"Thanksgiving" by Janet Evanovich

As we move into a holiday season that is filled with a lot of gloom and doom on the economic front, it is refreshing to read something that is just light and happy fun, the romance by Janet Evanovich, "Thanksgiving."

The setting is beautiful and historic Williamsburg where a young pediatrician, Patrick Hunter, has come to set up his practice. He meets a potter and part-time Williamsburg tour ticket-taker, Megan Murphy, who is house sitting at a relative's farmhouse near Williamsburg. They suddenly are given charge of an infant named, Timmy, who is left by one of the doctor's patients for a couple of weeks. The romance evolves over the unlikely activity of mutually taking care of this infant, an activity that most parents recognize as a romance killer.

To make matters even more precarious for the romance, both sets of parents and his siblings show up for Thanksgiving dinner. Fortunately, both sides give their blessing to the couple, and, after a few ups and downs, fights and angst, the two make their final plans to get married at Christmas.

It's a fun read and I recommend the book to those who like Evanovich's breezy style, lovers of the Williamsburg setting, and romance readers.

Liz Nichols

Janet Evanovich's "Wife for Hire"

When I went in to the Iowa City Public Library for my regular reading fix I discovered that the "New Fiction" shelves included a reprint of a 1990 standby by Janet Evanvich, her romance, "Wife for Hire."

This is much more than the usual lusty busty. Evanovich is careful to finely detail a whole town full of quirky and memorable characters. Maggie Toone accepts a six month "job" as the fake wife of an apple orchard farmer, Hank Mallone, and moves from her town in New Jersey to Skogen, Vermont, to take up her duties. She believes this part time wife role will leave plenty of time to write a book based on the diaries of her Aunt Kitty, a famous New Jersey Madam. Hank's housekeeper, Elsie Hawkins, is constantly adding to hilarity by keeping everyone in line by wit or force.

Maggie, Hank and Elsie find themselves fending off intruders who go after the diaries for some mysterious reason. Meanwhile, Maggie finds herself alternatively fending Hank off and inviting him in.

There are a number of laugh out loud scenes in "Wife for Hire," as is typical in an Evanovich book.

Liz Nichols