The sugary sweet story of a woman with the “soul of a birthday cake living in a bran muffin house” who falls for a man with the “soul of a bran muffin living in a birthday cake house” has about as much substance as a Krispy Krème doughnut. The story is simple: Girl meets boy, girl and boy fall in love and ridiculous neuroticisms and eccentricities keep boy and girl apart. Female protagonist Katherine Finn is supposed to be endearing with her wild mane of red hair and chronic fear of commitment; however, I grew tired of her insatiable need to complicate a seemingly perfect relationship with the lotto-winning, all around Mr. Perfect David Dodd. Come to think of it, I don’t think I would want much to do with the overly sensitive guy either. The love scenes didn’t steam up my reading glasses because the cute-as-a-button male lead embodied about as much testosterone as the writer herself. I mean really, nothing sparks my fire more than a man who stays at home all day and plays with toys. Evanovich made an attempt to add an element of mystery to spice up the ho-hum storyline by having a piece of an unexplained aircraft crash down on Katherine’s house. The so-called mystery quickly shifts to the backburner as the painstakingly tedious romance unfolds. Now, considering this is one of Evanovich’s earlier works, I would like to believe this contrived, harlequinesque story was just a fluke, so I went on to read two more of her earlier works: “Visions of Sugarplums” and “Thanksgiving.” Sadly, these duds far surpassed my low expectations. As far as Janet Evanovich books are concerned, the three-strikes- rule certainly applies. Never again will I devote precious reading time to Evanovich’s mind-numbing, generic novels. In short, “Back to the Bedroom” is a paint-by-numbers romance that strives too hard for a fairytale ending – triggering a gag reflex along the way.