REVIEW: How to Score by Robin Wells
B Reviews / B Reviews Category / Book ReviewsContemporary / Deception / romantic comedy9 Comments
Dear Ms. Wells:
It’s hart to recommend a funny book because everyone’s idea of funny is different. Jayne didn’t love Between the Sheets and I would be hardpressed to argue that she would like How to Score. I did, however, enjoy this book and I’ll try to articulate why I liked it so readers can judge for themselves whether the funny works for them. Or not.
How to Score relies on physical and situational comedy which ordinarily I don’t like but worked for me in this book.
The heroine is this art curator who is super nice but having assertiveness issues and relationship issues. She sees an ad for a life coach and a free session and calls up Luke Jones. After one session though, Luke has to go into witness protection after seeing a mob hit. His brother, an FBI agent, takes over as the life coach, pretending to be Luke. Chase owes Luke because Chase is the reason why Luke has to go into protective custody anyway.
Chase had been staking out this one restaurant because of purported mob activity but nothing panned out. One night when Luke and Chase were christening Chase’s new plasma TV, they decided to go and get pizza. Chase tells Luke about this restaurant and Luke ends up seeing the mob hit. (Luke tells him that the next time he wants pizza, they are getting it from Dominoes).
Luke goes into witness protection after the mob tries to off him and Chase, feeling guilty, undertakes to keep Lucas’ business afloat. Lucas does life coaching all over the phone. Luke writes Chase copious notes on what each one of his client and provides step by step instructions on how to handle each client. For example, if the client asks you what to do, turn into a question.
Sammie was one that Luke told Chase to pawn off on someone else since she had just had the free consultation. But Chase is caught off guard by her sexy voice and continues the session. During the session, Sammie reveals that her life is in disarray and that ever since she caught her boyfriend cheating on her, she has felt unsure of herself.
She explains that every guy she’s been attracted to she’s injured and provides Chase with the theory her sister gave her — Sammie is subconsciously trying to sabotage relationships.
Chase decides he’ll try out his own “life coaching” tecniques instead of Luke’s mamby pamby ones and orders Sammie to start running in the morning. He then goes out in the morning to see what Sammie looks like. Sammie has a dog who has a leather fetish and while Chase is running past Sammie, the dog attacks Chase’s back pocket and rips his shorts down and runs off with his wallet. Sammie collapses on top of Chase and a cop comes by and accuses the two of them of indecent contact. I thought it was very funny, but that’s the type of physical
comedy that is in the story which might turn people off.
Sammie really falls for Chase and Chase falls for Sammie, but he’s stuck in this lie. He is afraid to come clean because he is sure that Sammie will hate him, but he also wants to help boost her self confidence. On the one hand we have Sammie telling Luke, her life coach, how much she likes Chase and we have Chas knowing Sammie’s feelings. I think it works because Chase feels just as strong for Sammie. (He refers to her as the Yeti because he never thought he’d find just the right woman for him).
Sammie is not a very assertive woman when it comes to her personal life. She’s had bad relationship after bad relationship and her confidence is at an all time low. I enjoyed seeing Sammie blossom into becoming more self assured in all aspects of her life.
There is also an interesting dynamic between the current curator of the museum, who Sammie has been hired to replace, and Sammie herself. Arlene was the mistress of the man who owned the mansion that houses the museum. (Think the Frick Museum, my favorite museum of all time). Arlene has her own path of self discovery and discovers new romance by the end of the book.
Chase keeps up the deception overly long and Sammie could have been more assertive at times, but all in all, this book left me with a smile on my face.
This book can be purchased in mass market from an independent bookstore or ebook format from the Sony Store and other etailers on June 1. I know. I hate that there isn’t simultaneous release and I’ve let Hachette know how much I dislike this policy.
Pretty much all kinds of funny works for me! HELLO? I own all of the Sandra Hill Viking books LOL. I’ll be picking up How to Score asap.
I like this kind of funny, so I think this would be right up my isle. I started laughing when your were describing the doggy issues…lol. As I have a dog with a similar issues, except his is flyswatters, I can relate. It sounds fantastic.
Oh, I loved this book too! This hit all the right notes with me, and I loved the fact that there were quite a few happy endings.
“It's hard to recommend a funny book because everyone's idea of funny is different.”
You can say that again. My version is:
It’s hard to write/sell a funny book because everyone’s idea of funny is different.
*sigh*
I’ve read three of Robin Well’s older books, BABY, OH BABY, WILD ABOUT YOU and THE BABE MAGNET and, while they are pretty good reads in varying degrees, I agree that her sense of humor may not be for everyone. I found it on occasion kind of cornball or hokey but I liked her relationships quite a bit, so she’s a mixed bag for me.
I’m glad you let Hachette know about the annoying release dates. I saw you talking about this book on Twitter and would have purchased yesterday in e. Since it would have been an impluse buy, I may be a lost sale. We’ll see if I remember to buy it….
I liked this review and I thought I’d mosey on over to Books on Board and put it on my wishlist for my next buying spree. (That way I don’t forget books I’m interested in.)
Well, colour me grumpy – there are 2 versions available, an Adobe ePub and an eReader version. According to the website, the ePub version is not available in my country (Australia) but the eReader version is!!!!! I have emailed BoB to clarify but in the meantime – grrrrrr!!!
I don’t think I can use eReader on my Sony 700 so that means no sale. Pity. It sounded like I’d have liked it.
Thanks for the review! You’re so right about funny being a subjective thing. You did a really great job objectively describing the story dynamics. Glad it left you with a smile!