Book Review: Charlie All Night by Jennifer Crusie

Current US Cover

At First Sight: Allie McGuffy loves her job producing a morning show in a small radio station. Her love-life might be on the rocks but her career still looks great. Or it did until her ex-boyfriend Mark decided to put the woman he left Allie for as the new producer of their radio show. 

To top it off, Mark wants to "talk about it", which is code for making Allie feel bad, so she claims to have a date and dashes across the street for the restaurant where she's supposed to meet her best friend Joe,  only that he's late and Mark decides to follow her. 

Desperate, Allie decides to pick up a guy sitting at the restaurant's bar. The guy, Charlie Teniel, decides to play along since he has nothing else to do. He just got into town with the plan of staying six weeks to help a friend of his dad's and then packing up again. 

One hot kiss - and a nice meal- later Charlie and Allie realize they are going to be working together from now own as Allie will be producing Charlie's radio show; and Joe and Allie have invited him to stay at their place. 

Charlie doesn't want to tangle in their lives since he's in town with a secret agenda, one he doesn't want to touch Joe or Allie, whom he genuinely likes from the start. But he gives into their collective enthusiasm, and to the intense chemistry he feels with Allie.

I like this 2004 cover better

Second Glance: In the last few weeks I've sort of been very up and down with my reading, so when a couple of weeks ago I needed a pick me up I decided to give Jennifer Crusie's Charlie All Night a try. I had heard nothing but good things about this book and I'm happy to say it lived up to them. 

The book had all the humor that I like and expect from Ms. Crusie's books, and I liked Allie and Charlie - and Joe, and Grady, Harry, and the rest of the radio station gang - a lot. They were nice and funny and I had a great time while reading. 

Allie and Charlie are both in their mid-thirties and know what they want so there was a refreshing lack of unnecessary drama in this book. They like each other and engage in a relationship early on, but they still spend time together and get to know each other - I really liked that. 

I also liked that the radio show wasn't just a prop. They did work at the show, they spent time at the station and it was fun. I like when the people in the book actually do the work they are supposed to do. 

Also, there is a PUPPY, Y'all! The puppy Sam was AWESOME!!! More power to the puppy! 

Bottom Line: Charlie All Night was such a fun, lovely read. I think it's Ms. Crusie as her best and a great contemporary read, even if it's a little dated (I believe it was originally published in 1995). There is a bit of a mystery tread running through the book that often felt like an afterthought, but other than that this is a really nice feel good book.