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Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780060598884
ISBN number: 0060598883
Label: Harper
Manufacturer: Harper
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 256
Printing Date: November 01, 2007
Publishing house: Harper
Release Date: October 30, 2007
Sale Popularity Level: 8366
Studio: Harper
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Product Description:
Hank Mallone knows he's in trouble when Maggie Toone agrees to pretend to be his wife in order to improve his rogue's reputation. Will his harebrained scheme to get a bank loan for his business backfire once Maggie arrives in his small Vermont town and lets the gossips take a look?
Maggie never expected her employer to be drop-dead handsome, but she's too intrigued by his offer to say no . . . and too eager to escape a life that made her feel trapped. The deal is strictly business, both agree, until Hank turns out to be every fantasy she ever had.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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Generally I find Janet Evanovich's books to be very entertaining. I love the Plum series and recommend it. This book, however is just OK. I think that Evanovich jumps in to the attraction between Hank and Maggie way too soon. I really think that there should have been some time in there before their relationship started to blossum. It would have made the book a lot more interesting. I do have to say that parts of it are hilarious. I think that the housekeeper, Elsie Hawkins is a very strong character. She reminds me a lot of grandma from the Plum series.
Rated by buyers 
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Amusing, lightweight fun. Almost a novella, but the printer and publisher have stretched it to book size. If it had a bit more depth or plot to it, I would have given it another star.
Local bad boy Hank inherits an apple orchard and wants to turn over a new leaf. In order to realize his dream and go organic he needs a loan, but the whole town knows his history and he can't raise the funds. He wants to look responsible, he needs to be taken seriously...he needs a wife! Not a real one of course, just to get the loan, so he hires Maggie from New Jersey as a "pretend wife" for six months. She wants time to write a book from her aunt's diaries, so it seems the perfect business arrangement. Of course, they fall madly in love, but she isn't sure if she wants to stay at the end of the agreed term. It is all terribly predictable. In essence, a bit more of a teenage novel than one written for adults. It also seems a bit dated. Hank needs to grow up and take responsibility for his actions to be taken seriously, so who would think he had achieved stability just because he pulled a wife out of the hat? Okay, it is a ludicrous plot, so you have to disregard that to enjoy the juvenile, slip on a banana skin, style fun.
In the characters you can see the prototypes for later Evanovich stalwarts - Elsie Hawkins is definitely Grandma Mazur, packing a gun, after a hunk (all about 80+ and dying from the excitement) and she even drives the same car as Grandma Mazur later inherited from a relative in one of the Plum books.
A couple of weeks after reading it, I am finding it hard to recall much of the story and the names of some of the characters, which says quite a bit about it.
Janet Evanovich's work all has a similar feel to it. That is not necessarily bad, but it means it doesn't matter if you skip a book or two because you will get pretty much the same dialog and situations in another book. This was originally written for a publisher of Romance books, so of course it has the predictable happy ending, which you knew from page one.
You'll read it in a couple of hours, tops. There are a few laughs in it, and it is not nearly as contrived as the later books in the Plum series, but nor is it up to the standard of the very first few Plums. These early Evanovich books are being republished as there is money to be made from the Evanovich name. Janet has her whole family employed at Evanovich Inc, which means she has to squeeze everything she can from her back catalog and current publications. If people are prepared to buy it why not? It probably also accounts for the tacky merchandise she hawks as well.
To be honest, if it had been written by an unknown author it would have never have been republished. Fans of Evanovich will probably buy it, and although it is an okay book, I doubt if anyone else would, and she wouldn't get new fans on the back of this book. I wouldn't pay the publisher's list price for it.
Rated by buyers 
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Janet Evanovich books are so much fun to read. Wife for Hire is so funny, and can be read so quickly it feels as though you have just watched a little television show. She is quickly becoming my favorite author. Highly reccomend.
Rated by buyers -
A friend recommended I read Janet E's book. I was reluctant, simply because she's so overrated (too commercial, I thought). Boy was I happily surpirsed! A fan for life!
Rated by buyers -
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I couldn't put it down! It's fun and light reading.
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