Customer Reviews

Kill the Competition

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After reading Bond's "Got Your Number", I swore I'd never pick up another one of her books. But I'd heard so many good things about "Kill the Competition" I had to give her another chance. And boy, am I glad I did!

"Kill the Competition", while not being a particularly steamy read, was extremely enjoyable. The mystery kept me captivated, the by-play between the carpool gals was interesting and funny, and the question of which man the main character Belinda would pick was a nice switch on most romances where the hero is slated from the beginning.

Belinda came to Atlanta hoping for a fresh beginning to heal her heartache and embarrassment. It is not long before she is involved in a carpool with three other women at work. The morning drive is spiced with girl talk, gossip, writing a relationship Do's and Don't's book, and the sexy traffic reporter's voice. Then, life gets interesting.

First, they have a car wreck, with a to die for cop. Then, Belinda begins breaking a few rules and confronts their "witchy" with a B boss, only to land a promotion as a result. Then, she runs into none other than the sexy voiced man and finds out there's more to him than a voice. She is also discovering that she has an eerie amount of things in common with a dead woman. All of that would be fine, except for one thing, there's a dead woman in her trunk, and it the top candidates for the killer are either Belinda or those closest to her.

**** Whatever kind of book you want, you will probably find it in Kill the Competition. Laughter, suspense, passion, and female bonding all combine in this realistically complex and sometimes whacky book. Ms. Bond has created magic, and she pulls more than one rabbit out of the hat to surprise her readers. ****

I LOVED this book.

Life long good girl, Belinda Hennessey moved to Atlanta to make a new start after the embarrassment of her failed marriage. I know, a lot of marriages fail these days and nobody moves four states away, but Belinda didn't even get the marriage certificate signed! So far, the start over is not going to well. Belinda has no couch, only one lonely living room chair and a TV that only gets reception when it's raining. The closest male relationship she's made since moving to Atlanta is with the voice of the helicopter traffic reporter she listens to on the way to and from work. Could things get any bleaker? What do you think?

When asked to join a car pool with three other women from Archer Furniture, Belinda accepts. On her first day in the car pool, Belinda is recruited to drive in the nightmare Atlanta traffic. Running tight for a very important meeting, Belinda is worried about not making it to work on time. When she takes her eyes off the road for a second, she promptly plows into a police cruiser (oops) driven by Lieutenant Wade Alexander (aka Lieutenant Goodbody). The wreck flattens a tire, breaks out a headlight and does major body damage, including breaking the latch on her trunk. When she finally makes it to work, Belinda's boss, Margo, is on the warpath and dresses Belinda down within earshot of her co-workers. Belinda snaps and tells Margo that if she's going to be treated like that she needs a raise. Margo corners Belinda in private and lets her know that she was impressed with Belinda's backbone and if Belinda will help her push through a merger with another company, Margo will make her CFO of the company. Belinda knows going along with this deal is wrong because she suspects some creative accounting but is too tempted by the promotion. Margo is a real witch and has alienated just about everyone who knows her. When her dead body ends up in the trunk of Belinda car, Belinda and her car pool buddies find themselves having to prove their innocence.

The characters in this book are great. The car pool buddies are wonderful. There's a good dose of the humor that I love in Ms. Bond's books along with a little more mystery. You got to read this one.

I read this after I read Party Crashers and the Body Movers series, and I have to say I was disappointed. The main character, Belinda, doesn't have the sass, class or spunk of Carlotta Wren, nor the brains to fall out of the "too stupid to live" category. Plain and simple: she's boring. Her husband left her after 6 hrs. of marriage, and quite frankly, you can kind of see why. The chemistry with the hot policeman needed to be brought about much earlier in the story, and I found her dalliances with Julian rather silly. In all, not Ms. Bond's best novel, but I still really like her as an author and will continue to read her in the future. Bring back more Body Movers!!

Having just moved from Cincinnati to Atlanta, financial expert Belinda Hennessey adjusts to her new town. She knows that her new town is more expensive than her previous one and that the rush hour traffic into the city is unbearable especially from the north side. Thus she has joined those drives using the HOV carpool lane into and out of the city.

Belinda works on an assessment whether her new firm Archer Furniture should acquire the mom and pop Payton Manufacturing. Her boss "Maniac Margo" wants the report done yesterday (weekend or not). Belinda concludes that the potential new addition cooked the books, but Margo tells her to be quiet. Reluctantly Belinda agrees being the new kid on the block and wary to make waves. Not long afterward, someone murders Margo with the evidence pointing towards Belinda due to the fiscal cover-up or a member of the car pool who have had run-ins with the now dead queen of nasty.

KILL THE COMPETITION is a delightful relationship drama with a strong police procedural plot to anchor the tale. Though the romance between Belinda and police officer Wade Alexander is warm and fun to observe and the murder investigation cleverly intertwined into the prime plot, the tale belongs to the four female car poolers. Their outlook on Atlanta, work, and men forge a strong bond between them and make for a witty novel that readers will cherish especially if you ever been stuck in Spaghetti Junction (Atlanta's most notorious parking lot during the rush hour).

Harriet Klausner

This is the first Stephanie Bond book that I have read and I am very very pleased. If you liked Linda Howard's Mr. Perfect, you will love this book. I can't wait to read more of Mrs. Bond's books.

This is the first, but not the last, Stephanie Bond novel I have read. This was witty, funny, sexy, and one heck of a good mystery. Belinda Hennessey is starting over in Atlanta. While car pooling with some friends from work she runs into a hunk of a policeman. The banter between the friends while car pooling is humorous. The people at Belinda's Company start dying, is there a serial killer on the loose? Belinda seems to just fall into one thing or another. Of course all the good looking, hot, hot guys have the hots of Belinda too. The book was easy, fun, sexy reading, the mystery will keep you guessing until the very end.

This was my first book by Stephanie Bond and all I can say is "WOW"! The characters were witty, funny, and clever. The characters are those whom you can relate with. I found myself thinking, "Hey, I know someone like that". I laughed out loud a few times, earning a curious look from my family.
The suspense was literally killing me! Who murdred Marge Campbell? I could not put the book down! I was captivated and practically obsessed in finding out. I read the book for twelve straight hours (the family had to fend for themselves, dinner? I snapped, "order a pizza" the kids fighting? I hid in my room and locked it. Yeah, I guess I was obsessed! LOL)
Could it be Julian, the reporter, Belinda, the main character? Belinda's carpool/work friends? Libby, Carole, or Rosemary? All had motive to kill the hated Marge Campbell, nobody like the cruel woman. Are Belinda and Wade, the sexy police officer going to hook up or what? (aka "Officer Goodbody" as dubbed by Libby). Then "wow" once it was revealed who killed Marge Campbell, I was stunned! Usually, I piece things together before it is revealed "who done it" and most of the time I have it figured out before I even finish the last chapter. But "wow" I didn't even "think" about this person! Great story! Fast paced, never a dull moment! Will hold your attention to the very end and maybe a little obsessed...LOL Enjoy!

Stephanie Bond has a way of creating real, believable characters who are plunged into larger-than-life circumstances. Each character in the book has her (or his) own little mystery to unravel as the heroine races to identify - and avoid - a killer. A thrilling, fun and sweet read. Spicy, but not over-the-top with the sex.

I enjoyed this book a lot. It kept me interested and wanting to come back to finish it, to know how it ended. I liked the character of the cop. And I enjoyed all the girls in the car pool. Everyone was pretty 3-D. A good beach read! ENJOY!!