Rating: 
Summary: Loved it!
Review: But then I love everything Christie Ridgway writes. "Do Not Disturb" is in keeping with all her stories, funny but with lots of emotion, too. Her characters always make me smile and always leave me feeling good. And her California settings make me want to book a vacation to the west coast ASAP. Can't recommend this author, or this book, enough.
Rating:
Summary: Loved it!
Review: But then I love everything Christie Ridgway writes. "Do Not Disturb" is in keeping with all her stories, funny but with lots of emotion, too. Her characters always make me smile and always leave me feeling good. And her California settings make me want to book a vacation to the west coast ASAP. Can't recommend this author, or this book, enough.
Rating:
Summary: Loved it!
Review: But then I love everything Christie Ridgway writes. "Do Not Disturb" is in keeping with all her stories, funny but with lots of emotion, too. Her characters always make me smile and always leave me feeling good. And her California settings make me want to book a vacation to the west coast ASAP. Can't recommend this author, or this book, enough.
Rating: 
Summary: This isn't funny
Review: I have always enjoyed Christie Ridgway's humor--I've read everything she's written. She has every right to strike out in a different direction but the cover of the book shouldn't be a cartoon promising a romp--not that that is Ms. Ridgway's fault. The hero and heroine begin as very interesting characters. I loved the description of the heroine and what she was like at the beginning. Then she changed, became dull, wandering. This book almost seems like an very early effort (obviously unpublished) with a rewritten and excellent beginning and a great ending. In between, there is a lifeless secondary plot and little resolution of the heroine's problem with her father. If you want to enjoy a good read, try her other books.
Rating: 
Summary: Cute...
Review: I thought this book was a mildly amusing quick read, but there were a few things that kept me from really loving it. Maybe I'm being a little bit critical, but I thought it was annoying that the writer kept reminding us that the heroine (Angel) was supposedly "strong" and/or "tough" because she had a difficult childhood, yet every time she was around the hero (Cooper) she was falling over backward (literally) only to be rescued by him. I can understand it happening once, twice at a stretch, but I believe it happened more like five or six times. I understand that we're supposed to see it as a metaphor for the imbalance he was creating in her life, yada yada, but come on! We get it already! And for a writer on an assignment, Angel sure had an awful lot of time to spend playing cat-and-mouse with Cooper. When did she ever work?! I know, I know...it's only a story. But it's attention to details like that that make the difference between a good book and a great one.
Rating: 
Summary: What a Wonderful Story!
Review: This is the first time I've ever read Christie Ridgway and boy was I impressed! Her use of language was wonderful. And Angel, the heroine of the story was endearing. I felt like I was rooting for her from the very beginning. Cooper was a delight; I saw him in my dreams a couple of times!! I read the book over the weekend, and would highly recommend it to all of my friends.
Rating:
Summary: What a Wonderful Story!
Review: This is the first time I've ever read Christie Ridgway and boy was I impressed! Her use of language was wonderful. And Angel, the heroine of the story was endearing. I felt like I was rooting for her from the very beginning. Cooper was a delight; I saw him in my dreams a couple of times!! I read the book over the weekend, and would highly recommend it to all of my friends.
Rating:
Summary: An Unexpected Pleasure
Review: West Coast Magazine writer Angela Buchanan detests all the accolades bestowed on Stephen "Artist of the Heart" Whitney as a noble family values guru upon the man's death. Angela knows the real story behind Stephen and not the phony eulogies praising him. She was the daughter he ignored when he abandoned her mother years ago. Angela sells the idea of exposing the real Stephen. At the funeral in the Sur, California area, Angela meets her teenage half sister for the first time as well as the great man's wife, sister-in-law, and brother-in-law. Through the help of her editor, Angela gains access to the extended Whitney family over the objection of brother-in-law Cooper Jones. However, as she begins to know each one, Angela finds that she genuinely has affection for them. Still she especially worries about falling in love with attorney Cooper Jones, who seems to want no part of her as he suspects she has a hidden agenda. Though the use of an emergency to propel relationships seems unnecessary, fans will enjoy this strong character study just bring your own coffee. The story line is well written providing the audience a deep look at key players especially Angela and Cooper, but also several secondary players too. Readers will take immense delight with this fine contemporary look beyond the public image. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: fine contemporary look beyond the public image
Review: West Coast Magazine writer Angela Buchanan detests all the accolades bestowed on Stephen "Artist of the Heart" Whitney as a noble family values guru upon the man's death. Angela knows the real story behind Stephen and not the phony eulogies praising him. She was the daughter he ignored when he abandoned her mother years ago. Angela sells the idea of exposing the real Stephen. At the funeral in the Sur, California area, Angela meets her teenage half sister for the first time as well as the great man's wife, sister-in-law, and brother-in-law. Through the help of her editor, Angela gains access to the extended Whitney family over the objection of brother-in-law Cooper Jones. However, as she begins to know each one, Angela finds that she genuinely has affection for them. Still she especially worries about falling in love with attorney Cooper Jones, who seems to want no part of her as he suspects she has a hidden agenda. Though the use of an emergency to propel relationships seems unnecessary, fans will enjoy this strong character study just bring your own coffee. The story line is well written providing the audience a deep look at key players especially Angela and Cooper, but also several secondary players too. Readers will take immense delight with this fine contemporary look beyond the public image. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: A good 4 1/2 stars book...
Review: What an appropriate title for a story of people who have been existing in a safe sort of half-life that they do not want disrupted but that must be if they are to ever live a full life. And the death of artist Stephen Whitney not only disturbs their equilibrium; it turns their lives upside down. Stephen Whitney was an enigmatic, magnetic, self-absorbed and popular Norman Rockwell-esque artist known for his family and traditions oriented paintings. Well Angel Buchanan, the daughter he abandoned at the age of four, knows a hypocrite when she sees one and on his death she decides to expose the �Artist of the Heart� for what he really was. She�s a writer for West Coast magazine and she sets out for the family compound in Big Sur to interview family and friends. But she�s not prepared for what she finds there - Stephen�s second family: his widow Lainey, her sister Beth, their extremely protective and suspicious (not to mention hot!) brother Cooper and most disturbing of all a half-sister, teenaged Katie. Cooper is not wild about the idea of a reporter poking around but Stephen did not leave the family in great financial shape and they all decide (all except Beth) that a little good publicity would help keep the artist and his work hot. As Angel gets to know these people she is shocked to find herself liking them and losing some of her fire, not to mention objectivity. There�s the devastated but hopeful Lainey, the mysterious Beth and the fragile Katie whom Angel feels an unwanted kinship with. But her biggest problem is the handsome, sexy and too smart Cooper who (unlike most men) sees right through her innocent baby blues and angelic blond curls. She just can�t seem to resist him though she knows she can never let him get close. Her father taught her never to depend on a man and she never, ever will. Besides, Cooper is not Mr. Right, he�s simply Mr. Right Now � right? Cooper Jones has essentially been hiding out in Big Sur since having a health crisis two years before. He had been a hotshot attorney in San Francisco living hard and fast fueled by caffeine and nicotine and work. But now he helps to run the family retreat Tranquility House with family friend Judd Sterling. He had thought that living this slower, scaled-down life would help him find peace, but fears he�s really just marking time. When he meets Angel with her vibrant determination, her city-girl clothes, shoes and scent he begins to miss his old life in SF. But he can never go back to that life. Though he cannot keep his hands off the luscious Angel, neither can he offer her anything more than a brief affair, for she�s headed back to the city and his life is in the Sur. Then there�s Judd and his silent devotion to Beth. This secondary romance had me in tears more than once as we watch Judd�s struggle to maintain his hard won inner calm in the face of his feelings for Beth and her seeming inability to deal with Stephen�s death. All the meditation and eastern religions he's studied cannot calm his churning emotions or give him the answers he seeks on how to deal with Beth. If Angel knew the secrets this family holds what a story she could tell! And what will she do, what story will she tell, now that this family has come to mean something to her? I really loved this book. It�s witty, sexy, poignant, sweet and fun. Angel is smart, sassy and determined and Cooper is sexy, sweet, caring and generally adorable. This is my first book by this author and if it�s any indication of her other works, it won�t be my last. Fans of Rachel Gibson will likely also enjoy Ms Ridgway as both excel at mixing sexy fun with emotional turmoil. Very highly recommended!
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