Title: Welcome to Temptation Series: Dempseys #1
Author: Jennifer Crusie
Published: July 11, 2004
Genre(s): Romance: Contemporary
Page Count: 416
Rating:
Summary from Goodreads:Sophie Dempsey is content living a quiet life filming wedding videos until an assignment brings her to Temptation, Ohio. From the moment she drive into town, she gets a bad feeling; Sophie is from the wrong side of the tracks and everything in Temptation is a little too right. And when she has a run-in with the town's unnervingly sexy mayor, Phineas Tucker, making a little movie turns out to be more than a little dangerous.
All Sophie wants to do is film the video and head home. All Phin wants to do is play pool with the police chief and keep things peaceful. They both get more than they bargained for when Sophie's video causes an uproar and the proper citizens of Temptation set out to shut them down.
As events spiral out of control, Sophie and Phin find themselves caught in a web of gossip, blackmail, adultery, murder, and really excellent sex. All hell breaks loose in Temptation as Sophie and Phin fall deeper and deeper in trouble...and in love.
Honestly, Welcome to Temptation is exactly the kind of romance I hate, and it’s only saving grace was the hilarious banter in the beginning and the fact that I stayed up until 4 AM to finish it. Otherwise, I finished this book with a big “NOPE” and wanted to throw my ereader against the wall. I have liked Jennifer Crusie’s work in the past, but I do not at all count this overwrought dramafest as one of her best.
The story: Sophie comes to town to film an audition tape for a friend. A paranoid, family-values-loving old council member decide they must be shooting pornography, and tries to pass an antiporn ordinance. City mayor, Phin, is really frustrated by this paranoid old man, and fights back. He also starts having sex with Sophie. The town is enraged by the potential pornographic film. Then somebody gets murdered, and whoever it is also starts trying to knock off Sophie. Because, apparently, protecting those “family values” is worth killing over.
…yeesh. This is exactly the sort of overdramatic small town plotline I avoid. But Jennifer Crusie has taken it to new heights of ridiculousness. If I hadn’t known any better, I would have thought Welcome to Temptation was a parody, rather than a serious attempt. The first half was fine—not my favorite, but I laughed a lot and enjoyed the Phin/Sophie scenes. But after the murder happened, it became too much. And I really didn’t like how Crusie handled the resolution, in which the murderer, who is a repeat offender(!), is allowed to stay out of jail because…in small towns they protect each other? Because of “family values”? I don’t know, but I was so furious that Crusie was letting the criminal go free that I wanted to yell at somebody. The caricature-like aspects of all the characters became way, way too pronounced as well, and in the end the only person I came away still liking was Phin’s nine-year-old daughter. (And don’t ask me how I’m expected to read the sequel, an entire book that features Davy and Clea again, because I loathe both of them.)
I could go on, but writing this review is literally making me mad again, so I won’t.
Basically, “NO” to this book. No no no no. It was A) overdramatic, overwrought, and overwritten, B) completely unbelievable, C) unlikable, D) frustrating, and E) infuriating. Welcome to Temptation is definitely not on my list of good romance, and it’s actually because of books like this that I’ve had so much trouble with the contemporary romance subgenre in the past. I’m disappointed Jennifer Crusie produced something this farcically over the top, but there it is.
