book. When you factor in it was snowing in at the end of April, and I still laughed you know it was funny. Agnes is anything but your normal run of the mill heroine. She is a woman of many layers; determination, resourcefulness and clever which provided me with hours of entertainment. I never knew just how deadly kitchen utensils could be until I meet Agnes. It doesn’t matter if she is dealing with betrayal from a woman she viewed as a substitute mother or a fiancé or a flamingo pink wedding, dead people, or nosy cops, Agnes rolls along delivering humor and swings of her frying pan.
Of course, a woman of this dimension needs a special hero to balance her out, enter Shane, a government hitman. He too breaks the rules for a standard hero, but it works, and works great. He’s the ultimate dark hero. I mean the man is a killer, not a reformed one but a still employed one. When we first met him, he’s killing someone, that’s hard to beat in dark hero definition. Not a lot about Shane is soft, but I liked him ~ a lot. And at the end of the book, his couple of lines, that are basically non-romantic but they seal the deal for me.
Agnes and Shane are surrounded by a lively cast of secondary characters. Uncle Joey, Lisa Livia and Carpenter are those times of friends that are loyal but sometimes you wonder if life wouldn’t be easier without them. And then there is the entire ‘wheel’ clan, Four-wheels, Two-wheels, and Three-wheels who can’t really decide if they are good or bad.
The plot is filled with many twists and turns but is masterfully executed so the reader is never lost. The pace is break neck so buckle up.
This is a wonderful read and will provide a great spring get away.
Enjoy a expert: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Agnes-and-the-Hitman/Jennifer-Crusie/e/9780641990168/?itm=8#EXC
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