Love is in the Air... Sort of

Daisy Flattery is a free spirit with a soft spot for strays and a weakness for a good story. Why else would she agree to the outrageous charade offered by her buttoned-down workaholic neighbor, Linc Blaise? The history professor needs to have a fiancée in order to capture his dream job, and Daisy is game to play the role. But something funny happens on their way to the altar that changes everything. Now, with the midnight hour approaching, will Daisy lose her prince, or will opposites not only attract but live happily ever after?

After reading the back cover I almost skipped reading this book. It sounded like one of those corny made for TV movies about the successful person who hires the not so successful person to be their “fake fiancé” so they can impress people, and I was a little disappointed that Jennifer Crusie do something so overused. However, I really liked her work and trusted her as an author, so I bought it anyway.

Thankfully, the back cover sorely under described the book. Yes, Daisy and Linc pretended to be engaged, but they didn’t fall in love on their way to the altar. Also, unlike in the TV movies the charade didn’t stop at the altar. Daisy and Linc were too good for their own good, and even though they tried to break off their fake engagement the people at the job Daisy helped Linc get wouldn’t stand for it. Even though they still didn’t love each other they ended up having to go through with the wedding, but the book didn’t stop there. After they got married they were faced with the problem of actually living together.

The book was brilliantly executed with a great comedy of errors feel to it. The best part was watching the characters grow and develop throughout the book. Both characters changed drastically from the first page to the last, but the changes were so natural and well crafted like the characters themselves the reader may find themselves so rapped up in the story that they won’t even realize how much the characters have changed until the end.

Since Jennifer Crusie often collaborates with other writers on projects this was also a nice opportunity to see what her own individual writing style is like. It was very interesting for me to see how different this solo book was from some of her collaborative works and how similar it was to others. For example the style and sense of humor present in The Cinderella Deal was very similar to that of Agnes and the Hitman, which Jennifer Crusie teamed up with Bob Mayer to write. However, the tone and style of The Cinderella Deal seemed vastly different from those of the books she wrote with Anne Stuart and Eileen Dreyer.

- Aaron