I received this book for free from the library in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Source: the library
Heiress for Hire
by
Erin McCarthy
It is part of the Cuttersville #2 series and is a paranormal romance in a paperback edition that was published by Berkley on January 3, 2006 and has 284 pages.
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Other books in this series include [books_series]
Other books by this author which I have reviewed include High Stakes, My Immortal, Bit the Jackpot, An Enchanted Season, Fallen, The Taking, Bad Boys of Summer, Bled Dry, Flat-Out Sexy, Sucker Bet, Hard and Fast, Hot Finish, When Good Things Happen to Bad Boys, First Blood, Slow Ride, The Chase, The Night Before Christmas, Out of the Light, and into the Shadows, Jacked Up, A Date with the Other Side, Bad Boys in Black Tie, True, Seeing is Believing, Believe, Shatter, Sweet, Burn, Gone with the Ghost, Murder Drama with Your Llama
Second in the Cuttersville romance series, a small farming community in Ohio. The couple focus is on Amanda Delmar and Danny Tucker.
In 2007, Heiress for Hire was nominated for the RITA Award by Romance Writers of America for Contemporary Single Title Romance.
My Take
Be careful what you wish for! It’s funny, but not as funny as McCarthy usually is and primarily because Amanda’s situation is so sad. She’s never felt love in all of her pampered life. But McCarthy does infuse it with lots of surface fun with everyone confused as to reality. It’s all stereotype and expectation which gets turned on its head. It is cute how much angst and thought everyone gives to the idea of Danny and Amanda.
I wish McCarthy hadn’t shuffled around Danny and Shelby. In A Date with the Other Side, Danny was still so in love with Shelby and kind of okay with her marrying Boston. In Heiress for Hire, McCarthy simply has him acknowledge that Shelby is in love and not married to him. That Danny simply wants a family. As I write this, I’m wondering what I’m whining about…I think I just wanted Danny to be a bit more confused about what he feels for Shelby, to experience some confusion for what he himself wants. I guess I wanted him to do the girly thing!
Amanda’s panic about not having any money, having to find a job is funny. Not as funny as it could have been, but in keeping with this story. Combining these three characters — Danny, Amanda, and Piper — and watching them reach out to each other is so sweet with a huge ring of truth to their thoughts and interactions.
You want to read this for the satisfaction of family and the chuckles along the way.
The Story
Daddy has finally had it with Amanda’s demands for money and it’s tough-love time. Thank god she just spent that $500 on her new purse. With all the hard work ahead of her, poor Amanda just couldn’t bear messing up her expensive bag!
Meanwhile Danny is pondering his relationship with Shelby, what he wants from life…and, he should’a been careful what he wished for. He’s about to get it in spades!
It’s a triangular courtship. Danny wants Amanda and Amanda wants Danny even though neither understand why. More important to both of them is Piper. Her safety, her happiness.
The Characters
Amanda Delmar is an heiress. A very disgruntled one who showed up in Cuttersville to harass Boston and tick off her father, the very standoffish Brett Delmar. He’s never really known what to do with her. Baby is her two-pound poodle. Stuart is a cousin and an art dealer in New York.
Danny Tucker is a big guy, slow and steady. His family has farmed in Cuttersville for generations and he’s Shelby’s ex-husband. Daniel and Willie Tucker are his parents and they live a few hundred yards from him on the farm they all work. Willie hates Amanda.
Nina Schwartz was a one-time thing. Mark Johnson is her third husband. A jerk, an opportunist, and scum. Piper Danielle Schwartz is eight years old and has not been treated well for most of her life.
Shelby and Boston Mcnamara have a cameo appearance. Brady Stritmeyer is Shelby’s cousin and has a talent for art that I suspect Amanda will be pushing in Cuttersville 3.
The Cover and Title
The cover is variations of red-orange streaking from left to right while a very thin and perky Amanda in her diagonally stripped halter dress strides along, her long, extension’d blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail, stretched out in the breeze of her walk with a big white shoulder bag hitched on her shoulder, the classifieds tucked under her arm.
It’s true, the title. She is an Heiress for Hire.
