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Pleasant Lake P.D.
Alexandria Moreno, parking enforcement officer for the serene town of Pleasant Lake, has signed on with the FBI to nail a gorgeous suspected criminal, Miguel Diaz, who’s passing himself off as a legitimate businessman. Alex’s assignment is to use her feminine wiles, of which she has few, to infiltrate Diaz’s world and find some evidence for a conviction.
To complicate matters, she’s teamed up with Detective Roman Plow, who is her ex-boyfriend, though the FBI doesn’t know it. As they focus on retaliating for past wrongs, real and imagined, their smoldering love/hate relationship brews. They’re not exactly an ideal team.
With her bumbling nature, a steamer trunk full of emotional baggage, and no investigating skills, Alex spends most of her time reminding herself that the tall, dark, and handsome Miguel Diaz is not her real boyfriend and struggling to keep from falling into his bed. As she tries to dig up dirt on her undercover lover, the steamy investigation leads to a fight for her life. But who is behind the attacks?
To complicate matters, she’s teamed up with Detective Roman Plow, who is her ex-boyfriend, though the FBI doesn’t know it. As they focus on retaliating for past wrongs, real and imagined, their smoldering love/hate relationship brews. They’re not exactly an ideal team.
With her bumbling nature, a steamer trunk full of emotional baggage, and no investigating skills, Alex spends most of her time reminding herself that the tall, dark, and handsome Miguel Diaz is not her real boyfriend and struggling to keep from falling into his bed. As she tries to dig up dirt on her undercover lover, the steamy investigation leads to a fight for her life. But who is behind the attacks?
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First published September 1, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
September 2, 2012
Brought to you by OBS reviewer Vicki.
Welcome to Pleasant Lake where the scenery is picturesque, the fun is frolicking, the small-town mentality is comforting (read: stifling), the emotions are on overdrive, the crime is petty and the bad guys seem like good guys.
Alexandria Moreno has wanted to ‘tackle dirtbags, cuff ‘em, and throw ‘em behind bars’ her entire life. Unfortunately, her stints in Pleasant Lake Police Department’s Animal Control and Parking Enforcement have been a smidge longer than she anticipated. Officer Moreno, Meter Maid Extraordinaire, is constantly passed over for promotion, for one reason or another – but mostly because the Chief of Police doesn’t think she is cut out for the big guns… or a police issued 9mm.
Enter FBI Agent Kilgore, a stoic no-nonsense task-master with an undercover mission for Alex. She must infiltrate the inner circle of Miguel Diaz; a suspected crime lord and nasty piece of work. It soon becomes clear that Alex has been chosen for this particular mission because; unbeknownst to her, Miguel has taken quite a fancy to her. Miguel has been profiled as a chronic rescuer and due to Alex’s ‘basket case’ tendencies the FBI have decided she is in good need of rescuing. And the worst thing? Alex’s infuriating ex-manfriend-slash-sex-buddy-slash-colleague, the insatiable Roman Plow, is her new partner in crime fighting.
And so begins the wackiness.
As it turns out Miguel Diaz is charming, hunky, super generous and oozes sex-appeal. Alex struggles with her attraction to the supposed criminal from the get-go as well as her residual attraction to ex-sex-pest, Roman. She chalks it all up to her self-imposed celibacy and desperately tries to cling to her professionalism. A futile task indeed.
Whilst attempting to uncover Miguel’s dastardly dealings, Alex falls hopelessly head-over-heels in love; except she doesn’t realize she’s in love and is reluctant to even broach the topic because of her major abandonment issues. Also, there’s no getting past the sex-slavery ring that Miguel is orchestrating no matter how gray she makes it or how many times she asks herself: ‘Would it really be so bad to be in love with a crime lord?’
Kelly Fitzpatrick weaves romance and comedy with a healthy dose of dramatic irony. In Alex Moreno, Fitzpatrick has created a romantic heroine that the reader can relate to whilst appreciating the very unlikely screwball antics. The classic romcom themes and motifs are integral to the fast pace of the novel. And all throughout it seems as if Fitzpatrick is very aware of these stereotypical scenarios. Fitzpatrick embraces first person narrative and dramatic irony in such a way that the reader feels an eyebrow-raising-eyerolling-kinship with the author, as if to say: “look at these silly people doing silly things, let’s mess up their lives a little more…”
One specific theme that is presented incredibly well is the love-triangle. Fitzpatrick takes an unusual tack with a theme that is arguably hugely over-used in contemporary romantic fiction; there is no predictable winner, no clear good guy and hearts do get a little trampled. The realness of Alex is something that is palpable through the use of this theme. It can be said that Alex subconsciously encourages and manipulates the love-triangle, whilst trying to figure out who she actually wants to be with.
‘I’d never had men fight over me. I feared someone would get hurt. I also felt a little afraid they’d decide I wasn’t worth the battle and go grab a beer together.’
Shallow? Yes. Truth? Hell yes. I have no problem calling you a liar if you can say you wouldn’t have the same thought process if you had two incredibly hot guys trying to win your heart!
Fitzpatrick is extremely skilled when it comes to comedic banter. Her characters aren’t stand-ups they’re just regular people forced into an irregular situation; trading jibes and taking names. Unless your funny bone has been surgically removed you will laugh out loud on several occasions.
Pleasant Lake P.D. will be the perfect post-summer pick-me-up. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel and I’m looking forward to reading Fitzpatrick’s other work. If you’re craving sexy romcom with a hint of action? Run, don’t walk to get this book!
http://openbooksociety.com/article/pl...
Welcome to Pleasant Lake where the scenery is picturesque, the fun is frolicking, the small-town mentality is comforting (read: stifling), the emotions are on overdrive, the crime is petty and the bad guys seem like good guys.
Alexandria Moreno has wanted to ‘tackle dirtbags, cuff ‘em, and throw ‘em behind bars’ her entire life. Unfortunately, her stints in Pleasant Lake Police Department’s Animal Control and Parking Enforcement have been a smidge longer than she anticipated. Officer Moreno, Meter Maid Extraordinaire, is constantly passed over for promotion, for one reason or another – but mostly because the Chief of Police doesn’t think she is cut out for the big guns… or a police issued 9mm.
Enter FBI Agent Kilgore, a stoic no-nonsense task-master with an undercover mission for Alex. She must infiltrate the inner circle of Miguel Diaz; a suspected crime lord and nasty piece of work. It soon becomes clear that Alex has been chosen for this particular mission because; unbeknownst to her, Miguel has taken quite a fancy to her. Miguel has been profiled as a chronic rescuer and due to Alex’s ‘basket case’ tendencies the FBI have decided she is in good need of rescuing. And the worst thing? Alex’s infuriating ex-manfriend-slash-sex-buddy-slash-colleague, the insatiable Roman Plow, is her new partner in crime fighting.
And so begins the wackiness.
As it turns out Miguel Diaz is charming, hunky, super generous and oozes sex-appeal. Alex struggles with her attraction to the supposed criminal from the get-go as well as her residual attraction to ex-sex-pest, Roman. She chalks it all up to her self-imposed celibacy and desperately tries to cling to her professionalism. A futile task indeed.
Whilst attempting to uncover Miguel’s dastardly dealings, Alex falls hopelessly head-over-heels in love; except she doesn’t realize she’s in love and is reluctant to even broach the topic because of her major abandonment issues. Also, there’s no getting past the sex-slavery ring that Miguel is orchestrating no matter how gray she makes it or how many times she asks herself: ‘Would it really be so bad to be in love with a crime lord?’
Kelly Fitzpatrick weaves romance and comedy with a healthy dose of dramatic irony. In Alex Moreno, Fitzpatrick has created a romantic heroine that the reader can relate to whilst appreciating the very unlikely screwball antics. The classic romcom themes and motifs are integral to the fast pace of the novel. And all throughout it seems as if Fitzpatrick is very aware of these stereotypical scenarios. Fitzpatrick embraces first person narrative and dramatic irony in such a way that the reader feels an eyebrow-raising-eyerolling-kinship with the author, as if to say: “look at these silly people doing silly things, let’s mess up their lives a little more…”
One specific theme that is presented incredibly well is the love-triangle. Fitzpatrick takes an unusual tack with a theme that is arguably hugely over-used in contemporary romantic fiction; there is no predictable winner, no clear good guy and hearts do get a little trampled. The realness of Alex is something that is palpable through the use of this theme. It can be said that Alex subconsciously encourages and manipulates the love-triangle, whilst trying to figure out who she actually wants to be with.
‘I’d never had men fight over me. I feared someone would get hurt. I also felt a little afraid they’d decide I wasn’t worth the battle and go grab a beer together.’
Shallow? Yes. Truth? Hell yes. I have no problem calling you a liar if you can say you wouldn’t have the same thought process if you had two incredibly hot guys trying to win your heart!
Fitzpatrick is extremely skilled when it comes to comedic banter. Her characters aren’t stand-ups they’re just regular people forced into an irregular situation; trading jibes and taking names. Unless your funny bone has been surgically removed you will laugh out loud on several occasions.
Pleasant Lake P.D. will be the perfect post-summer pick-me-up. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel and I’m looking forward to reading Fitzpatrick’s other work. If you’re craving sexy romcom with a hint of action? Run, don’t walk to get this book!
http://openbooksociety.com/article/pl...
September 23, 2012
Alex is suddenly upgraded from meter maid to undercover officer, and she's determined prove that she can do real policework. The problem is that she's dealing with a suspect who's so hot and charming that she keeps forgetting he's the bad guy. It doesn't help that her partner is hot and charming and kind of a bad guy, too.
Pleasant Lake P.D. is a romance/mystery full of humor. And a big dose of snark. I'm a big fan of snark. Most of the book is laugh-out-loud funny - and I mean all of it. Several times on each page. And on an iPhone, the pages aren't very big. There does come a point at which things take a darker turn, and the story is no longer one big laugh-fest, but it doesn't turn into a tissue-fest. It's still funny, just not as hilarious as before.
I only had one issue with the book and I'm not sure if it was an ebook-formatting issue or if it was deliberate, but there were several instances in which the rapid-fire dialogue ran together. It made for fun and interesting conversations, but they were a little more interesting than the author probably intended because it was hard to distinguish who was saying what. I had to go back and reread and keep track in my head to know who was talking.
I'd recommend this book to anyone looking for a (mostly) light and fun romance or mystery.
I received this book free from the author in exchange for an honest review.
Pleasant Lake P.D. is a romance/mystery full of humor. And a big dose of snark. I'm a big fan of snark. Most of the book is laugh-out-loud funny - and I mean all of it. Several times on each page. And on an iPhone, the pages aren't very big. There does come a point at which things take a darker turn, and the story is no longer one big laugh-fest, but it doesn't turn into a tissue-fest. It's still funny, just not as hilarious as before.
I only had one issue with the book and I'm not sure if it was an ebook-formatting issue or if it was deliberate, but there were several instances in which the rapid-fire dialogue ran together. It made for fun and interesting conversations, but they were a little more interesting than the author probably intended because it was hard to distinguish who was saying what. I had to go back and reread and keep track in my head to know who was talking.
I'd recommend this book to anyone looking for a (mostly) light and fun romance or mystery.
I received this book free from the author in exchange for an honest review.
October 4, 2012
Alex Moreno is a meter maid according to some, but her official title is “Parking Enforcement Officer”. She lives and works in the peaceful town of Pleasant Lake, with the same daily routine until the FBI come to town. The FBI wants Alex to team up with her ex-boyfriend Detective Plow and go undercover to help dig up concrete evidence on Miguel Diaz, a suspected human trafficker. As the FBI instructs, she is to use any means necessary to infiltrate his life. What she doesn’t expect is for Diaz to infiltrate her heart. As Alex gets deeper into her relationship with Diaz, she is getting closer to the truth and will be in a fight for her life.
“Pleasant Lake P.D.” is a fun and quirky romantic mystery. I loved the dynamic between Alex and Roman Plow (her ex) – the dialogue, the heat, and the snarkiness. There was extreme sizzle between Alex and Miguel Diaz and it turns into something so beautiful. Both Alex and Miguel have baggage, but they’ll have to work through it as Alex tries to covertly gather evidence on the man she’s starting to fall for fast. However, there are other influences at work and Alex just may not make it through. An entertaining book, “Pleasant Lake P.D.” will keep you laughing and on the edge of your seat.
“Pleasant Lake P.D.” is a fun and quirky romantic mystery. I loved the dynamic between Alex and Roman Plow (her ex) – the dialogue, the heat, and the snarkiness. There was extreme sizzle between Alex and Miguel Diaz and it turns into something so beautiful. Both Alex and Miguel have baggage, but they’ll have to work through it as Alex tries to covertly gather evidence on the man she’s starting to fall for fast. However, there are other influences at work and Alex just may not make it through. An entertaining book, “Pleasant Lake P.D.” will keep you laughing and on the edge of your seat.
September 20, 2012
This was an easy-to-read romantic somewhat mystery, and portions of it were quite entertaining. There was even a portion at the end of the story that had me on the edge of my seat. Alex was the one character with whom I felt I connected to a degree, and Miguel was an interesting character as well. But honestly, that is where a lot of the interest in the book stopped. For some reason, I did not connect with this book as well as I thought I might.
Thankfully, there was very little profanity, and the bedroom scenes were basically non-descriptive. For that, I was grateful. The FBI and twin angle in the book also kept me somewhat interested. And it is clear that the author has truly invested herself in this book. I also appreciate the fact that good triumphs over evil. And Alex was actually right, and she is one independent woman. For whatever reason, I just was not interested.
In spite of this, if you are looking for a light read with some romance, mystery, and comedy, this may very well be the book for you. And don't be concerned if your book says it is over 600 pages long. It reads more like a 300-page book.
I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. I was not financially compensated, and all opinions are 100 percent mine.
Thankfully, there was very little profanity, and the bedroom scenes were basically non-descriptive. For that, I was grateful. The FBI and twin angle in the book also kept me somewhat interested. And it is clear that the author has truly invested herself in this book. I also appreciate the fact that good triumphs over evil. And Alex was actually right, and she is one independent woman. For whatever reason, I just was not interested.
In spite of this, if you are looking for a light read with some romance, mystery, and comedy, this may very well be the book for you. And don't be concerned if your book says it is over 600 pages long. It reads more like a 300-page book.
I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. I was not financially compensated, and all opinions are 100 percent mine.
September 22, 2012
Alex is a sweet wonderful caring person that is trying to be a cop, always dating the scum of the earth dirt bags, who looks forward to her dog Animal each night.
Miguel is an American of Spanish descent. He is a business man with his hands in several aspects of commerce. Most people including the FBI think he is a smuggler of drugs and humans.
The FBI and chief of police ask Alex to go undercover to help gather incriminating evidence again Miguel. What Alex and the FBI do not realize is that Miguel finds out that Alex working undercover. However Miguel is still interested in a relationship with Alex.
To me this book had a slow start. It was interesting but just slow. After about the 15% mark this book gets real interesting. With all of the police and Alex trying to keep all the lies straight she has trouble remember who she told what. Trying to keep from having a real relationship and not jumping in bed with Miguel Alex learns that not everything is about sex with a guy.
This was a very interesting read. I enjoyed the challenges the characters faced in the plot.
Thanks for a great read Kelly.
Miguel is an American of Spanish descent. He is a business man with his hands in several aspects of commerce. Most people including the FBI think he is a smuggler of drugs and humans.
The FBI and chief of police ask Alex to go undercover to help gather incriminating evidence again Miguel. What Alex and the FBI do not realize is that Miguel finds out that Alex working undercover. However Miguel is still interested in a relationship with Alex.
To me this book had a slow start. It was interesting but just slow. After about the 15% mark this book gets real interesting. With all of the police and Alex trying to keep all the lies straight she has trouble remember who she told what. Trying to keep from having a real relationship and not jumping in bed with Miguel Alex learns that not everything is about sex with a guy.
This was a very interesting read. I enjoyed the challenges the characters faced in the plot.
Thanks for a great read Kelly.
September 16, 2012
I got a real kick out of Alexandria Moreno she want to be so much more than a meter maid (AKA Parking Enforcement ) I love the way every time someone gets on her bad side she asks them what car they drive!
Then her dreams come true when FBI Agent Kilgore shows up and needs her undercover, seems the suspected bad guy has the hots for the meter maid. Let me just say supposed bad guy Miguel Diaz is HOT and he can cook too ladies! One big problem for Alex is her annoying ex-boyfriend Roman Plow, is assigned as her new partner. Let the love triangle begin.
I really loved that this love triangle was very realistic; I could see any woman in the situations that Alex finds herself in. Even a horrid mother of the new boyfriend is part of the situation and let me tell you Miguel’s mother is a piece of work.
Kelly Fitzpatrick has written a great romantic comedy with a crime to solve thrown in. Kelly is very gifted when it comes to writing the comedic banter that would truly happen in real life and I often caught myself smiling while I read.
I really enjoyed reading this novel and I have already recommended it to several friends. You should check it out too.
Then her dreams come true when FBI Agent Kilgore shows up and needs her undercover, seems the suspected bad guy has the hots for the meter maid. Let me just say supposed bad guy Miguel Diaz is HOT and he can cook too ladies! One big problem for Alex is her annoying ex-boyfriend Roman Plow, is assigned as her new partner. Let the love triangle begin.
I really loved that this love triangle was very realistic; I could see any woman in the situations that Alex finds herself in. Even a horrid mother of the new boyfriend is part of the situation and let me tell you Miguel’s mother is a piece of work.
Kelly Fitzpatrick has written a great romantic comedy with a crime to solve thrown in. Kelly is very gifted when it comes to writing the comedic banter that would truly happen in real life and I often caught myself smiling while I read.
I really enjoyed reading this novel and I have already recommended it to several friends. You should check it out too.
September 20, 2012
"Pleasant Lake P.D." is a well written romantic comedy that will keep you entertained and interested throughout the book. Kelly pens her characters realistic and believable. I can't believe how much I really enjoyed this book. A must read for everyone!
This review is based on a complimentary copy which was provided for an honest review.
This review is based on a complimentary copy which was provided for an honest review.
September 2, 2012
Read my review on Open Book Society
September 2, 2012
Review now available at Library Journal Xpress Reviews (http://reviews.libraryjournal.com/201...).
September 17, 2012
Fantastic book, really funny, and I'm kinda hoping for a sequel, because then I can see these characters again, and then have more wrap up on their stories!!!
November 24, 2013
When a book makes me laugh as much as this one did, I have to give it 4 stars. Very entertaining. Not very mysterious- once it was revealed that the "perp" had a twin, it was pretty obvious that it was his evil twin that was behind the crimes.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews