I knew this story would be right up my alley. I love happy endings. ( )

Romance ( )

Carly Jacobsen is a Las Vegas showgirl who rescues stray animals. Wolfgang Jones is the number two in command in the Security Department of the casino where they both work and just happens to be Carly's next door neighbor. As the story begins Carly has sprained her ankle when a little old lady toting a big-ass purse slams into her knocking her off her high heels. Wolf comes to the rescue and offers to give her a ride home. Carly and Wolf can't stand each other. Carly thinks Wolf is an uptight, driven, animal-hater (the worst sin in her opinion). Wolf thinks Carly is flighty, irritating and irresponsible.

Wolf has had a tough upbringing as a child. Because of his father's job, Wolf and his family had to move many, many times in embassies all over the world. He was never able to make close friendships and has issues of acceptance. As an adult Wolf still has almost no friends. But he has a plan... he's going to become head of his own security department, find a nice woman to marry and settle into the perfect life. Even though he thinks Carly is very hot, she is not his type at all. Wolf comes across as very regimented and cold and I found him unlikeable at first. When Wolf's teenage nephew, Niklaus, comes to live with him he is determined to make a good home for him, but Wolf has a very difficult time talking to people about how he feels and causes some misunderstandings with Nik and Carly. I liked Nik and how he schemed to bring Carly and Wolf together. Slowly Wolf loosens up and comes to realize how totally wrong he is about Carly. I enjoyed how her pets seem to adopt him as few humans had. Kind of symbolic and very sweet.

Carly comes across at first as a bit of a ditz. She also had a tough upbringing and has no plans to marry. Carly has a heart of gold and I really liked her. She fosters stray animals from shelters and then trains them to be good pets for others. She volunteers at the local children's hospital and brings her pets to share with the children who are cancer patients and even gives them up for adoption when she feels it's right. One quibble... she liked to call people 'Toots'. Funny the first couple times, after that a bit of an overkill.

This is a character driven story with some fairly good secondary characters. Near the end there is a stalker storyline that seemed sort of tacked on but it wasn't distracting and didn't ruin the fluffiness of the book. JFK had lots of hot steamy sex and was a fun, quick read. (Grade: B) ( )

All Shook Up isn't quite as fun as Baby, I'm Yours - but I still gobbled it up in one sitting. The human emotions here are a bit weightier (or rather they're dealt with more seriously) and are more fully explored (perhaps exhaustively explored, depending on how patient you are,) though that chemistry between the hero and heroine is still just as much in evidence, i.e. very hot. Maybe it's a trademark of Anderson's. The love between the hero and heroine was really believable as well. The book is basically about the hero getting over his trust issues and the heroine fighting to keep him even though he doesn't think he's good enough for her. His martyr act gets old, but the heroine is tenacious, and he finally wises up to what he was about to throw away. Even so, he's an endearing hero - a big softie underneath, and I don’t begrudge him his happily ever after. While most of the book is about the characters, and this is all well and good, when a sloppy plot is tacked on involving the hero’s erstwhile best friend turned homicidal maniac stalking the hero and causing trouble in paradise, I’m not so happy anymore. Combine that with the book’s more mellow feel, and (even though I think it’s still a pretty good read, sweet and heartwarming) I didn’t like All Shook Up as much as Baby, I’m Yours. Call me shallow, but the latter was such fun, and I think showed the strengths of the author more to advantage than the former. ( )

This is a story about Dru and J.D who meet when J.D inherits a lodge that Dru and her aunt nad uncle also own. From the beginning of the story these two characters butt heads over the running of the lodge. Dru is afraid of committing to another man after he left her and her child, while J.D had a rough life and is also committment shy. They fall in love after a series of events push them together, especially when Dru's life is threatened. Not one of Susan Andersen's best books, but still entertaining. ( )