Reviews for Phoebe's Deputy

The average rating for Phoebe's Deputy based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-06-15 00:00:00 Cristel Hines 3.5 stars This wasn't such a bad oldie; severely dated but was similar to this author's books with way too many POV. The heroine is a divorced mother of two who put her all in her husband and when he left her for another woman, she started sleeping her days away, her son started picking up cats and daughter started taking care of them. This book was way before the books we where we had modern women who could support themselves. Heroine's mom is dating younger men after her father's death and her sister has opened up a commune. The heroine is elected as the sheriff when her nomination was a lark and the hero is her deputy. This was an entertaining enough read but the characters do a lot of stupid stuff.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-05-25 00:00:00 Michael Maresch Friends-to-lovers, contemporary romance, originally published in 1987 by Harlequin American When they were in college together, Lonny Reed was a handsome, athletic, serial dater, and Samantha (Sam) Janek was shy, insecure and plump. Early in their acquaintance, while Lonny was on-again-off-again dating her dorm roommate, he friend-zoned Sam. Though she was head over heels for him, within the first two years of their friendship, Sam accepted that, for her, enduring the pangs of unrequited love was far better than suffering the pain of losing Lonny entirely. The two of them have remained close since college, in spite of her living in New York City and his living in New Jersey. Their platonic dynamic has never changed while Lonny has flitted in and out of doomed relationships, and Sam has been in a committed relationship the past four years. But suddenly, both of them are single at the same time when her boyfriend cheats on her and dumps her, and Lonny blithely invites her to rest and recover from this betrayal at his beachside fixer-upper on the New Jersey shore. It has been years since Sam was carrying excess weight and only semi-joking as she frequently lobbed insults at herself about it. For a long time now she has been slender and lovely. But Lonny has never previously paid any attention to her appearance. Fat or skinny, it hasn�t mattered to him. She�s just been good old Sam. So why, all of a sudden, is he noticing the fact that Sam is not merely an androgynous confidante, but one of the most desirable women he�s ever known? Sam at first wonders if she�s imagining the fact that there seems to be actual desire in Lonny�s gaze, something she has long since abandoned any hope of ever seeing him direct at her. It stirs up fluttery feelings she�d successfully suppressed for years. The temptation is strong to respond to his subtle overtures, but how can she dare to take the chance of changing the rules of their relationship at this late date? Lonny means far too much to her to throw away the best friendship she�s ever likely to have by allowing something as undependable as sexual desire to muddy the waters. Ms. Arnold is an excellent, award-winning writer, who is very skilled at writing a classic, no-cheating, dual-point-of-view, HEA romance. Given the fact that this novel is over 30 years old, the author�s approach to the ever-popular romance trope of �friends become lovers� is a bit dated. But it is quite refreshing that there is no foul language, and there are no crude, meaningless sex scenes to wade through. Overall, this is an enjoyable, non-melodramatic, comfort read. I rate this story as follows: Heroine: 4 stars Hero: 3 stars Romance Plot: 4 stars Beach Setting: 5 stars Writing: 4 stars Overall: 4 stars