For me, this started reasonably well and the idea and central hook were good and I thought, "Well, this is different..." But then it all started to fall apart. The love story, for me, was dull and I didn't buy it. There were too many obvious plot devices, and characters I really didn't warm to (that would be all of them, actually). Murphy was the worst of all - I could feel the author's love for him, but he was cheesy and cliched, and his constant use of 'love' was horrible. Where I'm from, that term is used so liberally it means nothing at all - it's not a term of endearment. It just didn't work for me. And the end *gag* Horrible. 
 It gets an extra star though for apparently not being the first of series (although give it time, I guess).