Karen Does Daisy Dexter Dobbs...

As part of AngieW's Ebook Buzz, I read Daisy Dexter Dobbs’s, Just Like A Dame. Daisy, if you don’t have one already, go and get a tub of icecream. You may just need it.

Anyway, without further ado, here’s the blurb:

Max Wiley, is having a wet dream, when he is rudely wakened by a scantily clad angel. Max’s wanger, immediately salutes this blonde vision, and he thinks he must have died and gone to heaven.


Of course when she starts screaming about having killed somebody called Henry, he decides that perhaps, he ought to reassess the situation.


Anyway, as it turns out, Henry, isn’t actually a person, he’s Angel’s dog, who ate something he shouldn’t have, and because Max happens to be a veterinary surgeon, Angel figured that he was the best person to go to. dressed in a see-through nightie.


Angel is a lily-livered hard-boiled feminist with weight issues, whilst Max is a self-confessed sexist, misogynist pig, who unbeknownst to Angel, writes the sort of books, that would offend her feministic sensibilities.


Although Max and Angel find it difficult to agree on any subject, there is one place, where their battle of the sexes act does take a backseat. In bed.


They like being in bed. Together. A lot. In fact they liked it so much, that they spent the majority of the book there. If they weren’t fighting, then they were humping like bunny rabbits in spring. Well waddaya expect? This is an erotic romance book for Oprah’s sake.


Their relationship quickly develops, and although Max has several chances to tell Angel that although he’s a vet by day, by night he’s also a famous author, who writes the kind of sexist, Mickey Spillane type books that she hates with a passion.


He doesn’t come clean, and of course, she finds out for herself that he hasn’t been totally honest with her, which obviously leads to lots of angst-filled moments.

My Verdict

Overall, JLAD was ok. It wasn’t utterly fabulous by any stretch of the imagination, but I finished reading it, without resenting the author for making me waste two hours of my life that I wouldn’t be getting back.

As with the other DDD book that I’ve read, I liked her voice, and her style. The book flowed quite nicely, and I found that it wasn’t necessary for me to look for matchsticks in order to prop my eyes open.

I think the problem with writing a comedic romance book, is that the humour is going to be very hit and miss. What’s funny to one person, may not be funny to another, and vice versa.
I’m one of the few people on earth who thinks that the Jackass boys are the biggest twats evah unfunniest creatures I’ve ever come across, whereas, Chris Rock makes me howl with laughter.

There were some hilarious interchanges between Max and Angel, but they always seemed to culminate in Angel looking like a fool. I’m not overly fond of authors who insist on painting a perfect picture of the hero, and turning the heroine into a bumbling arsehole. This usually offends my feminist sensibilities.

Anybody who reads any of my reviews, know how big I am on characterisation. I want to empathise with the heroine, I want to like her enough to share my last tub of Bailey’s flavoured Haagen Dazs ice-cream with her.
I also want to at least consider leaving The Tall Guy for the hero, regardless of the fact that he is indeed, a fictional character.

My verdict on Max and Angel?

Max was ok, and was fairly likeable. Although his penchant for drifting off into an alternative universe, whenever he got sexually excited, made me want to hurt him really bad. His insistence on calling Angel, ‘Dollface’, also made me want to stick a rocket up his rectum, and run him over with a forklift truck. Then reverse over him for good measure.

His between/during/and after sex-speak was irritating as hell. Here’s an example:

“From the crowning glory of gold on your head, to big baby blues and cherry-red lips on your pretty face, to the bounce of your breasts and sway of your hips as you walk, to the lush, dewy pussy between your thighs… Beautiful, dollface. Every goddamned inch of you”

Aaaarghhhh! Noooooo!! These random sex-speak tidbits were littered throughout the book, and totally took me out of the story on every occasion that they occurred.

Something else that I found a little incongruous about Max, was the fact that he was an animal doctor. A vet? Do me a favour. He was far too alpha for such a tame job. If he was veterinary surgeon material, then Anna Nicole Smith was an Oxford graduate.

I felt that Dexter-Dobbs used this plot device, as a convenient way of introducing the H/H to each other, and for me, it just didn’t work

As for the heroine? Jesus. Effing Christ.

Quite frankly, Angel Brewster made me want to stab myself in the eye.

I struggled with her continuously throughout the book.

I kinda liked her at the beginning, but it all went pear-shaped after she started having hissy fits at the stupidest things. Paranoid Schizophrenic much?

She was supposed to be a feminist rebel with a cause, instead, she was more like a rebel without an effing clue. I wanted to hurt her real bad.

There were justifications for her behaviour, of course. Apparently she’d been hurt in the past by an ex-boyfriend who’d done her wrong, but somehow, this explanation failed to move me in the slightest. The other explanation for her pseudo – militant behaviour, was that she was the only girl amongst a gaggle of brothers, and she’d had to fight for everything all her life.
My heart bled for her. Seriously. Not.

I just didn’t buy it. As far as I was concerned, she was a petulant bitch, who needed to be put out of my misery with a sawn-off shotgun.
If I’d been at school with her, I’d have tied her to the school railings, and used her as target practice.

Apart from the heroine’s moodswings, there were other parts of this book that made me roll my eyes heavenwards. For instance, who the fuck goes into a stranger’s house only wearing a barely-there nightie? What if he’d been a serial killer, or a rapist? I’m all for fantasy and all, but I do expect some basis in reality in contemporary romances.

You’d be forgiven for thinking I didn’t like this story, and in all honesty, I probably shouldn’t have liked anything about it, but I experienced the Shannon McKenna effect with this book. It was so flawed that I should have hated it, but for some reason I didn’t. I feel kinda dirty admitting that out loud, and perhaps I should be spanked with a 40cm Horse whip, made with carbonfibre and decorated with studs , for showing such poor judgement, but what the hell, I know you guys have experienced similar fascinations for books that were wrong in every way. Don’t deny it.

Would I recommend this book? Not if you’re looking for War and Peace.

However, if you’re looking for a light and fluffy read, then this book may just float your boat. You can find the author’s website here, and you can buy the book here.

How are you holding up Daisy? *Karen passes over the Bailey's flavoured ice-cream*