Some Girls Do

March 31, 2003
Category romance veteran Banks (The Playboy & Plain Jane, etc.) debuts in the single title arena with a cute but strained romantic comedy. Wealthy Ivan Rassmussen offers his assistant, Katie Collins, $100,000 to find a blueblood husband for his unattractive daughter, Wilhemina. Katie accepts—a decision that pairs her with grim but gorgeous Michael Wingate, a security expert similarly roped into the project. The matchmaking has barely begun when Wilhemina runs away to Texas to catch herself a cowboy. As Michael and Katie pursue her, Katie reveals the beauty and sexuality under her plain-Jane image, while Michael shows his caring side. They're halfway in love by the time they find Wilhemina, but so is she. Now, all the three have to do is explain to Ivan the Terrible how his well-guarded daughter managed to get pregnant by a hog farmer. Banks's prose sparkles with energy and heart, but the book's sexy veneer fails to mask its oddly dated premise. In addition, a plot chock-full of clichés (from the tyrannical tycoon to an unlikely inheritance) makes it difficult to bond with the characters. Only when the story lets itself relax into a gentler realism—during interludes between Wilhemina and her goodhearted farmer, for example—does it strike a true vein of gold. (May)Forecast:
Some Girls Do will likely be an impulse buy for romance and chick-lit aficionados. With its low cover price and bright, stylish cover—featuring a tube of red lipstick and a blurb from Janet Evanovich—this book is easy on the pocket as well as the eyes.

May 15, 2003
Given the opportunity to earn enough money to make a difference in her life and that of her deaf younger brother, Katie Collins-purposely dowdy and unattractive for reasons of her own-agrees to help her wealthy boss's insecure, socially challenged daughter find an acceptable husband. The catch? Kate has to accomplish this task in six short weeks, and she has to work with an arrogant, gorgeous security expert. Lively writing, appealing, well-drawn characters, and a wealth of insightful, often hilarious, pithy quotes courtesy of the heroine's late mother add sparkle to a story that sweeps its characters from Philadelphia's Society Hill to down-to-earth Texas and for all its humor and lightheartedness addresses a number of serious issues. Banks (The Playboy & Plain Jane) is a best-selling writer of series romances and lives in Virginia. This is her first single title release.

Copyright 2003 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2003
Prim, proper, and deceptively plain, Katie Collins, the personal assistant to wealthy, and often married, Ivan (the Terrible) Rasmussen, is directed to find a suitable husband for his daughter, Wilhemina, while he is off on a honeymoon with his most recent wife. The insecure and ungainly heiress runs away to Texas after overhearing devastating comments about her from a man she thought was a potential husband, so Katie and security expert Michael Wingate follow her trail to Texas, where Wilhemina has fallen head-over-heals in love with the hog farmer who rescues her after she crashes her rented Cadillac into a ditch. Meanwhile, to expedite matters, Katie drops her contrived plain image to allow her beauty to show and follows the advice of her dead mother (who had a way with men) to weasel out information that will help with their search. Then, inadvertently, she falls for Michael. While not laugh-out-loud funny, Banks' romance is a witty feel-good read with charming characters and a page-turning plot.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)