Shane and the Hitwoman

The follow up to Agnes and the Hitman. No one warned Shane or Agnes that it was going to be a red wedding. It’s eight months after the first, bloody, wedding at Two Rivers and things have calmed down and seven weddings have been hosted without a problem. But no longer.

Bring on an eclectic hitwoman, an amiable Duke, an icy Duchess, a lot of sharp swords, a crazed ex-Duchess, a computer hacker and a dog named Rhett, and you’ve got a recipe for an action-packed, hilarious novel about the perils and promises of commitment.

Shane has no idea as he’s hidden on a snowy hillside with his sniper rifle on a job for the Organization, how the mission connects to a pending wedding. The operation goes to hell and he’s rescued by his back-up; a younger, diminutive operative named Phoebe, who is armed with a short, but very sharp sword and an even sharper tongue.

A ‘small, intimate wedding’ is what was promised. But too late he learns that it involves the fate of a small, but powerful European kingdom. At stake? Not just Shane’s life and Two Rivers, but his future with Agnes and the Organization. For Phoebe, an up-and-comer in the Organization, it’s her chance to show what’s she capable of. But standing in the way is the crazed ex-wife of the Duke, a mountain of a man armed with a very big sword, and a traitor within the ranks of the Organization itself.

Who will be left standing and what will their future look like?

Followed by Phoebe and the Traitor.
And Bob and Jennifer Crusie have two finished trilogies that is now available:
Lavender's Blue Rest in Pink One in Vermillion
Rocky Start Very Nice Funerals The Honey Pot Plot
And another in the works for 2026
Arresting Anna Stealing Nadine Title TBD

“Agnes and the Hitman is fabulous fun.” —Booklist (Starred review)
“A comic caper and raucous romance...laugh-out-loud funny...a fun ride.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Wickedly funny.”—Cincinnati Enquirer
“A bubbly novel with amusing banter and…moments of poignancy.”—Publishers Weekly

I love these people!

Every character has a personality to adore. The story keeps you guessing until the last minute, and with all of the twists and turns you can't help loving the ride. My only complaint is the AI narrator. I just can't get behind the monotone voice. I kept having to go back and register because my mind had drifted away from the voice.

Ruined by Narration

The Virtual Voice narration was beyond annoying and distracting. Words, particularly name and places, were consistently mispronounced, sometimes in the same sentence. Evidently no humans listened to this production before it was released.

Good Story, Bad Narration

Story is a good follow-up to Agnes and the Hitman. It would be best buy the print or Kindle version.

That they had AI doing the voice-over.

Love the first book. Wish there was more humor. But it was overall a great book. The AI cheapens the story. AI makes it harder to get into the book.

I wish I had never listened to this book.

(Repost of my Good Reads review) I had promised myself before that I would NEVER listen to another naration by Virtual Voice... but I enjoyed Agnes and the Hitman so much, that I THOUGHT it would be worth it to suffer through VV's butchering and mockery of human voices. Sadly as always, although VV can SOUND human... it CANNOT SPEAK / READ like a human. Common words are mispronounced, and VV drones on in a near monotone except in every Other line of the dialogue which is broken by an unnecessary pause so that a wrongly placed artificial inflection can make nearly everything sound like a high-pitched question. A term such as "Live-in girlfriend" is read as "live (as in Alive or currently happening) INN girlfriend" and "A security 'no-no'" is read as "a security? no NO!" and sentences that actually NEED pauses such as "What?... What is it?... What's Wrong?" is read as a barely intelligable whatwhatisitwhatswrong. Additionally aside from the erronious artificial inflections, the voice never changes, no "Jersey Accents" no "Southern Dawl" and not even a change between male or female, making scene transitions nearly impossible to distinguish. VV CANNOT simulate emotion, complexity, nuance, or timing. It should NEVER be used outside of textbooks or maybe documentaries where such Human contextualization is not neccissary.
Even THIS travesty I might have been able to choke down and look beyond, however this book seemed to be the author's Transition to their new series. Unfortunately, this seems to mean that all of the Characters and setting from AatH get tossed aside or written out EXCEPT one who is twisted into a 180 degree opposite of their AatH version, basically burning down Book Zero (AatH) and using the charred bones as a step-ladder to launch the new series, which I find souring and sad. Again, it makes me wish I had never listened to this book.