Review: Hot Toy by Jennifer Crusie

Hot Toy is a fun and quick Christmas read, with lots of spy shenanigans and a very determined heroine who will hold onto the most wanted toy, despite two spies who are determined to have it at all costs.

Trudy’s Christmas isn’t a happy one this year, not with her sister and nephew very down in the dumps after her brother-in-law leaves them for the nanny. While her sister is getting sloppy drunk with a bottle gin and failing miserably in creating a gingerbread house at home, Trudy has been sent to track down and buy the action figure that she must get at all costs. In the toy-store she meets her Nolan, an attractive professor, who dumped her after three dates a few months back. He tries to make nice but Trudy is having none of it, and though she tries to ignore his existence, she is very upset about how he carelessly dumped her. But Nolan doesn’t go away so easily, not when Trudy takes a cab-ride with Reese, her father’s former research assistant, to a warehouse to find this elusive doll.

This was a classic Crusie read with humour at the forefront of the story. I had to suspend a lot belief while reading as the humour seemed to come before the romance. There’s not a lot of development between Nolan and Trudy, and at times Nolan didn’t come across as nice, not when he told Trudy she turned boring during their date nights. Trudy was stubborn to a core and was determined, despite being caught up in the middle of espionage, that she wasn’t giving up the action doll, which held secret codes. TSTL did enter my mind on many, many occasions. On the positive side, no matter what was going on and how much danger she was in, all Trudy cared about was not disappointing her nephew on Christmas day. What worked the strongest for me was the relationship between Trudy and Courtney, her sister. That was super sweet and I loved the banter between the two.

Hot Toy ends on a happy and hopeful note for Trudy. I just wished the romance was stronger, though there were many sweets moments towards the end when Nolan made up for his lies and made sure Trudy’s nephew got the Christmas he wanted.

I give Hot Toy a C+

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