Manhunting

This great early effort by Jennifer Crusie is a fun, fast read that will leave you grinning. It is the story of Kate Svenson, a serious business woman with a string of failed engagements behind her. With some heavy-handed encouragement from a meddling friend, she goes to a secluded golf resort with a plan to catch a husband. As her frustration with her would-be suitors mounts, she finds herself spending more and more time with the inn's caretaker, Jake Templeton. The two couldn't be more different - Kate is wedded to her high-powered career whereas Jake deliberately left it all behind to enjoy life on the lake. You will laugh out loud as Kate dispatches her various suitors and Jake teaches her the joys of fishing.

MANHUNTING is stupendously hilarious with Jennifer Crusie's fast quips and great one liners from the characters. It shows how miraculously how our fates could intertwine and blossom into unexpected romances. Ms. Crusie gives romance a bone-tickling tag to it with sweet poignancy and emphathetic sensitivity to the character's development. Kate is the modern independent hard-edged career woman who insists on embarking her plans to a wonderful life, but little did she know her match was to be one of the most incompatible - Jake Templeton, a man embittered by divorce and the manipulative and cold business life he once was engaged to.MANHUNTING churns out humour fast and vigorous with enough slapsticks to entertain during Kate's visit to Cabin Resort - but this only encompasses half of the charm in this book. The characters are wickedly flawed yet true-to-life and makes the reading even more genuine with a sparkle. The insecurity and vulnerability of Kate marks the tombstone of every woman's nightmare and Jake as a sensitive new age guy is deliciously endearing. It's this kind of romance that hauls back rollicking fun with nostalgia and effervescent chemistry. Ms. Crusie has never been better before and this time after the rejuvenating read - it better send woman going hunting not for the men, but this fabulous book to keep you through the festive season.

Find a successful (rich) and distinguished bachelor and nab him for a husband. For thirty-five year old Kate Svenson, the clock was ticking and she was tired of being alone. After three unsuccessful engagements, she was willing to risk anything in order to find that perfect partner. She required a man with the same ambitious nature and financial drive she had. She wanted a man she could develop an empire with. And she was going to find him at The Cabins in Toby's Corner, Kentucky. What she found was a slew of men who should have appealed to her but didn't. And what was worse, they were dropping like flies around her one by one through her own volition or by some invisible hand of fate.The one man who is avoiding her like the plague is Jake Templeton, the handyman who keeps everything nice and neat around The Cabins. These are adjectives that he might use to describe his life until Kate Svenson arrives at The Cabins and fascinates him with her inability to hold on to a man for any length of time and also entrances him with her unexpected vulnerability. Jennifer Crusie has written a brilliant and sometimes poignant romance that sometimes crosses the line into women's fiction. But the point is, it is an entertaining and witty story about two people who discover an uncanny friendship and an even more unexpected love. The author's use of smart dialogue between characters really helps to hold this story together. Though the actions that take place are uncommonly slapstick, Crusie manages to hold on to the seriousness of the relationship without allowing the characters to lose their integrity or sense of development.

This is one of Ms. Crusie's best books ever. She has her standard quirky, fun-loving, bantering characters that Jennifer Crusie is known for, but the heroine and hero are such a HOT couple and fun that I didn't want it to end. Kate and Jake are the total opposite on the surface but once you get below that cover layer you find two people that are such a great compliment of one another that you want to push them faster together. And watching Kate deal with the dates from hell, and Jake give her a hard time over them, you just laugh all the way through the story. I loved this book and it is on my keeper shelf to be read when I need a pick-me-up.

Manhunting is a five star read if there ever was one. If you're feeling blah and want a good laugh - along with a wonderful romance - you can't get better than this! Kate Svensen is thirty-five, gorgeous and has a successful career. She's the kind of heroine we all love to hate. But wait a minute this is a Crusie heroine after all and not your standard perfectly coifed heroine. Not at all. Kate may be more successful than most of us ever dream of becoming but she's also insecure and more than a little bit unhappy. Her job bores her, her breasts are starting to droop and she's given up on love after dating a string of losers who only want her for her money. Despite this Kate still wants a husband, a compatible husband who is as successful and driven as she is. And what better place to find him than at an exclusive golf resort catering to singles? But instead of meeting a decent hard-working man Kate only finds more losers at the resort. The trip isn't a total bust however because she does meet Jake and the two strike up an instant friendship. Jake is beautiful and they have a ton of fun together. But he's also totally unmotivated, admittedly lazy, and just about the slowest moving person Kate has ever come across. He's so not what Kate is looking for. Jake had been married to a cold, self-centered woman and now wants to settle down with a nice, dumb bimbo who thinks he's the end-all be-all of her world. Definitely not Kate. But the two are honest with each other and begin spending a lot of time together because they believe they are "safe" with each other. All their well-laid plans are blown to shreds when love takes over and then the fun really begins! Manhunting is a classic Jennifer Crusie tale filled with humorous situations, tons of witty dialogue that is simply about two people who love spending time together. The conflict is believable and never feels contrived and the book doesn't get weighed down with subplots. There are a few great secondary characters who add to the fun but never take over the spotlight. "Manhunting" is the book to choose if you need a quick "pick-me-up".