For the Love of Katie

Dean’s laugh-out-loud sequel to To Katie with Love revisits the relationship between Katie James—a modern-day Lucille Ball who firmly exercises her right to jump to the worst conclusions possible and can barely walk without injuring herself—and highly successful paranormal romance author Cooper Maxwell. The frame story has Katie settling into an interrogation at a Parisian police station; the officers make the mistake of telling her to start her story at the beginning, and she willingly lays out every humiliating, wonderful, and cringeworthy moment that led to her winding up in handcuffs. As she recounts, Katie and Cooper fell more in love despite several pretty substantial roadblocks, including the “help” of Katie’s friends and her contentious relationship with her mother. As Katie and Cooper stumbled their way from dating to marriage, their adventures included a surprise body hair waxing gone horribly awry and an unfortunately underresearched prewedding cruise. Dean focuses on humor, but there are quite a few moments of poignancy and tenderness. The zany escapades are occasionally over the top, but they never fail to deliver belly laughs. (Aug.)