Lavender's Blue

Liz Danger, Book 1

By: Jennifer Crusie, Bob Mayer

Narrated by: Cris Dukehart, Eric G. Dove

From the NY Times Bestselling duo that wrote Agnes and the Hitman, the first book in the Liz Danger series.

Liz Danger has returned home after fifteen years to deliver a giant teddy bear for her mother’s birthday (color: Guilt Red) when a cop with a great ass picks her up for speeding, fixes the missing lug nuts on her back wheel, pulls her out of a ditch, doesn’t give her a ticket, and helps her avoid her family. This is a man with real potential. The rest of the day goes downhill, starting with her finding out that the only man she’s ever loved is getting married to Lavender Blue, the most beautiful woman in southern Ohio. Really, the best thing in her day is that cop with the lug nuts.

Vince Cooper still isn't sure about being a cop in Burney, Ohio, a place he just moved to six months ago, since Burney is full of some fairly odd people spaced between long stretches of boredom. Still, considering the dangerous, difficult life he had before Burney as an Army Ranger and New York City cop, boredom is good. Then he picks up Liz Danger for speeding and life gets a lot more interesting. And when he picks her up again in the local bar the next night, he starts to realize that “interesting” doesn’t begin to describe what’s going to happen to him if he pulls Liz into his arms and his life.

As Liz navigates her dysfunctional family, her flamboyant boss phoning in from Chicago, her still-interested ex, her bridesmaid dress from hell, a dachshund with issues, a disaster of a wedding, assault, murder, and three hundred and ninety-three teddy bears, Vince shows up to get her through, even though he knows that the real peril for him in Burney is the one who came with her own warning label, Liz Danger.

LAVENDER’S BLUE: Would it kill you to go home and see your mother?

©2023 Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer. (P)2023 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“Narrators Cris Dukehart and Eric G. Dove combine their talents to tell the tale of ghostwriter Liz Danger's return to her small hometown of Burney, Ohio.… Dukehart voices Liz in a steady, no-nonsense tone, perfectly matching her matter-of-fact personality. Dove brings Vince to life with a deeply masculine performance. Burney has a large cast of characters, and both narrators aptly capture their unique qualities.“—AudioFile Magazine

Mystery and humor? Yes!

Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer are hilarious and wonderful writers with dialogue and plot and small town relations and murder or was it an accident? What a wild ride with Liz and Vince and the gang in Burny, Ohio. So glad I do not live there but so happy to visit. Up next, "Rest in Pink."

Narrators Cris Dukehart and Eric G. Dove did a fine job using duet and dual narration.

Entertaining Listen- Liz Danger Series Book one

So you return to your hometown after 15 years. You get pulled over by a cop for speeding. Great day so far. But the cop's kinda cute.
Upon returning, you will have to deal with your dysfunctional family and upbringing, throw in a murder, an ex boyfriend, a wedding, a bit of comedic wit and your employer moving to town for a few months to rent a home to complete your work assignments together. What could possibly go wrong?

You have a great narrator who brings all the characters to life.
"Lavender's Blue"- A Liz Danger Series Book one.

First time listening to these authors and you have a fast paced, entertaining book to enjoy.

Starting Book two, "Rest in Pink" now.

I truly enjoyed this fast paced, entertaining book with a bit of everything, especially Liz Danger's wit.

I'm always happy to find a good book to enjoy.

Right now free to listen and read on kindle unlimited.

I will definitely look for other books by these authors, Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer.

Witty quote from book:
"Family that makes you think about killing yourself whenever your with them is not family, its a biological mugging".

Jennifer Rocks it AGAIN

Liz, Vince, Anemity, and other characters are great.
Can’t to start 2nd book in this trilogy

Off to a great start

It’s so wonderful to have Crusie and Mayer back in the business of writing screwball romantic mysteries. I love the massive cast of characters filled with strong, independent women and men secure enough to support them, except for the villains of course. The recording was very good—nicely matched voices that don’t make you cringe when you get to an intimate moment. I usually don’t like the back and forth, but it works well with the book’s format.

Great read

Love how quirky this book is just like some of Jennifer Cruise’s previous books. So enjoyable, such great characters.

manage your expectations for this one

After waiting YEARS for another Jennifer Crusie book I'm sorry to say I was disappointed.
I'm not sure if it was the poor narration (nothing technically wrong but both the narrators came across as bored at one point or another - which I found irritating) but any attempts at humour fell flat. The usual pop culture humour references were there but there seemed to be no follow thru that turns that into the expected LOL moments that I've come to expect from Crusie.
I can't even blame Bob Mayer, bcos I've enjoyed some of the books he's co-authored with Crusie.
Overall it was a bit meh. I'm sure I'll get around to re-reading it again at some point, to give it another chance (I've been a fan of Jenny Crusie too long not to do so), and maybe I'll get more out of it if I'm not constantly feeling annoyed about the lack of laughs; but for now, I'm moving on to the second book in the series (why, when I wasn't impressed with the first? bcos I bought all 3 on sale); altho given that many of the reviews rate it a lot more poorly than this one, I'm definitely not expecting much.
[So why 4☆ for a book I found so disappointing? I'm trying to be fair. Yes, I was disappointed but, as I said, there was nothing technically wrong with the narration, and, although it was barely humorous it wasn't bad writing. Just not great. If you're not a Crusie fan, you might think this was a good book]

Super enjoyable.

What a great read. I laughed, and had to rewind to listen to scenes twice, and had a lot of fun with this book. Great characters! Who doesn't love small towns with lots of crazy goings-on? Totally worth a listen.

Humor, Murder and so REAL!

The narration was great. Storyline kept you very interested and the characters reminded me of all the small I have lived in.

Great read

Always enjoy an evening reading Jennifer Cruise. I am glad to have two more new books to read after this one.

So happy Jennifer and Bob are back together again!

what is there not to love? Action, romance, snark, humor, sarcasm. This is the duos best work yet. Great narrators made this book come alive. I'm ready to jump right into the next book. Jennifer and Bob (Bobiffer? Job?) keep up the great work!