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87 of 89 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Somewhat Disappointing, July 15, 2009
I'm a long-time Linda Howard fan, and was highly anticipating this book, but ended up disappointed. Being Linda Howard, it's still better than most of the romances out there, but it's just not up to her usual caliber. The characters were intriguing and hilarious, the plot should've been fast-paced and interesting, but instead it was just kind of boring.
Ms. Howard's main problem with this book is that the story-telling switches so often from character to character that the reader becomes omniscient. You know exactly what Cael and his team are doing on the boat, you know where his intentions lie, and why he kidnapped Jenner. But you get to read page after page (after page after page) of Jenner musing over just these questions. Unfortunately, with no mystery to the reader concerning his actions, being forced to read on and on about her trying to figure it out becomes tedious and boring with much skimming involved.
Likewise, it's very obvious, very quickly exactly what the villain of the piece is up to and why he plans what he plans because we read from his viewpoint so often. But having to go over and over (and over and over) Cael's musings to figure out the nefarious plot is equally frustrating. Ms. Howard could have easily created an extremely suspenseful and fascinating novel had she limited her character viewpoints only to Syd and Jenner. She could've expanded to include Cael and his team once we knew what role he played, and kept a couple of short blips from the bad guy without revealing anything but sinister design. But instead we're subjected to long and ultimately pointless descriptions of ghosting and surveilling Larkin, while the main characters struggle to understand what's happening around them. There's just NO MYSTERY. Even had it been set up like All the Queen's Men, wherein the reader understood everything happening, but the plot was filled with excitement and adventure, this novel would have been good. But no, after the kidnapping takes place, nothing at all exciting happens until the very end (that doesn't have to do with sex).
Don't get me wrong, as I mentioned earlier, the interactions between the two main characters Jenner and Cael are passionate and absolutely hilarious (reminiscent of Jane and Sam in Mr. Perfect). Those scenes are well worth the read and certainly enjoyable. But absolutely nothing exciting or interesting happens in the middle of the book. I would recommend this one for the fun of it, but expect long skimming sessions.
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50 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
still waiting for a good one, July 22, 2009
What has happened to Linda Howard? I thoroughly enjoyed "Son of the Morning," "Shades of Twilight," "Dream Man," "After the Night," etc but her recent ones have been real clunkers. This novel gives you no real relationships except that of the main two characters and they interact with one another in the same exact manner throughout the book, the sex scenes are boring and then magically they are in love forever. I sorely miss the old Linda Howard. Can someone tell her we want her back?
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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Weird and creepy spy guy story let down, July 17, 2009
I've been reading Linda Howard's books since 1984 and I think I have copies of everything she ever wrote including some of her truly dreadful early work before she hit her groove that zipped her to the top of my favorite authors list for more than two decades. Everyone agrees that Linda Howard's claim to fame are her sexy delicious heroes. She writes wonderful sexy stories about cops, mercenaries, corporate sharks, cowboys and service men in the regular military. I loved her medieval hero in the time travel she wrote. And I thought the hit man in Death Angel was ok despite a *weird* deus ex machina scene half way through.
Unfortunately, I can't tolerate Linda Howard's spy guys. I dislike them so much that each time I read one of her spy guy books, I am motivated to write a negative review so that maybe her publisher can influence her to stop writing these clunkers! Linda Howard just can not make these spy guy heroes sympathetic. And her spy guy plots are just hokey and full of holes.
I can overlook an implausible plot if the hero and heroine are likeable but every one of her spy guy heroes are unfeeling, righteous, macho, sadistic jerks and the hero in BURN, Cael Traylor, lives down to all those adjectives. I was so repulsed by him from the very first chapter that I never could suspend disbelief sufficiently to fall for the incoherent plot. In fact, I put Burn down for 3 days before picking it back up again. I was close to deciding not to finish it. It's really too bad because the heroine Jenner Redwine started out great before she got dumbed down and by the jerk. Someone in another review wrote that she became boring. That's right, she did. Jenner kicks out her moocher boy friend, wins the lottery, makes some smart decisions about her money, and was shaping up to be one smart cookie before she took a 180 to boring and never recovered. She deserved a lot better book. Tant pis.
If you buy Linda Howard's books because you are collecting them, then you're like me. Buy it. If you want to buy a book because you want a good read. Skip this one, the plot's incoherent, the hero is an arrogant creep and the heroine is boring.
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