(Since it seems she is the one who ends up pushing his dad into providing the loan-of course, that is based on his father's remarks that caused a misunderstanding, but still. Even the romance part of the story relies on a tried and true plot formula for the genre.The way Hank gets the loan makes me wonder why he didn't ask his mom to apply pressure to his dad without having to go through the sham of hiring someone to be his wife to show his stability. Evanovich claimed this to be a 'screwball romance'-I didn't see it as particularly screwball. Maggie is a bit like Stephanie in that she doesn't conform to the norm for women-Stephanie doesn't want to get married and be a housewife-instead she's a bounty hunter Maggie isn't so sure about marriage herself but mostly she wants to fulfill her promise to write a book based on her Aunt Kitty's diary-and to get away from her mother, aunt, and the other ladies of Riverside who want to put her into a mold.

Elsie and Grandma Mazur do have some similarities: both don't always have verbal filters and both have a tendency to carry large, loaded guns in their purses. I prefer Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series to this earlier book, but after reading other reviewer's comments I now see some parallels between her Plum characters and this book.

Wife for Hire by Janet Evanovich