Rating: 
Summary: You'll be knocked off your feet
Review: With a bold title like "Knock Me Off My Feet", I couldn't help but guess whom it was going to be, the female character, Audie, or the male character Quinn. Little did I know it would be me, the reader!
From the beginning I was hooked by the author's fast paced writing and funny situations. Beginning with Audie, who is `Homey Helen," a purported cross between Martha Stewart and Heloise, whom in reality is a soccer kicking tomboy in prim clothing. Since she's received several death threats, a touchy detective is assigned to investigate the situation. Quinn is also a dichotomy, appearing all silent, business-like and macho-cop. Don't we just love when those facades fade and reveal a big-hearted, romantic-talking, larger-than-life male! After Audie basically falls at Quinn's feet during their first meeting at her T.V. station, it's Quinn who falls fast for the pseudo-domestic beauty.
Quinn has to keep a close eye on Audie and doesn't mind a bit. He quickly becomes infatuated and takes her to meet his very loving and crazy Irish family. Never close with her own mother, the original and true "Homey Helen," family is really an alien concept to Audie, and she struggles at the Quinn family gatherings and their obvious show of love and devotion for every member of the family, especially for the women.
I also love the role reversal between Audie and Quinn, who is so domesticated that not only does he possess an extremely clean home, he cooks a meal for Audie, who can't boil water, and has no desire to. It's extremely humorous that he's secretly worshipped "Homey Helen," knowing every cleaning tip and even keeps them in a journal.
Audie is every guy's dream, a beauty that enjoys and plays sports, but enjoys sex more! Her idea of a perfect winter afternoon is to have, "wild sweaty sex on the floor and then popping out to a sports bar for a Guinness." It's talk like this that drives Quinn wild. One of the best scenes is the very original sex conversation while Quinn's driving on the expressway! Once out of the car, it's Quinn's turn to pillow talk, or should I say, floor-talk, and it's not about how to properly clean ceramic tile! He makes Audie crazy with his explicit language and lovemaking. There's plenty more sexy scenes, but before Audie can commit to Quinn, he's got to find out who's trying to rub-out "Homey Helen."
I highly recommend this debut book by Susan Donovan. You'll just have to ignore the ironing and vacuuming and order pizza for the family until you've finished being knocked off your feet by this saucy, sexy romp.
Rating: 
Summary: Perky but predictable
Review: Audie and Stacey turn out to be a nice couple but she lacks depth and the love scenes were not really very hot at all. Let's just say she is a bit to anatomically fixated for my tastes, so the details are a bit crude, not sensual, and enough to send more inexperienced readers of this book running for a nunnery rather than subject themselves to such an ordeal! The mystery aspect gets muddled early on and the author really cheats us with the abrupt ending. She leads us to hope for lots of fire but we get mainly fizzle especially with Audie so hot and cold all the time. I wanted her to be knocked off her feet; she was squarely on both of them even in bed.
Rating: 
Summary: ultimate star-crossed lovers: White Sox fan and Cub rooter
Review: Autumn "Audie" Adams inherited the Homey Helen persona from her mother, who was the Martha Stewart of Chicago. However, Audie and her staff become alarmed when she begins receiving threatening notes from her top fan as well sick presents like dead roses. Violet Crimes Detective Stacey Quinn and his partner Stanley Oleskiewicz are assigned to investigate. Stacy initially believes that Audie made the whole incident up as an excuse to escape the Homey Helen job that she loathes. However, after a tirade, he begins to believe her. As the two cops investigate every aspect of Audie's life, they conclude the stalker is someone close to Audie because of how much the unknown assailant knows. As the danger mounts, Audie and Stacey fall in love, but first her shadow must be stopped. KNOCK ME OFF MY FEET is an amusing contemporary romance that contains the ultimate star-crossed lovers: a White Sox fan and a Cub rooter. Readers will enjoy the sparks between the lead couple whether they are in her car, the ballpark, or her office, etc. Both swing the bat hoping this time they hit a home run and not another emotional strike out. The police procedural takes a back seat to the romance so that the increasingly nasty actions of the stalker never quite attain the suspense it should have reached. Still Susan Donovan provides a fun Windy City tale. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: A rip roaring good time.
Review: Autumn "Audie" Adams was following in her mother's footsteps as "Homey Helen" Chicago's answer to Martha Steward. But this wasn't who Audie really wanted to be in life. Audie had made a promise to her mother that she would carry on with Homey Helen after her mother was gone. Things were going fairly smoothly until her life was threatened. Enter ... Detective Stacey Quinn. Quinn is determined to get to the bottom of who is stalking this fantastic woman. Quinn draws Audie into his boisterous Irish family, the likes she has never seen before but always wanted. The suspense over who is after Audie will keep you glued to trying to figure out the who done it. What you really will remember about this book is the hot, sizzle between Audie and Quinn. This is a fantastic first book, looking forward to more from this author.
Rating:
Summary: Very highly recommended!
Review: Autumn "Audie" Adams was known as "Homey Helen" of Chicago. She ran a household hints column. Her mother, the original Helen, was mugged and murdered a little over a year before. With her dying breath, Helena made Audie promise to take over the column. It was NOT a job Audie enjoyed, but she was very good at it. Shortly after Helen's death, Audie began to receive threatening letters. They were easily ignored, until they became violent. Detective Stacey Quinn was of the Chicago Police's Violent Crimes Division. He and his partner, Stanley Oleskiewicz, were given the job of catching Audie's stalker. They decided to begin with her ex-boyfriends. The number of them surprised the detectives. (Audie never could hold a relationship together.) The names on the list were famous too. However, one name in particular jumped off the list to smack Stacey. To Stacey, Audie was the perfect woman for him. Convincing HER of that fact would NOT be easy though. ***** I could not stop reading this one. I found it to be full of wit, terrific secondary characters, and some very hot love scenes. I cannot think of a better way to begin my reading of the new year! I have hopes that Stanley will get his own novel. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! ***** Reviewed by Detra Fitch.
Rating:
Summary: I'm not normally a fan of this sort of fiction....
Review: but am so glad that I picked it up. If I read this sort of book, it's always Jennifer Crusie or Stephanie Bond. This author now goes into the ranks of those that I'll keep track of for new releases. The direction of the storyline was pretty evident from the beginning (as they usually are in this sort of book) but the knowledge did not distract from the enjoyment of the novel. The characters were fun and the storyline compelling. Also, as a change from this sort of novel, it wasn't written like a children's book (the main character does this and then that and then he says this....I find that annoying). Maybe I was in a good mood....or maybe just in the mood to read....because I usually want to slap main characters who cry as much as the one in this book but the little jags always seemed to be well founded. I found some of the background characters annoying but only because they seemed to be well developed which....I guess....is a testament to the author. I always skim the sex but that too seemed to be integral to the storyline here (though I still skimmed it. I am maybe the one adult on this planet who finds graphic detail a huge turn off). To cut to the chase, this book is the best of this sort of fiction that I've read and I say that it's absolutely worth the money. I even read the teaser for the next book and already plan to buy that one.....but then I'm always a sucker for any story with dogs.
Rating:
Summary: Fast and fun paced romance...
Review: Fun and lighthearted romance story. In this story it is the daughter of a "Martha" type woman who ends up taking over her show and column. The only problem is that Autumn is in no way a "homemaker" she is an awesome soccer player and rather klutzy. Along comes Detective Stacy to help her figure out who is sending her threatening letters and things start to heat up. Though it seems that Autumn has a bit of a problem with commitment we shall see what happens. I read this one in one evening and enjoyed the fast pace of the story!
Rating:
Summary: SEXY AND VERY ROMANTIC
Review: Great story that I couldn't put it down. Susan write it like the way it is from describing sexy scenes to normal everyday language. Funny, romantic and very, very sexy!! Highly recommend it!!!
Rating:
Summary: Knock Me Off My Feet
Review: Great. Simply, great. Funny, engaging, sexy. I've purchased her next title because it isn't in my library yet and I didn't want to wait.
Rating:
Summary: Heartwarming & Quirky Irish Family Romance
Review: I absolutely loved this book! Five stars is not enough.
This is my first Susan Donovan book. The repartee between Autumn "Audie" Adams and Stacey "Quinn" Quinn is precious. Quinn comes from a tight knit Irish family that shows its love for one another in every way. Audie comes from a family where she did not feel love, thus she acts flaky and refuses to let herself commit fully to any relationship. But that was before she met Quinn, a police detective that is fully deserving of her love if she can ever let herself go. He even offers to let her "rent" his family if she finds she can't live without them but won't commit to him.
I thought Quinn was an excellent macho, fiercely loyal and giving character that was more than a match for Audie. Turnabout is fair play in the end where Audie must find it within herself to determine if she deserves what Quinn has offered.
| 
