I have a huge fondness for stories of (for lack of a better word) wacky heroines. I don’t mean chick lit women, the ones who can’t balance their checkbook and lose their undies in the train station. I mean the ones who are obstinately marching along to their own drummer, wearing funny hats, playing in a ukulele band, eschewing fish net stockings. Susan Elizabeth Phillips has written some great ones, and so has another of my favorite authors, Christie Ridgeway.

Well, this last weekend I discovered Julia Harper’s contemporaries (she writes historicals as Elizabeth Hoyt) – and another great, quirky heroine. A perfect attraction-of-opposites story. Zoey Addler wears funky hats, big boots, and gets into shouting matches with men who steal her (shoveled) parking space. Having grown up in Minnesota, I can appreciate it. On the other hand, Special Agent Dante Torelli wears Hugo Boss suits and Italian shoes. He’s rich; she’s a poet. As the daughter of a poet, I can tell you that that her lack-of-money rang very true to me.

At any rate, Zoey and Dante get swept into an improbable but fun plot in which they’re chasing after two kidnapped babies (though not kidnapped in a scary way), a less-than-ruthless mobster, and two older Indian ladies. Meanwhile they’re being chased by a James Bond type of villain with a love of guns. It’s all great escapism.

And the romance? Super cute. Zoey jumps off the page. She’s uninterested in Dante’s money, but very interested in his other assets. It’s huge fun to watch Dante fall under Zoey’s spell, even as he fights the idea of a relationship with someone who is curvy rather than model thin, who wore a reindeer herder hat, and braids her hair. He, on the other hand, drives an eighty-thousand dollar car and listens to Frank Sinatra for fun. It’s a shock to him when Zoey has no interest in his bank account; he’s used to be seen through a sheen of money.

It takes a while for Dante and Zoey to find any private time but when they do – wow. Elizabeth Hoyt’s historicals are hot, and her contemporaries deserve the same label. This is a great novel for a rainy day – enjoy!

~buy this book~