Venus Guy Trap »

A firm believer in Happily Ever After, SHANNON MCKELDEN lives in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with her high school sweetheart-turned-husband, two children, a dog, and four cats. Her first novel was Venus Envy.

Haydee Miller is on the brink of panic. when she was sixteen, she swore that she’d be married by her thirty-third birthday. It’s part of Haydee’s grand Plan, which saved her sanity when her mother died and her father was too overcome by grief to remember he had a teenage daughter. The Plan has guided Haydee for half her life and never failed her. Until now.

With her birthday looming and no Prince Charming in sight, Haydee is surprised to discover that her bookstore’s newest employee is the gorgeous Goddess of Love, Venus herself.

Venus is certain that Haydee’s One True Love is the darkly handsome Derek, a world-renowned photographer who has returned to his hometown to settle down. The only problem? Derek and Haydee fell in love ten years ago—before he abandoned her without a word of farewell, leaving her with a broken heart and a secret she has never revealed.

Somehow Venus must heal this damaged woman and reunite her with her True Love. It won’t be easy. Every man in town, married or not, is pursuing Venus, even when she makes herself over into the ugliest woman on earth. Are her goddess powers malfunctioning? Can she make a Love Match without them?

Publishers Weekly

A misbehaving goddess must tear herself away from her passion for shopping to appease Zeus by serving as a fairy godmother in this amusing sequel to 2008’s Venus Envy. In the Oregon town of Bender, Venus finds new godchild Haydee Miller, owner of the appropriately named Mount Olympus Books. Haydee’s true love turns out to be her loathed ex-boyfriend Derek Reed, a globe-trotting photographer back in town 10 years after abandoning her, but she’s snared a mild-mannered veterinarian in the meantime and is dead set on tying the knot by her next birthday. Meanwhile, men keep falling for the exasperated love goddess. McKelden writes in breezy chick lit style, and while Venus is far more interesting than bland Haydee and her chemistryless interactions with Derek, that will just encourage readers to stick around for future volumes. (Jan.)