If you can read a book in a day, barely putting it down for a break, then it must be pretty good. Love, Lousia is a book that started out with a witty bang, yet by the middle I found myself putting the book down, becoming a bit bored with the dragging plot. And the characters, which are interesting at first, start to annoy with their silly misunderstandings and the way they jump to conclusions. Still, because of the amusing and appealing beginning, many people will be pulled into the story and continue to read until the end.

Just about the worst thing that could happen to Louisa on her wedding day, happens. She is stood up by the groom. She has done everything for the man; quit her job, paid for most of the wedding, even put up with his horrible mother, and that is how the jerk repays her. And so she ends up with little money, no job, no place to live and only her shame and embarrassment to keep her company. The only place Louisa can get away is to a rundown, seaside cabin that her mother owns. Yet, maybe the cabin isn’t such a place of despair after all.

Dante has way too many weak women in his life. An ex wife who left him for another woman, an elderly aunt who is losing her mind and a needy cousin. He certainly does not need another screwed up woman in his life. He knows Louisa, for he was at her wedding and saw her drunken state and heard about the ridiculous amount of money she spent on her wedding. A woman who is probably a drunk and unstable to boot, no wonder why her fiancé left her. But still, even though he has his negative opinion of the woman he can not deny the attraction that he feels for her.

Louisa realizes she just may have bitten off more than she can chew, or afford. Her seaside cottage has no heat, needs a new roof and is next door to rowdy, annoying neighbors. All she wanted was to get away from her old life, to recuperate. She certainly does not need a grumpy handyman snapping at her and making her life even worse. But that is just what Dante does. She has no idea why the man seems to hate her, yet he makes his feelings rather obvious. That though, is fine with her, for she certainly does not need another man in her life. But he is rather handsome and it doesn’t hurt to look.

Even though both Louisa and Dante claim to want nothing to do with the other, they somehow constantly end up in each other’s company. In fact, they find that being together isn’t so bad after all. Both can rely on the other, but without having to be a burden. And every time they come together, it becomes more and more difficult to fight their growing attraction.

It takes awhile for Dante and Louisa to get on liking terms with each other. The problem is that there is really no good reason why they can’t get together to began with. Dante’s dislike of Louisa seems unfounded and a bit overly dramatic. The woman was stood up at her wedding for god’s sake; she was certainly entitled to have a drink or two. But Dante uses this as an excuse to think of her as an alcoholic, because he has seen her drunk…once, after being stood up at the alter. In fact, he uses silly excuses to keep away from Louisa for almost the entire book. It ends up taking them forever to become intimate. I keep thinking, “have sex already!” We also never truly understand why Louisa was going to marry her fiancé in the first place. The man was an idiot with an obnoxious mother and yet Louisa dated him and was going to spend the rest of her life with him. And in Dante’s case, we don’t really understand why he still helps out his ex-wife who dumped him and seems immature and catty.

The book is rather amusing in the beginning and becomes rather poignant later on as we read about Louisa, her love for her dog and her desire to have her own life; we can’t help but cheer for her. It’s obvious that she and Dante do have passion for each other, but it would have been more interesting had Metzger not have dragged out their relationship and at least given us a bit more to work with toward of the beginning instead of making us wait to the end for some “good stuff.”