"The Tour From Hell is a Laugh Riot"

After reading Pasta Imperfect, the third book in the Emily Andrew tour guide series, I immediately went to Amazon and ordered the first two books!

Emily Andrew and her merry band of Iowa senior citizens are hilarious. I loved her amorous grandmother, who nearly crippled her elderly lover while enacting scenes from The Barbarian! What a hoot, but this would be just a souffle were it not for a rather nifty murder mystery that kept me guessing till the end.

Emily takes her Iowans along on a tour of Italy for Romance Writers--they are not writers, but they got a good deal on the tour so off they go. Everything goes awry from day one--Emily loses her luggage and then the hotel they are staying in burns down. But, then Emily's luggage arrives and before she can claim it--the clothesless fellow travelers make off with her sexy new wardrobe.

Worse is yet to come, as bodies begin to fall Emily is horrified to discover they are all wearing her new clothes!

While Emily and her Iowans are very amusing the true kudos go to the wonderful satire of Romance writers and aspiring writers. The skewering of contests for aspiring writers is hilarious, these people design bookmarks, write first chapters and try to sell books they have not written. They seem to think that the winning of the contest is what counts and figure they can scratch out something quickly if they get a contract. The backstabbing and catty comments will ring true to anyone who has been to a conference; as one well known writer said to me "pass the cream" as we listened to some very catty comments on the winners of Romantic Times's contests. I am not sure I will ever again be able to sit through the awards ceremonies with a straight face after reading Pasta Imperfect.

Hunter's book is classified as a Mystery by Pocket, but do yourself a favor and wander over to the mystery nook and pick this one up; I believe it will delight other romance fans as much as it did me.

Reviewed by Linda Hurst
Posted August 11, 2004

Summary

IT WAS AN OFFER SHE COULDN'T REFUSE....

The discount travel package to Italy seemed like a great deal: Emily Andrew could lead her globe-trotting Iowans on the trip of a lifetime and bring her family to boot. Maybe she should have read the fine print....Sharing their itinerary with a group of hyper-competitive aspiring romance writers is just a prelude to more Machiavellian drama than an Italian opera.

First, their hotel burns to the ground. Then, when Emily's lost luggage turns up found, the disgruntled literary ladies raid her clothing supply like she's a one-woman Gucci outlet. But the real killer is a contest sponsored by a publishing house -- and the depths to which the dime- novel divas will plunge to win a book contract. Amid backstabbing and catcalling, bodies start turning up -- in Emily's favorite outfits! Now, Emily will need more than a phrasebook to say ciao to someone with a hot and spicy passion for murder.