Product Description

Lucy Savage is finally getting rid of Bradley—and his hideous green recliner. Bradley is out of her life for good. Or so she thinks. Turns out Officer Zack Warren wants to arrest the very same Bradley for embezzlement and figures the lovely Lucy can lead him straight to his target.

Good thing there's a cop around. Because someone shoots at Lucy and then blows up her car. Zack insists she needs twenty-four-hour protection. What does he think her three dogs and attack cat are for? Still, he insists on moving right in to Lucy's house.

Now there's danger lurking outside and in her own kitchen, bathroom—and bedroom. Or maybe Zack is just what Lucy needs.…

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #174820 in Books
• Published on: 2008-12-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 272 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780373773237
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
"Jennifer Crusie has a marvelous writer's voice -- funny and dead on realistic at the same time." -- Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
I've never known anyone who was stood up for her own divorce before," Tina Savage told her sister. "What's it feel like?"

"Not good." Lucy Savage Porter tried to smooth her flowered skirt with a damp hand. "Can we go? I'm not enjoying this." She gave up on the skirt and clutched her lumpy tapestry bag to her as she glanced around the marble hallway of the Riverbend courthouse. "Bradley signed the divorce papers. We don't even need to be here."

Tina shook her head. "Psychologically, we need to be here. You had a ceremony when you got married, you need one when you get divorced. I want you to feel divorced. I want you to feel free. Now sit over there on that bench while I find Benton to tell me why this is taking so long."

I'd feel a lot freer if you'd stop ordering me around, Lucy started to say, and then blinked instead. She'd been having rebellious moments like that a lot lately, but they were hard to hold on to, especially since the only time she'd actually followed through on one, it had been a disaster. Right now she was sitting under a brassy head of curls because she'd decided to go blonde as a symbol of her freedom. Some symbol. She looked like Golden Barbie with crow's-feet.

Maybe the problem was that she wasn't an independent kind of person. Other than the hair fiasco, every time she'd decided to be more independent, logic stopped her cold. After all, Tina was right. She did need the closure of hearing the divorce decree. And the bench was the best place to sit. It would be illogical to disagree just for the sake of disagreeing.

No matter how good it would have felt.

She went over and sat down on the bench.

Tina was gone already, trying to find her hapless attorney in the flood of suits that washed around her. Poor Benton. He'd gone beyond the call of lawyerhood in ramming Lucy's divorce through the courts in two weeks, but that wasn't enough for Tina. Tina wouldn't be satisfied until Benton brought her Bradley's head on a platter. Lucy had a momentary image of Tina, dark and svelte and dressed in her white linen suit, standing in front of a flustered Benton who was offering her Bradley's handsome head on a turkey plate.

She liked it. Tina always did have the best ideas.

Tina suddenly appeared before her, parting the suits before her like the Red Sea. "There's some kind of delay. It'll be another hour, but then we'll go have lunch."

Another hour. "All right. At Harvey's Diner?"

Tina shrugged. "Whatever you want."

"Thank you." Lucy dug her physics textbook out of her bag.

"What are you doing?"

"I have to teach Planck's constant tomorrow." Lucy paged through the book. "It's a tough one to get across. I'm reviewing."

"You know, the next thing I'm getting you is a new job," Tina said, and disappeared back into the suits.

A new job?

"I like my job," Lucy said, but Tina was already gone.

Okay, that's the last straw." Lucy closed her book with a thump. Nobody's ordering me around anymore. From now on, I'm going to be independent even if it is illogical. I'm going to be a whole new me.

That's it.

I'm changing.

"Okay, that's it. I'm quitting," Zack Warren said to his partner. His shaggy dark hair fell across his forehead, almost into his eyes, but he was too mad to brush it back.

"Don't tell me, tell Jerry." Tall, cool, and controlled, Anthony Taylor nodded toward the man who had just pulled a gun on them.

Zack turned back to the gun, wavering now in the hands of the balding, middle-aged embezzler who stood quivering in his bad suit behind his empty desk. Jerry watched them warily, as warily as a cautious man might regard two big guys he was holding a gun on.

"I'm quitting, Jerry," Zack said. "You can let me go because I'm not going to be a cop anymore. You can have the badge."

He started to reach into his worn black leather jacket, and Jerry squeaked, "No!

Customer Reviews

Delightful, sexy book. Kept me laughing.
Meet schoolteacher Lucy Savage. She's just been "stood-up" at a divorce hearing by her cheating husband Bradley, her pushy sister Tina keeps telling her what to do, and she has just acquired the hair-do from hell. On top of that, it seems that someone is trying to kill her. In the middle of all of this mayhem, she meets a handsome cop, Zack Warren, who is certain that Bradley is guilty of embezzlement. He also believes that Bradley, for one reason or another, is also behind the attempted shootings and mild bombings aimed towards Lucy. Hoping to protect Lucy and catch Bradley at the same time, Zach moves into Lucy's home. Zack, who doesn't consider himself the marrying type, is certain he'll be able to maintain his hormone level throughout his time with Lucy. Lucy also believes that she'll be able to contain her attraction, but somewhere along the way both her and Zack's plan seems to crumble away, revealing a passion that neither have experienced before.

"Getting Rid of Bradley" is one of those novels you just can't help laughing out loud to. Bestselling author Jennifer Crusie manages to tell an entertaining story by blending humour and sexual tension. The characters and situations they are thrust into are so crazy, so left field, that you can't help believing that it could actually happen. The interactions between Lucy and Zack are very entertaining to read and it's nice to watch their relationship develop in such a short time period. What begins as an innocent attraction quickly turns into overwhelming passion and eventually love for the two, who seem hell-bent on preventing just that.

If you're looking for a light-hearted, romantic novel, check this one out. You'll just love it!

Gennie Bailey-Rogers

Love, tenderness and loads of laughter!
After catching her perfect husband with a blonde, school teacher Lucy gets a quickie divorce and just wants to put the whole mess behind her. She intends to become a fully independent woman whose biggest responsibility will be keeping her menagerie of mutts happy. She doesn't want or need another man in her life but when she spots dangerously handsome Zack in a café she figures a fling might not be a bad idea. But when he accosts her in the parking lot all of her sexy thoughts fly out the window and she beats the crap out of him with her textbook! She's thrilled with herself until she discovers he's an undercover cop who was only trying to save her life. When further attempts are made on her life he moves in to protect her and ends up falling in love with her dogs and, although it scares the
heck out of him, her.

This is one of my favorite Crusie books. The heroine is easy to identify with as she has a perpetual bad hair day throughout most of the book. The hero looks tough, and tries to act tough but is a big marshmallow on the inside, especially when dealing with Lucy and her dogs. When he brings her a special gift I was a goner - and so was she. There's a lot of humor, love and touching moments in this great book. I had a blast reading it.

Thank heavens for reissues!
This book first came out in 1994 and despite beating a path to bookstore doors for the release of Ms. Crusie's last 4 books...I was caught unaware by this one. But, I snagged it off a shelf, brought it home and couldn't stop reading once I had started it. Phone calls went unanswered, dog went unfed and frankly, I'm not sure if I remembered to feed myself!

A more unlikely couple would be hard to find then Lucy, a wacky, recently divorced teacher looking for some changes in her life, and Zack...a cop that feels his age weighing heavily on his tall muscular body, even though he's only 36. The verbal exchanges they put each other through are some of the funniest I've read and that includes Jennifer Crusie's more recent offerings. This book is a delightful experience of laugh-out-loud, foot stomping, eye watering exercises. Along with the hysterically zany moments, we're awarded some of the most enduring, red-hot steamy romantic displays between Lucy and Zack that rivial anything I've read. This book is a whoop and a keeper!