Author: Juliet Rosetti
Genre: Romance, Humor, Romantic Suspense
Publisher: Loveswept (December 10, 2012)
ASIN: B008ENAWJ4
You have to fall in love with a book with begins with the sentence: "My mother-in-law sends me poisoned cookies." If you enjoy the Stephanie Plum books, you'll adore Mazie Maguire, the heroine of The Escape Diaries: Life and Love on the Lam. The book is laugh-aloud funny, especially in the first few chapters.
Poor Mazie's been incarcerated for four years for the murder of her cheating husband, Kip Vonnerjohn. She was framed efficiently: she seems to appear on a hidden video, as she shoots Kip in the head.
In what would have to be the strangest prison break ever, Mazie goes on the run after a tornado slams someone's roof across the prison's electrified fence, shorting it out. Mazie climbs up one side of the roof and down the other, and she's free.
That's when the fun starts. Mazie steals a van. The police and Federal Marshals are hot on her trail. Mazie gets shot at -- in one scene, a wall of toilets (yes, toilets) falls down barely avoiding her. She's almost caught at a farm, and manages to escape by climbing a grain elevator, then dropping four stories onto a manure heap.
She's saved by a man who turns into her lover, Bonaparte "Ben" Labeck. He's part of the camera team for a TV news crew. Ben's delicious; I wish Ms Rosetti had included him in more scenes.
What I loved about the book
* The writing. Ms Rosetti's word play reminded me of PF Wodehouse;
* The madcap incidents -- the wall of toilets, Mazie's drugged and buried alive -- there's never a dull moment;
* Muffin, the fiendishly aggressive Shih Tzu/ Bichon Frise, which settles down and becomes Mazie's pal in mayhem;
* Mazie-Mania.
What I didn't like
* The book was too short. The characters were such fun, the book ended too soon;
* Not enough of Ben.
I'll definitely read this book again, for the word play. I zoomed through it so quickly this time, I couldn't turn the pages fast enough.
Rating: 4 stars (out of 5 stars)
(A review copy was provided.)
