I love these books. I read them out of order, which is unusual for me. I think the first one I read (the second in the series, Crazy Cool) is still my favorite, although it's hard to choose between that one and the third one, Crazy Wild. They're totally over the top, but they're funny and really hot and you can't put them down. And they're well-written enough that you don't notice the writing, which is all I require for a fun read.
But they're total female fantasy. The men are all handsome-- beyond handsome and into gorgeous: big and strong and studly. They're tough and protective and at the same time that they're winning the gorgeous girl, they're saving the world from bad guys. Janzen's heroes are part of some sort of elite special forces that is the best of the best of the best, Sir. (sorry, I had a Men in Black moment there). I feel kind of guilty reading them, but then I remember my husband pouring over the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue and I feel better. We all have our own fantasies. Yes, the men in the Crazy series have their flaws, but they're the same kind of flaws that you imagine a guy saying, "and I just love how Angelina Jolie's nose is a little bit crooked."
I loved the first one I read so much that I waited three or four months before I read another one, for two reasons. One, because there are only six books in the series, and I wanted to spread them out. And two, because they really are over the top. I think if you read them all at once, you'd be sick of Janzen by the end. I read my second one (3rd in the series) while I was on a road trip to take my daughter back to college at the end of last summer. Still totally loved it.
Then a couple of months later I went back and read the first one, Crazy Hot. And it was still pretty good, but not quite as good as Cool and Crazy. I could tell from reading the reviews on Amazon that pretty much everyone thought the last two (#5 and #6, Crazy Love and Crazy Sweet) weren't as good as the first ones , so I read them next. They were OK, still above average, but by the end, there's this pro-gun, glorification of violence thing happening that really bugged me (this line actually appears in one of them: "Armed women are safe women." Which just made me cringe. I mean, first of all, just the sexism involved in phrasing it like that. ick.) So you could skip the last two without missing much.
I was saving up #4 (Crazy Kisses) for last. I knew what was coming. Unlike the first three, which I think you could read in any order as I did, the plot of the fourth one evolves over the first several books, so you won't get the full impact if you haven't been reading along. I finished it last night. It's good. I'm glad I read it last to erase the somewhat sour taste left by #5 and #6. I was really enjoying it up until the very end. But then it just kind of ends. Janzen developed the tension between these two characters for four books, and there's a lot of tension and unresolved history. But they never really talk it out. They just jump to the proposal and the honeymoon. Which I suppose some people might consider a good thing-- I mean, you know they're going to end up together, and given the nature of this series, you know that's going to mean that they're getting married. But after having waded through this plot line for four fairly hefty novels, I wanted to hear them talk it out, dammit. So it made for a somewhat flat ending to my reading of the series, but I'd still highly recommend them.
So, Janzen gets an A for the first three in the series. I'd still give #4 a B, maybe even a B+. And the last two are C+. It's a great series, well worth reading. Although there's a fair amount of violence, if that sort of thing bothers you.
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