Bakers Dozen 6

Mr. Perfect by Linda Howard

This was another author that I had a hard time just picking one.  I've read a few of Linda Howard's books and I have to say I enjoyed them all.  Originally I put Open Season but then changed it to Mr. Perfect instead.

The reason I decided on including Mr. Perfect on this list was because the story is based in Michigan, although it was set in the Detroit area instead of west Michigan.  The basic plot of these book is Jaine and 3 of her friends from work have the weekly girls dinner and after a few cocktails decided to create a list of what they think their Mr. Perfect should be.  The first 8 or so are tame, like 'must be faithful' and put the toilet seat down, but then it starts to get more risque with comments about package size.  Jaine is also struggling with her neighbor who she believes is a drug deal because of the hours he comes home, his car, and he's grouchy temperament.  When the list gets out the 4 women now have a lot of unwanted attention from their co-workers and media.  When one of the ladies of the list is murdered suddenly Jaine needs help from the grouchy next-door-neighbor, who is actually a cop, Sam Donovan.  Of course romance blossoms.

One of the things that I love about this story is the character Jaine's smart-ass personality.  She is one of the characters who tends to act fast and think later.  But that I think what made that character stand out to me.  Now while most of Howard's male characters (from the books that I've read) tend to kind of be along the same line: muscular, attractive but not perfect, either in law-enforcement or former military and they tend to save the day.  I do like how Howard always makes it about the women in the story.  Even if she has off-shot story lines she does make it about the main character.

Another thing that stuck in my head in this story was that she's cat sitting for her mom, and car sitting for her dad while they are on a European vacation.  The cat turns out to be a little psychotic and the car is one of the original Ford Cobra's design because her dad was one of the original engineers.  And with a murderer after her she's paranoid about the cat and car.  Linda Howard had all of these little plots in the story but they all centered around Jaine so it was never hard to follow.

This is definitely one of those stories that I'm constantly picking up to re-read either the whole story or just my favorite parts when I'm not in the mood to start a new book.