The only thing crazier than New Orleans during Mardi Gras is this novel. I'm usually a huge fan of Christina Dodd, but this book fell flat.

Jeremiah MacNaught is an ex-gigolo turned billionaire northern bank owner who will stop at nothing to catch the beaded bandits robbing his New Orlean's banks. Every Mardi Gras they strike once and no one can seem to catch them. They leave notes with dating advice with the bank tellers they rob and steal less money per heist than McNaught probably pays for cable each month. However, McNaught is determined to fly down to New Orleans first hand and catch these criminals. His main suspect: the pretty little bank teller, Nessa Dahl.

Nessa Dahl is a grown woman who has been working at the same job forever without a raise and still lives at home with her two old aunts and a bunch of odd boarders. She is constantly beat down at work by an evil boss who is so bad it's comical, and never seems to stand up for herself. At least she doesn't have six cats.

Once he arrives in New Orleans, McNaught will do whatever it takes to bring the culprits to justice and to make Nessa his. This scarred hero can take a bullet in the afternoon and then lead an all-night dancing event with old ladies; he can convince a cop to borrow their gun and then sneak into a bank in the middle of a bank robbery; he can believe the worst in people including his own mother; but he can't seem to make Nessa want to be his girl even with a billion dollar ring.

What should be a romance, is a hot and steamy mess. McNaught knows no limits in his desire to claim what he wants. His arrogance and pushy behavior are difficult to digest. He results to threats against Nessa and her family to make her agree to do his bidding. With his rough childhood, Nessa is inclined to overlook the fact that he grew up to be a cruel jerk. The characters are flat - from the bank director the author calls "Steph-a-beast" to the childhood arch nemesis of McNaught who are both just bad bad bad. Even the bad characters should have a few redeeming qualities and a little depth.

The narration by Natalie Ross was passable. She did an excellent job portraying Nessa, but a little less so with some of the side characters. Her laugh is glass shattering, and not in a positive way.
Overall, I would prefer to have the ten hours I spent listening to this back to do something more worthwhile ... like forming origami swans or reading a dictionary. ( )

This is one of those books where the secondary characters are almost as much fun as the main ones--at times, they even nearly eclipse them. A fun read; you won't want to put it down! This book almost made me want to move to New Orleans! ( )

For the last few years a pair known as the Beaded Bandits have hit Jeremiah MacNaught's banks during Mardi Gras. They take piddling amounts, and leave behind fashion and lifestyle advice. The FBI isn't too concerned, because frankly they have bigger fish to worry about, but Jeremiah is sure he knows who the ringleader is, and he's got a plan to trap her.

Nessa Dahl lives with her aunts in the historic Dahl House. She's working diligently toward the day she gets her next promotion at work and her aunts no longer have to take in boarders. But when the office being readied at the bank turns out to be for a very large, very attractive insurance investigator sent to catch the Beaded Bandits her life suddenly gets very, very complicated.

More fun than I thought it was going to be. This one is loosely linked (genetically) to Trouble in High Heels and Tongue in Chic. ( )

Very entertaining book. It jumped around a little bit with the storyline, but the characters held my attention from the beginning. I love Nessa the heroine. Everyone loves her, she's graceful, sweet, beautiful and knows how to handle people and generally likes handling people. Jeremiah isn't easy to love, in fact I'm not sure I like him except for the fact that Nessa likes him. Add in some colorful secondary characters and the wonderful setting of New Orleans - post-Katrina and I am wanting to go feel the magic of New Orleans. Fun book. It had been awhile since I had read the others in the series, but that doesn't matter really. The only mention of the previous books was right at the end.

So a fun enjoyable read - some mystery, some romance, lots of great characters and a great setting. ( )

fun and hot! ( )