Ninja Soccer Moms by Jennifer Apodaca

Publishers Weekly

Sports moms waiting for practice to end will enjoy the third bubbly entry in Apodaca's cozy series (after 2003's Dying to Meet You) starring Samantha Shaw, amateur sleuth and owner of Heart Mates, her "beloved and struggling dating service" in Lake Elsinore, Calif. When her old friend Janie Tuggle tells her that ex-husband Chad, the head coach of the Soccer Club of Lake Elsinore (SCOLE), has been embezzling funds, Sam is anxious to help. Janie should know, since she managed the club's accounts for years, until Chad left her for a younger woman. No sooner does Sam manage to copy the disk with SCOLE's accounts than Chad is murdered in his office, and Sam and Janie become prime suspects. A number of potential allies stonewall or even hinder Sam's investigation. Now why on earth would they do that? The tension grows as Sam zeroes in on the killer. Amusing characters and situations add to the frothy fun. Sports moms waiting for practice to end will enjoy the third bubbly entry in Apodaca's cozy series (after 2003's Dying to Meet You) starring Samantha Shaw, amateur sleuth and owner of Heart Mates, her "beloved and struggling dating service" in Lake Elsinore, Calif. When her old friend Janie Tuggle tells her that ex-husband Chad, the head coach of the Soccer Club of Lake Elsinore (SCOLE), has been embezzling funds, Sam is anxious to help. Janie should know, since she managed the club's accounts for years, until Chad left her for a younger woman. No sooner does Sam manage to copy the disk with SCOLE's accounts than Chad is murdered in his office, and Sam and Janie become prime suspects. A number of potential allies stonewall or even hinder Sam's investigation. Now why on earth would they do that? The tension grows as Sam zeroes in on the killer. Amusing characters and situations add to the frothy fun.

Library Journal

A widowed, bust-enhanced single mom and struggling business owner, Samantha Shaw attempts to help a vengeful friend prove that her ex-husband has been embezzling money from the local soccer club. After a comic misadventure in the man's office, Shaw nearly succeeds; however, someone murders the guy before she can proceed. Her friend now wants to know who killed her ex, but Samantha's P.I. connection with boyfriend Gabe seems tenuous at the moment. In addition, various problems at her dating service intrude. A flighty but feisty heroine, frothy, non-stop action, and frequent humor commend this debut series to readers who enjoyed Harley Jane Kozak's Dating Dead Men. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Once again, a corpse distracts trimmed-down Samantha Shaw both from business-Heart Mates, her dating service-and pleasure-tweaking both ultra-hot lover Gabe Pulizzi and ultra-cool suitor Logan Vance by looking into financial fiddling at the local soccer league. Sam (Dying to Meet You, 2003, etc.) only means to help her friend Janie Tuggle get the goods on her wife-dumping ex, Chad, and knock him off the pedestal he occupies as Lake Elsinore's most successful soccer coach. Once someone takes Chad out with a bookend, though, Sam is right behind Janie on detective Vance's suspect list. Private eye Gabe's no help; Chad's new girlfriend Dara Reed is his latest client. So Sam does what any independent woman would do-hosts a lingerie party for her friend Angel. When Sophie Muffley, Chad's office assistant, shows up along with Iris, Gabe's mom, and Lionel Davis, a Heart Mates client who'd just as soon date the owner, it looks as her investigation is about to get a little too personal. But when Vance blackmails her into working for him, you know it won't be long before Sam is shaking up suspects and running from the law, all in Angel's tightest bustier. Sam's third is a lot racier and a smidge better plotted than the usual gutsy-single-mom-with-her-own-business-plus-two-competing-boyfriends-and-a-little-detection-on-the-side fare.

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