Wow!  This book broke right out of my brain-box definition of Chick-lit / Romance in the very first chapter.  The story goes from zero to sixty mph in the first few pages.  It zigs when I expected it might zag, and I found myself thrown headlong into the drama almost immediately.

Zoey Addler had shoveled out a parking space for herself.  In Chicago.  During January.  When she returned to claim the space, the man she had nicknamed "Lips of Sin" was in the process of stealing her well-deserved space.  Push came to shove and before she knew it, Zoey was off on an adventure with "Lips" AKA Dante Torelli!  His job was to root out the bad guys and keep a vital witness ready to testify against a mob boss.  Zoey made him late—t was a good thing, too, because the other FBI agents on scene were dead in the blink of an eye.

The witness’s baby is kidnapped, and she just happens to be Zoey’s niece, Pete.  The odd couple of Zoe and Dante survive car chases, shoot-outs and the interrogation of witnesses who either don’t speak English, or if they do, they have their own inscrutable customs and ideas.  There is a romantic undercurrent that sizzles as both Dante and Zoey consider their unspoken physical attraction to one another.  Will the baby be saved?  Will the witness testify?  Just what are the sisters-in-law from India up to?  All these questions, and many more, are answered with a satisfying conclusion and a yen for a sequel!

The book is funny, smart, sassy and ubercool.  It reminds me of the television series 24 in that the action takes place over a relatively short period of time, with each chapter punctuated with the day and time the action takes place.

I found For the Love of Pete to be timely yet not trendy, although it certainly has the makings of a trendsetter.  I love the author’s quirky use of language, and I found that I was quickly in love with the main characters, Zoey Addler and FBI Special Agent Dante Torelli.  Yet they did not make the book so special all alone.  There is a cadre of unique characters who range from two kidnapped babies to two sisters-in-law from India who hope to open their own restaurant, and even the necessary mobsters who come both with, and without, soft hearts.

This is a book that I want to read again just to pick up on any of the hilarious nuances I may have not absorbed on the first reading.  I’d recommend this book to my best friends and to anyone and everyone who enjoys a great read and a fun thrill while reading!