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    Gone with a Handsomer Man
    Gone with a Handsomer Man
    Gone with a Handsomer Man
    Audiobook10 hours

    Gone with a Handsomer Man

    Written by Michael Lee West

    Narrated by Marguerite Gavin

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Take one out-of-work pastry chef...

    Teeny Templeton believes that her life is finally on track. She's getting married, she's baking her own wedding cake, and she's leaving her troubled past behind. And then? She finds her fiance playing naked badminton with a couple of gorgeous, skanky chicks.

    Add a whole lot of trouble...

    Needless to say, the wedding is off. Adding insult to injury, her fiance slaps a restraining order on her. When he's found dead a few days later, all fingers point to Teeny.

    And stir like crazy!

    Her only hope is through an old boyfriend-turned-lawyer, the guy who broke her heart a decade ago. But dredging up the past brings more than skeletons out of the closet, and Teeny doesn't know who she can trust. With evidence mounting and the heat turning up, Teeny must also figure out where to live, how to support herself, how to clear her name, and how to protect her heart.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateMay 10, 2011
    ISBN9781452672076
    Gone with a Handsomer Man
    Author

    Michael Lee West

    Michael Lee West is the author of Mad Girls in Love, Crazy Ladies, American Pie, She Flew the Coop, and Consuming Passions. She lives with her husband on a rural farm in Tennessee with three bratty Yorkshire terriers, a Chinese Crested, assorted donkeys, chickens, sheep, and African Pygmy goats. Her faithful dog Zap (above) was the inspiration for a character in the novel.

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    Reviews for Gone with a Handsomer Man

    3.5/5

    86 ratings18 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I loved this book. If you are a fan of Southern lit and Janet Evanovich, then you'll like Tiny and the trouble she gets into without trying very hard. I laughed and cried with Tiny and can't wait for the next book with Tiny in it..
    • 3/5
      I have read most of MLW's books and scour the local libraries hoping to turn up one that I have not read. This book is very different from the others being it is a full blown mystery with characters that will make a return appearence. As much as I love MLW this book left me wanthing more from Teeny. She seemed a little dense at times. If this is the beginning of a trilogy, I will certaily read the others. But, I enjoy her fiction writing much better than the mystery attempt.
    • 3/5
      a page turner!
      loved the normalcy of the characters and setting ~
      FuN read :) a mystery lover ~ this book kept my attention
      not a fan of descriptive sex -
      although brief, i could have done without those interludes...
    • 4/5
      Great book! My favorite kind of heroine -- kind of ditzy, goofy, screw-up who ends up saving herself and the day. Loved the romantic chemistry between Teeny and her star-crossed boyfriend. Looking forward to the next book in the series.
    • 5/5
      This was a fun book about Teeny Templeton, an asthmatic cake baker whose first love comes back to town right after her cheating fiance gets murdered. I really liked the surprise ending, and can't wait to read the next installment!
    • 4/5
      The novel begins whenTeeny comes home to find her fiance, Bing, playing naked badminton with two "ladies" in their backyard. She takes to a tree and pelts them all with peaches which gets her in trouble with the law and makes her the prime suspect when he ends up dead not too long after.Gone with a Handsomer Man starts with a bang and never lets up. It had me laughing and reading to the very end. I was eager to figure out the mystery of who killed Bing and I wanted to read more and more about the yummy Southern food.This book had me craving some down home comfort food like chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes, homemade pies. It seemed like every page had some new food described in detail and it made my tummy rumble. Luckily in the back of the book...recipes. There are times when a recipe is given during the narrative that reminded me a lot of the movie Waitress. Any of you seen it? She describes making the pies for different reasons-jealousy, revenge, etc. I started picturing Keri Russell as Teeny saying these voice overs,"I imagined shooting the women with a paint gun. No that wasn't mean enough. I wouldn't feel satisfied until I force-fed them Good Riddance Blueberry Pie." Add 2 1/2 cups of berries, along with 3 tablespoons of melted blueberry jelly and a dollop of Havoc-a blue, granular rat poison with a rodent-alluring flavor." Michael Lee West has assembled a truly great cast of characters and infused this book with lots of Southern charm. The humor is a bit raunchy, which may offend some, but I found it hilarious. Such a fun read. Can't wait to read more by West.
    • 4/5
      Teeny is all ready for her big day, with one exception…the cake. With a few ideas in mind, a great new cake decorating class paid for in full by her fiance and a few weeks to prepare she’s certain she’ll create a masterpiece. Unfortunately the class is canceled on the very first night, leaving Teeny to drive home and find her husband with two other women playing badminton in their backyard, completely naked. What starts as a wonderful evening eventually ends in the death of her soon-to-be husband and her subsequent arrest. This is not at all how she imagined her “big day” happening and she especially didn’t expect the one person who could save her would also be her first and possibly only true love who left her hospitalized many years before.Gone with a Handsomer Man falls into that “maybe not quite Chick Lit” category, but who knows? There are so many forms of Chick Lit anymore that I can’t discount any of it. What I can say is that I absolutely loved this novel. From beginning to end Teeny had me laughing and shaking my head at her antics. This pint sized Southern belle could bake a delicious cake that could not only win your heart but stop it in an instant if you got on her bad side (which rarely happened). Her character was so well written, she was shy and demur, but not annoyingly so. It must be the Southern charm or perhaps her near-constant need for an inhaler, because I felt she was perfectly balanced as was the entire novel. It’s basis is obviously a bit in the mystery genre, but there is a definite pull into the romantic Chick Lit world as well.Those who have read my reviews before, know I have a pet peeve for discovering the ending a bit too early in books. Well, when it comes to mystery novels I get even more picky, because shouldn’t they be even more difficult to figure out? With Gone with a Handsomer Man I will say I had my guesses about half of the way through the book, but West’s writing kept me plugging away at the pages without a second thought. In the end, my guess was right, but I wasn’t bothered the way I normally get. I’m positive this has everything to do with the writing and the other characters in the story who made it so enjoyable to keep turning page after page.As for the romance, well, I went in expecting a wedding perhaps and ended up with a girl being swept off her feet by a first love all over again. Teeny and Coop’s relationship was adorable and I’m truly hoping there will be an additional novel after this one to continue on their story. I’d love to see if they ever end up having their “happily ever after” and what exactly is going to happen with that incredible cliff hanger West slipped in a the last minute of the story.Whether you are a fan of mysteries or not, if you love a great Chick Lit novel then Gone withe a Handsomer Man is absolutely a novel you need to give a try. If for no other reason that it has one of the most hilarious covers ever, you should give it a try. But of course, the writing is superb, the romance has you holding on to the last pages wondering how it will end up and the mystery of who killed the fiance will have you guessing to the last pages. Oh, and I almost failed to mention, Teeny is a baker and the food aspects of this story will have you positively drooling throughout! This is definitely a book I’ll be recommending and cannot wait to see if Teeny and Coop’s story will continue on in another novel to come!
    • 3/5
      Teeny, young , and starry -eyed fiancee of Bing, comes home early one night to see her beloved playing badminton with two women. This might not look too suspicious at first but the fact that they are playing in the buff sends Teeny reeling. She has a hissy fit and starts throwing peaches at the naughty trio. When Bing brings her up on assault charges, Teeny realizes he's not quite the wonderful man she thought he was. Needless to say, the wedding is off!It's not bad enough that Teeny is put on probation, but now she has no where to live now. When she gets a text message to meet Bing at the house, she hurries over there only to find out that Bing has been murdered. Of course Teeny is the major suspect and shortly she runs into Cooper O'Malley, the former love-of-her-life, who just happens to be a lawyerand he agrees to represent her. How convenient a coincidence!With a cast of quirky characters, some not so loveable as others and ennough viable suspects, West pens a fun southern mystery that kept me on my toes throughout the book. The end when the killer was revealed was a complete surprise to me. The story is set in South Carolina and I think West did a great job with sense of place. A few incidences were over- the- top- hard to believe but overall the story was entertaining and fast paced. I'd definitely read a sequel and with the way the book ended, it's pretty obvious there is one planned.
    • 5/5
      On the back of the book, one of the blurbs states that they hope that there is going to be a sequel...I am with the blurb writer! I love mysteries of all kinds and in the tippy top are the ones taking place in the South. There's humor, food and superb characters along with the mystery solving. I adore Teeny! She is the epitome of my vision of the strong, sassy, git'r'done Southern woman who finds herself in a pickle and goes about doing what needs doing to get out of it.The dialogue tickled me no end, from PI Red calling Teeny 'girlie' to Teeny's way of getting through situations with imaginary recipes like Smother Your Love gravy poured over Forget Him pork chops, with a heaping side dish of He's Better Off With Her pie. Thank you, LibraryThing, for sending this out to me for my February selection!Five big ol' sparkly had me at nekkid badminton diamonds.....
    • 4/5
      I loved this book! It hit all my favorites notes - mystery, southern fiction, foodie fiction, plucky heroine & zany adventures. The story was entertaining & the the characters endearing, I was a bit surprised at the ending and I truly hope that a sequel is in the works.
    • 5/5
      I loved this book. It was funny, happy , and well written. The characters are very colorful. I was a little dissapointed with the "suprise" ending but also happy that there might be another book with these characters.
    • 4/5
      Gone With a Handsomer Man, by Michael Lee West is a clever and witty mystery romance. I found it to be a fun read. I'm not good with mysteries though so I did peak ahead to see the culprit!The story is about Teeny Templeton, an amateur baker who is engaged to a wealthy Lothario. When she comes home to find him playing naked badminton with a couple of women, she gets angry and starts throwing peaches. This is where the story spirals, with her having to move out, try to regain custody of her dog, and eventually solve a mystery. She also meets a handsomer man from her past who helps her to get over Bing. The writing is very clever with some great lines that I shared with my mother on several occasions. The story moves fairly quickly and the dialogue is snappy. It might be a little too snappy and clever at times, but it all worked, especially set in the city of Charleston. While the story resolved itself, there was a definite cliff-hanger so I can only assume there will be a sequel. I hope.
    • 4/5
      Michael Lee West is one of my favorite writers and she might as well be my neighbor....we both live in Middle Tennessee! Her books are always entertaining with wildly hilarious characters that you can never forget! Her latest book, Gone With a Handsomer Man is a little different turn from most of her novels in that the characters are not nearly as outlandish and this novel is more of a "real" mystery rather than straight southern fiction. It is still as entertaining and the characters are just as endearing as in the writers other works.In the opening of the book our protagonist, Teeny, cold busts her fiancee, Bing, playing naked badminton with two women. She immediately pelts them with peaches from a nearby tree and is quickly arrested for assault. A few days later, Bing is found dead and it looks like Teeny is in a whole lot of trouble! Thank goodness she has a chance encounter with one of her ex-boyfriends, Cooper, (who happens to be a lawyer) otherwise Teeny might just be put behind bars for good. For fans of Michael Lee West you get all of the hallmarks of her writing that you love - a set of characters than are easy to like, plenty of southern charm, references to city landmarks, and lots of talk about food/cooking/baking.This book and the characters reminded me of Mary Kay Andrews' Savannah Blues. (Which is a good thing!) This is a quick, light read but very enjoyable.
    • 3/5
      With cute and somewhat clichéd characters, a plot that has enough holes you can drive a semi through it, a relatively easy mystery to be solved and a predictable love affair, you would think that I would pan the heck out of this book. Surprise! I really liked this book even with the fumblings and silliness of the characters, the ease of the read and the ludicrousness of the plot. I know that many are going to perhaps compare this to Janet Evonovich, but I don’t see it myself. This seems to be a unique mix of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt and some Mary Kay Andrews. The South at its silliest best.Christine (Teeny) Templton comes home on night to find her fiancé having a naked badminton game (shuttlecocks a flyin’) with two equally naked women. And let me tell you the author sure does paint a very vivid picture as to what naked badminton looks like! A smack-down ensues with Teeny pitching unripe peaches at the trio and consequently being arrested and hauled before the court.Now here it is a couple of days later, and Tenny finds her ex-fiancé dead and she has been tassered and now she is being blamed and a set up to go down for this death. Oh dear; now Teeny needs a lawyer and who should just happen to show up? Yep, an old love of hers (of course) who just happens to be a lawyer. A fine fluff read that shouldn’t take you more than a few hours or maybe a day. This book is filled with recipes and lessons on southern cooking. Beware of some of these recipes! Some of these recipes will be found at the back of the book…unfortunately not the delicious sounding Red Velvet Cake, but what can you do?
    • 5/5
      I adore Michael Lee West's books.In her latest, Gone with a Handsomer Man, we meet Christina "Teeny" Templeton. She's sort of kind of making her adult way in Charleston, South Carolina, after a tough but mostly happy childhood in nearby rural Georgia. We open as a she is attending a baking class, given to her as a gift by her fiance Bing, ostensibly so she can make their wedding cake. Upon finding the class cancelled, she returns home, only to find Bing and two women playing naked badminton. Instead of slinking away, she climbs a tree and assaults all the naked people with not-quite-ripe peaches, which apparently do great damage. This concludes with her being arrested, and a record made of her new antipathy toward her now ex-fiance and his lady friends.So when Bing is found dead - by Teeny, even though she was supposed to stay away from him - suspicion naturally points to her. So now she's under suspicion for Bing's murder in addition to having to find a place to live, a job/career, and starting a new life. Add her very first love, his nearly ex-wife, a surly private detective, and a couple of adorable dogs into the mix, and you have Gone with a Handsomer Man.This novel has all I expect from Michael Lee West; plucky heroine, humor, food, and a deep and abiding love for the South of which she writes. To talk too much about the plot will spoil it, so I'll not do that. There will very clearly be at least one follow-up novel, and I already cannot wait. Highly recommended!
    • 4/5
      (Disclaimer: reviewed from an advance readers copy for LT Early Reviewers)Teeny Templeton returns home from a canceled cake baking class only to find her fiance playing naked badminton with two women. Justifiably mad, she pelts him with peaches, which lands her in all sorts of trouble. When he turns up dead a few days later, Teeny finds herself trying to prove her innocence.This was a fun read. I enjoyed the characters and felt the mystery was good. I liked that West gave some detailed backstory to Teeny and fleshed out some of the other characters, such as Red Butler Hill. I'll admit I was expecting him to annoy me the entire book but he pleasantly surprised me instead. There were some fun touches ("Templeton Family Receipts & Whatnot", all the pink, etc.) that added to the overall character of the book. While the book is set in Charleston, I didn't feel quite as caught up in the setting as I have in other books (i.e. Evanovich's Burg).Based on the ending, I'm guessing there will be at least one more book with Teeny? If so, I would like to read it to see where she goes. I must say the cover art is rather entertaining!Minor spoiler: I'm not entirely thrilled with the plot device used at the very end. I won't talk more about it here, but having read essentially the same device in another new mystery I just finished a couple weeks ago it rubbed me the wrong way.
    • 5/5
      Another great ER book!! Gone with a handsomer man kept me interested until the very end. This is a mystery, thriller and a little romance mixed in.Teeny is the main character in this story. Her life is turned upside down when she finds her fiancé playing naked badminton with a couple of girls. Teeny doesn't go running she throws peaches at all of them. She gets arrested and a restraining order is put in place.While she is not allowed to be near Bing, Teeny receives a text message from him asking her to come back because he loves her. Teeny being Teeny goes to Bing's house and finds her puppy covered in red stuff which turns out to be blood. Teeny finds Bing's body and while she is getting out her cell phone to call 911 she is either tazed or knocked unconscious.Teeny is a little bit too innocent in this story. She seems a little to childish in her thoughts. Yes sometimes that was when she was remembering back to her childhood.When I got to the last 10 to 15 chapters I didn't want to put the book down. I needed to find out who committed the murders. Who set up Teeny and if Teeny and her childhood sweetheart, Cooper O'Mally would be together. All I can say is I hope Michael Lee West plans to write a sequel to gone with a handsomer man.
    • 4/5
      First of a projected trilogy. A cozy based in Charleston SC, with an asthmatic heroine who concocts fantasy recipes for stress relieve. Having unwittingly hooked up with a manwhore, she falls into one unpleasant situation after another. Not surprisingly her 'first love' turns up as the not so 'white' knight to rescue her from one calamity after another. Since this is set in the deep south, there are twists and tangles, a ghost or two, a not so quite ex-wife and of course the family black sheep. Appropriate homage is given to the politics and social trees of Charleston, including the historical architecture committees, the South of Broad delineation. This was a fun read, with proper foreshadowing for next installment.