Customer Reviews

Power Play (Harlequin Blaze)

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

 

 

In Power Play, Nancy Warren has taken bedbugs, a delicious hockey player, added a wedding, a murder and the worst bride's maid dress in the history of bad dresses, tied it together with humor and served it up with aplomb. I was only going to read a little of this book before I went to sleep, but as 2 AM clicked past, I was still reading-and giggling. The writing is topnotch, fast paced, hot as Hades, with a delicious cooling off sequence in a lake. Buy this. Read it. You'll love it.

Regretting saying yes to being a bridesmaid at Cousin Leanne's wedding, massage therapist Emily Saunders returns home to Elk Crossing, Idaho. She is staying at the Elk Crossing Lodge along with the ugliest dress in creation, pumpkin colored and shaped like it was grown in the field. Bed bugs attack her.

Cop Jonah Betts is in Elk Crossing for the over thirties Old Timers Hockey League tournament. He and his horde of players have left no rooms available for Emily and others forced out of theirs. Due to further incompetence, Emily and Jonah share a room. They are attracted to one another, but he promised her he would not make the first pass while they share a room; however if she makes that first pass, he will shoot for the hat trick with her. Instead she places him in the penalty box. Neither expected a Power Play by an unknown killer.

This is a super contemporary romance with hockey and homicide to round out the amusing comedy of errors. The story line is a fast-paced lighthearted frolic that readers will enjoy unless they recently purchased a bridesmaid dress. Readers will enjoy this fine Idaho caper especially the final resolution of what to do with Big Orange (except for fans in Syracuse or Denver) in a state rooting for blue as in the Boise State field.

Harriet Klausner

Entertaining and humorous story with very likeable characters. The opening scene made me laugh, and set the tone for the entire book. The characters were great, but not perfect. The attraction was there, but we didn't have to read about tingling body parts every paragraph. There were several sub-plots and numerous characters that the author wove into the story quite smoothly.

The book was sexy, but not as graphic as some Blaze titles. The love scenes felt about right for the overall light-hearted story.

There was so much happening it would have been a difficult story to flesh out in a full size novel, let alone a shorter than average one. There was a secondary romance, which was cute, but I agree that it broke up the primary romance - which is what we're all there to read. There was a bizarre fantasy scenario thrown in for what seemed like no good reason, and then a surprise crime mystery at the end. All a little much, when the characters were a bit thin. But hey, a hockey team full of hot fire and police men...that gets a couple of stars alone.

Right out of the gate, the hero, Jonah was shown in a bad light and once that happens, the hero is no longer a cool character to me. Case in point, Jonah and others must leave contaminated hotel rooms and he's forced to wear clothes from the lost & found box that make him look ridiculous because they don't fit well. Yuck. I'm sure it's trivial to others but I just don't like it.

Emily Saunders is in Elk Cross, Idaho, for her cousin's wedding.Staying in a hotel to avoid family issues and overcrowding seemed like a good idea at the time, but late night shrieks of horror and a bedbug infestation are almost enough to change her mind. Soon her clothes are confiscated, she's evicted from her room as the hotel wing is quarantined, stuffed into a room that the hotel doesn't even offer due to a leaky roof, and forced to share that room with a strange man. AND she's got to wear the most hideous pumpkin colored bridesmaid dress on the planet. This is not Emily's week.

Soon though, she realizes her roommate isn't so bad. In fact, he's great looking, single, and a cop who plays hockey for an over thirty grandfather league. Things heat up between Emily and Jonah, but between Emily and her family, things couldn't get much worse. She just can't seem to stand up for herself and the pre-wedding responsibilities are piling up higher and higher. Just when Emily's at her most stressed it starts to rain, and suddenly things aren't looking quite so glum, even with the thunderous tattoo of rain in the buckets of the room Emily and Jonah share.

I liked Power Play and the heated romance of Jonah and Emily. I can't say it was a spectacular read, but it was a pleasant few hours of entertainment. I wish Warren had kept the plot a little simpler, actually, and given the reader more time for the development of the relationship between Jonah and Emily, because their scenes were the highlight of the book, and several made me chuckle. I could've done without the odd twist towards suspense with the third cousin conflict. That felt weirdly out of place given where it was introduced in the story. And as much as I liked the Kirsten/Sadhu thread, I couldn't quite figure out why it was in there. No matter how pleasant, it was still an unnecessary distraction.

While the story wasn't terribly original, the characters not particularly well developed, and the plot not likely to break any contemporary romance grounds, it was a sweet and sometimes sexy way to spend a couple of hours, and it provided a nice, light read. In truth, I wasn't expecting any more than that, so I was in no way disappointed. 3.5 Stars.

STORY BRIEF:
Emily is a health center massage therapist who is in town for her cousin's wedding. Her relatives take advantage of her by asking her to run errands, do wedding chores, etc. She's staying in a hotel to avoid the additional stress of staying with family members. Jonah is a detective who plays in an ice hockey league for guys over 30. He's in town for several days for a hockey tournament. The hotel is overbooked and puts them in the same room - a room they don't rent out due to a leaky roof and buckets catching water when it rains. Neither wants to leave the hotel which means they have to share the room. Jonah promises he won't make a pass at her, so they agree to share. Meanwhile, Emily's relatives are playing matchmaker for Emily with her repulsive orthodontist third cousin Buddy. When Leanne (the bride) calls the room, Jonah answers the phone. Leanne wants to know who the male voice is, so Emily lies saying he's her boyfriend. As events unfold, he plays along with it.

REVIEWER'S OPINION:
The main story was what I expect from a good romance novel. The only downside might be its short length - 206 pages. Most novels are over 300 pages.

There is a second story that was neat as well. Kirsten was bright with great possibilities in marketing and public relations, but she gave up on herself. She now works as a waitress and dates a loser. She meets Sadhu, one of Jonah's fellow hockey players, with some interesting results - different from what I expected.

DATA:
Story length: 206 pages. Swearing language: moderate. Sexual language: mild. Number of sex scenes: 2. Total number of sex scene pages: around 11. Setting: current day Elk Crossing, Idaho. Copyright: 2009. Genre: contemporary romance.