Wife for Hire CD
by Janet Evanovich
List Price:
Our Price: $8.09
You Save: $6.86 (46%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $6.50 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Janet EvanovichReader: C. J. Critt
Edition: Music CD
Format: Audiobook, Unabridged
Published: 2007-11-01
ISBN: 0060737115
Publisher: HarperAudio
Book Reviews of Wife for Hire CD
Book Review: Cute tale, but only republished because of the Evanovich name
Summary: 2 Stars
Amusing, lightweight fun. Almost a novella, but the printer and publisher have stretched it to book size. If it had a bit more depth or plot to it, I would have given it another star.
Local bad boy Hank inherits an apple orchard and wants to turn over a new leaf. In order to realize his dream and go organic he needs a loan, but the whole town knows his history and he can't raise the funds. He wants to look responsible, he needs to be taken seriously...he needs a wife! Not a real one of course, just to get the loan, so he hires Maggie from New Jersey as a "pretend wife" for six months. She wants time to write a book from her aunt's diaries, so it seems the perfect business arrangement. Of course, they fall madly in love, but she isn't sure if she wants to stay at the end of the agreed term. It is all terribly predictable. In essence, a bit more of a teenage novel than one written for adults. It also seems a bit dated. Hank needs to grow up and take responsibility for his actions to be taken seriously, so who would think he had achieved stability just because he pulled a wife out of the hat? Okay, it is a ludicrous plot, so you have to disregard that to enjoy the juvenile, slip on a banana skin, style fun.
In the characters you can see the prototypes for later Evanovich stalwarts - Elsie Hawkins is definitely Grandma Mazur, packing a gun, after a hunk (all about 80+ and dying from the excitement) and she even drives the same car as Grandma Mazur later inherited from a relative in one of the Plum books.
A couple of weeks after reading it, I am finding it hard to recall much of the story and the names of some of the characters, which says quite a bit about it.
Janet Evanovich's work all has a similar feel to it. That is not necessarily bad, but it means it doesn't matter if you skip a book or two because you will get pretty much the same dialog and situations in another book. This was originally written for a publisher of Romance books, so of course it has the predictable happy ending, which you knew from page one.
You'll read it in a couple of hours, tops. There are a few laughs in it, and it is not nearly as contrived as the later books in the Plum series, but nor is it up to the standard of the first few Plums. These early Evanovich books are being republished as there is money to be made from the Evanovich name. Janet has her whole family employed at Evanovich Inc, which means she has to squeeze everything she can from her back catalog and current publications. If people are prepared to buy it why not? It probably also accounts for the tacky merchandise she hawks as well.
To be honest, if it had been written by an unknown author it would have never have been republished. Fans of Evanovich will probably buy it, and although it is an okay book, I doubt if anyone else would, and she wouldn't get new fans on the back of this book. I wouldn't pay the publisher's list price for it.
Summary of Wife for Hire CD
Hank Mallone knows he's in trouble when Maggie Toone agrees to pretend to be his wife in order to improve his rogue's reputation. Will his harebrained scheme to get a bank loan for his business backfire once Maggie arrives in his small Vermont town and lets the gossips take a look?
Maggie never expected her employer to be drop-dead handsome, but she's too intrigued by his offer to say no . . . and too eager to escape a life that made her feel trapped. The deal is strictly business, both agree, until Hank turns out to be every fantasy she ever had.
General Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in General Books
A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose (Oprah's Book Club, Selection 61)by Eckhart Tolle
Penguin; Published: 2008-01-30; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $13.85
Price in other shops:
No Future For You (Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight, Volume 2)by Brian K. Vaughan, Joss Whedon
Dark Horse; Published: 2008-06-11; Comic; Book
Best price: $8.50
Price in other shops:
The Garden of Last Days: A Novelby Andre Dubus III
W. W. Norton; Published: 2008-06-02; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.24
Price in other shops:
Catch-22by Joseph Heller
Simon & Schuster; Published: 1996-09-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.00
Price in other shops:
A Separate Peaceby John Knowles
Scribner; Published: 2003-10-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.98
Price in other shops:
Watchmenby Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons
DC Comics; Published: 1995-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.55
Price in other shops:
Things Fall Apart: A Novelby Chinua Achebe
Anchor; Published: 1994-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.95
Price in other shops:
The Secret Life of Beesby Sue Monk Kidd
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2003-01-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.72
Price in other shops:
Fahrenheit 451by Ray Bradbury
Del Rey; Published: 1987-08-12; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.66
Price in other shops:
How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Linesby Thomas C. Foster
Harper Paperbacks; Published: 2003-03-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.02
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Love Overboardby Janet Evanovich
HarperTorch; Published: 2005-02-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.25
Price in other shops:
Lean Mean Thirteen (Stephanie Plum, No. 13)by Janet Evanovich
St. Martin's Press; Published: 2007-06-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.95
Price in other shops:
Smittenby Janet Evanovich
HarperTorch; Published: 2006-07-25; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.45
Price in other shops:
The Rocky Road to Romanceby Janet Evanovich
HarperTorch; Published: 2004-09-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.00
Price in other shops:
Manhuntby Janet Evanovich
HarperTorch; Published: 2005-12-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.25
Price in other shops:
The Grand Finaleby Janet Evanovich
Harper; Published: 2008-10-28; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.99
Thanksgivingby Janet Evanovich
HarperTorch; Published: 2006-10-31; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.20
Price in other shops:
Fearless Fourteen (Stephanie Plum, No. 14)by Janet Evanovich
St. Martin's Press; Published: 2008-06-17; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $10.00
Price in other shops:
Naughty Neighborby Janet Evanovich
Harper; Published: 2008-03-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.90
Price in other shops:
Plum Lucky (A Between-the-Numbers Novel)by Janet Evanovich
St. Martin's Press; Published: 2008-01-08; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.43
Price in other shops: