Well slap my ass and call me Judy! A review of Susan Mallery's Chasing Perfect

No seriously... knock me over with a feather!  Susan Mallery has been sitting in front of me all this time and I had it in my head that I didn't like her books and I don't know why!  Chasing Perfect was exactly what I had been looking for.  I feel like I've been in such a dry spell I'm so happy to know that I have a whole back list of books I can read.

Let me give you the highlights:

• Third person with his/hers POV
• Straight up contemporary romance with no suspense, vampires or bizarre plot twists
• Strong and physically perfect male "lead".  He is an athlete and a superstar with the name to match his image "Josh Golden" and she is just the kind of heroine I like:  strong but feminine, never whiny, real and attractive in a realistic way.
• Good sex scenes but coming off a couple of erotic romances it's hard to tell if the mild let down on the steam factor was due to less than exceptional "romantic" moments or a little desensitization.  (Mild spoiler alert here:  Since the first time they are together he does her up against the wall I'm thinking the latter is more likely.)

What I loved:

• A lot of romance novels try so hard to build in a point of tension between the characters that a problem that could/should be easily solved becomes a huge issue in the relationship.  Eventually it just feels like the characters are whiny and spoiled or just annoying brats.  I felt like Josh and Charity were actual grown ups who handled problems the way most real people (out of high school) would.
• Funny writing.  Some good lines:  
• "She did not want to shake his hand, given the symptoms she'd already experienced.  Actual physical contact might lead to heart failure, or something even more embarrassing."
• "Pia, don't try to be funny."  "I don't try.  It just happens spontaneously.  Like a sneeze."  "Get a tissue and hold it in."
• "He's like a son to me.  I'd like to see him settle down with someone special."  Charity would like to see him naked, but she wasn't going to mention that.

What I could have done without:

• I understand in fiction we sometimes have to have a little suspension of disbelief but I was starting to wonder if everyone in this town was cursed.  They didn't seem to know it either.  Everyone had horrible things happening to them but they were all convinced of how charmed their lives were.  In trying to keep from any sort of spoiler I'm going to do a basic run down of the more prominent characters' problems without naming names:  child abuse, abandonment, neglect, runaways, had a "fall" leaving a child crippled, friend died, cancer, husband died in war, father of a child died in war, husband died in car accident, estrangement, more estrangement, embezzlement, watched a friend die in accident, crash left permanent physical damage.  There may be more.  But seriously, it was like all of this was in the background and it wasn't a big deal.  I just wondered how much more bad stuff could happen to any of these people!!!

In the end... I LOVED this book.  I think Susan Mallery is great and if this review has lots of spelling errors in it it's because I'm ready to finish writing this so I can move on to the next in the series!