Hot Stuff

I have read all of Flo's books. She has a gift. This is a wonderful fun romp though India. I can see this as a movie! Are you listening Hollywood?

A delightful book I am very happy to recommend coming from Flo Fitzpatrick. This one amazing tale from start to finish that will leave you clamoring from more from this new writer. Tempe Walsh is a translator. She has a job with client Ray Decore. Sounds simple enough. She is to translate from Hindi to English and back again as needed as part of a deal with Kimali Khan, brokering a sale for a stature. Tempe might raise eyebrows at the setting - Hot Harry's Bar in Bombay, but hey, a girl has to live a little! Only trouble ensures when Tempe spots the statue is a fake. Suddenly all hell breaks loose, resulting in her client getting killed. Instead of standing and screaming, our intrepid heroine uses her lithe bod and her trusty earrings to escape, taking one "Strider" O'Brian (this is the third book I have reviewed this month with "Strider" heroes, glut from LOTR!), with everyone chasing in their wake. This is one delightfully wild, tongue-firmly-through-cheek tales that takes off and never lets up from start to finish. It's seasoned with a wickedly funny sense of humor, that has a touch of movie adoration tossed in. It is madcap comedy reminiscent of Hollywood romps of the 40s. A great aim, but can the writer pull it off? Yeppers, big time! Hot Stuff is absolutely dead bang on target from the homage to films past to romance lovers at heart and those of us who enjoy a good belly laugh along the way.

Hot Stuff is an adventure of a lifetime. Tempe Walsh, is an interpreter with a secret dream of being an actress. The hero is one Briggan "Brig" O'Brien who seems to be a man with a shady past. The two them are thrown together by the Shiva's Diva statue that everyone wants and they have. Brig and Tempe are shot at, have knives thrown at them, as they dodge the bad guys while also doing flips and somersaults. When they are not avoiding weapons, they are working on a movie directed by one of Brig's friends. In the movie they are dancing, doing flips and somersaults on top of Ferris wheels and other things I wouldn't do. It seems they are on the move all the time. Flo Fitzpatrick has a great talent for telling a story. It kept me entertained and held my attention. I loved this story, and if you enjoy adventure with some comedy thrown in it is a story you would like also I am sure.

Translator Tempe Walsh is in Hot Harry's Bar in Bombay working for client Ray DeCore who is negotiating with Himali Khan over purchasing Shiva's Diva statue. Tempe is translating to and from Hindi and English. The deal is struck when Tempe notices the statue is a fake. All hell breaks loose with bullets flying everywhere. Ray is dead, but Tempe survives due to her gymnastic skills and her Wonder Woman like earrings. Briggan "Strider" O'Brian, who speaks Gaelic, escapes with Tempe and the original statue. Everyone in town seems to be after Brig and Tempe. Needing a place to hold up, the beleaguered couple chooses a Bollywood set, which turns out to make it even more difficult to decide who is the hero and who is the villain though Tempe likes Brig's kisses an awful lot. This is a tongue in cheek romantic suspense that takes off from the moment Tempe opens her mouth about the statue and never slows down until the final altercation. The story line combines plenty of humor with excitement the rogue and the language expert dodge danger within a movie production and fall in love although Tempe has doubts that she will ride off with the hero as her beloved is to much the imp even if he is her champion kind of like the Douglas role in Romancing the Stone. Flo Fitzpatrick provides an amusing romantic adventure. Harriet Klausner

Usually, being a translator means sitting in an office looking at legal documents. This time, though, Tempe Walsh actually gets to go to Bombay, India, where she intends to help an American art collector negotiate the purchase of a famous statue--a statue of an Indian Goddess which comes attached to both a blessing and a curse. Unfortunately for Tempe, there are plenty of other prospective 'buyers' and none of them, including the man she's working for, would mind getting the statue at a bargain price--even if that meant stealing, stabbing, or shooting. Tempe meets up with a handsome Irish rogue who takes time out from his own thefts to attempt to sweet-talk her into his bed, and the two are quickly swept into an adventure that involves Tempe posing as a stripper in two separate clubs, dancing and performing the splits for a Bollywood movie production ('Bollywood' is the term used to describe the Indian film industry which mostly consists of song-and-dance numbers), kidnapping, late night fire drills, and lots more time spent with the handsome Briggan O'Brien. Author Flo Fitzpatrick serves up a delightful mix of screwball comedy, adventure, an exotic foreign locale, and romance. Fitzpatrick seems to delight in breaking the rules--her first book was set in the theater and her second in India, in the entertainment business, with snakes and elephants for secondary characters. Fortunately, it works. Congratulations to Zebra for taking a chance, but most of all, congratulations to Flo Fitzpatrick for creating such an entertaining romp. I am very happy to recommend HOT STUFF highly.