Carole's Sunday review: Fast Women - Jennifer Crusie

Author: Jennifer Crusie

Titles: Fast Women

Genre: Chick Lit & Mystery

Pages: 448

First Published: May 2001

Where I Got It: My shelf (Used Book Stores)

Nell Dysart's in trouble. Weighed down by an inexplicable divorce and a loss of appetite for everything, Nell is sleepwalking through life until her best friend finagles a job for her with a shabby little detective agency that has lots of potential and a boss who looks easy to manage. 

Gabe McKenna isn't doing too well, either. His detective agency is wasting time on a blackmail case, his partner has decided he hates watching cheating spouses for money, and his ex-wife has just dumped him...again. The only thing that's going his way is that his new secretary looks efficient, boring, and biddable. 

But looks can be deceiving and soon Nell and Gabe are squaring off over embezzlement, business cards, vandalism, dog-napping, blackmail, Chinese food, unprofessional sex, and really ugly office furniture, all of which turn out to be the least of their problems. Because soon, somebody starts killing people. And shortly after that, they start falling in love...

I had read and LOVED one of the author's other books, so I was excited to get my hands on another one. This was on the back-burner for a while and after moving and unpacking, I decided it was time to give this book a go.

The first couple of chapters were fun and had me laughing and feeling bad for Nell and Gabe. However....that is all the enjoyment I had. 

Nell turned into a fool. Nell's friends were idiots.

Gabe needed a kick in the face. Gabe's friends were idiots too.

Nell and Gabe together made me want to throw the book. 

I hated everyone by the end of the book. All the situations made me roll my eyes and want to slam the book down. These people are suppose to be 30-40s, however, they all acted like drunk 18 years olds in their first semester in college.  It was ridiculous and I was annoyed. Why did I keep reading? Well - I did a lot of skimming, but I am one for self-torture and I was hopeful I would fall in love like I did with the last book I had read by the author. Sadly, I need to start DNFing books. I skimmed so much, I might as well label this as a DNF. Sighs.

Besides for the first couple chapters, there was nothing redemable about this book. I am upset, because I do enjoy the author and her writing style. She is good, but this book was a total flop for me. I do not recommend this book if you want to start trying this author. Out of five stars, I stamp this with 1 star.