Book Review: The Housewife Assassin's Handbook

Title:  The Housewife Assassin's Handbook
Author:  Josie Brown
Where I got it:  From the author, in exchange for an honest review

Amazon Summary:
Murder, suspense, sex--and some handy household tips.

Every desperate housewife would love an alias. Donna Stone has one and it's government sanctioned. Oh sure, you've got to be ruthless to take on Russian mafia bosses, rogue dictators, and terrorists set on destroying the world. But it takes real killer instincts to survive suburbia. Try juggling the 5th grade phone tree during a shootout with arms dealers, or driving carpool while being chased by Chinese double agents.

Donna's life wasn't always this complicated. Five years earlier she was just another woman with two preschoolers, a baby bump, and an adoring husband, Carl, with whom she lived happily ever after in a McMansion in the Orange County, California community of Hilldale. But Donna's life was changed forever the night she delivered her baby:

Carl's car blew up on the way to the hospital.

Turns out Carl was an assassin for the black ops organization known as Acme Corporation. The hit on Carl was carried out by the Quorum, a terrorist cell he was tracking. The Quorum's motto: "Show me the money." Governments and corporations do as they're told--or suffer bloody consequences.

Carl left something behind that the Quorum wants badly. To protect herself and avenge Carl's death, Donna joined Acme. Whereas her hostessing skills rival Martha Stewart's, her marksmanship is second to none.

A good thing, too, because the Quorum has planted a sleeper cell in Hilldale. For Donna, that's too close for comfort. Will she be able to save her family before the Quorum blows up Los Angeles?

Acme's way of flushing out the Quorum is by "bringing Carl back from the dead." But terrorism makes strange bedfellows. Jack Craig, the wild card Acme operative paired with Donna brings, new meaning to that old adage "Honey, I'm home..."


My Thoughts:
I absolutely loved The Baby Planner, which was the first Josie Brown book I read, and because it was so fun and funny, I was delighted to read The Housewife Assassin's Handbook.  Plus, just read that synopsis and try to tell me it doesn't sound awesome, right?


Donna has been living an extremely complicated lie for the past six years.  She's been telling her friends and neighbors that her husband Carl is just out of the country on apparently very extended business, and telling her kids that their daddy will be coming back.  Oh, and she's really "just" a housewife (you know, because that's not a job in and of itself).  In reality, her husband was killed on his way out of town running from a terrorist group while she was giving birth to their third child, and she's been working as an agent for Acme for the past couple years.


Six years after her husband's death, Donna is notified that the Quorum has placed agents in her neighborhood, and the best way that Acme can think of is to plant an agent in her house to bring Carl back from the dead...  And when Jack moves in, the mayhem really begins.

First and foremost, if I was a housewife, I would want to be Donna.  I'm not kidding guys, the girl can shoot, seduce, and kill, all while balancing the demands of carpool and managing the suburban mommies and their opinion of her and her kids.  Her hostess skills are to die for, and many have fallen for her seduction routines.  So what if the neighborhood busybodies think she's cheating on her husband?  The reality is, he's dead, and she can't even mourn him in public.  They can get over it.

Enter Jack, who is a fantastic and well known agent, and sexy to boot.  The chemistry between the two of them is enough to set water on fire, and make Donna question everything she's thought about her life since Carl's death.

Add in a healthy dose of humor and ridiculousness, some mayhem, and some really cute kids, and you've got a book that won't be putdown - so go pick it up now!