Customer Reviews

Sweeter Than Revenge (Kimani Romance)

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

 

 

It started out pretty good, but as the story progressed I found myself liking it less. The author relied on inaccurate assumptions and vague communication to create the major conflicts, which bothered me. There are other creative and intelligent ways to separate the couple. There was also a little too much pondering in the minds about prior and current feelings, fears and what if he/she hurts me again.

Story brief: Maria is a pampered rich girl. Her father Ellis hires David for the summer. He and Maria fall in love, but David leaves her to finish grad school, working on his MBA. A few months later, she marries George. Later, she and George divorce. Four years later, David returns to work full time for Ellis. Ellis cuts off Maria's funds and forces her to work at his firm for David, to teach her skills through work and responsibility. David was hurt by her marriage four years earlier and looks forward to getting revenge against Maria through work.

CAUTION SPOILERS:
The major plot event was revenge. I was hoping for a lot of good revenge events, but the revenge lasted less than 24 hours. Her first day at work was humiliating and painful for her, but by the second day, David had changed his tune and was supportive rather than revengeful.

A second major plot event was why they broke up four years earlier. David was supposed to have one last evening with Maria before he returned to school. He cancelled their date, saying he was going back earlier. She said she loved him. Although he loved her he never said so. He just said "I'll be back." He never said when he would return. He never called or emailed after he left. She assumed he didn't want her anymore. She wouldn't eat, lost weight, was miserable and married George. I didn't buy it. Lovers are open. They talk to each other. No phone calls or emails? He later explains to Maria that he went back to school a day earlier because "I needed to get away from you before I got so obsessed that I didn't care about school." What???? He knows she loves him, so why can't he say something like the following? "I'm desperate for you, and I'm afraid it might hurt my studies. I need to concentrate on school, and I fear phone calls will distract me from my studies and will be too painful because I'll want to be with you. Can you be patient and wait for me while I finish my schooling, and then I'll come back for you?" She would have said yes.

After one day of revenge and a few more days of working together, Maria and David have sex. She tells him she loves him. A few hours later, her father tells Maria that David is wealthy now. Maria breaks up with David, saying he should have told her he was wealthy immediately after they had sex. Because he didn't tell her right away, she felt he did not trust her. This was just a few hours after the beginning of their new relationship. She was mad that he didn't blurt out everything about him that she might not know right away? Then he proposes the next day, and she immediately says yes. This was no fun. I felt this was a cheap way of creating conflict and resolving it.

Lost opportunity: Ellis takes Maria's car away from her. She has limited funds and plans to buy an inexpensive car. David offers to help her, saying men can usually negotiate better deals then women, but she refuses his help. To David's and Ellis's surprise, she purchases a cool car, and they wished they knew how she did it. As a reader, I wanted to know the details as well. The author led me to believe she outmaneuvered and out-negotiated the salesman. The author told and didn't show it. This could have been a good scene.

Story length: 277 pages. Sexual language: moderate. Number of sex scenes: four. Total number of sex scene pages: 13. Setting: current day Cincinnati, Ohio. Copyright: 2008. Genre: African-American contemporary romance.

Can't really enjoy books where the characters are constantly going back to memories of the past.Alot of this went on in this book.This book did not flow for me.

Finished "Just about Sex" and had to get another of Ann's books. This one was great - loved it - can't understand the reviewer giving it 1 star - maybe you need to re-read it. Hopefully Amazon will download/convert all of Ann's books into Kindle format. Have just started Trouble which sounds promising. Can't wait for further books from Ann.

SWEETER THAN REVENGE by Ann Christopher has two main characters. Maria, who is pampered and rich courtesy of what seems like a never-ending stream of cash from her father, and David, a hard-working man who got his heart broken by Maria four years earlier when she married another man.

The novel begins with Maria's father telling her that he will no longer support her habit of always spending money and never working or taking responsibility. He forces her to work at his company as David's secretary, who he has recently hired. Though David's behavior is nonchalant towards Maria in the beginning, deep down, he is still hurt by her marrying another man. Having Maria work for him, as a mere secretary at her daddy's company, is David's first step at getting revenge against Maria. However, the passion still exists between Maria and David and they both try to fight it until the very end. Before they realize it, their relationship leads up to something sweeter than revenge.

This story was filled with lust, passion, and longing. Ann Christopher has a way of creating vivid scenery and descriptions for the imagination. The love scenes were powerful and believable. I was captivated by this story from beginning to end.

Reviewed by TygerLily
for The RAWSISTAZ(tm) Reviewers

An old Lionel Richie song, "Oh No! would be perfect for this book. The opening lyrics are "I want you, I need you, I'm going crazy knowing he will be your lover tonight . . . " From the first, you could feel the pull between David and Maria. One of the things I really like about Ann Christopher is that her characters share a tangible desperation and love for one another. You can actually feel it jump off the pages. Similar to "Risk" and "Trouble", these two were desperately in love with each other and fighting it with every bone in their bodies. The secondary characters, like Ellis and Anastasia, added humor to the story. You actually liked Anastasia (a little) by the time the story ended.
I loved how David came to realize that he still loved Maria despite the hurt and anger he'd held onto with a death grip for 4 yrs. I also liked that Maria started to grow personally and professionally.
Laughed out loud several times, especially the scene in Kwasi's office when Maria was looking for the filing room.
Ann Christopher has been a favorite since "Trouble" and she continues to be worth the wait.

I liked this one a lot. This book had me laughing from page one. I thought the story was really cute as well. I would definitely recommend it.

Sweeter Than Revenge was my first read by Ann Christopher and I must say, she is a great story teller. I am going to add her up there with my other top notch authors like Beverly Jenkins, Brenda Jackson and Rochelle Alers. This book was a fantastic story of love, lust, passion and longing. The scenes are vivid and the story kept me wanting more. It kept me awake at night trying to finish it. I plan to buy Ms. Christopher's other three books very soon. Great job!