Wife For Hire by Janet Evanovich
This is a cute story about a farmer with big ideas but can’t secure a loan because he’s single, so he hires a school teacher to help secure his loan. His contracted wife is a writer who wants privacy write stories about her aunt’s scandalous tales and the farm gives her what she needs. Together they get more than they bargained for.
While I love comedy books like this, it also demonstrates how far romance stories have evolved over the years. I recommend this book for Evanovich fans and for lovers of romantic comedy everywhere.
Details: Harper, November 2007 (originally released in 1990)
Excellence Rating: Very Good
Stephanie Plum finds her life in danger again when someone arrives on the scene claiming to be Ranger’s wife and waiving a 9mm Glock. Soon she finds herself working closely with Ranger to locate his kidnapped child. Bullets and bombs and other mayhem await Stephanie as the body count rises. Now will she live long enough to see Thirteen or will her body parts be blasted all over the burb? 
Cate Madigan spends her nights tending bar, so she can spend her days studying to become an elementary school teacher. Because money is tight, she found a room to rent with a man who also works at the bar - a cross-dressing lounge singer named Marty. But when Kellen McBride stops by the bar one night and leaves Cate feeling tingly, strange things start happening. First Marty disappears, then someone breaks into her apartment and finally she finds a dead body inside the stairwell. Fortunately Kellen is around to lend a hand. But Kellen is an ex-cop on assignment and Cate is the best lead he has. So when Marty sends Cate a 120 pound mastiff puppy, Kellen volunteers to help hoping to get the clues he needs. Soon, the danger escalates and Cate and Kellen find their lives in danger, while at the same time falling in love. Now assuming that they manage to survive, can Cate forgive Kellen when she finally learns the truth. 
Megan Murphy loved Colonial Williamsburg in the fall, but when Patrick Hunter’s runaway rabbit began nibbling on her clothes, she decided to return him and give him a piece of her mind. Unfortunately, as she was starting to chew him out, a girl in her young twenties mistakes her for Patrick’s wife and asks the couple to tend to her infant baby. Promising to come back in a few weeks, the girl departs leaving the surprised couple with a child to care for. Soon Megan and Pat find themselves living as a family, but the real question is this for real or just a dream. 
Lizabeth Kane desperately needs a job – any job. She’s recently divorced with two children and after being turned down for nearly every other job, she applies for a job as a laborer at a construction site. Matt Hallahan fell in love with Lizabeth the moment he saw her and immediately offered her a job with his company. While Lizabeth needed the job (especially since she’d learn the skills she needed to fix her current house), she wasn’t ready to get involved with anyone. But Matt wasn’t ready to take no for an answer, so he began spending time with Lizabeth by helping her repair her house. Can Matt survive a dog that eats everything, the neighborhood flasher, an eccentric old lady named Elsie, and a slightly jealous ex-husband in order to convince Lizabeth to marry him? 
Stephanie Plum is fed up with chasing fugitives, so she quits her job as a bounty hunter and applies for a more sensible job as the button factory. Unfortunately, trouble has a way of following Stephanie as she finds someone has beaten her car with a baseball bat, shot holes though her car, set the backseat on fire and finally blows up her car yet again. Not only that, but she manages to get fired from one job after another - often with spectacular results. And the competition between Joe Morelli and Ranger ratchets up a notch as they both fight to make sure she stays alive. Now Stephanie is definitely in trouble, and the only way for her to stay alive is to use her bounty hunting skills to track down the person who wants her dead before they succeed in killing her. 
Maggie Farnsworth has a secret - a big secret. Fourteen years ago, her boyfrend, Carl Lee Stanton, was sentenced to jail for the murder of an FBI agent during an armored car robbery. Unknown to both Maggie and Carl Lee at that time, Maggie was pregnant with Carl Lee’s child. Forced to raise her daughter by herself, Maggie studied to become a pediatrician and is struggling to start her medical practice in her home town of Beaumont, South Carolina. When Carl Lee escapes from prison, the FBI assigns Zack Madden to protect Maggie, despite the fact that Zack’s father was the FBI agent gunned down by Stanton. While Maggie feels a strong attraction to Zack, which is the first time she has thought about a man since Carl Lee, she must find a way to stay alive long enough to act on her feelings.