Don’t Look Down by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer

I think I finally figured out why I don’t give Crusie’s books five-star reviews. There are too many characters that are introduced in the first two chapters of each book with complicated histories and connections to other characters to keep them straight. Like take Don’t Look Down for example:

• Lucy – director of dog commercials who is brought in to finish filming of a movie on request of her sister Daisy and her ex-husband Connor.
• Daisy – Lucy’s sister and mother of Pepper. Has been following Connor around for years because she wanted to do things on her own without her sister’s help.
• Connor – Lucy’s ex-husband who fucks anything that moves. Former agent in some Australian army or something. Stunt coordinator for the movie. Seems to be up to something.
• Pepper – Daisy’s daughter and Lucy’s niece. Obsessed with Barbie’s until she gets a Wonder Woman doll.
• Bryce – a comedian who wants to be known for action movies now. Big star in film that is like Connor and fucks anything that moves.
• Althea – the female co-star and Bryce’s love interest in the movie and in real life.
• Stephanie – Lucy’s assistant for the movie that seems to be sleeping with Connor. Wrote the screenplay for the movie except for the action stunts.
• Captain JT Wilder – Green Beret who is Bryce’s stunt double. Thinks he’s on leave until the CIA gives him a call.

And you meet all those characters in the first few chapters. That’s just so much freaking information to digest that you feel like you need a flow chart.

This book like Tell Me Lies and Fast Women kind of drove me crazy, and not in a good way. On top of trying to keep all these characters straight you also have to figure out the mystery behind this movie. Because of course, there has to be something going on with this movie. Why else would a romantic-comedy get ridiculous action sequences at the end? I wish I could tell you what was going on, but the truth is I really don’t know myself. All I can say is, there was some sort of mob thing involved and Connor, Bryce, and Althea were involved.

Final Rating: 3 out of 5 stars. I’m with a lot of people when they say that Agnes and the Hitman also by Crusie and Mayer is a lot better than this book. Too much was happening in it to keep everything straight. Favorite character? Moot, the alligator, she chomps everything in sight.

Bookshelf worthy? Save yourself the 373 pages and go read Agnes and the Hitman instead. You’ll thank me for it later.