NOT ANOTHER NEW YEAR'S

Author: Christie Ridgway ISBN: 006114021X 1/2007 CONTEMPORARY Publisher: AVON

I HATE AULD LANG SYNE! After all, this year brought Hannah Davis nothing but the memory of her wandering fiance marrying someone else behind her back. Now, sitting alone at a bar in Coronado, California, on December 31, she decides to do something radical... and lets a brooding good-looker take her to bed. But when a hysterical woman bursts into their room much too early on New Year's Day, Hannah realizes this guy's more complicated than she thought ... Ex-Secret Service Agent Tanner Hart screwed up, bigtime! Hoping to temporarily boot some of the ghosts from his life, he hooked up with this sexy stranger for a hot one-night stand—only to discover she's the woman he's agreed to protect ... from men just like him! But a new year is a time for fresh beginnings. Despite the danger, the hoopla, and the hangovers, if Hannah's brave enough to risk her heart again—and Tanner's wise enough to realize he deserves it—maybe this one will be different.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Christie Ridgway is a hoot!

Outrageous situations, slightly off-the-wall characters, snappy dialogue and some hilarious internal dialogue all abound in NOT ANOTHER NEW YEAR'S.

Ms. Ridgway has terrific comic timing.

Although the ensemble of characters in NOT ANOTHER NEW YEAR'S is cliched—the good girl wanting to be bad, the poor little rich girl and two macho, anti-marriage brothers—it's the way these characters play off each other that makes the stereotypes enjoyable to read.

I normally don't like more than one romance in a story, mainly because secondary romances take precious time away from the central romance. The primary romance (or the other romances, for that matter) often isn't as developed as I would like. This assumption holds true for the two romances in NOT ANOTHER NEW YEAR'S. Both romances are more skeletal than either needed to be.

In NOT ANOTHER NEW YEAR'S, the secondary romance also overshadows the main one.

Whereas the romance between good girl Hannah Davis and trying-to-be good Tanner Hart (he's a male Paris Hilton trying to stay celibate for a year) is okay, it's the attraction between Desiree and Tanner's brother, Troy, that is more touching, more tender, more sizzling. More everything.

This secondary romance deserved a story of its own.

Despite some cardboard characters, a rather limp main romance and a predictable little mystery, NOT ANOTHER NEW YEAR'S is breezy, sexy and a whole lot of fun.

Ms. Ridgway's sense of humor shines...

Debbie Jett