Rating: 
Summary: Cute story, easy read
Review: I just finished "Handyman" today. It was a cute little book. It's romantic and sweet and it makes you wish there were more guys out there like Jake Cooper. However, the book was a little predictable. But like I said, it was a sweet little romance.
Rating: 
Summary: Read it if you want to be cheered up
Review: I loved this book. It made me feel good about relationships and having things "all work out." I also liked the practicality of the "psychotherapy." Solution-based, definitely.
Rating: 
Summary: waste of 6.99 buy used if you want to read it.
Review: I only got to page 45 and that was 45 pages too many. The book was jsut not capturing my attention. It took me 2 days to read the 45 pages because I kept looking for excuses not to read. Finally I decided to stop torturing myself and just stop. I jsut wish I had bought this used off amazon instead of wasting the full 6.99 on this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Not what I'd hoped
Review: I picked this book up because I had read a review in a magazine before it was published and because I liked the basic premise of the pyschologist/handyman mixup. Beyond that, I thought the story was flat.
Rating:
Summary: A Few Great Laughs, Then It Went South
Review: I picked up The Handyman having already seen a review, so I knew that reading the story would involve some suspension of disbelief. I was thinking that the contractor, Jake Cooper, being mistaken for super-therapist Dr. Jason Goulding would play along the lines of classic farce. Unfortunately, it reads more like the plot of a bad episode of Frasier. In a T.V. sitcom the predicable course of events can be played out and wrapped up in about 20 minutes, but in The Handyman it goes unbelievably on and on. I didn't have the required vats of imagination necessary to keep up the suspension of disbelief. My main hurdle was that I couldn't believe that a character with Jake's sense of integrity and groundedness would keep up the deception for longer than the initial session with a weeping Maggie. And the lengthy passages where the author tries to convince us why Jake does seem forced and wearisome. Linda Nichols should ditch the romance, and try her hand at a strictly comic novel next time. The scenes in the hospital with the petulant Dr. Jason Goulding and his vapid trophy wife were laugh-out-loud funny. Nichols skillfully captured the essence of Goulding's self-important little soul in a few key scenes. So, overall The Handyman gets low marks from me, but I'd definitely pick up the author's next book so see if her plotting powers have grown to match her deft comic characterizations.
Rating:
Summary: Heartwarming story
Review: I really enjoyed the Handyman. The characters were sweet and endearing; the writing funny and fresh. A charming love story.
Rating:
Summary: Good Premise, But Hard to Believe
Review: I usually enjoy reading first time authors, since they need our support in order to keep their career moving. I was especially excited about "Handyman" because of its advance press and the fact that Linda Nichols was published in hardcover right off the bat. Unfortunately, once I started reading, I found it too difficult to suspend my disbelief that the hero could continue his masquerade as a therapist, when the whole misunderstanding could have (and should have, professionally speaking) been cleared up in less than 5 minutes. Actually, I blame the editor for not giving Ms. Nichols' reading public credit for more intelligence than this. I also found it hard to like Maggie, the main female character, because of her whining. My goodness, could anything else bad have happened to this girl? At any rate, I stopped on page 74, unable to continue. However, my best wishes to Ms. Nichols, as I believe her writing style and ideas are worthy of another try.
Rating:
Summary: A reader from Sacramento, CA
Review: I was caught up in this book from the beginning and couldn't put it down until it was finished. Normally that doesn't happen to me. The premise was cute and it gave the reader an insightful as well as a delightful look at the inner workings of relationships. In short, it was just plain fun to read!
Rating: 
Summary: strong man + weak woman = irritating book
Review: I was really aggravated by this book. The main female character had no back bone. She blamed all her problems on one man, then solved them all with another. In this day and age, it's irritating to think that a grown woman can't deal with her boss, her door locks, and her life on her own. Maybe many many moons ago, but now? Enter the knight in shining armor to make everything all better. Not my idea of a good read.
Rating:
Summary: mystery solved
Review: I'd like to clear up the mystery of the vanishing review. I wrote Handyman, and my son (13) was excited to see it on Amazon. He decided to write a review, glowing of course, but forgot he had signed in under my screen name. When the review was posted it appeared that I had written it. I was embarrassed, to say the least, and told him to fix the problem, which he did. But someone had already read it and was offended at what looked like blatant, and not very skillful self-promotion. Sorry. No offense intended. By the way, I am giving myself a rating of 3, because I have to fill in the field, and even though I believe Handyman is a good book, I didn't want to add to my offenses by giving it a 5. (Do you suppose I'll be able to laugh at this someday?)
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