Series: N/A
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Length: 256 Pages, 3370 Locations
Formats: Mass Market Paperback, Kindle, Audible Audio
Quite A Few Chuckles, But...When you're the go-to girl at the radio station and you're producing the number one drive time show in the area, you've got a lot of responsibility and your future is looking bright. When the talent of that show dumps you, then two months later fires you from the show, you're bright future starts to look more like flames from a crash and burn. Allie McGuffey is feeling the heat from those flames after her radio personality ex-boyfriend Mark dumps her as producer and the station puts her on a new overnight time slot. Pushed from drive time to overnight is humiliating. Pushed there by her ex-boyfriend with his supercilious attitude and delusions of competency is even worse.
Putting on a good face just leads to another crisis as a mad dash to the nearest bar/restaurant with her ex hot on her heels forces Allie into uncharted waters. She picks up the first non-suit wearing male she can find and desperately tries to act like she's perfectly okay while her insides are still quaking. Though the rugged man she clings to is obviously surprised by her blatant come on, he doesn't sell her out, which makes him a hero in Allie's book.
Charlie Tenniel is a bit of a bounce around. He doesn't stay in one place too long, doesn't limit himself to doing one thing for his life, either. His wanderlust is a constant disappointment for his socially formidable father. His brother, radio personality Ten Tenniel, was more the man his father wanted him to be, but look where that got him - a drug habit and escape from prosecution courtesy of their father's connections. Charlie wasn't going to go out like that. He was, however, going to take the job his father wanted him to take as a favor to the station owner, an old family friend. An anonymous tip claims knowledge of a drug ring opperating from the station and Charlie's been conscripted to chase down the responsible party. He just wants to fly under the radar for the six weeks or so he plans to stay in town, so having Allie pressed up against him is just fine, but when he realizes she's his new producer and intends to make him a star, he's just as adamant that she doesn't.
His position would probably be a lot stronger if he could just stay out of her bed.
While the premise of Charlie All Night
is a bit of a stretch and the actions of Allie and Charlie seem more than a little irresponsible both sexually and professionally, I can't argue that the story itself is light, fun entertainment with plenty of endearing moments. I enjoyed the banter and romantic development between Allie and Charlie. Crusie does banter and endearing really well and it's definitely in evidence here. There's not much to the plot, though, and with an original publication date of 1996, there's a dated feel to both the technology and equipment described in the station and a definite pre-Monica Lewinsky air of sexual permissiveness in the work place that didn't translate well for me. So long as you don't take the book too seriously, or expect much in the way of depth of plot or character, there's still a lot of entertainment to be had from the story of Charlie and Allie, two people who won't be poster children for sexual harassment litigation any time soon, but who still managed to make me chuckle.
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