Fast Women

Feb 23, 2013 karen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: for-that-bodice-ripper-group

yeah, i'm surprised, myself. but it's a different kind of four-star rating. because while there were elements i thought were unsuccessful and dippy characters whose actions confused me, you don't sit down and eat a tub of frosting with a wooden spoon and then complain about the aftertaste.

i just don't usually have this much fun with the titles for the bodice rippers society. they are fine, but usually they are trying too hard to be sexxy, which is a total turn-off.

this one was goofier, and i th...more

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Mar 20, 2013 mark monday rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to mark by: RBRS (Assignment #6)

Shelves: romantika

my first contemporary (and heterosexual) romance. or in this case, a "romantic mystery". cute, fun, and even ocasionally interesting. the situations and attitudes depicted in this novel are so outside of my experience that at times i felt like i was reading a scifi novel. which was not a bad feeling.

do you live in a bubble?
interesting question. my first instinct is to say No, of course i don't. that's probably everyone's first instinct; who wants to live in a bubble, who wants to admit that?...more

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Feb 27, 2013 Elizabeth rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Elizabeth by: Kelly

Shelves: reviewed, 2013, rbrs, hem-steppers-and-bodice-rippers, in-by-of-the-americas

Do you live in a bubble? (view spoiler) The idea of the bubble, liberal or otherwise, has always been problematic for me because any time it's based on economics it seems to forget what happens to women if they have had the following things happen to them:

1. They get married;
2. While married they are not the primary breadwinner;
3. They get divorced.

For women, if these three things happen to them, all bets are off. Th...more Do you live in a bubble? (view spoiler) The idea of the bubble, liberal or otherwise, has always been problematic for me because any time it's based on economics it seems to forget what happens to women if they have had the following things happen to them:

1. They get married;
2. While married they are not the primary breadwinner;
3. They get divorced.

For women, if these three things happen to them, all bets are off. The financial standing, their friendships, their non-work activities, the type of work they do, where they live, everything changes. We notice it most with white, middle class women because they have the furthest to fall, so to speak, as a group. Their incomes fall by 90%. (This was a study I read in college and I am not looking it up again, sorry). So I get a book about the fear of divorce, the fear that comes not just from being alone, but everything else that goes into what happens after...and I give Jennifer Cruise a huge amount of credit for taking on the topic in a romance novel!

Seriously, she does a lot in this book to explore women's relationships both with men and with each other in a very real way (okay, in a mostly real way because one has to discount the whole murder mystery part; that's not real). She does it while successfully pulling through the romance plot with all of the usual trappings too (although thankfully no bikini wax).

But I think of the bubble question because I was baffled by these women. Reading this book I realized there are all sorts of bubbles that we can live in and mine is that I don't know women like this. I don't know women who felt they had no choice about who they married. I don't know women who get picked up as teenagers by married men and say yes! I don't know women who aren't pissed as hell when their husbands leave them. In fact, I don't know women whose husbands leave them. Because I don't know women who feel helpless, like they don't have control over their own lives, and who don't feel they can take action to get the things they need or want.

Sure, I know women who have relationships end, who have been divorced, who have been dumped or who have had a partner cheat. The difference is the reaction. I had a lot of trouble relating to how the women in this book reacted to what had happened in their lives. They reminded me of another generation, which they are, but I mean a much older generation. The book is set in the late nineties with women in their forties, so they had married in the seventies. They read, though, like women a decade or two before, and I realized that's because the women I know of whose stories I've heard that are remotely like this are of my mother's generation, and my mother divorced in the seventies.

I'm kind of encouraged by this. I'm encouraged that the women I know have a lot more wherewithal to weather this type of relationship storm. I feel like we're stronger now. More confident. We have more information and more resources and more expectations of what we can do in our lives. But maybe I'm living in a bubble? Is this book still relevant for other women?

This may be the best romance novel I've ever read. It's not amazing. I'm not running out to buy every book Cruise has ever written. But, man, this is a solid piece of work with some real complexity and no rape masquerading as romance. I enjoyed it. This is what I'm expecting when I pick up a romance novel and this is one of the few (very few) times I haven't been disappointed. Faint praise, I know, but I'm not the person to listen to about romance novels. Go ask someone who really loves them for everything they are about this one; I bet she loves it.(less)

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Jul 26, 2011 Kelly rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 21st-century, fiction, mawwiageiswhatbringsustogethertoday, romantical, wits-and-fools, grande-dames

ALERT, ALERT, ALERT! I think I found one! A real romance novel that feels like a romance novel! It negated most of the problems I have with romance novels: that the people I'm supposed to like are assholes, that it all happens too fast and unrealistically, that the main characters spend all their time thinking about each others crazy crazy amazing bodies. And and and! Women's sexuality isn't fetishized as pure as the driven snow. Possessiveness happens, sure, but you know, when it's realistic. N...more ALERT, ALERT, ALERT! I think I found one! A real romance novel that feels like a romance novel! It negated most of the problems I have with romance novels: that the people I'm supposed to like are assholes, that it all happens too fast and unrealistically, that the main characters spend all their time thinking about each others crazy crazy amazing bodies. And and and! Women's sexuality isn't fetishized as pure as the driven snow. Possessiveness happens, sure, but you know, when it's realistic. Not every relationship is dramatized to the utmost. Women can make a lot of mistakes, and as long as they are still smart, strong and sexy, all is well. AS IT SHOULD BE. Adults often talk to each other like adults, things take months to develop, there's realistic conflict of feelings and interests, the supporting characters have their own story lines and problems (which are also engaging, especially Suze's complex and morally grey deal) and the main characters do NOT live perfectly, happily ever after, but good things do happen to them. Nell ends up such a cool woman after starting out like death, and I cheered her transformation the whole way. The hero has his flaws, but they are believable, everyday ones, no more twisted than anyone else's. Not like, "My father never thought I was good enough to be a real Lord Blackraven, so I pretended to be a horrible person! Even though I am totally not and we shall now live happily ever after!" Yes, there is a bit of an over-the-top fetishization of noir stuff in here, and yes, I did have a teensy bit of a problem with the secretary-boss dynamic and arguing that this relationship was somehow different than all those other secretary-boss relationships. But Crusie acknowledges the problems with that and works through it.

It made me smile, it made me laugh, and it made me go, "hell yes!" when a few awesome things happened. This is a novel about two recognizable people getting through each day of life who get together and have a relationship. That sounds like it should be the whole romance novel genre, but sadly most incarnations I read are really about social status or going quietly mad. This is about a romance. I really appreciated that.

ALERT: A ROMANCE NOVEL EXISTS.

This has been a public service announcement. We will now return to your regularly scheduled programming.(less)

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Mar 15, 2013 Miriam rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery

OK, they're not really fast exactly, but c'mon, they only have fragile little stumpy china legs.

The Walking Ware may be only a metaphor (a pretty obvious one), but these women are Special Olympics fast, not Florence Griffith Joyner fast. They are like people who come out of comas and must slowly learn to walk again. Only, most of them seem to have never known how in the first place.

Suze seemed in some ways to have the most excuse for her retardation: she married an older man whom she met while...more
OK, they're not really fast exactly, but c'mon, they only have fragile little stumpy china legs.

The Walking Ware may be only a metaphor (a pretty obvious one), but these women are Special Olympics fast, not Florence Griffith Joyner fast. They are like people who come out of comas and must slowly learn to walk again. Only, most of them seem to have never known how in the first place.

Suze seemed in some ways to have the most excuse for her retardation: she married an older man whom she met while still in high school, and has never had to make a decision, must less work, and therefore has never developed interests or identity outside her marriage. It's understandable therefore, that she has a hard time admitting even to herself that her marriage is stifling; instead, her desire for escape and growth manifests itself in her obsession with “Walking Ware,” china with running feet. When her friend introduces her to the Walking Ware, “Suze lined up the running egg cups in a line and laughed. There were nine of them…all running hell bent for leather for someplace else.” She imagines the cups “running amok among the Spode,” the grimly painted heirloom china she is forced by her husband’s family to use, of which she says “I get very depressed looking at my china.” Having decided to buy some egg cups of her own, Suze “felt immeasurably lighter. She was going to have to get a job now. She had a future that didn’t involve going to school and waiting for Jack to get home. She was doing something.” At this point Suze has just begun to admit her own discontent with her sheltered life and has not yet realized that her husband is one of the things she is unhappy with.

Nell, the main character, is pretending to be amicably divorced by denying even to herself that her husband cheated on her after using her for years to support and build his career. Now that his business is successful, he has traded her in for a younger and more attractive model. Although Nell is not to blame for the divorce, her sorrow reads more like a combination of bruised ego, financial anxiety, betrayal, and loss of stability than the rending heartbreak of having lost a deeply loved spouse. Her personal grief at the (view spoiler) seems more wrenching. But she really liked that stuff; her marriage seemed more of a purely practical investment.

Crusie’s implicit criticism of the financial aspects of marriage is reminiscent of sociologist and philosopher Erich Fromm’s (whom Crusie cites in her critical writing) indictment of the objectifying view of love which approaches it as the purchase of best possible commodity (i.e. getting the most wealthy, prestigious, or attractive partner available given one’s own “exchange value” of attributes). Fromm argues that many people mistakenly conceive of love as being an easy, emotional reaction or a matter of sexual or material desire: “What most people in our culture mean by being lovable is essentially a mixture between being popular and having sex appeal.”

This is a theme addressed in many of Crusie's novels -- the temptation or pressure to let relationship choices be guided by financial advantage, social or familiar pressures, or other non-emotional factors. Like Fromm, who asks and answers, “What does one person give another? He gives of himself…of his joy, of his interest, of his understanding, of his knowledge, of his humor, of sadness… In thus giving of his life, he enriches the other person,” Crusie urges readers to instead conceive of love as a process of mutual understanding and giving, to which honesty -- most of all with oneself -- is indispensable. (less)

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Jul 02, 2008 Siria rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 21st-century, american-fiction, romance

I quite liked this one, as it was frothy and fun but still somehow realistic—Crusie is good at setting up relationships between both the main and the secondary romantic couples which don't rely on external forces to create angst and drama, but rather at showing how repeated patterns of behaviour can ruin relationships without any outside help. I also liked the fact that Crusie is always happy to show her female characters taking genuine pleasure in their food, but not in a neurotic way, and that...more

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Jun 28, 2011 Jan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: romance, z-2011, contemporary-romance

I liked it well enough, though at times I felt it was more a book about bad relationships than a romance, and I never really got a feel for who Gabe was.

I did like Nell as a character, and her growth was very nice to see. I also liked that this was a book featuring characters in their forties, who both had been married before.

The other side characters I disliked most of the time, because nobody seemed to take control over their life. But since it was one of the main topics of the book I guess it...more

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Jan 26, 2009 AzuresHeart rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have finished this book... It was my first go at Jennifer Crusie... I am not sure what turned me off on this one... I think the family on top of family was confusing a bit... and at one point I thought it was incesteous LOL... corrected quickly but I was like HUH???... and I think the age group was a bit off for me... I think I prefer younger/not divorced heros/heroines based on my relating to this book. So I learned some things with this one... It was funny in parts though and I think it was...more

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Apr 17, 2013 MrsJoseph rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: romance-contemporary, format-hardback, jennifer-crusie, romance, 2012-read, 2012-reviewed, romance-detective

I think I'm starting to understand why Jennifer Crusie calls her books "novels" and not "romances." A lot of them are rather...unconventional for the romance trope. Three great examples of this are Agnes and the Hitman, Don't Look Down, and this book.

One thing you don't see very often in romances is the hero or heroine having sex with anyone else after meeting (unless they are into that kind of thing ;-). Fast Women deviates from this with both the hero and the heroine.

It's different from a ty...more

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Mar 22, 2013 LG (A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions) rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1-star, read-2008, format-print, acquired-library

After Nell Dysart divorced her husband of 22 years, she lost her appetite for everything. Because her friends, Suze and Margie, are worried about her, she gets a job as a secretary at Gabe McKenna's detective agency. Of course, Gabe's biggest clients are also all the men who are or once were in Nell and her friends lives, so it's not like she's getting too fresh a start. Gabe's agency starts looking into a blackmail case involving those men, and things start getting very complicated.

This makes i...more After Nell Dysart divorced her husband of 22 years, she lost her appetite for everything. Because her friends, Suze and Margie, are worried about her, she gets a job as a secretary at Gabe McKenna's detective agency. Of course, Gabe's biggest clients are also all the men who are or once were in Nell and her friends lives, so it's not like she's getting too fresh a start. Gabe's agency starts looking into a blackmail case involving those men, and things start getting very complicated.

This makes it sound like the book is mostly about Nell and Gabe, but it's not. There's Riley, Gabe's partner in the agency, who's been pining over Suze for years. Of course, she doesn't even know he exists, and she's married. Things start getting rocky with her husband (Jack) because he wants her to stay home and look pretty and not go out, get a job, and have a life that doesn't involve him in every aspect - by the way, Suze was once "the other woman" when Jack was married to his second wife. Then there's Margie, who's dating a guy named Budge. Margie drinks a lot because Budge wants her to marry him and that's not what she wants to do. Technically, she's still married to her husband, who left years ago and may be dead, but if she declares him dead then she won't have a convenient excuse for turning down Budge. Also, back to Nell and Gabe, it's not like things are going perfectly for them either. Nell and Gabe fight a lot (and have a lot of make-up sex, but that's not the point) because they're both stubborn as hell. Gabe doesn't want any changes in his life and his agency, and Nell wants to redo everything at the agency and sees any sort of giving in as allowing him to use her as a doormat. Remember, however, that Nell is the secretary, and really, truly should be getting Gabe's approval and input before changing things and replacing furniture instead of railroading over him.

Granted, I haven't read many Jennifer Crusie books (I think this is my fifth one), but I'm used to her books being funny, romantic, and frequently heart-tugging and exasperating at the same time. I'm not used to her characters being annoying, rigid, and generally unlikeable, which is how I viewed the characters in this book most of the time. Basically, Riley came off as the most emotionally healthy character, and he was the one dealing with his feelings for Suze by dating/sleeping with anything female (like an undergrad, or Nell). Gabe's resistance to change was understandable, at first, but it got really annoying when he continued to resist even the changes that made sense. Nell acted like a bulldozer in Gabe's agency, and (because of her divorce) she was left with the impression that giving in a little is the same as letting yourself get walked on. Suze is a doormat who thinks she needs a man in her life in order to be complete, and she feels this so wholeheartedly that she's willing to give up having a life of her own in order to have a man around. At first I thought Margie was a bimbo, but it turns out that she was just a perpetual drunk with no tact.

None of these characters started to feel like people I'd actually want to get to know until maybe 50 pages before the ending of this 400+ page book. This wasn't the enjoyable, relaxing reading experience I was expecting when I plucked a book with "Crusie" on the cover off of a public library bookshelf. In her dedication, Crusie wrote "For Valerie Taylor, because she tells me when my scenes are boring, my syntax is twisted, and my characters are jerks..." Apparently, Ms. Taylor had her work cut out for her if this is the characters after they were made to be less like jerks, and maybe she should have also been working on telling Crusie to make her characters less like wet washcloths.

I don't think romance novel couples have to be perfect and have perfect relationships in order for them to be fun to read about. I do like for there to be something pleasant about their relationships, though. In addition, it probably didn't help (for me, anyway) that all or most of the characters were older than the usual romance novel age, which means they were old enough to be my parents. For example, I think Nell's son was a little over 20.

So, if I disliked the book this much, why did I keep reading it?
- Jennifer Crusie wrote it, so I was hoping it would get better.
- Some of the information about china that Suze, Nell, and Margie were talking about sounded interesting, even if I think Crusie could've edited those bits down more. The Walking Ware and Running Ware sounded like fun, though.
- Marlene, the dachshund, was interesting. My family has a dachshund, and, even though he doesn't flirt and act abused for biscuits, he does flirt for belly rubs.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)(less)

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Aug 01, 2012 Heather rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, audio

Love Crusie. Narrator Sandra Burr very easy to listen to. Fun story.

Amazon:

When a down-on-her-luck divorcée meets a determined-to-dominate detective, they find out that falling in love can be murder. . . .

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 McKen...more

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Jul 29, 2012 Kathryn Bain rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book was a humorous romantic mystery. This is not a laugh-out-loud book, but you do find yourself giggling in quit a few places. Be warned, there is sex, but not too graphic, and the "f" word is used every once in a while. This is not a Christian book, it is secular, so the hero/heroine drink and have sex outside of marriage. That, however, is the world we live in.

I had most of the mystery figured out well before the end, but with all the antics of the heroine and her friends, I found myse...more

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Apr 27, 2012 Lara rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

*****MINOR SPOILERS!!!********

1. Was anyone else REALLY disturbed about a 40 year old men having sex with an 18 year old high school student in a motel? And people looking at that photo and talking about how "in prime" Jack looked and NOT how it was a few months away from being statutory rape?

2. OMG that whole convo about Gale understanding why men HIT THEIR WOMEN? Are you F-ing kidding me? Um, men don't hit women because "they love them so much they can't have them leave, but they can't stay wi...more

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Nov 05, 2011 Evelyn Bryant rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Not my first Cruisie book , but I believe it will be my last. I have heard good things about this author and have tried to read her. First off, I liked the fact the characters were not 20 somethings, formula, etc. I liked that Nell was attempting to move on past the bumps in the road that life had dealt her. I have no clue what purpose her best friends served. They were all three annoying ,tiresome women. Who would get a job they apparently need and set out to antagonize the boss? I can see clea...more

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Oct 10, 2011 Sundae rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Horrible. I stopped reading half way through.

I don't know, I'm guessing I"m not the target demographic for this type of book because I found it extremely hard to relate to any of the characters. Being in my twenties, my humanist side roared with indignation at how appalling all these women acted and behaved, not to mention, the stereotypical ways all the men were portrayed. They were all manipulative, dysfunctional, and stupid people trying to do the "right" thing but actually doing the WRONG th...more

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Dec 15, 2010 Nan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: borrowed

I stopped in at the County library today, looking for a fix. I wanted something light and funny. I walked out with three Jennifer Crusie novels that I'd never read, and I finished this one within a few hours. It was exactly what I wanted.

As the cover copy explains, Nell and Gabe are both divorced. Nell's been in a bad place since her divorce; she's depressed, and she doesn't even have the desire to eat. Her friend, Suze, tells her that Gabe needs a secretary, and since Nell finally reaches the s...more

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Jul 22, 2010 Jerry rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Funny and witty, but a lot of characters to track...

One of the (regular-speed) women in our book club selected an author new to us, Jennifer Crusie. We picked up "Fast Women" out of amusement with the title, although we're not really sure the book is aptly named. Early on, we almost confused leading lady Nell Dysart with Evanovich's Stephanie Plum - on a job interview, Nell breaks just about everything she touches in the prospective boss's office. But detective Gabe McKenna hires her anyway, an...more

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Jun 26, 2010 Christy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: romance, 21st-century-american-lit, mysteries

I really enjoyed this book. I liked the central characters a lot, and it made me happy. There is humor in this book and an approach to love, romance, and marriage that is grown-up and realistic while still maintaining a sense of fun and optimism. This isn't the kind of romance novel where the leads spend the whole book trying to avoid having sex and then when they do it's just happily-ever-after. They have to work at their relationship. They have to negotiate with each other to get what they nee...more

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Oct 23, 2009 Debbie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary-romance

Divorced and frustrated with life, Nell Dysart took a job at McKenna Investigations. The whirlwind cleaning and remodeling that Nell undertook was changing everything in Gabe McKenna’s office and everything in his life. Her discovery of a document from the 70’s sparked an interest in old cases that connected Nell, through her in-laws to Gabe and his father (Patrick), leaving them with the mystery of two missing persons, and an apparent suicide that seemed to all be connected. Along with Riley (G...more

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May 14, 2009 Christina rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: meh

I read Jennifer Crusie's "Bet Me" recently and just LOVED it. It is by far my favorite romance I've read in a long time. Maybe ever. I loved the characters, the crazy circumstances and the funny witty dialogue.

So imagine my disappointment with this book.

Nell Dysart is a control freak forty-something, too thin divorcee looking for a fresh start. Gabe is a control freak forty-something divorcee looking to maintain the status quo of his detective agency.

In theory this book could have been great....more I read Jennifer Crusie's "Bet Me" recently and just LOVED it. It is by far my favorite romance I've read in a long time. Maybe ever. I loved the characters, the crazy circumstances and the funny witty dialogue.

So imagine my disappointment with this book.

Nell Dysart is a control freak forty-something, too thin divorcee looking for a fresh start. Gabe is a control freak forty-something divorcee looking to maintain the status quo of his detective agency.

In theory this book could have been great. It was an interesting power struggle between two alpha characters. The book was also filled with love, deception, dog-napping, blackmail and hideous business cards. In reality the book was a bit of a confusing read. There are too many characters with the same last name and halfway through I had to get out a notepad and write down all the characters just to get a handle on what was going on. The relationships between everyone were not very clear and it made the plot dull because I couldn't keep up with all the peripheral characters and really I quit caring. I think the book was supposed to be slapstick funny but instead it wandered all over the place.

I think I could have dealt with the plot if it weren't for the fact that I didn't see how the two main characters were ever going to find some sort of balance in their lives. As two controlling, pushy people, they aren't very good to each other and their happy ending was lukewarm for me. Also I didn't even see an attraction between them until halfway though the book. The whole first half was a setup for the plot at the end. Also, while Jennifer Crusie knows how to build sexual tension, her sex scenes are strangely tepid. I felt the same way about "Bet Me". I loved the book and characters but was a bit let down by the sex which was almost prudishly written. So with this book, there are characters who don't seem terribly attracted to each other, who aren't nice to one another and who have tepid sex... well the book just didn't do much for me.

Ultimately the tug of war over who was going to wear the pants in the relationship was never resolved and I envisioned these two people engaged in a constant fight, making them both insane. It would have been easier to digest if Nell had understood anything about compromise but for every battle she won, she just started a new battle, leaving Gabe no even ground. She was determined that she was always right and that everything should be her way or no way at all. I didn't like her.

Also Nell is a little TSTL (too stupid to live). She steals some guys dog because his ex-wife walked into the detective agency and says he "verbally abuses" it by yelling at it all the time. Nell doesn't stop to consider that maybe the dog was not abused until long after she became attached to it and kept it for herself. She just thinks, how dare someone abuse a dog? So she sneaks out in the night and steals it after being expressly told that she could be undermining the agency she works for and that she should not do it. She's headstrong to the point of idiocy and I wanted to slap duct tape over her mouth just to shut her up.

Not a great book. It had good moments but overall I was underwhelmed. (less)

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Jan 18, 2009 AM rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I've purchased this book on audio 3 times! The two occasions something has been wrong with the cassettes. I even wrote to the company and they helpfully sent me a new broken cassette. So for the third try, I moved into the digital age and downloaded it from audible.com. I really do like Jennifer Crusie and the what I'd heard of the book so far convinced me I wasn't going to be wasting my money (again).

I didn't waste my money or my time. Fast Women is a fun and entertaining "read". It has really...more

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Jul 24, 2011 Amanda rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

this was absolutely horrible. worst crusie book i ever read.
i am changing the name of this book to STUPID WOMEN!

****SPOILERS****

first of all the main character was terrible. she complained and complained that she wasn't an equal partner and no one would listen to her blah blah blah. news flash, YOU ARE THE SECRETARY. what the heck is her problem? it's not HER detective agency. creating a nice work environment is nice and i get that. the cleaning and the filing and wanting to change the place a...more this was absolutely horrible. worst crusie book i ever read.
i am changing the name of this book to STUPID WOMEN!

****SPOILERS****

first of all the main character was terrible. she complained and complained that she wasn't an equal partner and no one would listen to her blah blah blah. news flash, YOU ARE THE SECRETARY. what the heck is her problem? it's not HER detective agency. creating a nice work environment is nice and i get that. the cleaning and the filing and wanting to change the place a little is ok. but changing it completely and painting the walls yellow and changing the freeeeakingggggg business cards is not her decision. giving him options would have been nice but at the end of the day it wasn't her business. why does she think she is soo right? why does she think her taste is perfect? what the heck? this mindset remained thru the entire book, even at the end. she still thought it was her job to impose the proper look on the business. i wanted to smack her so hard. if she wanted to take charge of her life and really own a business, then she should get her own business, start from scratch and design it however she wants! work her way up and be successful all her own!!! that would be liberating and show her how she can succeed on her own in business and then she can continue to have a relationship with Gabe and they could live happily ever after, being their own bosses and being in love. but no. that would only make sense. instead she remained his secretary but and then would marry him so she could own half of his half of the business. Stupid!

as for the other characters there was miss perfect and beautiful "Sus" . what a stupid woman. first she ruins a man's marriage at 18 years old and doesn't care at all. not once did she feel remorse for sleeping with someone else's husband. then she expects him to be faithful to HER. and is surprised and shocked and so upset when he is not. how self absorbed and stupid can you be??? but actually it was her who ended the marriage. she thought about cheating on her husband before she found out he was cheating on her. he only strayed b/c he knew she wanted out of the marriage. so why is she freaking complaining? why didn't she just talk to her husband about her problems with the marriage. no that would only be reasonable. she just bought cups that ran away and put them all over her china to show him how much she wanted to run away. ....passive aggressive much? then it was all, oh i'm sick of being the child bride. NEWS FLASH- you were a child when u married him, what did you honestly expect??? you were a spoiled beauty who got whatever you wanted, including someone else's husband. not to mention your wierd obsession with trying to be a lesbian. what was that about? b/c ur whole life you were couped up in a big beautiful home and you now you want to live out your crazy college experimentation years b/c you missed out. GROW UP. that time has passed and you need to divorce your husband if you want to cheat on him, and don't be so pissed off when he cheats on you. also you don't deserve Riley. he was a really nice guy and he had a crush on you forever, so i really don't want to see what happens when you tire of him.

then there's Marg. she pretends nothing is happening. has horrible taste in china and drinks to numb the pain. she's a real winner. honestly i think she just needs counseling and to get away from the pyschos trying to control her. aka daddy dearest-the murderer and her ex husband- the murderer and embezzeler, who luckily is dead, and the boyfriend- who covers up murders and is seriously controlling beyond belief. pyscho.

then there is Gabe and Nell's kids who are also in love with each other and plan to get married....and no one thought it was wierd. well i guess they can have double weddings. which will make Jason and Lou step siblings as well as husband and wife. WTF!! then if gabe and nell have another kid, Jason and Lou will have the same brother. ewwwwwww!

last but not least let's talk about all of the pointless, stupid, murders. could've done without them. i will probably stay away from freezers for a while.
i will definitely stay away from this book forever.

ok rant over!(less)

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May 18, 2013 Kate Copeseeley rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

3.5 stars

I've been a fan of Jennifer Crusie since Bet Me, but this book doesn't do her justice. It's a book without a genre. Not romance (no steam, and bummer for that). Not mystery(none of the traditional plot point trajectory for that, this book is all over the place). Not chick lit (none of the characters really seem to learn anything about themselves).

I waded through this super long book hoping against hope that it would make a turn for the better... that I would read that hilarious and snap...more

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Mar 10, 2012 DubaiReader rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, abridged-audiobook

A Chick Lit Who-done-it.

I'm kind of sad that I listened to the abridged audio version of this because it turned out to be a much better book than I had been expecting. The cover had led me to expect Chick Lit but in fact it was a well composed who-done-it written in a Chick Lit style. Unfortunately, I felt the abridged version whizzed past a lot of the explanations of the back-story and I had to repeat several CDs to grasp the necessary facts.

The Dysart brothers have married the three main women...more

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Mar 01, 2012 Hannah rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary, audio, romance, read-2012

I'm giving this book four stars, not so much because I loved it, but because it had a strong emotional impact on me. Fast Women was not an easy book to read. It contained some heartrendingly-accurate descriptions of the pain, the anger, the self-doubt, and the exhausting circular thinking that attends the end of a marriage. Even though I was exasperated with almost every character in this novel at one point or another, I could identify with almost all of them because they were struggling with th...more

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May 10, 2012 Jadaloves rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Nell is recovering from a divorce and to help jump start her life she takes a job as a secretary with the McKenna Detective Agency. From here all manner of hell and utter craziness ensue.

I have to say while the story was somewhat interesting, there was a bit omuch sharing going on for my taste. As a passing fling, Nell sleeps with Riley McKenna to kind of prove that she can still feel. But after sleeping with Riley, she pursues something more serious with his cousin and partner Gabe. Nell’s sist...more

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Jun 26, 2012 Janel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If you want to be happy and entertained you can't go wrong with a Jennifer Crusie novel. This one was filled with offbeat characters, snappy dialog, some sexy scenes here and there, and peppered throughout with a little wisdom and a lot of humor. Fast Women is set to the backdrop of a detective agency and has a decidedly 1940's vibe in a very modern story. There's lots of good chemistry between the characters, and an underlying question or theme regarding the pros and cons of marriage. Some of i...more

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Feb 28, 2013 Ceridwen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: america-and-environs, capital-l-labor, detectives, daddy-drinks-because-you-cry, for-teh-ladies, pulp, rbrs, the-housewife, the-movies, reviewed

Cross-posted on Readerling

About a third of the way into Fast Women, I had to fold back and check the publication date. I was pretty sure this had to have been penned in the 80s, given the attitudes and assumptions of most of the cast. Nope! 2004. I'm not saying this is retrograde or backward or anything, just that it feels like a period piece of women of a certain class from my mother's generation, and, in fact, it might make more sense if it had been set earlier than the late-90s. But, then, I'...more

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Mar 12, 2013 Khaya rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: women seeking bodice ripper wish fulfillment thinly disguised as chick lit mystery

Shelves: chicklit, audiobooks, mysteriesthrillers, marysues, should-ve-been-shorter

Meh. I was really hoping for more.

I was hoping this would be like a good Susan Isaacs book, something along the lines of Long Time No See or After all these years. Meaning yes, a light read with some romance and a happy ending, but also a mystery and unconventional main characters I'd actually meet, or would want to meet, in real life. I think Jennifer Crusie was trying for that effect and while I acknowledge some limited success, overall this book didn't make it for me.

We meet Nell, a beaten-do...more Meh. I was really hoping for more.

I was hoping this would be like a good Susan Isaacs book, something along the lines of Long Time No See or After all these years. Meaning yes, a light read with some romance and a happy ending, but also a mystery and unconventional main characters I'd actually meet, or would want to meet, in real life. I think Jennifer Crusie was trying for that effect and while I acknowledge some limited success, overall this book didn't make it for me.

We meet Nell, a beaten-down fortyish divorcee, who is applying for a job with Gabe's detective agency. Gabe is also fortyish and conveniently unattached, and the minute any peripheral character acquainted with both Nell and Gabe hears about the interview, he or she immediately predicts that Nell and Gabe will end up together. How about hitting me over the head a little more with that foreshadowing, Crusie? I mean, this is a romance novel after all. How could they not end up together? But sure, put the prediction into another three characters' mouths why don't you.

It does take a while for Nell and Gabe to end up together, which I guess was Crusie's attempt to avoid falling into total Harlequin territory. But once they do, that's it. The romance (and Nell and Gabe's intermittent catfighting which could only, of course, be solved by more romance) was straight out of any wish fulfillment drugstore novel. He's every woman's dream! And he thinks Nell is beautiful! As do lots of other guys, suddenly! (One of my pet peeves in these types of books -- the female author slipping into the male viewpoint only so she can put words into his mouth about how bowled over he is by the heroine). He's great! She's great! Even their fights are great! We can pretend they're not Mary Sues by giving them some charming quirks, but they're still Mary Sues.

The mystery seemed silly and over-the-top to me, as did the ridiculous dognapping episode. As another goodreads reviewer said, Nell suffers from serious bouts of TSTL -- too stupid to live. Some of the dumb stuff she gets away with is just ridiculous. I also agree with some reviewers who pointed out that there's a serious retro quality to this book -- the women's lack of independence seemed a bit anachronistic, although unfortunately I do know people who struggle with these issues so I don't want to come down too hard on that point.

I'm not such a snob that I can't enjoy a good chick lit novel. But for me, this was not a good chick lit novel.

(less)

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Mar 06, 2008 Maria rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: romantic-suspense

Funny and tragic, two friends meet the end of their marriages and learn to deal with divorce. They go to work for an investigation agency, find new partners in life, and investigate several murders and disappearances, all cleverly tied into their pasts. A third friend deals with the disappearance of her husband and a significant other who is manipulative and controlling. Lots of elements to this story.

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