Customer Reviews

Dark and Deadly

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Dark and Deadly is a non-stopped action packed book that starts with Torie Hagan being left at the alter five years before. Ever since than Torie has been having some strange problems. All of the men she dates have been having bad things happen to them. The problems seems to be escalating until one day someone throws a pipe bomb into her house. Then her ex-fiance is found murdered and now Torie is a prime suspect. If that isn't bad enough, she's being shot at, cars are exploding and people are getting hurt. Through it all the last person she ever wanted to see again steps back into her life.

Paul Jameson has known Torie since college. He was her ex-finance's best friend and he was very against Torie marrying his friend. Now he's here to help and Torie needs all the help she can get. What would happen though if the killer finds out he's helping her, Paul could be his next victim.

This is the first book I've read from this author and I was pretty impressed. The book is a classic suspense with lots of twists and turns so it keeps the readers guessing on who the killer is and exactly why he has targeted Torie. The romantic scenes are pretty much in the sensual category which I appreciated because the story was much more wrapped around the mystery rather than the sex scenes. I really liked the heroine, Torie, and her friend Pam. Both Torie and Paul work well as a couple in the story, leaving the readers to wonder why it took eleven years for them to get together.

This was my first time reading from this author. I was truly impressed how Mrs. Adams put the right amount of suspense and romance. I would recommend this book to anyone. I can't wait to read her other book!

I loved Dark and Dangerous by this author, so I was glad to pick this one up, but it was a disappointment. The love/hate/love relationship between Tori & Paul verged on the childish at times. Tori's emotional growth seemed to be stuck at late-teen level, although what happened to her in college helps account for some of that. The stalker aspect - something happens to every man who gets close to Tori - was well done, and there were plenty of clues to lead the reader to the stalker, although the `reasoning' behind the behavior wasn't as easy to figure out.

This is really a 2.5*, but rating just two stars didn't seem right, so I upped it to a weak 3*

I just finished this book and have to agree with the reviewers who disliked it. Overall it was almost painful to read, although there were intermittent parts that were much better which leads me to think the author may have it in her to write something literate. One reviewer said that she always knows who did it but the ending in this story completely surprised her! This completely surprises me as he stood out right from day one as the probable culprit. But basically this didn't hold together from beginning to end. If I hadn't bought it from Kindle I would have just gone to the last pages and read the ending before tossing it. The ending was silly and naively written, throughout the book, except for once when she used Ms. she actually had the heroine calling an executive assistant to a lawyer Missus. It sounded like something out of a historical romance set in the deep South in the 1700's. There was another character, her cousin, who dropped out of the story at one point apparently because of trouble, and appeared at the end with no explanation. We have no idea at all what happened there. The characterizations on the whole were shallow and the dialogue veered from current casual usage to stilted language that sounded as if it were from something written in the early 1900's. It rambled on way too long.

STORY BRIEF:
Due to a conflict in college and miscommunication, Torie has not liked Paul for many years. Torie was later engaged to Paul's best friend Todd. Todd broke the engagement when he won a multi-million-dollar lottery. Since then, whenever Torie dates someone, something bad happens to the guy. One guy was murdered, and others suffered property damage. Recently Todd returned to town, was murdered, and the murderer put Torie's hair and blood on him. The murderer also shot at Torie and burned her house down. Paul was Todd's lawyer and is helping Torie during this time. A relationship develops between Paul and Torie.

REVIEWER'S OPINION:
The story was ordinary. Not enough character development. It was readable, but I wasn't pulled in. Torie's role is primarily a victim. She suffers through multiple attacks. She's supposed to be a smart engineer, but her actions did not fit the logical, rational mind that engineers are supposed to have. Torie had an incident with the killer in college and other interactions with him later. She should have mentioned these to the police when they asked her, but she didn't. I have no idea why not. She wasn't even thinking about them in her own mind. This made her appear irrational which I didn't like. Unfortunately, Torie does something stupid toward the end, which gets her into the clutches of the bad guy. I don't like crisis based on stupid actions. I also didn't care for how that incident played out. It was not creative or different. The ending was happy, but not fun or fulfilling.

I didn't like the premise for the relationship. Paul and Torie have sex one time during college. It was so great that Paul avoids her for years. She thinks he doesn't like her. (Would a normal guy do that? I don't think so.) After they get together currently, she gets mad at him and leaves. I did not understand why she was mad. It wasn't interesting. It felt like the author couldn't think of anything better and just threw this in to get it over with.

I had several questions about Dev which were not answered. I wanted to see the incident in which he got beat up, who did it, who called him later, why he disappeared, and more. I had other unanswered questions. Why didn't the killer rape Torie when he had a chance during their first situation? And why did someone get jobs for certain people?

OTHER BOOKS:
If you want to try this author, start with her first book "Dark and Dangerous." I gave it 4 ½ stars.

DATA:
Story length: 340 pages. Swearing language: strong, including religious swear words. Sexual language: mild. Number of sex scenes: one, four pages long. Setting: current day Philadelphia, PA, and North Carolina. Copyright: 2009. Genre: romantic suspense.

Excellent plot, lots of action and twists and turns. Believable, well-drawn characters. Lots of twists and turns, but no "cheating" with stuff popping up with no foundation. An excellent, suspenseful, sensual book. I highly recommend it.

I am rarely drawn to review a book, and have never (to my knowledge) ever given a book a negative review, because I usually just quit reading it, and adhere to the old saying "if you don't have anything good to say, say nothing at all."

BUT...in this case, I feel cheated. The reviews I read prompted me to purchase this Kindle book, because they were mostly 5 stars. Now I'm wondering...Did they read the same book that I read?

Dark and Deadly had a promising story-line. There are a few hints within the story that an attempt was made at creating suspense. But here are my grievances:

1. There are no plot twists that make you wonder who the bad guy is. By about the 3rd or 4th chapter, I do believe anyone could figure out the ending.

2. The conversation is too formal to be believable. Nobody talks like that in a normal conversation! The dialogue is uncomfortable, and I envision all the characters in the story being June and Ward Cleaver 1950's throw-backs, with the stilted, super-polite words like "behest". This especially doesn't work well between the two main (romantic) characters.

3. Some attempt at character development was made, but not nearly enough to make me feel invested in them, or care what happened to them. By the end of the book, I was seriously disappointed.

4. The main character is supposedly a brilliant engineer, and normally, it enhances a romantic suspense novel to have a strong, intelligent female lead character. But the supposedly brilliant engineer in this character never actually materializes. I hate to say...but she's truly a bone-head. I'm actually insulted...I'm a female engineer, and I would have more sense than to react in the way she did in her danger scenes. Wow. I would hope that whether I were an engineer or a lawyer, I could have more warmth, and have more depth than these two characters.

I sure wish I could get my money back, but more than that....I wish I had the few hours I wasted on reading this poorly written book. Bummer. :(

Loved the caracters very suspenful could not put it down
did not want it to end kept me wanting to pick it back up after I took a
break

I ALWAYS know who the villain is.

Always.

But not this time.

Adams had me guessing until the very end. That's extremely rare with a novel which has such a powerful romance at its heart. Usually I feel cheated one way or the other. But I got a full-fledged, heart-pounding romance, and a full-blown, edge-of-my-seat suspense in one book. And I didn't know who the bad guy was until the very end.

A couple of reviewers here have said they saw it coming. My take on that is---they read a different book and got confused, because their descriptions bear no resemblance to this novel.

This is a flat-out great read.

I loved this book. It kept me interested the entire time. It's so sweet that Paul has loved Torie from afar for a long time. It makes their relationship much more believable and less rushed than some romances. The relationship between the hero and heroine was sweet in nature and I loved how throughout much of the book they are together. I hate books that separate the hero and heroine. The suspense aspect of the book was intriguing as well. I thought the storyline was well though out with a perfect amount of suspense.