Series: Page Turners

Synopsis:

Sunny’s not sure she’s even looking for Mr. Maybe, when her friends decide to find her Mr. Right. Sunny Vale considers herself a dog-loving, romance-reading homebody. But her life goes from dull to deadly when her book club fires her from her own love life and sets her up on six blind dates--one of whom might be with a murderer.

More trouble arrives in the dead of night, in the form of Jake Landon, a mysterious stranger, who breaks into her neighbor’s house and possibly her heart. But Jake is packing more than a loaded gun in his well-fitting Levi’s. He brings an arsenal of secrets and plenty of heat to Sunny’s ho-hum summer.

Jake Landon finds himself caught up in the capers of the sexy blonde in the house next door. But he has his own agenda which doesn’t involve playing hero to a curvy second-grade teacher and babysitting her panty-puking puppy. He's got other problems like fiery explosions, a missing person...and a parade of jerks Sunny insists on dating. Could Sunny’s Mr. Right be right under her nose? Even though Jake is gorgeous, likes her dog, and has abs she can crack an egg on, can she really go out with him if he’s just murdered her next door neighbor?

Review:

Have you ever picked up a book because of someone else’s recommendation, even though that genre wasn’t really your thing?  Because that was me.  I’m not really into chick lit or mysteries anymore.  I’ve liked plenty in the past, but they haven’t worked for me in the last few years.  Yet I trusted an author whose books I love, and picked up a sample on Amazon. I was happily surprised that when I got to the end of the sample, I had to have more!  So I went and bought this book. It was just that adorable.  Another Saturday Night made me laugh and the characters quickly became my friends.  And I’m happy to say that when I finished that last page, I was left smiling and grabbed the next book in The Page Turners Series!

Her life was safe and quiet. Had it only been a couple of days since she had wished for more excitement? She feared she was about to get her wish.

Stepping into the first scene of this book, I knew I was going to love it.  Sunny was talking to her eighty year old neighbor, Edna, on the phone. You see, one of Sunny and Edna’s neighbor, Walter, was MIA.  But Edna swears she saw a hot, gun toting stranger going into Walter’s house last night.  What transpired from there was oh so funny.  Especially how Sunny ended up meeting said hot, gun toting stranger.  His name was Jake Landon and he definitely had a ton of secrets.  Yet Sunny couldn’t deny that there was an attraction between them, right from the start.

Finding Mr. Right? I didn’t even know if I was looking for Mr. Maybe.

Not only were Sunny and Edna neighbors and friends, but they both belonged to a weekly book club.  Rounding out the club was Maggie, a mom of two boys, whose husband left her a year and a half ago. Cassie, who was happily married with two kiddos.  And Piper, who was Cassie’s high school niece who had come to live with her. I quickly warmed up to each of these women and found myself invested in their lives too.  They not only discussed the books they were reading, but also their lives. And in their latest book meeting, they all decided to help Sunny out with her lack of love life.  They were going to set her up on a date a week, for the next six weeks.

The last few weeks, she had been throwing caution to the wind and dating strange men, hoping to add excitement and find that right guy. But what if the right guy was next door and had just invited her to dinner?

Sunny’s dates were hilarious!  I was laughing so hard, but at the same time I was dying for her awkward situations.  And I found humor in so many other places in this book too.  Even with Sunny’s dog, Beau. Oh my gosh, I adored Beau!! He was hilarious, loyal and added so much joy to this story.  I also loved how Beau interacted with Jake, sigh. I truly think that Beau is my favorite dog in a story. Ever. So while Sunny found herself going out on these blind dates, and coming back to just her dog, Jake was still there.  Just next door. They couldn’t help but run into each other. And slowly a friendship started to form, yet there was also that attraction between the two of them.  But there were still so many questions surrounding Jake. Who was Jake? And where was Walter? Did Jake kill him?  And as if that wasn’t enough, another mystery appeared on the pages.

“Hey, Sunny,” he called from the doorway.
She stopped and looked back. His lean body was silhouetted against the light coming from the house, and it took all she had to not run back and throw herself into his arms. “Yeah?” 
“You can trust me,” he said softly, looking into her eyes. Then he stepped back into the house and closed the door behind him.
Maybe, but right now, she didn’t think she could trust herself.

I’m proud to say that I guessed the majority of the mysteries correctly, yay!  And I’m also proud to say I liked how this story was told. Usually I prefer to stick with one or two characters, so I found myself shocked that I liked floating around between everyone.  Yeah Sunny was the main character, and we spent the majority of the time with her. But we also got to see life through Jake, Maggie, Piper and a few of the other characters too. I was more than invested in all of their lives.  This book was super adorable, light even though it touched on some heavier topics (trigger warning for attempted rape), had a sweet romance, intriguing mysteries and was such a quick read.  I’m definitely looking forward to the next book and catching up with this crazy gang again!