Rest in Pink

Liz Danger, Book 2

By: Jennifer Crusie, Bob Mayer

Narrated by: Cris Dukehart, Eric G. Dove

Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

From the NY Times Bestselling duo that wrote Agnes and the Hitman, the second book in the Liz Danger series.

Liz Danger is a ghostwriter, trapped in her old hometown for the summer. Good thing she has Vince Cooper, her recurring one-night stand living down by the river in his old diner car, making her feel happy and safe and normal until September when she’ll be leaving again, although she’s starting to wonder if she really wants to.

Vince Cooper is a cop in a town with a shady new housing development that’s bringing a lot of armed strangers, a corrupt mayor, a police chief boss under fire, and an idiot blogger stirring up trouble. Good thing his recurring one-night stand is sticking around for the summer. The only drawback? He’s not looking forward to the empty space Liz Danger will leave behind her when she goes in September.

Treacherous small-town politics, a rust belt biker gang, a widowed ex who doesn’t understand the word “no,” a seven-year-old in need of a temporary mom, a flamboyant blonde boss who needs watched at all times, exploding family secrets, arson, murder, and three hundred and ninety-two soaking wet teddy bears later, Liz and Vince will come face to face with the madman burning down their town, and even worse, with their imploding relationship.

“A comic caper and raucous romance. . . laugh out loud funny.” Kirkus Reviews on Agnes and the Hitman

“A sex, sassy, and smart combination of romance and suspense that is simply irresistible.” Booklist on Don’t Look Down

REST IN PINK: There’ll be a hot time in the old town tonight.

©2023 Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer. (P)2023 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Excellent Series

I’m loving this new series from Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer. I hope that they continue writing, and we can look forward to more amazing stories from them.

Awesome

Book 2 of the series funny, adventurous with lots of suspense and a hot dour cop!

Love the community building

The first book started a bit slow. I felt Rest in Pink was easier to settle into & had a more even, lively pace. And while in general I don’t like death & destruction, the destruction was mostly property damage & the updates from beyond were pretty entertaining. Also. every mention of a cardboard museum hit the amusement button in my brain.

Liz & Vince go from regular hookups to responsible adults in this installment. I think there was lots of good progress on the “how to relationship” front - namely “we do things that affect us both together, not separately”, while being ggg — good, giving, & game. I liked how Liz addressed the Crystal situation, and bolstered precocious, but fragile, Peri. She kept promises that made Peri feel protected enough she could keep powering through the chaos of her life. When there are situations that could be disappointing, they aren’t disappointing- people talk about uncomfortable topics rather than stew in misunderstandings and when town gossips try to stir tensions, they fail, because the characters talk things out and, except for a certain present, and a revelation, aren’t particularly secretive - because they like each other.

I greatly enjoyed the last chapter or so, showing how the community was coalescing around Liz, Vince, and Anenome. I always enjoy Crusie’s community building characters & Mayer’s characters’ “let’s get this done” attitude. It works well here. This is a fine example of both.

Steam: medium. Liz & Vince get up to naked shenanigans, indulging each other’s fantasies, even taking advantage of some lingerie largesse from Anenome. This is an important part of their relationship from the jump so it’s a major through line but it’s not exceptionally detailed, being more fade to black than play by play, but the setups are clear & unambiguous.

Narration: I was able to relax and follow along easily. I like dual narrators, and these were smooth with even sound quality.

very exciting and wonderfully funny.

I love the characters in this series. The story is very original. It is another of those books that I couldn't put down. The narration was really very well done.

Good fun

Loved the 2nd installment. It really came together. The characters were great and lots of fun.

Dangerously Good

Classic Crusie & Mayer. Plenty of romance and heartwarming moments, mixed with a fair amount of mayhem and murder. By the end I was desperately wishing that Burney, Ohio actually existed, so I could devour onion rings at the Red Box Diner while listening to tales of Liz and Anemone's latest exploits.

Sooo good.

I have a few authors on my automatic buy list. I added Jennifer Crusie/Bob Mayer after I read "Lavender's Blue." This second book in the series justifiably confirms this decision. Following up on all these Burney characters and the several subplots from the first book, we find a little mentioned character from "Lavender's Blue" creating havoc and mayhem for Vince and just about the whole town. Let me not forget pivotal character Liz, her employer Anemone, seven-year-old Peri and the rest of the Burney gang of friends. So many characters and each one breathes life into Burney. I chuckled, laughed out loud, spit out coffee, stomped around angry and read dialogue to my husband (such a patient man). A re-read worth read.

Let me not forget to mention Cris Dukehart and Eric G. Dove do a fine narration with al the quirks needed.

She’s back and KILLING IT!

I love this new series. I can’t work or sleep because I can’t stop listening! I love the characters, dialogue and how they grow and develop through the story line!!!! Thank you and Bob Mayer for writing another great book!

Rest In Pink

Loved this story. This series is great so far, and as the second book, I'm just loving that each book has had its own mystery and storyline arc from start to finish but also an overarching storyline throughout all the books. I'm going straight from this one to book #3. I said it after reading Lavender's Blue and I'll say it again after Rest In Pink: I am so happy Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer decided to write another series together, especially this type of small-town mystery-slash-romance-slash-comedy that they're so great at.

Bravo!

Jenny Crusie just keeps getting better! I am a long, long time fan and having an absolute blast listening to this series. Thank you, Jenny, for continuing to bring us your voice!

Bob Meyer adds a depth and perspective that is most excellent as well.