Lucy is hired to finish directing a movie after the original director died. She works on the movie set with her sister, niece, and ex-husband. Her niece, Pepper, stole the show! She was so adorable! She would bring Lucy apples and water for snacks and had the entire cast wrapped around her finger. JT, the Green Beret hired to be a stunt consultant, was described as "her egg." He even bought her a Wonder Woman doll.

This was a fast paced story. At first, it was very confusing to listen the audiobook because so many characters were introduced and their backgrounds were not described. The duet narration also added to the confusion in the beginning.

Overall, I loved this book! The plot was a bit wacky and unrealistic, but it was fun to listen to story unfold. There were affairs, backstabbing, Russian mobsters, stolen art, etc. What else could you ask for?!

As someone who loves a witty, romantic thriller, I found this one lacking. The overall idea for the book is intriguing, but the character development left me confused and a little annoyed. The FMC was the saving grace of the novel. She was strong-willed, and the narrator fit the character well. The MMC, on the other hand, was such a downfall. The narrator's voice was borderline cartoonish, and I hated listening to him objectify women. I want my MMC to be head over boots for the FMC, but this one was so easily distracted by every female character in the book.

Gosh, there is such a lot happening here. On a movie set, four days to go, new director, machinations and hidden motives - what is going on? It's a miracle that Lucy and J.T. find each other among all the baddies, drama queens, an alligator, a cute kid, too many apples, and the layers of intrigue.

This is ably narrated by Patrick Lawlor and Renee Raudman, who have a lot of voices to do, and largely they manage well. Patrick's Australian accent is more like a young Michael Caine (circa The Italian Job) and the kid is straight from a Christmas panto, but these are quibbles. I'm off to see if there are other romances by these two authors with fewer characters and less instalove.

Three stars each for the story and the audio.

Thank you Jennifer Crusie, Bob Mayer and Brilliance Audio for the ALC. Opinions are my own.

3 Stars
Listened at 1.5X
Obtained from NETGALLEY

I completely forgot that I used to get all of Jennifer Cruisie's book from my local library. Huge fan of her writing.

DON'T LOOK DOWN is the first book I've "ready" Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer. It was an enjoyable listen. I liked the female narrator more than the male as it was told in duet style and his accents and tones were very different from hers...tt took me a little bit to get used to.

While I did enjoy the story, there were times characters were described by their first names and other times their last. I got confused more than once and I think if I was reading vs listening it may have been easier to follow.

A romantic suspense with great one liners, a cute kid, a dorky actor and a "who's who" of secondary characters, it wasn't obvious from the get go who was behind the suspense. There are absolutely characters I would like to know more about and others I have no idea why they were written in the first place.

Overall - This is a 3 star listen.

Thank you to NETGALLEY for the ALC

Read this as audiobook from NetGalley, thank you for the opportunity to listen to it. The narrators, esp MMC and child were not enjoyable to me. There were parts that really lagged. There were parts that were good, but overall, this one was not for me.

I read this almost a decade ago when it first came out, but hadn't listened to the audiobook before. I really enjoy when Crusie and Mayer work together, their work is more intelligent and action-y than most romance novels. I'm happy to say this one aged way better than a lot of romance novels from that time. There are a couple of things which would lead to me punching a person in real life (the token gay best friend pulling her braid at the start of the book after she told him to stop almost had me putting the book down the first time I read it, too). Also I have no idea what the male lead has against Australians, though I think I remember there being a fight between an American lawyer and an Australian lawyer in JAG, so maybe it was a '00s thing. Wonder Woman, meanwhile, is timeless.