Remmen los!

Girls Do Or Don't #1

by Cathie Linz, J.C. van Kleef (Translator)

Het rustige leventje van bibliothecaresse Julia Wright wordt verstoord, als drie maffe familieleden bij haar intrekken. Alsof dat niet genoeg is, komt ook Luke Maguire het vredige stadje binnenscheuren. Hij is teruggekeerd om de kroeg van zijn overleden vader te exploiteren. De tegendraadse Luke wordt niet bepaald met open armen ontvangen, maar vindt in boekenwurm Julia een onwaarschijnlijke bondgenote. Hij doet zijn uiterste best om bij haar in een goed blaadje te komen, in de hoop haar tot ondeugende dingen te verleiden.

Genres: Romance, Contemporary Romance, Contemporary, Chick Lit, Fiction, Humor, Adult

318 pages, Paperback

First published January 3, 2006

About the author

Cathie Linz Baumgardner was an American librarian and a prolific romance novelist, publishing over 50 novels under the names Cathie Linz and Cat Devon. Her books, known for their humor and witty dialogue, have been translated into nearly 20 languages worldwide. She contributed to the acclaimed anthology Dangerous Men and Adventurous Women: Romance Writers on the Appeal of the Romance and received multiple honors, including the Romantic Times Career Achievement Storyteller of the Year, Reviewers' Choice Award, eHarlequin Readers' Choice Award, and Write Touch Award. An avid traveler, she lived in the Chicago area with her family and her cat.

Reviews

[⚜️XAR the Bookwyrm · Rating 3 out of 5]

This wasn't a bad book, but it wasn't remarkable either. I really hated Julia's family outright, and learning that the second book is about her sister does not make me inclined to read it anytime soon. Luke had too many secrets and I couldn't understand why he wasn't talking about his past. I also didn't enjoy how Luke kept pandering to his reputation in the town, rather than try to change it. The Mayor was a bit over the top, too! I did enjoy the library details in the story, so that did redeem it from a 2 star rating. All in all, this will go on my series in progress list, but I'm not looking to get it done anytime soon.

[PepperP0t · Rating 3 out of 5]

Humor is so hard to do. On the one hand I found this origin story reminiscent of Gilmore Girls television show with the rapid fire comments and snappy off the wall thinking and quirky characters.
Julia Wilson loves her job as a librarian in the small town of Serenity Falls which she also loves - it gives her a sense of roots and stability that she missed during her formative years with her radically different mother and her entitled sister. Julia's mom, sister and niece need shelter and decide that Julia's would be the perfect place and she'll take care of them until they get on the feet or find a more desirable situation. Julia has just met legendary town bad boy Luke Maguire who has been forced back to town to gain his inheritance and he isn't pleased about that one bit. The last thing she needs is the inconvenience of loving family for an unwelcome, unexpected, unending stay and their antics.
I alternately liked and disliked this story as I couldn't make up my mind if I thought the story stayed fresh throughout or stale periodically. One of the threads was annoying for me. Overall this read felt very light and although I liked the characters I wasn't completely invested in them. I will try book two though.

[Jane Stewart · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was annoyed more than entertained by this book.

Julia has made a nice life for herself as a librarian and has her own house. Without any notice, her "save the planet" hippie-like mother, Angel, barges in to live with her because Angel is out of money. Her sister Skye also moves in. Skye is a single mother with a spoiled brat of a daughter, who has never been told "no." The mother and Skye take over Julia's life in ways such as throwing out food in Julia's refrigerator because they disagree with her choices. It is a story of a nice girl being annoyed by her own family and the local towns people. The story was no fun. The romance that develops between Julia and Luke wasn't enough to make the book enjoyable.

CAUTION SPOILER: Worst of all, the mother lied to Julia about her father for 30 years. Finally Angel decides to tell Julia who her real father is. I was angry at Angel because of her reason for not telling Julia.

Sexual language: moderate. Number of sex scenes: six. Setting: current day small town, Serenity Falls, Pennsylvania. Copyright: 2006. Genre: contemporary romance.

[Lady Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute!

[Janet · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was looking forward to reading this but it was just ok. It was entertaining and good for a few hours of reading.

[Nath · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5/5 (C-)

Julia has been a librarian in the small-town Serenity's Falls for the past 3 years. She likes it there, actually love it as it provides her the stability that she lacked when she grew up with her New Age mom and little sister, always moving. However, her peaceful heaven turns into hell when the town bad boy, Luke Maguire, comes back after his father's death to settle family business and when Angel, Skye and Toni, respectively Julia's mother, sister and 4 y.o niece, show up at Julia's door. So in this little town where everyone knows everyone's secret, Julia and Luke have sparks, Julia's family is disrupting her life and in addition, Julia learns that her father is not dead.

Well the book wasn't bad per se, but I don't know... I found it a bit boring. Julia and Luke's characters were kind of bland... Luckily, Julia's family and the town's wackos kind of save the book with comedy relief. See, Julia has never fit in and she wants to fit in. Although she feels guilty about it, Julia can't help but think that her family is a disruption and that's pretty much the part I didn't like. The book pretty much focus on Julia and so, you don't really get to know Luke that much. I don't really know what to say... it wasn't bad, just bland. The book happens on a timeline of 6 months and too much things that aren't important happen and too little important things don't happen.

[Starry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Julia Wright couldn't be more content with her job at the local library, nestled in placid, picturesque Serenity Falls. Until her wacky mother, petty-thief sister, and little niece decide to crash her quiet party of one. And her troubles really stack up when a new guy roars into town on his Harley, shaking up more than just the books on her shelves.
_______________________________________________________________________

luke has come back to stir up some trouble...well he came back to work at his father(mean dude) old's restraunt for 6 months b4 he can sell it for $$$.On the first day arriving he meets julia, the "sexy librarian". julia's family comes barging in out of nowhere into her life, taking over her house, and has llamas in her backyard!!!! Serenity falls will never be the same again.
in the end julia finds out her dad is alive and is adam kemp, 12th riches man on the earth, and at first i thought he was a jerk but in the end turns out he's really nice and trying to make a relationship father to daughter with julia. angel(julia's mom) finally is dating tyler. luke and julia leave together out of town together, skye and toni are no heard of but the last i heard of they moved to a home with a nun. Everything's great.#239

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a sucker for any book that has a librarian in it, I always like to see how they are portrayed. This was a good read although I get kind of tired of the librarian stereotype.

[Tiffani · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not great, even a bit annoying. Julia is a librarian (that's the best part) in a small town. She's the odd one in her family - her mother and sister, Angel and Skye respectively, are modern day hippie nomads. Julia was the one who craved stability, who got tired of moving from place to place. And, she loved books. Wherever her family moved Julia found the local library. As an adult, Julia became a librarian. She has built a life she loves but because her choices aren't their choices Angel and Skye are critical.

The book opens with three people who arrive in town and disrupt Julia's life. The first is Luke, former town bad boy who left town after high school and who comes back to take over his late father's bar. He immediately takes a liking, or maybe a lusting, to Julia. The other two arrivals are Angel and Skye. After their latest venture has failed, mother and sister move in with Julia without warning or permission. They do things like throw out her food because it has too much sugar. Never mind that Julia is an adult capable of making her own choices.

Mild spoiler: Angel drops a bomb into Julia's life, revealing that the man Julia thought was her father wasn't it. Naturally Julia wants to know who her father is but Angel refuses to tell her because Julia's father is a "capitalist pig." It was all very cruel.

This had the bones of a good story but in the end it didn't quite deliver. The romance between Julia and Luke was okay but not quite enough to redeem the annoying Angel and Skye. Actually, the romance wasn't that much of a romance.

[LNMB · Rating 3 out of 5]

Daughter of a free spirit, Julia moves to Stars Hollow - ahem, I mean Serenity Falls - for peace and quiet. Luke (no really, the H name is actually Luke) blows into town to run his deceased father's diner - ahem, I mean bar - on the same night Julia's new age mom, sister and niece barge into her life needing a place to stay. Taylor - ahem, I mean Walt - creates trouble, and the other town's people gossip like there's no tomorrow. Julia's peaceable life goes down the tubes.

I had to keep reminding myself this was a rom com in order to enjoy it. This is probably more of a personal issue, but the wacky humor just didn't translate well in writing. Luke grew on me, but his attitude at first was super off-putting to the point I couldn't understand why Julia was still talking to him. Overall the romance was ok, and the town grew on me, but I disliked Julia's sister the most of everyone, so I won't be reading book 2 for sure.

[Debby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Librarian Linz has Julia Wright be the local reference librarian in perfect small town Serenity Falls, PA. Julia's free spirit mother Angel and sister Skye always needed practical Julia to bail them out and she's enjoying living a "normal" life. That ends when bad boy Luke Maguire shows up in town to take over his Dad's pub - a condition of inheriting it. The same day, his mother, sister, niece and 2 llamas show up and move in. Between them, Julia's going nuts - throw in a couple of other town characters and it's a lively group. Secrets come out, old hurts are healed and Luke and Julia have some HOT sex. The right people get together. Luke turns out to be ex-FBI and they ride off together on his Harley.

Great fun book, but pretty explicit in her sex scenes. PG-13.

[April · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF, annoyed with characters.

[Julie Barrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

g read

[Icy Blue · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hot bad boy and goody two shoes librarian. The pool scene is 🥵🥵🥵

[Resti · Rating 2 out of 5]

aargh.. baca buku ini banyakan keselnya daripada enjoynya. sebaal. rasa mau jambak jambak rambut saking kesalnya dengan tokoh tokoh di buku ini. bukan tokoh utamanya, kalo si Julia dan Luke aku lumayan suka, segaknya satu bintang cuma buat mereka aja. terus satu bintang juga buat sahabat mereka si Tyler,Big Al, Adele dan Pam.
yang bikin geregetan tuh si mak nya Julia sama adeknya Julia, Skye yang bawa anak perempuannya yang suka gigit.mereka tiba tiba datang ke Serenity Fall, ngobrak ngabrik rumahnya. dikit dikit mau makan makanan organik. selalu kritik Julia ini itu, ganggu Julia..dan yang lebih parah lagi, boong soal ayah kandung Julia selama 30tahun. dan hebatnya lagi, semua orang kayak suka gitu sama si angel , mak nya Julia. soalnya si angel dan Skye tipe orang yang cablak dan emosinya keliatan banget. hmph. paling gak suka deh orang yang kayak gini. dan dan yang paling bikin keselnya lagi, si Tyler cinta banget sama Angel. Ya Tuhan.. benciiiiiii.... benciiiiiiiiii sangat.. *untung lagi gak puasa, jadi bebas marah marah*.
aku gak kan baca buku keduanya yang tentang si skye. udah telanjur jengkel dengan dianya. dan gak mau baca apa apa lagi tentang Angel. sebal.. >.<

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was decent. I mean, let's be fair about what it is: a quick fix. Good girl. Bad boy (misunderstood, of course). Throw in a crazy mom and a few other outrageous characters and you get a lightly entertaining book easily read and enjoyed in a day and largely forgotten the next.

I'm usually bored by contemporary romance because it often fails to give me that escapist quality I look for in fiction, but sooner or later regency and paranormal get old as well so I find myself looking for something else. This worked fine. It brought in a touch of comedy, which I'm finding is what I need from contemporary romance when I do read it.

My only complaint is that I thought it ended rather abruptly. Not that I needed it to get drawn out, but there was this whole subplot where her mom had a "secret" that was perfectly obvious to anyone paying the slightest bit of attention and after the secret came out, it got about 2 pages of focus even though it was a huge life-altering thing for Julia. Even in a fluffy brainless romance, I'd kind of like that dealt with or why bother bringing it up?

[Jessi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to enjoy this book because the main character, Julia Wright is a librarian. But she's the stereo-typical uptight librarian. Part of that is because her family is so liberal and free-thinking that she just wants to live a "normal" life. Whatever that is.
But she's impeded by the fact that her mother, her sister and her niece (aka "Toni the Biter") have just moved into her house bringing along two llamas. Also, by the fact that Luke Maguire, the quintessential bad boy has just moved back to town and is hot on her trail.
Luke is just in town for the six months it takes to fulfill the terms of his father's will. But that doesn't preclude him messing with the mayor's, who is obsessed with having one of the best ten towns in America, head, riling up the town with his bad boy exploits and falling in love.

[Diah Didi · Rating 2 out of 5]

My very first of Cathie Linz, recommended by Veeta, merely because I like reading story about librarian, cause it seems like I was that kind of girl. Uptight outside but wild inside. *lol
Ceritanya sih standard banget. Julia yg sangat lurus dipasangkan dengan Luke si bad boy. Julia mencicipi nikmatnya hidup dan belajar bersenang-senang, Luke belajar serius menanggapi perasaannya dan berkomitmen. Kasian juga waktu Julia tau Luke berniat ngejual tokonya dan pergi.
Antara terganggu dan tidak, Cathie Linz menggunakan banyak sekali dialog. Dialog penting dan nggak penting. Agak males bacanya, tapi seru juga baca dialog orang ngobrol ngelantur. Ada banyak tokoh, pusing dan males baca detil. :p

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Something about Cathie Linz's writing brings you right into the story as if your a part of it. She makes you love her characters right away. I fell in love with Luke and Julia immediately. A kinda complicated yet fun relationship that was punctuated with great supporting characters. It was great getting to know Angel, Tyler and Big Al a little more, and I'm excited to read Skye's story in Bad Girls Don't. I still would like to see if Sue Ellen has her own story.

[Evelyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Julia Wright couldn't be more content being a librarian in the quiet small town of Serenity Falls. That is, until her wacky mother, petty-thief sister, and little niece, "Toni, the biter," descend back into her life. To make matters worse, bad boy Luke Maquire returns on his Harley to manage his late father's bar and sets his sights on her.

A laugh-out-loud funny romantic read. But, also has the underlying theme that you can't judge people by their appearance. Perfect for the beach. A sequel featuring her sister is planned. Highly recommend.

[Char (1RadReader59) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. The characters were so funny you could just see them in your head by the words the writer chose to use. They were so wacky I could relate. Now that is scary. I came at the very tail end of growing up in the late 60's early 70's. So the whole flower child commune free love thing was still around. So this just had me rolling in places. It also had some very sad moments where family issues were either something I have been through or a friends have. All around good book love the authors style of writing. Recommend.

[Paula · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was better towards the beginning then I felt it went on to so many story lines that never really went anywhere. I kept wondering why some of them were even brought up. When I finished the book I realized there was a 2nd book "Bad Girls Don't" featuring her sister, Skye. So that explained the unanswered story lines. Good book with some funny moments and a dreamy guy. The town council characters were hilarious.

[Bonnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A funny book about a control freak who lives in a small town, whose new-age mother and sister move in with her. She then begins to loosen up and begins a relationship with a guy she wouldn't have taken a second look at before.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a cute romance with a librarian as the romantic lead. The best part (IMO) of this book was that the heroine actually had a degree and did librarian things--she wasn't just tired of big city life and happened upon being the director of the small town library where she lived. I'm glad Linz got that right.

[Ms.soule · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mystery Romance about a town librarian who is swept off her feet by the town bad boy. Cute storyline but unremarkable writing. The second in the series (Bad Girls Don't) is better.

[Brenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a romance novel about a small town librarian smitten by a "bad boy" biker bartender/owner. It was an enjoyable read ... fast and entertaining. Started the book yesterday ... and finished by 11:00 am this morning. Hmmm, I know a small town librarian!!! Luke would definiately rock her world if he rumbled into her life!

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. Wasn't really impressed with this one. I felt that Linz was trying too hard to pander to the library community. Also, I really disliked the way she did some of the dialogue. She had two characters talking, but would just have their words and not any actions or even who said it (and this went on for like a whole page). It got confusing sometimes as to who was saying what line.

[Stephanie Bolen · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was cute ,about what I expected. Nothing really stand out or wrong with it any of the major elements, pacing was good, characters were likeable but not unique, writing was average, plot was cohesive but middle of the road, and the climax and resolution were exactly as a romance novel should be. Like I said it was cute book, not a life changing work of fiction, but a cute book and a fun read.

[BeParticular · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amusing light read. I work in a library, so enjoyed that the book is written by a librarian and the main character is a librarian. Lots of small town quirkiness and complications leading to the predictable happy ending. Note to author: Stop having your main character make "note to self" asides in the text. It is annoying and very distracting.

[ChloeLeeNH · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the attempts the heroine makes in keeping her life normal amongst her crazy family and her attraction to the town bad boy is one of her issues. And boy what an attraction it is... nice and steamy! I enjoyed this one. Good starter to this series