Voodoo on the Bayou

I am the type of person who has to read before I go to sleep. It relaxes me, takes off the stress of the day. I am also the type of person who has to have a solid seven hours of sleep to function. Not something that happened while I was reading Elle James's debut, To Kiss a Frog. Craig Thibodeaux has been a bad boy, and he messed - or didn't mess - with the wrong woman, a woman whose grandmother is a voodoo priestess. A woman who had the priestess put a spell on him because he wasn't able to fall in love. Craig is wary, but it isn't until the following evening when he wakes up - not quite himself - that he realizes what has happened. He's a frog by day, a man by night, with only a matter of weeks to find a woman who can love him, warts and all, to end the curse. Otherwise, he'll be on a permanent fly diet. Elaine Smith comes upon Craig just as he's making the transformation from frog to man, and since frogs don't wear clothes, well, she gets an eyeful. But the plain Jane scientist has come to the bayou to find the source of a pollutant in the swamp, not handsome naked Cajuns. She's also using the trip as a bit of an escape since she found her fiance making out with a very attractive secretary. Men are not high on her priority list. But she needs someone to take her out to the bayou, and Craig has evenings free. You know, of his frog skin. So he takes her out to the bayou, where they investigate the cause of the pollution and find themselves in danger up to their eyeballs. I love the Cajun setting, and could actually feel the swamp water in my hair - not pleasant. Craig was a fun hero, both as man and frog. You know he's got to be great if his dog even loves him in frog form. Elaine blossomed on the page as she fell in love with Craig and learned to like herself as well. The secondary characters added texture to the story. To Kiss a Frog is a fun, sexy read, and I'm looking forward to great things from Elle!

Craig Thibodeaux has finally messed with the wrong woman - the granddaughter of a legendary VooDoo Queen. Determined that he learn the error of his bad-boy ways, she casts a spell on him. Frog by day - man by night, unless he can find someone to love him before the next full moon. Enter brainiac Elaine Smith. She's come to the bayou to expose an ecological terrorist. Craig figures the shy bookworm will be easy to seduce into loving him to break the curse. And the fact she keeps finding him naked can't hurt either. Not so fast, frog boy! Elaine only has eyes for the amphibians she's dissecting. Love? Not in this lifetime. With a wonderfully colourful cast of characters, charming humour, clever dialogue, and a who-dun-it twist at the end I never saw coming, To Kiss A Frog is a great debut novel from Elle James. I can't wait for her next book!!

Elle James' first novel is a wonderful, witty, lighthearted caper with a mystery and a voodoo twist. I literally couldn't put it down until I finished it and, although I lost several hours of much needed sleep, it was worth it! Given two weeks to find a woman to love him, the deliciously described hero, Craig, has to comply or spend his life eating flies and dodging the dangers of the Louisiana bayou as a frog. Enter Elaine, a scientist on a mission. She finds him wickedly tempting but she isn't there for a fling with a local heartbreaker. And they're off! Off to a wonderfully heated adventure through the Spanish moss and slow moving waters of the swamps as Craig has to decide if he can put aside his fear of commitment and win his life back from a Voodoo priestess' curse. There were times that the story had me laughing so hard, I scared my dogs. Other parts of the book needed to come with their own cold shower! It was the kind of romance story that has a little of everything in it and was thoroughly enjoyable. I can't wait to see what Elle comes up with next!

Bayou bad boy, Craig Thibodeaux, learns the hard lessons of love when he rejects a local voodoo queen's grand-daughter. She cast a spell that turns him into a frog each day and back to a man every night with a warning that if he doesn't find a woman to love him and to love in return then he'll remain a frog forever. Enter clumsy, awkward and water shy environmental research scientist Elaine Smith. Elaine has landed in Craig's pond for research on the bayou pollution. Craig manages to get himself hired as her guide but soon turns into her lover and then bodyguard. Because someone is determined to stop Elaine from finishing her research in the bayou. Ms. James has done a great job of combining humor, suspense and the paranormal. I can't wait to see what comes out of her fertile imagination next.

The Voodoo Queen warned playboy attorney Craig Thibodeaux not to play with the affections of her granddaughter or else she will curse him. When Craig rejected the granddaughter, the Voodoo Queen declared he did not know love so she hexed him. Craig will be a Frog during the day and a man at night, but if he fails to find his true love by the next full moon, he will turn into an amphibian permanently. Craig initially scoffed at the curse until he finds that flies are a delicacy. He realizes that the clock is short and needs to find someone to love him. His only hope is environmental research scientist Elaine Smith, who is in the Bayou studying pollution. Craig manages to get the job of her guide, but soon becomes her protector as someone wants the professor stopped before she learns who the prime source of the Bayou pollutants are. Craig has fallen in love, but the curse requires the woman to love him and what intelligent person would want a pond frond as a home. This fairy tale romance, the winner of a Golden Heart award, is a fine story that readers will enjoy because of the lead male's inadequacies as a hero. Craig is more frog than lion yet courageously will risk his life to keep Elaine safe; sort of mindful of the hero in My Demon Lover. Elle James provides a wonderful fantasy romantic suspense with two delightful lead protagonists, an intriguing Voodoo Queen, and some baddies to round out a fine novel. Harriet Klausner