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What the Lady Wants  By  cover art

What the Lady Wants

By: Jennifer Crusie
Narrated by: Lola Holiday
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Editorial reviews

When Mae Sullivan’s uncle dies under suspicious circumstances, she enlists the help of Mitch Peatwick to get to the bottom of it all. The story of a murder, an unlikely romance, and all the craziness that happens along the way, What the Lady Wants is a fun ride from start to finish.

The narration is interesting. While the main characters are all in their early to mid-30s, the narration is done by a woman clearly older than that. Most of the time, her voice is spot-on, particularly with the female characters, flawlessly switching from emotions in a variety of accents. However, the male characters proved to be much more of a challenge, sometimes missing the mark, verging on becoming over the top and cartoonish. Normally, something like this would detract from the story, however, the whole plot is almost madcap, so the less-than-perfect narration fits in with the lighthearted flow of the story.

The story itself is a good combination of murder, action, drama, and spiciness and you’re dropped into the action from the very first minute. Each character is well-thought out and given a solid background that keeps you guessing throughout the entire novel. Things aren’t always what they seem, giving What the Lady Wants a fresh feeling.

Jennifer Crusie occasionally gets a little repetitive with certain plot points, and drags some conversations out well past their point of being done, but overall, the action is constantly moving forward. There’s a good deal of suspense, as well as enough romance, driving the plot forward, as Crusie has a real talent for both genres, making this book appealing to a wider audience. Lesley Grossman

Publisher's summary

If he’s Cary Grant, where’s his Girl Friday?

Mitch Peabody was learning pretty fast that the life of a private detective was nothing like the movies. He’d envisioned a world of tough-talking detectives and smart-mouthed, stunning dames. Instead he saw case after case of cheating husbands, suspicious wives and unsuspecting mistresses…until she walked through the door.

Right down to her stilettos, Mae Sullivan was a knockout with a lethal body—and a lethal family to go with it. There was something not quite on the up-and-up about her, but she came with a case he couldn’t afford to refuse…and left him with a case of lust he hadn’t had since high school. It didn’t take long for him to fall for her, hook, line and sinker. But was Mae interested only in catching the double-crossing crooks who murdered her uncle…or did the lady want to catch him?

©2010 Jennifer Crusie (P)2010 Audible, Inc.
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: Romance

Critic reviews

“Wonderful, fresh, funny, tender, outrageous…Crusie is one of a kind.” ( Booklist)

What listeners say about What the Lady Wants

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    203
  • 4 Stars
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  • 3 Stars
    119
  • 2 Stars
    32
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Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
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  • 4 Stars
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  • 3 Stars
    84
  • 2 Stars
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Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
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  • 4 Stars
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  • 3 Stars
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Story cute, narrator...so-so

The story was really interesting, I liked the characters and there was a lot of humor. The romance between the 2 main characters was good but the "who done it" part kept me wanting to listen. The narrator wasn't the best and at times her voice distracted from the story. She was not able to make difference voices for different characters so sometimes you didn't know who was speaking (they all sounded the same.)

I really like Jennifer Crusie's writing and the story was great and I would have given it 5 stars but felt I had to drop it back to 4 because of the narrator.

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19 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Entertaining

What made the experience of listening to What the Lady Wants the most enjoyable?

Jennifer Cruisie is the best laugh-out-loud writer I have found. I think it is chick lit and I am a guy, not a chick, but I LOVE her stuff. Starting a book and knowing that it will have a lovable and much-loved dog and lots of laugh-out-loud scenes is always a joy.

What other book might you compare What the Lady Wants to and why?

Jennifer Cruisie's other books. Light romantic plot with some adventure and a dog tossed in and lots of entertainment.

Have you listened to any of Lola Holiday’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Not that I recall.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I laughed a lot.

Any additional comments?

Having said all of that, I actually like a couple of her earlier books better -- just got a copy of Welcome to Temptation to give to my hair stylist (female), who likes chick lit and likes laughing -- my book on tape version of that was shared with so many people that it long ago disappeared. .

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

JC What has happened to your writing

I have every Jenifer Cruisie book Audible offers. She was one of my first favorite writers when I joined. I don't know what has happened but I don't think I will purchase more. Maybe she is writing to a younger audience. The last few offered have not had a "story" in them. Fast Women, Welcome to Temptation, Manhunting, Bet Me, etc. These are Funny, Fun, entertaining and sexy. But they have a story you want to stay with...lately they are just flaky. Sorry JC.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

what is wrong with this narrator

It's a classic, fun Jennifer Cruise...but the narrator gives a frankly bizarre and annoying performance. I would say 80% of the sentences that she read during this book were not pronounced the way that any normal human would pronounce them. I want to offer the people who made this audiobook to read it for free so that they can have a new recording and no one has to listen to this woman ever again

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

love crusie

so far I haven't read a book of hers which I haven't liked and the three she coauthors with Bob Meyer are if anything even better. for some reason though she has stopped writing. I keep hoping for a new book though!

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

This Audible version made a 2-Star story even worse than the original

First of all, this is not one of the stronger novels by Jennifer Crusie (I've read most and re-read several every few years), but I wanted to give it another try l, this time as an Audiobook. I regret the purchase, and wish I wouldn't just re-read the e-book on my Kindle instead. The story and characters are already pretty weak without much (any) of Jennifer Crusie's amazing humor... Then to make it even worse, listening to the narrator reminds me of sitting in a living room listening to someone's great aunt reading to a group of little kids. This narrator's voice is thin, a little shaky, and even robotic at times. Her read completely lacks the necessary charisma, comedic timing, and passion required to do a Jennifer Crusie novel justice. This Audible version made a 2-Star story even worse... I stopped after chapter 3, because life is too short to waste hours half-listening to a bad audiobook.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Horribly read

I need to return this audiobook the woman reading it is awful. I want to pop my eardrums. She mispronounces sooooo many things I couldn’t get past chapter 3. I just kept saying it will get better but nope!! You can’t tell one character from another she really is just reading it with little if no change in tone or inflection. I’ve read the book it’s a great book but if your first time reading(hearing) this book you would say it was horrible. Not good not good at all

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Very funny.

I really enjoyed this book. I will read any thing that Jennifer Crusie writes. The characters are always so interesting and funny. The narration was really very well done. The stories are all so different. The have humor and suspense. I really enjoyed all of them.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Romcom

Humorous amd sexy. Jennifer Crusie is my favorite in this genre. The reader is good enough, could be better, but didn't ruin it for me.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Had The Right Premise

Audible Escape
Well I wanted to listen to all the Jennifer Cruise A.Escape offered, and so far Trust Me On This is the only 5 star story. I have purchased that book as It is worth re listening to feel good.. Ms Angela Dawe narrates 3 books of Ms Cruise and I own all of them. She made the humor and story jump to life.
I have start stoped 2 other Cruise books and even at a fast speed, it does not help the story!!! Well I do know that a great narrator can make a good book wonderful and can even pull it out of the fire so to speak. I can only hope this reader has an AKA name, but this narration was so bad. High voice and tinny sounding, Absolutely no male tone at all. Shame on Ms Cruise for not getting better narrators. This was a good tale, so read it if you liked Agnes and the Hitman.
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