Rating: 
Summary: Funny Look into Smalltown Crime..and love :)
Review: I haven't enjoyed a book like this in ages! Funny wasn't the word, it was hilarious and so in your face. The writing was phenomenal and very witty, no stupid and unrealistic silliness here.
A TRUE romantic comedy with much depth.
The characters were very fleshed out and I started to imagine I knew them. The hero is not perfect and the heroine is FAR from being any kind of perfect which I loved LOL. Ms. Hughes also did a little role reversal here with the characters. The hero was the more sensitive one here with thoughts of marriage and so forth and the heroine was a chain smoking loudmouth with ideas of getting said hero into bed, lol. I Loved it.
If you love Janet Evanovich and her Stephanie Plum series, you will adore this one. Since the two authors are very close friends you can sense the writing styles are shared. Same humor and 'in your face' heroine who doesn't apologize.
Frankie Daniels hates her life. She just was demoted and sent packing to a small-town called Purdyville, NC after being caught sleeping with a married man...her partner and a very important man's son. LOL.
Purdyville isn't what she expects. The people are very nosey and seem to know everything about everyone, but that isn't her biggest problem right now. The Sheriff of this hick town is. Mr. Matt Webber, a gorgeous and seemingly non-hick guy with the sexiest eyes she'd ever seen. Also her boss...hmmm, not smart Frankie.
Thinking about getting Sheriff Webber into bed isn't on her 'too smart' list so she bides her time until she can find another job out of this place and away from the town's gossips and the town's bully whom she beats up on her first day in.
Crime seems to have risen with her arrival and no one knows why, must be that 'big city girl' bringin' trouble.
Matt is determined to scratch away at that tough exterior and get to the real Frankie, what he finds blows his mind. But can Frankie stay put long enough to trust again?
This is one funny and hot book. The tension between the two are amazing. I was loathe for it to end. Thank-you Ms. Hughes for a great read and brightening up my day :)
Tracy Talley~@
Rating: 
Summary: Good start, but doesn't live up to its promise
Review: I read this book because I am a huge fan of Janet Evanovich. When I heard Ms. Evanovich admired this author enough to ask her to rewrite her old short-contemporary romance, Full House, from the late 80s (which original book I own, along with every book Ms. Evanovich ever wrote), I though, well, that's a huge recommendation. And, when I first sat down to read this book, I admit, I was delighted that the book had some laugh-out-loud funny moments at the very beginning. However, the problem is, very rapidly, all the humor went away never to return. After thinking it over afterwards, I've concluded the major reason this is so is that the author has a very flat, unlively voice. And, secondly, the heroine is very unsympathetic, because throughout the book she is constantly in a foul mood, and, as a result, pretty much all the time unjustifiably harsh to the hero. And she isn't hard on him in the way common in romantic comedies where the two carry on a kind of fake animosity expressed in funny repartee. Nope, she simply comes off as an ill-tempered shrew who rags on the hero because she's mean.Another aspect of the book that I found really irritating is the way everyone in town treats the villain, Willie Jack, constantly sneering at him in a way that is absolutely guaranteed to make any sociopath go off his nut and commit acts of violence--like the rest of the human race, they tend to loathe being "dissed" (treated with disrespect). This sneering behavior might have been understandable in the general populace of this small town, who aren't law-enforcement professionals, just ordinary people--if we ignore, that is, the fact that their crudely cruel behavior violates Hughes's initial and ongoing premise that the heroine is transferring from the big, bad city of Atlanta to a pleasant, little southern town full of lovely, nice people, such that she can finally leave off her rough exterior and feel safe and at home. But as for the heroine and the hero and their constant sneering at WJ, both are experienced cops who very well ought to have known (if the author cared to make them have any realistic relationship to the state of modern police work among all but "renegade" cops) that sneering at psychopaths is an insane attitude in any cop these days who has had a modicum of training in how to prevent violence. Cops today are required to *never* sneer at anyone, and speak to all people, at all times, with respect. Which only makes sense, because even if they wear a bullet-proof vest at all times, there's no telling when, if you "diss" them, some psycho will pull out a gun and shoot you between the eyes. Beyond all that, though, I think the ultimate reason that everyone universally sneering at WJ hurts Ms. Hughes's plot is that it leads readers to actually feel sorry for the poor slob instead of seeing him as all-bad (as the author obviously hopes we will see this very one-dimensional villain) and therefore become unable to celebrate the event where he "gets his" in the end, an important fulfillment for the audience of all novels and movies with villains. To sum up, then, my main complaints with this romantic comedy are that it isn't very romantic--I felt sorry for the hero, who seems like a nice guy, for tangling up with a barracuda like the heroine. And aside from the very beginning, it isn't funny. The light mood that is an essential part of romantic comedy is also jarringly violated by the author dumping murder and mayhem into the plot. By doing this, Ms. Hughes's story loses out on two counts: the harsh issues she covers get trivialized, and the light tone she is supposedly shooting for gets stomped into the ground. P.S. After reading this book, it is not hard to figure out why the rewrite of Evanovich's Full House by Ms. Hughes has, sadly, turned a formerly lively, funny, sexy book into a flat, un-funny, un-sexy, drab book that over 70 readers so far (including me) have given 1 star to. She makes the exact (I mean it--*exact*) same glaring mistakes in that book she makes in this one (see my sum-up paragraph above).
Rating: 
Summary: Hot Shot Hit the Spot
Review: I was looking for a fun, quick read. This book definitely met my needs. It can be predictable, but still fun and full of romance and mystery. The best combination in my book! Frankie Daniels is a hard core detective in Atlanta and used to seeing gruesome crimes. Her MO is to not get involved and be the best at her job...trying to follow in her slain father's footsteps. After an error in judgement that cost her her job, she is moved to a small town. Once there, she encounters the menacing town bully, the Chief of Police (her boss), and many more characters of Purdyville. The story goes from there with love stories, a cast of wonderful characters, and mysteries to be solved. If you're looking for a well written book that leads you to a good time...this is one you should read.
Rating:
Summary: Hot Shot Hit the Spot
Review: I was looking for a fun, quick read. This book definitely met my needs. It can be predictable, but still fun and full of romance and mystery. The best combination in my book! Frankie Daniels is a hard core detective in Atlanta and used to seeing gruesome crimes. Her MO is to not get involved and be the best at her job...trying to follow in her slain father's footsteps. After an error in judgement that cost her her job, she is moved to a small town. Once there, she encounters the menacing town bully, the Chief of Police (her boss), and many more characters of Purdyville. The story goes from there with love stories, a cast of wonderful characters, and mysteries to be solved. If you're looking for a well written book that leads you to a good time...this is one you should read.
Rating:
Summary: Winner of WordWeaving Award for Excellence
Review: Tough talking, chain smoking Atlanta detective Frankie Daniels falls from grace when her affair with the police commissioner's son-in-law, a married man with three children, becomes public knowledge. A tape of their sexual exploits ends her time on the Atlanta force, but the Captain pulls some strings and secures a new job opportunity for her in Purdyville, North Carolina. Unfortunately, she arrives to find the smoldering remains of her rent house, a mud bath, and a bristly encounter with her new boss. The vulnerabilities created by witnessing the worse of mankind's depravity on Atlanta's streets combines with the lies her former lover told, leave Frankie rather hard edged-except when she yields to her emotions by crying in the shower. She has stopped seeing the people involved by crimes, thinking in terms of case numbers instead. She even wonders if she has lost her femininity. Meeting Police Chief Matt Weber forces her to reevaluate herself, her past and her future. Having already dealt with the results of "fraternization", Frankie fights her attraction to the sinfully sensual chief. But as small town crime increases, Frankie finds it increasingly difficult to maintain her distance. Matt's clear regarding his feelings, but Frankie backs off when she becomes the object of small town gossip. But taking down the town bully and finds her hotel room vandalized demonstrates that Frankie has thrust herself in the middle of small town drama and the ... danger it can present. Irreverently humorous moments lend a marvelous touch of levity to the wonderful romantic suspense HOT SHOT. Frankie thinks she is a hot shot when she arrives in Purdyville with ten years of street smarts. As she finds out how out of touch she is with humanity, however, she learns to balance street smarts with genuine concern. Yet author charlotte Hughes respects the strength that allows a detective to walk the Atlanta streets for ten years by not compromising the qualities that make Frankie unique - from her chain smoking to her ability to floor an unruly man twice her size in a parking lot. In addition, Matt's steadfast determination to win her heart, defend her reputation, and still respect Frankie as a person likewise will win reader's hearts. Further, Hughs masterfully captures the flavor of small town living that makes it unique, especially illustrated when Frankie brings a store-bought cake in a plastic container to a potluck. A tale of redemption, love and healing, HOT SHOT comes very highly recommended.
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