Faking It
Faking It book cover

Faking It

Hardcover – August 17, 2002

by
Price
$10.15
Format
Hardcover
Pages
352
Publisher
St. Martin's Press
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-0312284688
Dimensions
5.96 x 1.27 x 10.14 inches
Weight
1.4 pounds

Description

Setting: Columbus, Ohio Sensuality: 7 Mural artist Tilda Goodnight is struggling to pay off the mortgage on the family business and keep the Goodnight secrets safely hidden. Juggling her life gets even more complicated when she hides in Clea Lewis's closet and collides with sexy Davy Dempsey. Tilda is in Clea's bedroom to steal back a forged painting; Davy's there to steal Clea's account codes and retrieve the $3 million the larcenous blonde stole from him. Somehow, Tilda finds herself exchanging a mind-blowing kiss with her fellow burglar, and when Davy follows her home and rents a room from her mother, she's forced to deal with the charming con man. Everyone in Tilda's world is pretending to be someone else, including her daydreaming mother, her split-personality sister, and her cross-dressing ex-brother-in-law. All of them, including Tilda and Davy, are Faking It . What will happen when all the secrets are out and everyone knows the truth about everyone else? Will Davy recover his 3 million? Will Tilda recover all the forged paintings and find her true artistic calling? Will Tilda's mother run off to Aruba with a hit man named Ford? And exactly what is the difference between a man labeled a "doughnut" and one who deserves the title "muffin"? Faking It is a hilarious, warm novel with a cast of quirky and wonderful characters that endear while they charm. Readers who met the Dempsey siblings in Crusie's Welcome To Temptation will be delighted to revisit the family and discover what happens to Davy Dempsey when he meets his romantic nemesis, Tilda Goodnight. --Lois Faye Dyer From Publishers Weekly Bestseller Crusie (Fast Women, etc.) takes readers on another smooth ride in her latest romantic caper. At the wheel this time is fab art forger Matilda Goodnight, whose chance encounter in a closet with cute con man/thief Davy Dempsey leads to madcap mayhem and breathless romance. He's trying to steal back the money he filched from Clea Lewis, ex-girlfriend (and possible husband killer), who had taken it right back. Tilda just wants her last "Scarlet" painting, which Clea has bought to impress Mason Phipps, her rich art-obsessed beau. It's the last of six forgeries Tilda did for Tony, her now deceased gallery-owner dad, and Tilda is determined to preserve her newly squeaky-clean reputation. Confused yet? It gets wackier, because the whole Goodnight clan and supporting cast are as enormously engaging as the loopy plot. There's Tilda's mother, Gwen; her sister, Eve/Louise, a split-personality teacher/diva; her gay ex-brother-in-law, Andrew; and her precocious teenage niece, Nadine. Add a host of shady characters and would-be hitmen, and the breezy plot thickens and puffs up like the light airy doughnuts all Goodnight women are attracted to but eventually forsake for muffins: "Muffins are for the long haul and they always taste good. They don't have that oh-my-God-I-have-to-have-that thing that the doughnuts have going for them, but you still want them the next morning." Finally, defying all odds, Crusie answers the burning questions she poses can liars and thieves fall in love, live happily ever after and stay out of jail? while confirming the dangers of dating doughnuts.Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal First introduced in Welcome to Temptation, the brother of wacky filmmaker sisters Sophie and Amy Dempsey gets his own story with hilarious and entertaining results. Davy Dempsey is a man on a mission: to recover some money owed him. In a hilarious botched burglary, he ends up stuck in a closet with Matilda Goodnight. She's at the same house attempting to steal back a painting that was not only never paid for but already has a shady past. Later, Davy rents a room from Matilda's mother, and soon he and Matilda are working together to recover their property and trying mighty hard to resist their growing attraction to each other. It doesn't take much for readers to figure out that Davy and Matilda are fated to live happily ever after. What makes the novel work is Crusie's talent for writing wacky romantic plots that shine with generous amounts of humor and enormous good cheer. Her usual assortment of secondary characters is here, along with a couple of loose ends that might give fans a chance to revisit this clan of entertaining souls once again. Fans of Crusie won't be disappointed in her newest work, which is an essential purchase for any public library with romance readers. - Margaret Hanes, Sterling Heights P.L., MI Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Booklist Matilda Goodnight has put her days of forging art behind her, but when her niece accidentally sells one of the six paintings she did as the fictitious daughter of a reclusive painter, she fears her secret past will be discovered. Tilda determines to steal the painting from Clea Lewis, the conniving social climber who bought it. But when she sneaks into the house Clea shares with wealthy Mason Phipps, she runs right into Davy Dempsey, who is there to steal back the money Clea took from him. Sparks fly instantly between the two, and Davy offers to steal the painting for her, but he brings back the wrong one. Tilda is disappointed, but she determines to get all six forged paintings back, and Davy offers to help her. He moves into one of the Goodnights' spare apartments, and meets Gwen, Tilda's energetic mother, and single-mother Eve, Tilda's sister. Both Tilda and Davy keep secrets--she hasn't told him why she wants the paintings back, and he hasn't told her that he used to be a skilled con artist. In spite of these secrets, Tilda and Davy fall in love as they chase down the forged paintings. Cruise's fifth novel is an entertaining, fast-paced romp with a pleasing love story at its heart. Kristine Huntley Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved "Crusie has a gift for concocting nutty scenarios and witty one-liners..." -- People magazine Jennifer Crusie is the USA Today and New York Times bestselling author of Tell Me Lies, Crazy For You, Welcome to Temptation, and Fast Women , all of which have been chosen by Romance Writers of America as one of the Top Ten Favorites of the Year. She teaches writing at Ohio State University and lives in Columbus, Ohio. Read more

Features & Highlights

  • Meet the Goodnights, a respectable family who have run a respectable art gallery for generations. There's Gwen, the matriarch who sedates herself with double-crostics and double vodkas, Eve the oldest daughter who has a slight identity problem (she has two), and Nadine, the granddaughter who's ready to follow in the family footsteps as soon as she can find a set that isn't leading off a cliff. Holding everyone together is Matilda, the youngest daughter, who's inherited the secret locked down in the basement of the Goodnight Gallery, the secret that she's willing to do almost anything to keep, including break into a house in the dead of night to steal back her past.Meet the Dempseys, or at least meet Davy, a reformed con man who's justbeen ripped off for a cool three million by his financial manager, who then gallantly turned it over to Clea Lewis, the most beautiful sociopath Davy ever slept with. Davy wants the money back, but more than that he'll do anything to keep Clea from winning, including break into her house in the dead of night to steal back his future.One collision in a closet later, Tilda and Davy reluctantly join forces to combat Clea, suspicious art collectors, a disgruntled heir, and an exasperated hitman, all the while coping with a mutant dachshund, a juke box stuck in the sixties, questionable sex, a painting of three evil fisherman closing in on a dyspeptic tuna, multiple personalities, miscellaneous Goodnights and Dempseys, and the growing realization that they can't turn their backs on the people they were meant to be...or the people they were born to love.
  • Faking It
  • : What has reality ever done for you?

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
60%
(364)
★★★★
25%
(152)
★★★
15%
(91)
★★
7%
(42)
★
-7%
(-42)

Most Helpful Reviews

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Too Many Characters

Okay, in a book of 340 pages, there's Matilda (AKA Tilda and Scarlet), Gwen (AKA Gwennie), Louise (AKA Eve), Ronald (AKA Rabbit),Davy, his friend Simon, Davy's family--Michael (father), Davy's niece Dillie, sister (Sophie) and her husband, plus Clea, Mason, Nadine, Ford, Dorcas, on TOP OF THAT, the cat (Adrienne--I think!) and Steve the dog. I wouldn't be surprised if I left someone out. Yes, the book was funny in parts (I think Crusie had in mind a farce), but I was so confused and the characterization was so superficial (not surprising with a list of characters longer than Gone With the Wind's--and THAT was l,000 pages) it took me four days to read this book. Normally, I read Crusie in one sitting. So, bottom line: go to the library if you want to read this and if you do, print out my list of characters. And note to Jennifer Crusie: I'd rather wait TWO years (if I HAVE TO) for quality, which you've done in the past. This wasn't it.
10 people found this helpful
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Waste of Money & Time

This book is a tribute (ironic title) to all the people who enjoy really bad writing- silly plot, unbelievable sexual chemistry, and incredibly awful descriptions (ie., first the dog is picked up, then dropped, then on her lap....on & on) YUK!
8 people found this helpful
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Witty Romance

Best-selling author Crusie is back again with a witty novel replete with steamy love scenes and a humorous look at the ups and downs of relationships. Matilda "Tilda" Goodnight is struggling to keep her family art gallery afloat as she is commissioned to paint murals for various private patrons.
Enter Davy Dempsey, con man extraordinaire, who wants the money that former lover, Clea Lewis, stole from him. As Davy rents an apartment from Gwen, Tilda's mother, he and Tilda hit it off from their first encounter in a closet. Tilda is at the home of Mason, a friend of her deceased father's, to locate a painting she forged years ago. And Davy is there looking for his money that Mason's squeeze, Clea, snatched from him.
Sounds zany-it only gets better with Tilda's sister, Eve, or "Louise", her alter-ego, that sleeps with Davy's fellow con-man and thief, Simon. And there is Ford a "hit man" who is after Davy upon orders of Clea. But Ford seems interested in Gwen, even though her teen-aged granddaughter, Nadine,discovered that he was under contract to take Davy out.
Ms. Crusie's latest is another in a long line of fabulous reads filled with quirky relationships amidst a roller coaster ride of plot twists and turns and spicy bedroom scenes. This one is definitely not to be missed.
7 people found this helpful
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Good

I liked this book, which reprises some of the characters from Welcome to Temptation. However, compared to Welcome to Temptation, this book is a pretty little story. I mean, it's funny, it's warm, it's sexy, and it's worth it... but read Welcome to Temptation first. It's like Faking It is Britney Spears, and Welcome to Temptation is Madonna.
This book concerns the brother of the Dempsey clan, Davy, and his foray into a small Ohio town with its own art gallery. Characters include sisters Tilda and Eve, their mother Gwen, Eve's daughter Nadine, Nadine's father (and Eve's gay ex husband) Andrew, and a host of other eccentrics, including Davy's ex flame Drea Whipple Lewis who's hot on the trail of husband number 3.
Conflicts abound. Drea's latest "harvest" is more interested in Gwen. Davy and Tilda keep meeting in closets. Eve's alter ego, Louise, jumps Davy's friend Simon, who's averse to dating mothers (and not recognizing her as Eve, mother of Nadine). Of course, the omnipresent Crusie dog makes an appearance, this time in the form of Spot, aka Steve, a pooch Tilda rescues from a callous owner who adopted him just for the duration of her home decorating project. All of this action revolves around the central conflict of Tilda needing to recoup gallery forgeries that could damage the business's reputation forever.
Basically, the only REAL problem with this book is the same as Welcome to Temptation: THE CHARACTERS ALL HIT AT ONCE, AND IT'S REALLY HARD TO KEEP THEM STRAIGHT! This time, it was worse since Spot got a person's name after Tilda adopted him, and at times I'd FORGET him, and then it'd mention Steve... and I'd think, who's that? If this author would have her characters call each other by their roles... Mom... Dad... something like that, maybe it'd help.... Either that or a diagram. I am not a stupid woman, and this is for some reason a recurring problem for me with Crusie novels.
But the book is sweet if not sassy like Welcome to Temptation. If you like Crusie, you'll like this book.
6 people found this helpful
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Not a fake pleasure!!!!!

Jennifer Crusie's main characters are always slightly bent (at least) and tend to fall in love unwillingly but humorously.
In "Faking It" we meet Davy Dempsey -- the brother of Sophie and Amy Dempsey who were the female progagonists in "Welcome to Temptation." Davy is a conman and a rogue who bumps into Matilda Goodnight in a closet where they have both hidden to keep from being apprehended stealing from Davy's predatory ex-lover, Clea. Matilda wants to steal a painting fake that, if discovered will ruin the Goodnight family art gallery. Davy wants to steal (repossess)the three million dollars that Clea has stolen from him.
There follows a hilarious story of the relationship the builds between Davy and Matilda (naturally she fakes orgasm the first time that them make love), and the way that dropping of all pretenses sets them free for each other.
I laughed out loud throughout my reading of this book. Some parts were so funny that I had to share them aloud with my wife. (One involved Matilda's 10-year devotion to a certain blue, plug-in appliance).
I have never yet read a Crusie novel that was not filled with quirky, endearing characters, off-the-wall humor and sheer charm. "Faking It" is no exception. I think this is Crusie's best to date.
5 people found this helpful
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This book positively sparkles!

Davy and Tilda, Gwennie and her Double-Crostics, Eve and Louise, Simon, Andrew and Jeff. Clea, Rabbit, Ford, Michael, Phinn and Sophie. Nadine and Kyle and Ethan....not to mention, Steve! (Steve's the dog!)
Each of these characters brings their own set of quirks, foibles and idiosyncracies to this story set at The Goodnight Art Gallery in Columbus, Ohio--just a stone's throw away from Crusie's previous setting of Temptation, Ohio.
Davy wants his future back. Tildy wants her past back. Gwennie would like Aruba and Nadine wants a career choice. Eve thinks she wants Simon and Michael wants to visit his grandchildren--or does he want his daughter to provide him his next stake?
Throw all of this into a book, add orange pineapple with a splash of vodka, doughnuts and muffins, not forgetting the 6 Scarlets....and Crusie has brought us one of the cleverest, light-hearted comedies that is a mystery and a warmhearted romance all in one!!
4 people found this helpful
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BUY IT NOW!!!!!

FAKING IT is back to the WELCOME TO TEMPTATION tradition of humor, crime, and a little romance. I loved this one. It was fun, it was sweet and sour, (not as spicey as WWT). The humor was dark, maybe even twisted at times, which you'd expect from those Dempsey morals. The characters were neurotic (consider a household comprised of one forger, two conmen, one thief, one hitman, one depressed painter with a psycho cat, a sister with a [cheap] alter ego, her gay ex-husband and his absolutely normal, sane, and down-to earth partner, their daughter who keeps trying to date her career, and a matriarchal figure obsessed with double-crostics and a thing for tiny umbrellas). The plot was interesting and fun, think Audrey Hepburn and Peter O'Toole in HOW TO STEAL A MILLION. For all you WTT fans, Clea is back, and Davy Dempsey is soooo sexy! He can deal 3 Card Monte at my table any time!
2 people found this helpful
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A light read

Davy Dempsey and Tilda Goodnight meet in a closet. Davy needs his money back, and Tilda needs her forgery back. Clea, a treachorous blonde, is staying with Mason, the owner of the closet.
As Davy follows Tilda home, secretly, he ends up renting an apartment from Tilda's mother, Gwen. He then meets Andrew, Nadine, Jeff, Ethan, Eve/Louise, and so on. It takes a while to get the characters straight. And then Simon comes visiting, and the dog's name is Steve. Also, there's Ford, Rabbit, and Thomas and Phin pops in, and there are others.
It says something when my favorite character in the book and most memorable one is Clea, the bad girl; I could at least see her purpose, and the reasons for the things she did. I did like Davy and Tilda, but their charcterizations were on the light side. Mostly you read about their attempts at a physical relationship, and their attempts at recovering their missing items. Also, there were the movie titles and song titles, and...
This book had some really good moments, and Ms. Crusie's writing is very clever. But, I consider FAKING IT a very "light" read.
2 people found this helpful
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Another Crusie screwball comedy extravaganza!

There may not be another writer of contemporary romance with a gift for sparkling dialogue to match Jennifer Crusie. She is endlessly fertile, continually hilarious, and never repeats herself. Every book is delighful. If Crusie were a 1930's screenwriter, she'd be writing for Carole Lombard and Rosalind Russell. You will laugh out loud at the impossibly absurd situations and quirky characters. How does she keep doing it? If I were a writer I'd hate her guts while I tried my best to copy her style.
This is a sequel to Welcome to Temptation, but you needn't read them in order to enjoy Faking It. Did I say enjoy? I meant relish, savor, devour, like a dense, dark chocolate confection. Delicious!
1 people found this helpful
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Four and 3/4 stars

Heroine: "softly-padded" average
An artist and con-artist pull off separate heists on the same house, the threat of discovery by its owners leading the two thieves into having a surprise "close" encounter in a walk-in closet. The artist, a guilt-ridden forger by the name of Mathilda Goodnight, realizes her partner in kissing would make an equally excellent partner in crime, and uses whatever feminine wiles she has at her disposal to convince him to help her recover the fake painting she's after.
Nearly-gone-straight con man Dave Dempsey has one last job to pull before retiring: he has to retrieve some money he's lost, $3 million dollars which his lovelorn former financial advisor bestowed upon Dave's ex, a certain black widow beauty queen. Dave's street smarts tell him to forget the pleas laid on him by the vamp shut up in the closet with him, but in the end it's not his brain he listens to and he agrees to help her out.
What seemed to be a one-time done-deal quickly goes awry when 'Tilda discovers that her attractive new friend has nicked the wrong painting! Fortunately for her, he didn't get what he wanted either and has decided it's to his advantage to maintain their partnership. Holed up in her kooky family's apartment building where they are surrounded by an eclectic assortment of tenants (an aging Bohemian with repressed rage and a keen sense of wordplay, a teacher-in-training whose smutty alter ego has a wardrobe to rival Madonna, plus her gay cross-dressing ex-husband and their wise-beyond-her-years teen daughter, a hit man, and a shaggy wiener dog who looks like his namesake Steven Buscemi) Dave and 'Tilda try to regroup and figure out how to reclaim the money and all six forgeries before it's too late.
Will Dave ever bring back the right painting? Will 'Tilda ever be able to make-out with him anywhere but in a dark closet? And when all is said and done, will the two of them be able to admit that they belong together like butter on a muffin?
What worked for me:
One of Ms. Crusie's greatest strengths is writing excellent dialogue; "Faking It" is overflowing with witty one-liners and snappy comebacks. And readers can always count on her to provide a colorful cast of characters! (In my mind it's a shame she hasn't been drafted by one of the major networks to breathe new life into their faltering sit-coms. She's got a real knack for screwball comedy!)
I'm a true fan of romance, and while some folks might find it too pat an ending that so many of the characters managed to find true love, it suited me just fine.
Size-wise, 'Tilda sounded as though she were on the round side of average and seemed to be relatively comfy in her own skin. (She was, however, somewhat frigid due to emotional issues related to her stint as a forger.)
What didn't work for me:
I prefer that the romance come before the physical relationship in a story. This book blurred the line a bit there, having the characters fall in love at first "sight" and then falling into bed shortly thereafter.
If a reader isn't up on her knowledge of pop culture or the art world some of the references and jokes may go over her head. And the character descriptions are dependent upon being familiar with a slew of celebrities and movie personalities. Should the reader not recognize a name that's been dropped, she consequently has very little framework upon which to rest her image of that person. (For this reason, the large cast of characters with their many names can become confusing to some. I'll be the first to stand up and admit I have no idea who "Vilma" was, so I had no strong mental image to call up whenever her name appeared.)
Overall:
This quirky, light-hearted romantic comedy was an enjoyable read that stands alone just fine, but I do wish I'd stop backing into series this way. I'm off to the bookstore to pick up a copy of the prior novel "Welcome to Temptation" to fill in some of the blanks.
"Faking It" had an interesting plot; one intriguing enough that I think it would appeal to fans of mysteries if they don't mind the sensual passages.
Warning: There are some spicy love scenes and some coarse language in this story.
If you liked "Faking It", you might also enjoy "Fast Women", The "Stephanie Plum" mystery series, "Plum Girl", "Princess Charming", "Infernal Affairs", "It had to be You", "This Heart of Mine", or "Dear Cupid".
1 people found this helpful

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