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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Dark suspense with a light romance, May 11, 2009
This review is from: Edge of Darkness (Paperback)
I never would have known about author Jove Belle if a friend hadn't mentioned her to me, but I'm so glad I've found her. Edge of Darkness is one of those books that really popped for me. Its edgy, dark suspenseful story line combined with a juicy love story made it one of the best reads in while for me. And I must admit, that cover totally grabbed me.
There is absolutely nothing bad I can say about this book. I was just so impressed by all of it: the complex character development, the slow build up of a suspenseful investigation, and a realistically and honestly written love story, which all came together in a flawless, enthralling way for me. I really can't say enough about how positively affected I was by the writing and story telling in this book.
The characters: Diana--is the main character and it's through her eyes that this story is told. She's a tough scrapper type who is not afraid to get into it with people to do the right thing. She's also got a huge heart and takes her Irish Catholic upbringing, including being family oriented, very seriously. She's still getting over a failed relationship and has been sticking to having one-night-stands even though she dreams of having the white picket fence and living in domestic bliss forever with someone someday. At the moment though, she's mostly focusing on her career as an insurance investigator. She's such a complex and interesting character whose mix of contradicting qualities really turned me on.
Cami- is Diana's new love interest. What I really got off on in this story is how realistically the love story develops between Cami and Diana. Cami is a real sweetheart of a woman, who, like Diana, feels so attracted but also has all the usual doubts and insecurities that goes with falling in love and getting to know someone knew. The interactions between her and Diana came across as very authentic and it's the first time for me read a lesbian love story that expressed how I imagine it would really be between two women.
Braxton- is Diana's mentor at work and she is also a well written character. She a tough, straight forward, take no prisoners type of woman who's extremely intelligent and a pro at interviewing and psychologically breaking down people to get info. She and Diana have this playful but respectful rapport between them, which I really liked. And even though she's a straight, married woman, she flirts with Diana with lots of subtle sexual innuendo, which Diana doesn't quite no how to take at times. I got the impression that she did have a thing for Diana in some way and it was interesting to me that Jove Belle kept what's going on between them ambiguous because that felt more real to me.
Ali- is the serial killer. I can say that because it's revealed right in the beginning. She's a refreshingly written damaged character and I felt so much for her. She was kidnapped and abused for most of her youth by a tyrant of a man and basically kept prisoner until she managed to escape one day. Consequently, she is trying to save other helpless women by trying to rid the world of abusing men. What I loved about the way Jove Belle wrote her is that even though she's become this cold blooded killer, when Diana shows her real love and compassion, that part of her that she's forgotten that needs to be loved and accepted makes her feel more vulnerable than she was as a kidnapped victim because she actually opens up and reaches out for the first time. It was heartbreaking.
Other than those main characters, I felt the interactions between the office men and Diana were very interesting as well. The men joke about her being a lesbian and show their ignorance and sexism on a regular basis to the degree that it borders on sexual harassment, and yet, Diana's sarcastic and humorous reactions to it, easily deflecting it back to them, and the fact that the men actually respect her and Braxton, didn't turn all of that into a male bashing fest, which it could have easily happened to add more unnecessary tension or drama to the story and I liked that.
The suspense plot is also very well written. We know who the killer is straight away, but like a Columbo story, it's the detailed and logical way in which Diana goes about investigating and the conclusions she comes to along the way, plus the unpredictable reactions of Ali, that kept the interest up in this story.
I would love to read another of Jove Belle's books from this.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Suspense and Intrigue, With A Twist, December 11, 2008
This review is from: Edge of Darkness (Paperback)
Warning - This book is not for the faint of heart. It includes spousal abuse, murder, and all the undesirables that go with them. That said, I really enjoyed this book by first-time author Belle. The reader takes chances with any new author's first offering. Many times, especially via Bold Strokes Books publishing, the author is quite enjoyable. Such is the case here and I'm really looking forward to Belle's upcoming release `Split the Aces.'
I may be naïve, or just not very good at solving mysteries, but it was nearly impossible to figure out who the villain in this story is. Belle drops hints everywhere, but throws in a crafty twist at the end. I don't want to give away too much, so I'll just leave it at that.
In the midst of solving the crimes, protagonist Diana Collins finds herself falling hard for Carni Michaelson - a woman who is in danger because of Diana's investigation. Needless to say, Diana isn't sure how to proceed until all the pieces of the puzzle fall into place.
Bottom Line - Good first book. Looking forward to the next one.
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14 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Don't bother, August 9, 2008
This review is from: Edge of Darkness (Paperback)
This is the first book published by Jove Belle and, therefore, I was prepared for at least some minor glitches in "Edge of Darkness". However, I must say that I was quite disappointed by this book and it took me some effort to read it until the end, since nothing in the book managed to really keep me interested.
The fact that I got stuck on the second sentence of the prologue, was not a good sign for what was going to come ahead in terms of prose. Included in the annoying things in the prose of "Edge of Darkness" are, the frequently unfortunate choice of words (e.g. a police car described as a `black and white chariot of justice' with `crimson and cerulean lights'), the overuse of adjectives and similes, the fact that things are continuously being explained to the reader, the abundant infodumps, the frequent inconsistencies and the confusing way time is dealt with.
Setting seems to have been regarded as mostly unimportant. The book is set in Chicago, but the only thing I got from the book regarding the city was that there was a lot of traffic. Most big cities have a lot of traffic so that is certainly not enough for the reader to get a grasp of Chicago. Regarding Diana's work, I suspect the descriptions are not close to reality. It seems from the book that to be an insurance investigator is quite a nice job. As a top insurance investigator all you have to do is drive around a bit in order to do 3 or 4 interviews per week, do some Googling, and one or two phone calls to the police to give you all the information you need. The rest of the time is used to answer personal emails. You get to drive a Mercedes and you probably get well paid since you can even lend temporarily $5000 to the FBI.
Expecting an intrigue (the book is labeled as "Intrigue"), it soon became obvious that the plot is quite poor. Things seem to happen just because it is convenient and, frequently, they do not make sense, namely psychologically. To show how efficient Diana is investigating, the Police are depicted as complete morons although, simultaneously, all the main information is obtained from them. Some things introduced in the plot such as that Diana's investigation would be two weeks ahead of the police (when it was the police that gave all the relevant information for the investigation) as well as the existence of a Police protocol to follow an order in the interviews make no sense at all. At the end of the book the Police conveniently becomes smart to "save" Diana and Cami. There are three subplots that are complete dead ends and I can only conclude that they exist to fill space. Therefore, that leaves as raison d'être for the book, the romance. But even the romance is not well developed. I found it quite unrealistic, with Diana and Cami thinking of living happily ever after only exchanging a dozen words.
A priori, one of the interesting things about the characters was that the person doing the murders does it for a 'good' reason. Not being a black and white situation, this would allow for interesting characterization. Unfortunately, characterization is also a problem, since the characters come as difficult to grasp and, mostly, two-dimensional. We do, however, get a lot of information regarding the clothes they are wearing and Diana and Cami's obsession with having sex with each other. Jove Belle uses extreme physical situations (e.g. Diana's reaction to the website) to portray the characters' emotions to the reader. However, they help alienate the reader from the characters since they are seen as unrealistic situations. A more subtle approach, would probably help make the characters more three-dimensional.
The editing of the book, is not very good, which was a surprise, considering the reputation of the editors for BSB. In summary, in a perfect world, Jove Belle would still be learning the craft and not being published by one of the main lesbian fiction publishers.
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