Customer Reviews

All or Nothing

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Elizabeth Adler had a great idea but her new crime solver leaves a lot to be desired. Her villian was interesting and fun. BUT the banter between Al and Marla was ridiculous. The story was obliterated by the constant bedding of Al by Marla. If Adler had stuck to the story she'd have written another great book. Instead All or Nothing should be called Some or Nothing.

This is a very easy book to read, if you can read it in an airplane you will enjoy your flight and your book, the story of a private investigator and his girlfriend solving a very peculiar case (her first case) is really cute.

I read the reviews on this one and they aren't great but decided to read it anyway. If you want a book that touches you or makes you think, this is not it! However, if you want a book just to give you a few hours of distraction, then this will do it. I thought the hero and heroine were quite comical (though the sex was overdone a bit)and a villian you loved to hate though not all bad (she loved dogs). As for detective work, they were all so pathetic, I got frustrated with them. It's not one I would read again but was a fun read for a few hours.

"All or Nothing" is just another Elizabeth Adler book. There's romance, there's some mystery, and *spoiler* the villians always die *spoiler*. In this one, Marla, a Pepperdine law prof. has a jones for doing P.I work like her main squeeze Al Giraud, a Southern good ol' boy. Marla and Al are hired by the wife of a man accused of murder. They look into the background of the husband, and the woman who disappeared, and they find that things are definately not as they appear, as the woman turns out to have a very shady past, and they wind up on the trail of a remorseless killer who'll do anything to get they want. Danger and thin plot abound, as our duo almost gets killed a couple of times before clearing the name of an innocent man.

I have been a fan of Elizabeth Adler's, so I was eagerly awaiting her latest. In her previous books, her character developments were so superb, you hated to see the books end. Not so in this case. I became tired of the constant descriptions of Marla's wardrobe and found it hard to believe that she was a college professor. The plot was unbelievable. A third of the way through, the ending was easily predicted. Short on suspense, long on fluff!

This was my first Elizabeth Adler book, so unlike other reviewers here, I had nothing to compare this story to.

I liked the combination of legal professor Marla and ex-cop-turned P.I. Griaud, but like others here, I felt their many sex scenes were just so much fluff. After the first one, where the author shows how much they care about each other, the rest were pretty much just for show.

Also, Pepperdine is a Church of Christ school, so I'm not so sure they'd let Marla and her skimpy skirts past the guard gate, let alone teach a class!

I liked the premise of a femal being the heavy for a change, but the overall plotlines were pretty jaded and trite for my tastes.

I am a fan of Los Angeles and I liked reading about places I've visited. So, all in all, I spent a peaceful summer's night with a so-so book. Not great, but better than channel surfing!

I loved this book. It was the first book I read by this author & I enjoyed it very much. I thought it had a lot of suspense.

This is an older novel by Adler. I prefer her newer ones. Real estate agent Laurie Martin has disappeared and the cops suspect the client she was to have met. Meanwhile, attorney Marla Cwitowtiz wants to team up with her PI boyfriend, Al Giraud. I had the main point of the plot figured out early in the book and the main characters did, too, at about the halfway point. The second half of the book was spent just explaining background with a bit of excitement thrown in to pick things up a bit and a lot of bedding between Marla and Al.

The author had a great story line in the beginning but failed to keep the story streamlined. The readers are jolted back and forth between the plot and Al and Marla's out of control libidos. Marla, who I thought was going to be evolving in her character as a P.I. because as the author puts it, "she wants to be a P.I. so bad that she hurts with it" was a huge disappointment in her character development. Marla came across very flighty and dense since she can't get ler libido in control long enough to concentrate on the case and to be of any real help. Al, was not much better although his character was a lot stronger and tried to stay true to his desire to help his clients. Marla was not a successful partner, I wanted to smack her half the time to get her head in the game. Then we get to the end...this was by far the worst part of the book. The author leads you for 329 pages to a climax of finding the killer and then she writes one sentance and it's over? Did she even put any thought into it?
I am so glad this was a library rental and I didn't waste my money. Adler will not be on my list of things to read in the future.

Having read mixed reviews about this book, I was hesitant to read it. The summary of the story sounded good and I decided to read it. I am so glad I did; the book was great and had the right mixture of romance, clever dialogue, humor, and suspense. Some scenes may not be realistic, but frankly, I don't want reality, I have enough of that every day in my personal life. This book was refreshing and easy to read. I highly recommend it.