For Rent by Erin Huss

Publication Date: August 8, 2016

Publisher: Velvet Morning Press

I have been acquiring all kinds of books that would make perfect beach reads. I just keep pretending I’m at the beach (I have a great imagination!) and enjoying these books that come my way. If we have the same tastes, hopefully you’ll find them as beach (escapist) worthy as I have.

Enter For Rent by Erin Huss.

Cambria Clyne is at a turning point in her life. She just lost her job and is about to be evicted from her very bad apartment, when she interviews for and gets the job of apartment manager at a nice-ish complex. Except as soon as she starts her new job, crime escalates in this previously safe little community. Because her new job depends on it, she begins to do her own detecting work, which is sometimes impulsive and tends to have embarrassing consequences.

Nearly at the same time that Cambria starts working as apartment manager, Chase, a swoon-worthy maintenance man, is hired. He’s lovely to look at, makes her weak in the knees, but she ends up having to fix the things that he’s supposedly “maintenanced,” because he’s inept.

For Rent is filled with an eccentric cast of characters from Cambria’s womanizing baby daddy, Tom, to the baffling, part-time nudist and owner’s son, Kevin. When Cambria is hired, she’s told that she thinks outside of the box, which is very true. Combine that with the fact that she is a police show junkie who has a wild imagination, and you can only imagine the types of situations she manages to get herself into.

I had great fun reading this book. Cambria, with her Einstein hair (which is almost a character in itself), is totally likable, despite her eccentricities and maybe because of them as well. She has a lot of “oops” moments and moments where she acts on impulse, but the way they’re written, you forgive her her foibles. And how can you not like someone who says: “bleep” instead of cursing around her toddler?

The plot was intriguing and I consider it mystery, although Goodreads is telling me it’s in the chicklit genre. We’ll give a nod to both.

If you’re a fan of the Stephanie Bond, Body Mover Series, I think you would enjoy this book. It’s probably a little (tiny bit) grittier than that series, but it has a similar sense of humor and possible romance-twists.

A definite add to your vacation escapist reading!

I won a copy of For Rent from LibraryThing in exchange for an honest review.

From Amazon: For Rent

rating:  (4 butterflies and a ladybug)