REVIEW: How To Score by Robin Wells

ISBN 978-0-446-61842-7
(c) June 2009, Forever, Grand Central Publishing
Robin Wells' website

Rating: 4 stars

Buy Link (paper): Book Depository

"Laugh-out-loud funny! You definitely want to read this in the privacy of your home for the pleasure of laughing with no holds barred."

Ms. Wells writes stories that are laugh-out-loud funny, definitely books you'd want to read in the privacy of your home for the pleasure of laughing with no holds barred. She opened How To Score with a funny conversation between Chase Jones and Horace, the man he was coaching for his brother, that also serves to acquaint readers with the situation without info dumping.

Chase was filling in for his brother Luke as life coach because he was the reason Luke was in the Witness Protection Program, for which he felt guilty about. Just as he was thinking how much more he could endure talking to the losers that his brother has for clients, a woman named Sammi Matthews called, whose voice intrigued him and before he knew it, he was meeting up with her and dating her.

Sammi Matthews needed a life coach to help boost her self-confidence and to teach her how not to injure her future dates. Thus far, she had given one a black eye and cracked another's ribs. She puts the lessons her coach taught her into her dates with Chase, and before she knew it, she was falling for him. Although mishaps did occur when she was with Chase, he didn't seem put off by them...

Though Sammi's self-confidence is low when it comes to men, she is stubborn in her love for art deco architecture and goes all out to preserve it. However, with Chase's help (both as her life coach and as her date), she becomes more confident of herself. She is also a pushover, especially when it comes to her sister Chloe, and she is kind-hearted and really just can't say "no" to a friend who needs help. I expect she's the kind of woman everyone wants to be friends with, but she also needs someone to pick up after her messes. Her antics as her dog bites into Chase's jogging shorts and as she spills hot coffee into his lap are priceless.

Okay, normally, I don't like such type of comedic antics, coz they remind me of The Three Stooges, but I love it in this book because I think they're just right to portray the sort of person Sammi is and the situations she normally finds herself in. Of course, a lot of the troubles are actually caused by the dog, but if she weren't so soft-hearted, she wouldn't have agreed to take on the dog in the first place.

Chase, on the other hand, is also attracted to Sammi and soon, he finds himself in a quandary. Thus far, he has been talking to Sammi as her life coach (whom she thought was Luke) and dating her as himself. As such, he came to know her secrets, even what she felt regarding Chase. Time and again, he wanted to tell her the truth, but something or the other prevented it until he realized just how much Sammi meant to him and he was afraid that the truth might cause him to lose her.

And Horace is such an unbelievable character. Read the book and you'll know just how unbelievable he is. Does such a person really exist in the world? Still, it is his responses to Chase's questions and statements that sometimes has me laughing out loud. It's nice to see him closing the book as well, since it was his conversation with Chase that opened it.

I will be picking up Between The Sheets and see if it will also have me in stitches while I wait for Ms. Wells' next offering.

Buy Link (paper): Book Depository