Your Bed or Mine?

June 19, 2006
The first entry in Halliday's Housewives Fantasy Club series is a satisfying romance that follows an odd-couple marriage. Besides their stubborn streak, Zada and Rick Clark have nothing in common outside of the bedroom—he likes things clean and healthy, while she prefers her mess and her fries supersized—and great sex isn't enough to keep their marriage together. Yet getting a divorce isn't so easy either: unable to agree on who wins the house and the dog, Zada and Rick are ordered by an ornery judge to resolve their property dispute within 90 days. Rick gleefully moves back home, and resumes his strict routine—instilled in him by his drill sergeant father—hoping to drive Zada out. Zada, of course, has her own plans for making Rick flee, and what begins as a high-stakes game of Survivor
soon becomes an emotionally sticky battle in which sex is the ultimate weapon. Before the fight is over, Zada and Rick learn a lot about marriage and maturity, while catching their friends and neighbors in the crossfire. By setting her story post–"I do," Halliday provides a fresh, if not particularly complicated, romance, and introduces warm, funny characters that should serve well in future housewife fantasies.

August 1, 2006
Zada and Rick Clark got married too soon. He needs perfect order; she delights in clutter. He eats health food, and she eats junk food. So it's no wonder they end up in divorce court. Their bickering causes the judge to postpone finalizing their divorce until they can reach a property settlement. They both want the expensive suburban home customized for Simon, the now-blind bomb-sniffing dog that saved Rick's life and served as inspiration for Zada's children's books. So sure that he would win his case, Rick gave up his apartment, so he moves back into the house and challenges Zada to a sexy " Survivor" -type game. The first one to have an orgasm loses the house and dog. In a setting very much like that of " Desperate Housewives" , Zada plots with her neighborhood friends while Rick hangs out with their husbands. Halliday's entertainingly humorous read comes to a happy conclusion with a setup for a series featuring a new neighbor on the cul-de-sac. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)