Faking It

**Audiobook review 2024**

This is one of my go to rom coms. I have read it probably around 20 times and it never gets old. Jennifer Crusie just knows how to build characters and set ups like no one else. You like these people and you will smile and laugh all the way through it

*************************************

This is one of my all time favorite books by Crusie. I have read it numerous times and thoroughly enjoy it each and every time! You can tell that Crusie is a fan of Hollywood Screwball comedies by the way her characters think, talk, and act, but especially how she sets up her grand finale scenes. It is delightfully charming, beautifully witty, slightly over the top, and 100% terrific! I discovered Jennifer Crusies' books about ten or so years ago and she has rarely ever let me down with a story. In fact, I can only think of two of her books that I only liked rather than loved, but, again, I liked them. She is writer with a gift of creating characters and language and premises that sparkle with their own truths. Case in point, Tilda Goodnight and her crazy wonderful colorful family have a secret that span generations. One that could plunge the already struggling financially family further into debt, and get them arrested to boot. Art forgery, generations of art forgeries by their ancestors. Tilda, holds the family together by recreating masterworks as murals for clients. But when her niece mistakenly sells a painting hidden in the basement, the Goodnight family secrets are suddenly in jeopardy of exposure. It's up to Tilda to try and steal it back. That is where she meets Davy Dempsey, a life long con artist, from a family of con artist, who had been trying to go straight. Until his financial manager embezzled his three million dollars and gave it to Davy's ex girlfriend. Both Davy and Clea the ex appear in another of Crusies stories Welcome to Temptation (about Davy's sisters Sophie and Amy.) Davy is trying to steal his money back from Clea and both Davy and Tilda choose the same closet to hide in to escape capture. It is that meeting that sets these two souls up for mayhem for the remainder of the story. Cons, art, gold diggers, a possible hitman named Ford, theft, vodka, mistaken identities, a dog named Steve, a retired thief, lousy sex, mindblowing sex, wit, snark, and love all ensue. Again, it's a favorite. It plays out like the best screwball comedy. Guaranteed to make you smile!

So here's the deal with Faking It. Last night I was scanning my dash a final few times before officially closing my computer and hitting the hay. I stumbled upon an article about Felicity Smoak that Jennifer Crusie wrote on her blog . As a personal MAJOR fan of this character on the show Arrow, and of how the character was even introduced as a fan favorite, I found the article to be very interesting. More to the point, I was IMMEDIATELY intrigued by Crusie's mention of her own characters, Davy, Eve, and Tilda, and how despite the plan she'd originally had for the book, the characters had a plan of their own. By the time I finished the article, it was close to midnight, and I began an extensive search to find a download for the cheapest I could online, finally settling on a version for my ipad. At 1:30AM, I bought the book. I literally did not SLEEP last night because at 9:30AM, I had finished the book. I took a thirty minute power nap at one point so my roommate wouldn't know I'd spent the entire night READING when I knew we had plans today but other than that I literally couldn't put it down. The few times I told myself, "Okay, that's a good stopping point, the sun is coming up you should sleep now" I would turn off the Ipad, roll over, and turn it right back on again to continue reading. While I paused numerous times throughout the book to associate names to characters- Simon and Jeff KEPT tripping me up (which was honestly probably due to my exhaustion) as well as Nadine's boyfriends (though to be honest I think that was a little more intentional/forgivable)- the show runners kept me SO fully engaged. These characters were alive, they were living breathing beings, and I have no hard time AT. ALL. believing that while Crusie was writing them, they decided they weren't going to follow her plan for them. I also loved that this wasn't yet another "oh I can't be with you because of ANGST" romance novels- there was an actual mystery, and real, believable stakes for the characters involved. To be honest, I would sell a kidney for an entire mystery series based around Davy and Tilda working with art forgery and cons. NOTHING would be enough as far as I'm concerned with these characters.

3.5 stars This was a reread for me (although from the days before I used GoodReads religiously) and it will never be my favourite Crusie book but it was still enjoyable. Davy Dempsey was easily loveable in this as he was in Welcome to Temptation. It was great seeing him be a good guy whilst also playing to his strengths in conning folks. I found Clea just as annoying as I did in the last one so she wasn't a welcome feature of the book but I did love the entire Goodnight clan. I think that's why I enjoyed this book. You've got Davy being a charming con man and the Goodnights being the worst criminals but utterly charming whilst they do it.