Customer Reviews

Don't Look Now

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Picked this up in the mystery section of my local library. I though LLM was a mushy romance novelist = well, she broke out here! Tension, delicious sarcasm, repartee, hunk of a hero and Clare is an angst ridden heroine.

Several different side stories kind of keep you on your toes. Set in Arizona, this was not a boring book. Emma and Beatrice are great! Tony is awesome. It has a few laughs and a pretty darn good mystery - diverting enuf that I almost didnt catch the killer until the end.

Several lawyers (Clare for one) in this book. I work with a lot like them and can recognize that "innocent until proven guilty" is so hard a concept to accept sometimes.

Am looking forward to LLM's Never Look Back, if I can find it.

Attorney Clare Westbrook's boss is murdered. She's not exactly upset because in addition to his unethical business practices, he also had Clare working off a loan he made to her for law school by her working long hours for low pay. Enter former lover and still chemically combustible homicide detective, Tony Sonterra. In a parallel story, her brother-in-law is released from prison wanting his daughter, whom Clare is raising, back. Part of the plot has to do with finding her sister's murderer.

Clare believes her brother-in-law killed her sister even though the body was never found and he was never charged. Someone also trying to kill Clare, but keeps mistaking other people for her.

There are entirely too many plots going on at the same time in this book. You have to take an incredible leap of faith to believe this could all go on in a short span of time. Tony and Clare had chemistry and I enjoyed most of their scenes together. Most of the other characters are underdeveloped. Overall, it was fairly preposterous. It's a fairly quick read so if you are a romantic suspense fan, it is not a terrible book, but there are much better ones on the market.

I absolutely loved this book. I read it in 3 days. They way Linda Lael Miller is so descriptive without going overboard is great. This is the first of the 3 book series and I have already bought the second one "Never Look Back." And the 3rd one "One Last Look." I highly reccommend this series. I also like how hot Tony Sonterra is in the book.

Attorney Clare Westbrook got a loan from Harvey Kredd to go to law school, however, now that she's finished, she has to work it off with his firm at slave's wages. Then somebody puts a bullet through Harvey's eyes and Janet Baylen, Harvey's second in command, takes over running the firm. She hands Clare the Dr. Netherton Case. The Doctor is a non-caring, butchering plastic surgeon who is being sued by a number of woman who are less than happy with his work. Netherton, it seems, has a crush on Clare or at the very least, thinks she'll be easy as the firm is dependent on his money for its survival.

So, the professional side of her life has her down. How about the personal side? Years ago her sister vanished and Clare was convinced her husband James Arren killed her. She testified against him, he went to jail and now he's getting out. He's always clamed he was innocent and now he wants to get custody of his thirteen-year-old daughter Emma, who Clare has been raising. Clare doesn't want Arren to even see the girl, but Emma apparently doesn't believe he killed her mother.

Yes, it seems like Clare's life is pretty much not going the way she'd like, she's got the horrid doc to defend, any day she has to face the man she knows killed her sister and her niece is being difficult. Add to the mix ex-lover, cop Tony Sonterra, who is investigating the murder of Kredd, a man the cops all called Krudd, because he got so many crooks off. She'd thought Tony was out of her life and now he's very much in it and she's not happy about it at all.

But things can only get better, right? Wrong. Clare goes grocery shopping and finds a woman with a bullet between her eyes behind the wheel of her car when she leaves the store. Then boss Janet is killed when she's sitting at Clare's desk. Next she sees a photo of her vanished sister on her computer screen. She's obviously dead. So now Clare knows for sure, but who sent the picture?

Linda Miller peoples her novels with vividly appealing and passionate characters whose lives we care about even after their stories have been told. 'Don't Look Now' is perhaps her best to date.

Claire Westbrook is a troubled attorney who has clawed her way out of a difficult and underprivileged childhood to become a competent attorney. She has acheived her dream and now wonders if she has sold her soul in the process. After her grandmother has died and her sister was murdered Claire is left to raise her thirteen year old neice Emma alone and with an enormous financial obligation to her boss, Harvey Kredd. She has spent the last five years helping Kredd get aquitals for his scummy clients. Ned Lench, the beneficiary of her most recent aquital, while on a drunken binge rammed his car into another vehicle killing himself and three others including two young kids and making Claire's controversial aquital infamous in the process. Kredd wants Claire to shoulder the blame when newspeople inundate their offices.

Now Kredd has been murdered and Claire is either a prime suspect or the killer's next victim. Her ex boyfriend Tony Sonterra,a cop whose rightful bust Claire had undermined when she got her controversial aquital, is in charge of the murder investigation. He doesn't know wether to accuse Claire or to love her but he is surely going to protect her if only she'd allow him to. Solving the case is a whole lot harder than he expected given the immediate list of possible suspects but Sonterra's not giving up because he must find a killer before the killer gets to Claire.

In addition to her other problems Claire learns that Emma's father is being paroled from prison and wants custody of Emma. Claire believes James Arren murdered his wife (Claire's sister and Emma's mother) and she vows never to let him get his hands on Emma. She may reluctantly have to turn to Tony to help convict Arren and protect Emma.

You've got to love these characters and you've got to be impressed by the sheer number of twists and turns this story takes as it speeds to its tantalizing climax. Enjoy it, I sure did!

Don't Look Now is the first book in the "Look" trilogy, but definitely not the best. It is however, a good example of how this author formulates her novels. There are always more than one story line going on which isn't bad when done properly, but it can also confuse the reader if they are not familiar with her style of writing.

Clare Westbrook is a good lawyer working for a sleezeball, who is suddenly found murdered. She has an on again/off again relationship with a sexy cop, but neither one seem to be able to stand one another more than to jump into bed together. On top of that, someone is trying to kill Clare. The only problem is that the killer is a bit stupid and doesn't seem to know the difference between what Clare looks like and the women ending up dead in her place.

There is definitely a great deal going on in this novel, and an avid reader can tell that Linda Lael Miller must be a Janet Evanovich fan. Not only does she write in first person as JE, but tends to create the same carry over with the characters romance. She just isn't as funny and the characters aren't as colorful.

The author is however, good with most of her facts. I picked up this book out of curiosity because it takes place in the Carefree/Cave Creek area of Arizona, where I grew up most of my life. I wanted to know how well the author really did know the area. Other than a few minor details, she was fairly accurate on most accounts. It was obvious though that she is new to the area, because someone living in Carefree would never admit to living in Cave Creek. The two social areas are on completely different scales. A few other misconceptions made it a little comical to me knowing the difference, but to the average reader they would never know the difference.

Is it worth buying?

I'm up in the air on this one. I actually like the second one better "Never Look Back", but you kind of have to read the first book to get a feel for the characters, and definitely before you read the conclusion "One Last Look." Alone, this book is not worth it, and honestly as a series it is only mediocre. The suspense is good though and as long as you can keep up with the plots, it is okay. Checking it out from the library or getting it on sale or at a yard sale is better than spending full price though. At least then, you won't be disappointed if you hate it.

In this action packed, bodies everywhere, sizzling with sex, thriller the reader is introduced to Clare Westbrook, a starving/hotshot lawyer representing the dregs of society. Clare is supporting her young niece Emma, and backed up with a dear friend and wonderfully kooky neighbor - as well as a really hot ex?-boyfriend/cop. Clare's boss has just been murdered, and the bodies just continue to appear - along with the release from prison of ex-brother-in-law who Clare believes murdered her sister. The mysteries and the danger mounts as Clare weaves her way through an unpleasant case and a wild assortment of bad guys. Character development, setting and plot were tightly written, though not brillant. I enjoyed this!
Mamalinda

I think this book had to potential to be very good, but
as many reviewers have already stated, there is way too
much going on. The idea that all of these things could
befall Claire at the same time is too absurd to contemplate.
Additionally, it's tiring just trying to keep track of
all the plot lines. However, that to me was less of a problem
than the fact that I can't find any redeeming qualities
in the heroine. Claire comes across to me as stubborn, rude,
abrasive and stupid. Instead of telling the man she
supposedly loves the truth about why she defends scumb,
she's too ashamed. Yet, she seems to have no problem allowing
him to believe she's a first class witch with no scruples.
Then there's Tony, who is obviously handsome since it must
be mentioned about 30 times, seems moderately intelligent and
quite kind, yet he continues to chase after this nasty woman
who rarely has a kind word for him. Of course we're told
the sex is great, it must be, because I cannot imagine
any other reason this guy would give Claire the time of
day.

I understand there's a sequel, I hope the author tones
down Claire's abrasiveness and reels in the plot lines.
Personally, I'll likely skip the sequel, unless it
gets much better reviews, in which case I might pick
it up at a used book store later. It's really to bad Clair
is so annoying. Withought her personality and with maybe
one or two less plot lines, this could have been a good book.

I thought it was a great entertaining read and look forward to future books. The book was not full of the same cliches as the other romance books with only one plot. I was reminded of the stephanie plum series by Janet Evanovich.

I love Linda Lael Miller, except for the vampire series, I have read everything she has written. I was very happy to see this new one and checked it out of the library anticipating a great read. Boy, was I disappointed...the story was fragmented, full of characters that had no background provided for and what little we found out was too brief to understand their place in the story, we weren't given the opportunity to get to know the main character because she was so shallow and confused it was very hard to be sympathetic when she got into trouble. Her "relationship" with the cop was very weird and the sex scenes between them were anything but exciting. We didn't have anything but her narration to go by about their previous time spent together. I wish I could say something positive about the story, characters and the ending but I already wasted enough time just getting through the book.