Page count: 416 pages
Rating: 5 stars
Re-read started: February 27th, 2010
Re-read finished: February 27th, 2010
Eagle-eyed readers may notice that I re-read this book all in one day. The first time I read it, on holiday in Russia this summer, it took me a whole two days, but then I was busy exploring St. Petersburg for the most part, and didn't have the luxury of doing hardly anything but reading for a whole day.
Sophie Dempsey comes from a long line of con-men and hustlers. Her father's one, her brother's one, her sister isn't exactly innocent. Yet Sophie just wants to stay out of trouble, and keep her family safe. She is perfectly content making wedding videos when her sister drags her to the little town of Temptation, Ohio to film an audition tape for her brother's faded movie starlet ex-girlfriend. They're only going to be in town for a week, making what Sophie thinks is a perfectly innocent little movie.
Phineas T. Tucker is the mayor of Temptation, like his father, grandfather and great-grandfather before him. He hates being mayor of the dusty little town, but has to live up to the family legacy. As if his life wasn't difficult enough being a single dad with a controlling mother, now he has to deal with a film crew coming to town, and the rumours that they are shooting a porn movie. Sparks fly the first time he and Sophie meet, and they just keep getting hotter each time they run into each other, and the more complicated things get.
Nothing much ever happens in Temptation, but soon Sophie and Phin have to deal with porn allegations, a murdered anchorman with at least a dozen people likely to have wanted to kill him, an unfortunately phallic water tower, various murder attempts, pool, softball, Dusty Springfield and very ugly wallpaper.
I love this book. I really do. It's funny, well plotted, and has an intensely likable cast of characters, including a delightful and not at all annoying little girl. It quotes The Princess Bride, which a sure-fire way to charm me. The romance is completely convincing, the various families portrayed are utterly believable and most important of all, the book delights me and makes me all fuzzy inside when I've finished reading it. A wonderful way to spend a day.
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