Customer Reviews

Crazy Sweet

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Three stars is two more than I would probably have given Crazy Sweet, but Christian and Dylan are worth at least a star each. I use the reviews of others to help me decide if a book is worth my time and money and I felt very, very strongly about this read. I have read the Crazy books from day one and loved every one of them (especially Cristian and Dylan's stories). I even turned several girlfriends on to them and we were all excited about Crazy Sweet coming out. What a let down. I guess I expected Travis and Red Dog's story to be as interesting as Dylan and Skeeter's. Not even.

From about the second chapter I realized that I didn't even like Red Dog at all and was wishing that Travis would just move on. While I understand that she had been through an extremely traumatic event that totally wiped away all memories of the person that she had been, I wonder at the complete lack of emotion (except rage for one individual). I just don't get how she could have the entire SDF team working with her and caring for her for two years and feel virtually nothing for most of them. I just think that the complete reversal (or loss) of her personality was too much. She became a single-minded, selfish, uncaring, emotionless individual. And these guys still went to her rescue even after she went against the rules of the SDF team. Again, I just found myself not liking the character at all. I was way more interested in the secondary story line of C. Smith Rydell.

I also found the end of the story weak and got to the last page feeling like it was unfinished. The relationship between the two main characters felt like it wasn't complete and gave me the impression that they might not even stay together (wishful thinking) for the long haul. Ms. Janzen's note at the back mentioned that while the Crazy series was over that we would see more of the SDF guys in her next work (hopefully Smith's story). While I will buy her next book, I was very disappointed by Crazy Sweet.

This is book 6 in the "Crazy", Steele Streete, SDF books. This is not a stand alone book, you have to start from the beginning.
I bought this book the day it came out and then put off reading it until yesterday. I had three reasons for putting it off:
1) Like other reveiwers I wasn't that thrilled with the last book. The long awaited Dylan and Skeeter story got 2nd billing to Gillian and Travis.
2) I've loved Travis since book 1. But did not like how she changed him from a peace loving, meditating, sex tharapist, nature boy to an SDF operative.
3) And finally, RED DOG. Uhg! I hated her character!
In book 5 we met Gillian. She is working for the General. She seems a bit scatter brained and a little disheveled. She's smart and a bit quirky. She and Travis "get together". I really liked Gillian. I thought she was a nice partner for Travis.
Then Gillian ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time and is heavily drugged and tortured by an ex CIA agent gone bad.
This story is the continuation of that one. Her memory is wiped out from that drug. She doesn't even remember her name. What we know of sweet Gillian is gone. She only has 3 memories, Travis is one of them.
Superman trains her and for the next two years, Red Dog is born. She is an assassin hell bent on Revenge. Her one focus is Tony Royce the CIA agent that took her first life.
Red Dog just isn't that endearing of a character. I felt sorry for Travis. I admit by the end of this book I ended up feeling luke warm about her. But not the connection I have felt with the other characters in the previous books.
The secondary story in this one, saved the book for me.
C. Smith Rydell is an operative who saved Kid in a previous book. He is in El Salvador trying to find out what Red Dog was up to. He inadvertantly ends up saving Honey York-Lytton. She's on a mission to help her sister, the nun. They get stranded together in a hotel room while bombs are blasting the city. Both of these characters are loveable. And I look forward to reading more about them in "On the Loose" Spring 2007.
So to sum up. If you've been with the series since book one. Of course you must buy and must read. It's a good read. Just not her best. If Red Dog would have been more like Gillian, it probably would have been better. We just have to hope her next book will be better.

I have read all the Crazy books and have loved them all -BUT - I just dont like Red Dog. I cant get into her and Travis as a couple. I still resent their dominating intrusion into my DYLAN AND SKEETER story--who are my favorites.
The first thing I did with this book is flip through and read anything that said Dylan and/or Skeeter on the page and then I read the whole book.

At least Gillian was likable in Crazy Love, but not as Red Dog in SWEET.
I did love Honey and C Smith's story and all parts that included previous Crazy characters.

I wish Tara would write more adventure/romance for Dylan, Skeeter, Kid, Christian etc...instead of new ones.

All in all, if you have read all the CRAZY's then you must read this one - BUT- dont start here or judge the series by this book--its her weakest main couple for sure. Those love scenes should have gone to Skeeter and Dylan--Tara owes them some.

I fell in love with the "Crazy" series from the first book. I was completely hooked on the combination of hot man, hot car and dangerous situations. But it seems that somewhere along the way, the stories lost their direction.
Starting with Creed's story, the secondary characters and storylines seemed to dominate each book. And never so much as in this last one. I frankly could have cared less what happened to Gillian. And I was highly disappointed that Travis's story turned out this way. We've seen so much of him from the beginning. He was the secondary character stealing the show in Kid's story, him and Jane (who just vanished off the face of the Earth... or at least from Denver it seems).
And it seems that this is how each book wanted to play out. The secondary storylines are hyped up so that you're dying to read their story when it finally comes out. But when it does, it doesn't go anywhere. I was very disappointed with Dylan and Skeeter's story and even more so with Travis and Gillian's. The difference is that with "Crazy Sweet" at no point do you actually like Gillian. Not even at the end.
I agree with the previous reviewer... I hope we get to see Smith's story soon. Because he took up 80% of this book. Another 10% went to Dylan and Hawkins. And the last 10% was taken up with a few pages regarding Gillian & Travis, and the majority of THAT was descriptions of the weapons she carried. Hardly any dialogue, hardly any danger, hardly any anything. Luckily, as I had no interest in Gillian after the first couple of pages, that worked out well.
In fact, the book only gets 3 stars because of the series as a whole. I just can't bring myself to give it less than that.

I had high hopes for this book. With the plot almost totally spelled out by the end of Crazy Love, I was expecting a great ending to this series, but was disappointed with the way it all came to an end. First, there was a lot more of C. Smith Rydell and his gal than of Travis and Red Dog. That's the only reason I gave it 2 stars because I loved their story. Travis and Red Dog's story wasn't all that great. At first you feel some sympathy for Red Dog, but that ends pretty soon once you read on to all the things she had to "sacrifice" in order to get Royce. "A means to an end" just doesn't cut it when you do things to hurt the one person that stands by you without fail just so that you can try to excuse the wrong you did.

I really wish Travis had more cojones in this book to stand up to her and straighten her out rather than just folding like a doormat.

I am looking forward to the next book on C. Smith Rydell, but I hope it's not a disappointment like this one.

I recommend borrowing this one at the library and not wasting any money on it.

With the long awaited final book of Steele Street, Janzen falls short of the mark on this one. CRAZY SWEET is the story of Travis James and Gillian "Red Dog" Pentycote.

Travis and Gillian first meet in CRAZY LOVE. Gillian is a sweet, yet scatterbrained admin assistant for General "Buck" Grant. At the end of CRAZY LOVE the reader is left with a cliff hanger when Gillian is taken hostage. She is tortured and injected with a truth serum which wipes out her memory. Red Dog arises from the ashes that was Gillian.

Fast forward two years later to CRAZY SWEET. Red Dog is on a mission to kill the man who stole the first 33 years of her life. Ex-CIA Agent Tony Royce is now a crime lord that operates from El Salvador to Thailand. Red Dog's mission in life is to bring him down. Travis is just as determined to protect Gillian, even though she doesn't seem to need protecting.

The great premise that was introduced in CRAZY LOVE fell flat in this book. The book was overshadowed by the secondary characters, C. Smith Rydell and Honey York-Lytton. I have adored the character of Travis throughout this series and thought that Janzen did a terrific job of transitioning him from model/sexual therapist to SDF operative. However, as a previous reviewer stated, he was like a doormat to Gillian. I really didn't like Gillian's character at all in this book. I don't think she was "heroine" material.

I look forward to reading C. Smith Rydell's book and hope that Honey is his heroine. Those two saved this book for me.

No, No, No! This book is all wrong. What a horrible "end" to the Crazy series. I hear that Steele Street continues with the Loose series, but after the last two disasters, I think I'll read the reviews before taking anymore of my time only to end up disappointed.

I have to admit that I'm still not over Crazy Love...Dylan and Skeeter got the big shaft!!!! I need to move on, but aghhhh!

I guess when the dust all settled, I'm just not into a scatterbrained, ditsy professor turned cold-blooded, ruthless, revenge driven killer. I absolutely HATED (I know that's a strong word) Red Dog. Her lack of emotion (even if it's from being tortured with psycho drugs) was sickening. I also really hated Travis. Why in the world did Janzen have to go and turn the Angel God into a killer. Is nothing sacred. I know I'm really hating on this book, but how horrible. Shame on Janzen for turning such a great series into a barely readable series.... Aghhhh!

This whole series has been fun and enjoyable to read. In each book you get to enjoy the romance between the main characters along with a good romance between secondary characters. In this book I liked the romance between the secondary characters of Honey & C Smith the most & they are the reason for the 5 stars instead of 4 stars.

Every book in this series is fun, exciting, and centred around a great main couple, and this one is no exception.

Gillian Pentycote lost everything she was - including her mind - when something went very wrong during a mission. Now she's a completely different woman, with ever-faithful series favourite Travis James by her side.
However the real stars of this book - with more or less equal page time to our hero and heroine - are C. Smith Rydell and Honey York-Lytton, the hilariously mismatched pair who find themselves stuck in a hotel room together in the middle of a war zone.

Wrapping up the Crazy series, and setting the groundwork for the Loose spinoff, this is another fun read by Tara Janzen.

I picked this book up at my favorite used book store and had no idea that it was part of a series. Well, with the constant mention of Superman, Dylan, Skeeter (yeah,that's her real name) and even Royce, I realized quickly that I was missing vital history. Without that history, I found Travis to be intense, deep and sexy; yet achingly vulnerable to Red Dog's damaged, dark and dangerous need for revenge at all costs. With Royce totally deserving of all that Red Dog planned to deliver to him! C. Smith's and Honey's side story was funny, sweet and sexy. It wasn't until I'd gone back to the beginning and read all that came before, that I began to truly appreciate Ms. Janzen's slow, subtle and seamless development of Travis' character from pretty boy, academic "slacker dude" pacifist, and self proclaimed "nice guy" to a hard core, unflappable killer for his country! Pairing him with newly introduced fellow academic geek, Gillian "Red Dog" Pentycote, whose transformation is horrifically instantaneous. These two seem oddly paired but mesh in a weird kind of "I chose to become who I am while you were forced to become who you are...yet here we are...let's use our power for good and kick evil in the teeth together"...kinda way. This book had a different feel from all the others and it remains one of my favorites in the series because we see Travis "The glowing wonder stud" complete his transformation. Next to Superman, Creed and Kid Chaos...he's my favorite. Now I wonder if he and Creed will turn out to be related, since so much mention was made of their resemblance!