Isn't It Romantic?

Rating:
Summary: Timeless Tales 5 stars review
Review: by Susan Tam

Katrine Summerville is a romance writer and Trey Westmoreland is a book critic. They have been battling for years ever since he wrote a scathing column about the romance genre. Katrine feels this review cost her in book sales and more importantly, demeaned her talent. They are tricked into attending an award ceremony together by their respective friend. They are both using aliases and they each assume the other to be a "gigolo" and "hooker" so when the winners are announced - they are astonished at who they are with. The sparks fly as they both accept their awards. They both feel betrayed by their friend. Trey feels the "romance" genre has warped women's ideas of men! His wife divorced him seeking a more dynamic romantic partner - one that appears on the pages of romance novels. He writes another little ditty for his column that offends Katrine regarding the awards dinner. He had to financially compensate Katrine for the prior column he had written and his editor is hoping to avoid another occurrence. The two combatants are lassoed into working together. They are assigned by Trey's boss and her editor to work on a newspaper feature on romance. This involves a month of dating where each will write from their perspective about them. The newspaper will fund all these dates and the publisher is hoping to raise his circulation numbers. Trey goes to great lengths to arrange terrible dates. Katrine must find a positive aspect for each of them and she does!

This was a laugh out funny book!!! The dates are hilarious!! The verbal sparring between the Kat and Trey is great! These were two very likable characters with strong personalities. They are each determined to win. The sparkling dialogue sets this book apart from all others. The plot line is fast paced. I couldn't stop reading until I reached the very end. The secondary characters add so much to the book especially Katrine's daughter who is so much wiser than her 11 years. The author has written a truly enjoyable book!! I highly recommend it to all who enjoy the "romance" genre and even those who don't! I look forward to reading her next book!

Rating:
Summary: This one should be a comedy movie!
Review: FUNNIEST BOOK I've read in years! I laughed til I cried from page 1 to the end. This one should be a MOVIE! More than a "chick-flick"... the plot twists and turns and keeps you on the edge of your seat, always guessing what's NEXT? LIONHEARTED PUBLISHING picked another great storyline AND ELEVATED WOMEN and romance genre another notch. Characters are funny! Don't have to live in Texas to appreciate this one, but it captures the diversity of Dallas. WAY ABOVE trash novels, this book made me a "romance" reader. Go Rhohda Thompson! Need to laugh? Want a great read? Want to escape? BUY THIS BOOK. Do a good deed & Send it to your chronically cranky friends, too!

Former Texan, Ann Vandeventer

Rating:
Summary: More light-hearted fun
Review: My biggest issue with this book was the decidedly unheroic hero. My second biggest issue was the author's tongue-in-cheek allusions to romance writers' attributes.

If you're going to make an argument that romance writers are real people too, why make the hero tall, dark, dimpled, handsome and strapping and the make the heroine slight, elegant, with a body that won't quit and long blonde hair?

The characters made some stupid and annoying decisions that were based on game-playing and one-upsmanship. The one thing I really can't get over though is that the hero bought the heroine's daughter a dog, without any prior warning and without permission (obviously). You don't do that to someone, you don't do that to an animal and you do not do that to a single mother. Ms. Thompson had many false starts that she didn't develop as well as she could have. It's a pity because those resolutions could have really worked to bring the couple together, but they kind of faded away. Otherwise, it was a mostly pleasant read. I did have one laugh-out-loud moment. And when they finally 'did the deed' I was impressed with our hero's sensitivity. I like what Ms. Thompson did with the relationship between the mother and the daughter - that development was one of the more interesting rel.s I've read in a while. Good Cover. Charming secondary characters.

Rating:
Summary: Weak... and not particularly funny...
Review: My biggest issue with this book was the decidedly unheroic hero. My second biggest issue was the author's tongue-in-cheek allusions to romance writers' attributes.

If you're going to make an argument that romance writers are real people too, why make the hero tall, dark, dimpled, handsome and strapping and the make the heroine slight, elegant, with a body that won't quit and long blonde hair?

The characters made some stupid and annoying decisions that were based on game-playing and one-upsmanship. The one thing I really can't get over though is that the hero bought the heroine's daughter a dog, without any prior warning and without permission (obviously). You don't do that to someone, you don't do that to an animal and you do not do that to a single mother. Ms. Thompson had many false starts that she didn't develop as well as she could have. It's a pity because those resolutions could have really worked to bring the couple together, but they kind of faded away. Otherwise, it was a mostly pleasant read. I did have one laugh-out-loud moment. And when they finally 'did the deed' I was impressed with our hero's sensitivity. I like what Ms. Thompson did with the relationship between the mother and the daughter - that development was one of the more interesting rel.s I've read in a while. Good Cover. Charming secondary characters.

Rating:
Summary: Isn't It Romantic
Review: Ronda Thompson continues to amaze me. Her level of humor and her ability to poke fun at her own profession is a delightful and welcome change from most Romance authors of today. I have been reading Romance for most of my life. Sometimes they bore me, sometimes they thrill me and sometimes they make me cry. But most of all I love it when they make me laugh. I have read three of Ronda's books and when I close the book after reading the last page, there is always a smile on my face. Not many authors can do this nowadays. A lot of them try, but few succeed. Ronda is great at what she does. I won't tell you the plot of the book, but I will say if you like romance and if you like a good laugh, you'll certainly get it with "Isn't It Romantic." Thanls Ronda, for a really good read. Queenie

Rating:
Summary: Isn't It Delightful?
Review: The author must have had a good time writing this, and it shows. Sure, it's a light froth of a story, but it's inherently more clever than most similar romances. Not plodding and not so linear, even if the ending--like all romances--is the predictable one. Yet in this story, getting there is a whole lot of fun. I can't remember when I laughed aloud as much reading a story of this genre. Author Rhonda Thompson gets in her pokes, spoofing the fact that in a romance novel, the hero must be handsome with washboard abs--then giving her hero dazzling looks and washboard abs. A similar description applies to her heroine, just as Thompson mocks the prototypical heroine's requisite beauty. Only one part of the premise seems a bit strained, that the hero is a book reviewer for a local paper who has a huge following and enormous influence, a situation that never occurs in real life--sorry, book reviewers just are not household names. Still, most of these romances require some suspension of credulity. At least this novel is reality-based, and once a reader accepts the hero's popularity as a motivating force in the story, it's a whole lot of fun to read the tale Ms. Thompson has woven. If she can sustain this pace, she is going to have an important romance writing career.