Narrated by Heather Smith
Screwdrivered is Book 3 in the Cocktail series, which started with Wallbanger then moved on to Rusty Nailed (both featuring the same hero/heroine, Simon and Caroline). Simon’s high school friend Viv is living a rather mundane life (if you can call being a 29-year-old owner of a software company mundane) in Philadelphia, getting her kicks vicariously through the romance novels she reads, with titles like “Loins of Endearance”. While she’s out on the many blind dates her friends and mother set her up with, she’s likely to be imagining herself as the heroine of a lusty historical. So when she receives a mysterious call in the middle of the night to let her know she is the sole heir to property in northern California, she decides that’s her casting call – she is now featured in her own romance novel. She moves to Mendocino to take up residence in the home on the cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, complete with a ranch, some horses and a ruggedly handsome cowboy, Hank, who works shirtless. Oh yeah baby, her fantasies are about to come true!
The one thorn in her side is Clark Barrow, the local librarian and the president of the historical society. Since the property is on the historical register, any and all construction, repairs, and renovation have to be approved by him – and the house is going to require a lot of that. Too bad Clark is such a stick-in-the-mud pencil pusher like all the bad dates she had in Philly!
Once again, Clayton takes a chick-lit approach to romance, with a heaping helping of humor. It’s told in first person point of view, and in Viv’s mind, fantasies are the purplest of prose, with swashbuckling pirates ripping bodices or knights in shining armor rescuing heroines with heaving bosoms. Reality screeches in, like a needle sliding across a vinyl record – Hank seems immune to her 5’2″ charms, the house is falling down around her head, and – hmmmm – nighttime librarian Clark is kinda cute after a couple of shots of whiskey…
It’s laugh-out-loud entertainment that really pushes narrator Heather Smith – the over-the-top gushing of Viv’s imaginary romance-novel life contrasting to Viv’s matter-of-fact snarkiness, both showcasing Smith’s very credible comic timing. Smith has totally nailed the humor and the major disconnect in Viv’s life: her artsy romantic fantasy life vs her down-to-earth, very logical existence. Viv is a strong woman who totally knows what she wants, even if she doesn’t realize who she wants, and the narration reflects that. Her cowboy Hank voice is well differentiated from the tweed-wearing Clark, and she also makes subtle differences in pitch and timbre for the other characters in the small coastal village. My two quibbles? Her intake of breath is often too pronounced – I wonder if that’s a technical problem with her equipment? And the end, when Viv finally realizes her dream, is read too much like the earlier purple prose fantasy sections, with too much narrator participation – it’s breathy and over-the-top. (sigh)
It’s not deep, and it does seem to cling to more of a chick-lit outline, where Clayton tries to keep you guessing which of the two men will be Viv’s hero until the very last minute (I say “tries to” because it’s pretty clear early on, if you’ve read more than a dozen or so in the genre). If you’re looking for a laugh, though, give it a try.
Melinda
Narration: B+
Book Content: B+
Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in
Violence: None
Genre: Contemporary romance (romantic comedy/chick lit)
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Screwdrivered was provided to AudioGals by Simon & Schuster for review.
