5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Exciting, Surprising Read, January 10, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Man That Got Away (Intrigue) (Paperback)
Harper Allen's first Intrigue is a real treat, expertly balancing action, mystery, and romance with ease. For several years, Dana Smith has been living trying to live a normal life, even though she has no idea who she is or what happened to her in the past. Then one night, a ripple in time sends her back to the 1930s, and into the arms of Gabriel O'Shaunessy. The private eye recognizes her all right, since he was the one accused of killing her when she mysteriously disappeared. Suddenly returned to her old life--and her own time--Dana has to join forces with Gabe. Because someone did try to kill her, and is picking up where he left off, all because of something Dana knows, but can't remember.
Allen handles Dana and Gabe's love story with a skill that keeps us invested in their story, and the mystery continues nonstop, gaining momentum through a series of revelations, until delivering the trademark Intrigue twist when the killer's identity and motive are revealed. I almost can't believe this is her first novel, like the author's note says; it's so well-written. This is definitely one writer to watch out for. If there was anything I really didn't care for, it was the time-travel element, which seemed kind of pointless (and the epilogue was too cute.) But of course, there isn't a lot of call for mystery-romances set in the 1930s, and Allen handles her setting so well, we should just be glad she was able to deliver this book, no matter what she had to do to make it acceptable for series romance. A definite winner.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A fantastic suspense/romance with a hero you'll fall for, May 10, 1998
By A Customer
This review is from: Man That Got Away (Intrigue) (Paperback)
This time travel romance held my interest from the first page to the last! I literally could not put it down. Dana, a director's assistant in present-day Hollywood, is pulled back into the Hollywood of the 1930's, where she finds herself reluctantly helping a sexy private eye, Gabe O'Shaunessy, solve a mystery. The setting of Tinseltown in its glorydays is portrayed superbly and the characters, secondary and main, are unforgettable. The mystery is full of twists and turns that keep you guessing until the end. Dana is a strong and sympathetic heroine and Gabe- whew! All I can say is take a cold shower after (or while!) reading the love scenes. The ending is touching and satisfying (yes, I got weepy). All in all, one of the best romances I've read!
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fresh and original, May 23, 2007
This review is from: Man That Got Away (Intrigue) (Paperback)
This wasn't a perfect book, by any means, but it was quite original, and I found it entertaining and intriguing.
This book's back cover blurb cunningly hides both that this is a time-travel story, and that most of it takes place in the 1930s. I guess the 30s don't sell as much as amnesia does?
The story starts in the 1930s, with a scene right out of an old noir movie. P.I. Gabriel receives the visit of a beautiful femme fatale, Dana Torrence, at his office in the Quorum building. Dana demands to know why he's following her. He tells her a bit, they end up kissing, and she runs out. Gabriel rushes out when he hears shots, but when he gets to the street, all that's left of her is her fur stole and a pool of blood.
Cut to the late 1990s, when movie director Seb finally tells his assistant, Dana Smith, about the circumstances in which he found her 5 years before: shot, lying in a pool of blood, and wearing 1930s clothes. Dana has had amnesia ever since then, and the doctor had recommended that Seb not tell her anything about those weird circumstances, for fear it might be too much pressure.
Right after those revelations, Dana suddenly jumps back to the past, back to Gabriel's office, 5 years after she first disappeared. Gabriel is understandably pissed at her, since after her disappearance, he was suspected of her murder and his career pretty much ruined (not that it was going swimmingly before then, but still).
And there the adventure starts, and these two find themselves confronting both Gabriel's disbelief about Dana's time-travelling, Dana's fear of intimacy, and last, but not least, a gang of murderous thugs who want to get rid of Dana... because of something she just can't remember, something that she saw before the night she travelled into the future.
What can I say, this was lots of fun, fun with some depths, even though Gabriel and Dana spent most of their time on the run. In this short book, Allen not only creates a fascinating mystery, which the reader can pretty much put together at the same time as the protagonists, but characters who are real, too. She gives them each an interesting past (Dana's was very much of the Grapes of Wrath variety), and doesn't stop at that. Their actions in the present (mostly) ring true, too, and the romance is really nice and sweet.
However, Dana's amnesia and the time travel element were not without some problems. Her brand of amnesia seemed to behave in ways that were awfully convenient to the plot, as if it was a phenomenon with certain rules she could learn and then manipulate. Amnesia is always unrealistic, as written in romance novels, but this made it more so than most, really.
And I was a bit doubtful about Dana's seemingly immediate acclimation to the 1990s. Most characters I've read with amnesia seem to forget about themselves and their past, but they do remember the world around them: they know how to tie their shoelaces, they are aware that there are such things as computers, and so on. What was Dana's amnesia like? If she forgot only things about herself, she would have realized she'd travelled into the future. If she forgot everything, then she was a bit too well adjusted, a bit too soon.
I also had a problem with her continued insistence on the fact that Gabriel was a 1930s primitive man, who just wanted to protect her and couldn't see her as an equal. This just didn't reflect the way Gabriel acted, so the whole conflict felt a little contrived.
Still, even with those flaws, this was a fascinating read. Oh, and the epilogue was one of the best I've read. It was ingenious and fun, and it calmed any doubts I might have had about the choice Dana and Gabriel made in the end. Stay in the past? Move to the future? I won't say, but the decision they ended up making was really fine!
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