TANGLED UP IN LOVE

Author: Heidi Betts ISBN: 9780312946715 2/2009 CONTEMPORARY Publisher: ST. MARTN'S PRESS

ARE THEY FIT TO BE TIED? Ever since Dylan Stone beat Veronica Chasen out of a prime position at the Cleveland Courier, they’ve been bitter rivals, engaging in a very public war of words in their competing newspaper columns. They routinely challenge each other to go bungee jumping, white water rafting, or into tattoo parlors to see who will wimp out first. But Veronica’s latest taunt may be Dylan’s toughest assignment yet: She dares him to learn to knit. OR WILL DESIRE UNRAVEL THEM BOTH? Dylan is not going to let something his grandmother can do scare him off. He’s man enough to make a scarf—and attend Veronica’s weekly knitting circle. But when the infuriatingly handsome Dylan shows up at the craft shop and charms all the ladies, Veronica starts to get all knotted up in something that feels a lot like love…

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

There were things that were very well done in TANGLED UP IN LOVE and things that didn't go over as well as it could have. At the top of the good list is the dialogue. I really enjoyed the rivalry and the banter between Dylan and Veronica—lots of zings and one liners to keep this reader chuckling! I also really enjoyed watching Dylan learn how to knit. There were lots of little throwaways that only a knitter would get. Also on the good list was the sex. I admit, I wasn't expecting such a steamy read when I started TANGLED UP, but steamy is what I got, that's for sure!

The downfall, however, was that even though I liked many elements of this story, at the end of the day, I'm not convinced that I believed Dylan and Victoria were really in love. I think they cared for each other, I think even worked well together, but I'm just not convinced they actually loved each other. There were also little nit-picky things about the author's writing style that annoyed me. I found that the author would often interrupt a character's internal monologue or description of doing something with a parenthetical sidebar which was very, very disturbing for the reader.

Overall, however, I enjoyed this story and look forward to the next book in this series.

Jilian Vallade