Open Season by Linda Howard

For the life of me, I can't remember if I've read this book before. At the beginning, Daisy the librarian and Jack, the Chief of Police sounded vaguely familiar, even the plot sounded vaguely familiar, but I don't remember reading this book and surely it would have had the same effect on me back then (bought in 2013) as it did today.

I adored it!

Here, have a blurb.

Daisy Minor is bored. Worse than that, she's boring. A plain, small-town librarian, she's got a wardrobe as sexy as a dictionary and hasn't been on a date in years. She's never even had a lukewarm love affair, let alone a hot one. So when she wakes up on her thirty-fourth birthday, still living with her widowed mom and spinster aunt, she decides it's time to get a life.

But can a lifelong good girl turn bad? No, not exactly.

But she can pretend, right?

One makeover later, Daisy has transformed herself into a party girl extraordinaire. She's letting her hair down, dancing the night away at clubs, and laughing and flirting with men for the first time in, well, ever. With a new lease on her own place and her life, it's open season for man-hunting.

But on her way home late one night, Daisy sees something she's not supposed to see. Suddenly the target of a killer, she's forced to put her manhunt on hold. But the very moment she stops looking might be the moment she finds what she's wanted all along. Trouble is, before he can share her life, he might just have to save it.

This book, as happens in so many cases, is much more than the blurb. Although the author tackles the tough issue of sex trafficking, there is a lightness that shines throughout the book and saves it from becoming too depressing.

I liked both the main characters. In fact, Daisy reminded me a bit of me. I don't usually inject myself into a book, but like Daisy all I did was read growing up, to the point that once when my mother called me, I walked down a floor furnace (grate taken off for cleaning) because I couldn't put down my book.

If for no other reason, read this book for The Great Condom Caper. I laughed out loud. And really, it's a symbol of true love because purple, after all, is purple.

Daisy and Jack complemented each other so much. He appreciated her and all her eccentricities and fell in love with her. She didn't like or want a 'jock', but what can you do when a guy just 'gets' you? You appreciate him back and fall in love with him.

The puppy, Midus, just adds to the fun.

I highly recommend this book. It's not deep, it's not great literature, but it has likeable characters, a decent plot and although it could have been more 'in depth', there was enough depth to suit me.

Light reading at its best.  :-)