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Show No Mercy - Cindy Gerard
by ladybracknell Cindy Gerard is a new author for me and I came across this book in a charity shop and being quite taken with the back cover blurb which hailed the novel as 'a rollercoaster ride of action...' I stumped up my 50p expecting a thrilling read. Wrong! Synopsis: Nine months after her escape from terrorists who had ... abducted and held her captive, journalist Jenna McMillan is back in Buenos Aires to interview Maxim, an Argentine billionaire who has his fingers in some rather shady pies. On her first day in the city and before she has a chance to meet up with the elusive Maxim, Jenna is almost blown up by a terrorist bomb and is once again rescued by Gabe Jones, a member of a security outfit, Black Ops Inc, and the man who had previously freed her from captivity. Now forced to work together, Jenna finds herself on the run with Gabe and falling for a man who seems to want nothing more than to see the back of her. My opinion: I have to confess that before the first chapter was over, I'd realised that this book was less of a thriller than I'd anticipated. Jenna, our heroine, is supposed to be a hard-bitten journalist who has visited various war torn regions of the world and yet she's already behaving more like someone out of a Mills & Boon romance rather than Kate Adey. I gritted my teeth, however, and continued to read. After all, it might get better. It didn't. All the while I was reading this novel, I had the feeling I'd read the story before. The plot, the action, even the characters all seemed very familiar. I actually hadn't read the book before but it follows such a well trodden path as to make it seem so. This is particularly the case with the male military types in the story, all of whom could have stepped out of the pages of any other romance featuring US Navy SEALs or Marines. That's not to say it's a totally bad book because it has its moments but I think this is more likely to appeal to an American reader than a Brit, not least because of its very gung ho attitude with regard to the USA. It's very much on the lines of America is the only country in the world which upholds democracy and freedom, something of a hard-to-swallow concept when one looks at the mess US intervention invariably leaves in its wake. Politics aside, this book is basically a romance and the political shenanigans are simply window dressing. The romantic elements aren't much easier to accept, however. Jenna is a journalist in name only and is about as realistic as Lois Lane and Gabe, our US marine turned private security operative (aka mercenary) spends most of the book scowling at the lady journo, except when they're bonking. This is one of those I-hate-you-but-I-love-you romances with a pretty threadbare and unrealistic plot. Neither of these characters come across as being particularly appealing. She's the wimpiest journalist you're ever likely to encounter and he's nauseatingly military with an equally nauseating nickname, Archangel (because his name is Gabriel, get it?) who is pitted against, who else but a baddy called El Diablo. Could it get much cornier. In a word, Yes!! At the centre of the flimsy plot is this Machiavellian El Diablo character with an unexplained axe to grind. Just to emphasise how wicked he is, we learn that his favourite pastime is poisoning his pet lizards and watching them die. At least, I thought, the setting is South America rather than Iraq or Afghanistan but even though the motivation behind the Argentinian terrorist activities is all rather hazy, the author still manages to work in an Islamic terrorist as well. Maybe this is all being choreographed by a cattle baron from the Pampas wanting to corner the corned beef market and fund Al Qaeda on the profits! No, nothing so realistic! There is a secondary romance featuring an older couple in their forties, who really should know better and it's equally as contrived and nauseating as the relationship between the main protagonists. Combine this with a cast of stereotypical Marine types who could have starred in Top Gun and you have a full set of clichéd characters. I feel that to market this book as a thriller is something of a cheat. This is a romance with very slight thriller elements, all of which are pretty weak and totally unrealistic. This book is the first in a series featuring the Black Ops team but I doubt I'll be reading them. There is an American writer, Suzanne Brockmann, who has had a good deal of success writing a series of romantic thrillers featuring members of a SEAL team and those are well written, enjoyable escapism. This story is a pale imitation of Ms Brockmann's work, in my opinion, and it fails to either excite or entertain. I did finish this book, although I spent most of the read wanting to fling it against the nearest wall but the plot was so contrived and the characters so run-of-the-mill that I'd almost forgotten the story as soon as I finished the last page. I can't recommend this book unless you happen to be a Republican-voting, gun-toting American. However, if you do want to read it, it will come as no surprise that there are copies available from 1p. What did come as a surprise to me was the fact that whilst checking out the price on Amazon, I discovered the book is rated a 5 star read. Not for me: I feel I'm being generous giving it 2 stars. Read the complete review |
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The Rake - Mary Jo Putney
by ladybracknell The romance genre is a hugely popular one but the quality of writing within that genre does sometimes leave a lot to be desired and the stuff published by the likes of Harlequin and Mills & Boon has been largely responsible for the somewhat sneering attitude of many towards romance novels in general. Amongst all the dross, ... inevitable in such a crowded marketplace, there are some absolute gems. Nobody these days denies that Georgette Heyer was a gifted writer whose greatest success was through writing historical romances and there are many authors currently writing in the same arena with equally legitimate credentials. One of those writers is Mary Jo Putney, an American author but with the ability to create a great sense of time and place and to tell a wonderfully romantic love story. Synopsis: Reggie Davenport is a rake, a gambler and an alcoholic who like countless addicts claims 'I can stop any time I like.' After a failed abduction attempt Reggie has retreated to his childhood home, on the orders of his cousin, to rusticate and escape from the scandal he has caused in Town. Expecting to find a run-down estate, Reggie is surprised to discover that not only has his estate manager, A E Weston, proved to be exceptionally competent and turned it into a highly profitable enterprise, but that A E Weston is a woman! My Opinion: This book is one of my absolute favourites and is pretty nearly flawless in my opinion. Not only does it tell a romantic story extremely well but introduces characters who behave in a manner which is (almost) believable and the relationship which is at the centre of every romance is authentic in its development and deeply satisfying in its execution. As the story unfolds so too does Reggie's and Alys's back story. Strickland is the ancestral home of Reggie's family but has passed into the hands of his cousin Richard who inherited the title. All this back story is told in full in a previous novel, 'The Wicked Baron', which I haven't read but in which Reggie is the villain of the piece. In 'The Rake', Mary Jo Putney takes up the story where 'The Wicked Baron' left off and demonstrates her skill as a writer by completely redeeming an almost unredeemable character to such an extent that the reader cares what happens to him. Reggie is a handsome, caddish and sometimes charming rake but his drinking is killing him and somewhere deep inside of himself he recognises that fact, despite his claims that he can stop whenever he likes. The root of his problems lie way back in his childhood, beginning when he witnessed the death of his parents and siblings and ended up in the care of his uncle and latterly the English public school system. Surely enough to drive anybody to drink? His antics in town bring him into conflict with his cousin Richard, who has stolen Reggie's birthright in some respects or that's how Reggie sees it. Richard, however, is an honourable man who recognises that there is a flicker of decency within Reggie's make up and he signs over Strickland, Reggie's childhood home, telling him that this is make or break time. If Reggie has fallen from grace so, too, has Alys and for a woman of that time in a far more unforgiveable way. As a young girl of eighteen in her first Season, Alys made the mistake of falling in love and believing that her love was returned in equal measure has given up that most precious commodity, her virginity. (How times have changed!) The man in question was simply a fortune hunter and Alys is ruined and sent home in disgrace. Unable to bear it, she leaves home and manages to get herself a job as estate manager of the very run-down Strickland. Over the following few years, she's more than proved her worth and turned it into a huge success. This is the only part of the story which tends towards fictional licence as I find it hard to believe that a Duke's daughter, for that's what Alys is, would have enough business acumen to run an estate, especially as women of her station were trained from a very early age simply to be decorative and brood mares and seal dynastic alliances. On top of which, Alys tends to stride around in trousers, very practical from a 21st century perspective but practically unheard of then other than on the stage! That being said, both Reggie and Alys are very engaging characters and the reader wants them to have a happy ending and their love story progresses in a believable way with a decent time between meeting and doing the nasty. In fact, the development of their friendship is very well told and their inevitable move into a loving relationship wholly in keeping with events. In actual fact, this book was originally published as 'The Rake and the Reformer' and glossed over the bedroom scenes. The book was a huge success and ten years later the author re-wrote the story as 'The Rake'. The story remains essentially unchanged but with the added embellishment of a couple of bedroom scenes. To be quite honest, the book was fine without them. It never did Georgette Heyer any harm leaving readers at the bedroom door. The love story is heart warming and romantic without being overdone or too sentimental. This isn't a Barbara Cartland style story where the characters bear no relation to anybody living or dead. Mary Jo Putney's characters behave exactly as human beings from whatever time period, have always done. With regard to Reggie's alcoholism which is not only an essential part of his character but also of the story, the author writes about the condition sympathetically and pretty realistically as well, though I'm not sure how much concern was truly given to heavy drinking back then as it was pretty much the norm for men and the condition certainly hadn't been given a name. There's no escaping the fact that this is fiction and romantic fiction at that, so we don't get the truly unpleasant aspects of alcoholism but there's sufficient detail there to make Reggie's fight against the demon drink believable. The secondary characters are all very well rounded with definite personalities who add to the story's authenticity and the writer is sufficiently talented as to keep her dialogue very British despite her own non-British origins, which again adds to the sense of time and place. For anyone who enjoys well written romantic fiction with a believable setting and an excellent plot, I highly recommend this book either in its original form or this later re-written version. Despite this re-write having been published way back in 1998, it remains in print and constantly appears in published top twenties of favourite romance literature and rightly so. It's a 5 star read! Copies can be picked up for as little as 1p and there is now a Kindle version available for £4.19 Read the complete review |
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Viscount Vagabond - Loretta Chase
by ladybracknell Catherine Pelliston couldn't bear the thought of marriage to the man her father had chosen for her and runs away from home only to fall into the clutches of a brothel keeper. She regains consciousness to find herself in a bedroom with a large and very drunk gentleman about to relieve her of her virtue. Ever resourceful, Miss Pelliston ... takes the gentleman to task and persuades him to help her escape and somewhat bemused by this turn of events, Max Demowery manages to extricate Catherine from the brothel. Once he sobers up and realises she's not a lowly tart but a woman of his own class, he takes her to his sister's house hoping she'll be able to help him return Catherine to the busom of her family but neither Catherine nor Max's sister have any intention of returning her home and preventing Miss Pelliston from falling into further scrapes proves ever more difficult for Max. My opinion: When Georgette Heyer died in 1974 there were many claimants to her vacated throne. Among the names mooted as the next Queen of Regency Romance was Loretta Chase, an American writer who had had quite a bit of success writing novels in a similar vein to Ms Heyer. Though personally I would dispute that she's anywhere near as good, in the intervening forty years or so Loretta Chase has certainly become a best selling author and her books are very enjoyable and generally historically accurate. I've read most of her more recently published works but when I spotted Viscount Vagabond, part of her earlier canon in a charity shop, I bought it fully expecting to be entertained. And to a point I was. As practice makes perfect, it goes without saying that after reading an author's most recent works and then going back to something they produced much earlier in their career there is going to be a difference in both style and quality and sadly that was the case with this book. There is much about the story which is highly entertaining but it's also possible to see just how much Loretta Chase has improved as a writer. With regard to characterisation, the author has done a reasonably competent job, especially with Catherine who is definitely cut from the Heyer mould of chirpy and resourceful heroines. She's young and has been raised rather carelessly by her father who has always been more interested in hunting and drinking than his daughter's welfare but when he decides that she should marry Lord Browlie, one of his most disreputable friends, she packs her bags and escapes to London hoping to find her governess. Unfortunately, the governess has married and moved to Ireland which leads to Catherine falling into the hands of Granny Grendle, the madam. The depiction of the brothel keeper, though only a minor character in the book, is excellent and Loretta Chase manages to convey the unpleasantness of such people and their equally nasty business, within the context of what is after all, a light and frothy historical romance. Most of the other secondary characters, with a couple of notable exceptions, are well rounded and believable both in terms of their behaviour and speech, though being an American, she slips in the odd too many 'gottens' for my liking. A couple of the more central characters are much less believable, I'm afraid. During the course of events, Catherine befriends a young street boy and though he's essential to the plot, he comes across as completely unbelievable, much more a lovable rogue than the half-starved streetwise being he would probably have been. However, this is a light read and more realism would probably have been inappropriate. My biggest problem with this book comes with the character of Max, the hero, and with the plotting of this story. Max is a complete plonker which seems almost counter to his back history. He's the second son and had been very successfully making his way in the Colonies, something of a nod to her American readership, only to reluctantly return to England when his brother is killed. Considering he's supposed to have made money through his ingenuity and business acumen whilst in America, which takes brains, Max seems to have left them on the other side of the Atlantic because he certainly doesn't seem to be using them in this tale. It's pretty obvious that he fancies Catherine and she him, but neither of them seem to realise that fact and, in fact, for most of the book Max is trying to marry Catherine off to his best friend! No wonder the aristocracy are dying out! To be honest, there's more romance between Max's sister and her husband than the two main protagonists. In terms of plotting, the central theme of the story is fine but there is just far too much going on, and most of these plot convolutions don't seem particularly necessary and just make the story more confusing than it needs to be. Instead of a pleasant, light and frothy read, we're presented with a mad gallop through the story in order to resolve everything and tie up all the loose ends. This is an enjoyable book but I feel that if Loretta Chase wrote this novel now, it would be much improved. This is an excellent example of how much a writer can improve over the course of their career both in terms of plotting, characterisation, dialogue and writing style. It's nowhere near as good as her recent offerings, which are first rate. It's certainly worth a read if you're already a fan and a collector of Loretta Chase's books but if you've never read this author before, I would recommend you begin with one of her more recent novels such as Lord Perfect, which showcase her skills much more. Used copies of this book can be bought from Amazon for just over £4 which in my opinion is too much. Far better save your pennies and buy one of Loretta Chase's more recent novels. Read the complete review |
Fiction / Romance Fiction Book |
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14 reviews Genre: Fiction / Fiction Book / Romance / Author: Jojo Moyes / ISBN: 0718157834 / Publication Date: 2012 / Publisher: Michael Joseph |
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Genre: Fiction / Fiction Book / Romance / Author: Kate Forster / Kindle Edition / 403 Pages / Book is published 2012-05-10 by Avon |
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Genre: Fiction / Fiction Book / Romance / Author: Eleanor Prescott / Publication Date: 2012 / Publisher: Quercus |
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1 review Genre: Fiction / Fiction Book / Romance / Author: Lucy Robinson / Paperback / 496 Pages / Book is published 2012-04-12 by Penguin |
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Genre: Fiction / Fiction Book / Romance / Author: Milly Johnson / Paperback / 464 Pages / Book is published 2012-04-26 by Simon & Schuster Ltd |
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1 review Genre: Fiction / Fiction Book / Author: Jill Mansell / Hardcover / 432 Pages / Book is published 2012-02-16 by Headline Review |
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1 review Genre: Fiction / Fiction Book / Romance / Author: Jane Costello / Hardcover / 496 Pages / Book is published 2012-02-02 by Simon & Schuster Ltd |
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2 reviews Genre: Fiction / Fiction Book / Romance / Author: Christina Jones / Paperback / 384 Pages / Book is published 2012-02-02 by Piatkus |
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2 reviews Genre: Fiction / Fiction Book / Author: Stella Newman / Paperback / 464 Pages / Book is published 2012-01-19 by Avon |
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2 reviews Genre: Fiction / Fiction Book / Romance / Author: Polly Willians / Publication Date: 2011 / Publisher: Headline Review |
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