9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Don't Bother, June 28, 2005
This review is from: Take My Breath Away (Mass Market Paperback)
I love to read. I especially love chick lit and anything with a semblance of a romance and a semi happy ending. I have tried for three or four weeks now to read this book. Every time I convince myself that it wasn't as bad as I remember and I start back up where I left off, I remember again why I need to just give up...and i am one of those people that feels the need to finish every book or movie I start, if only to see how it ends. However in this case, the plot of the whole book is so implausible, I just can't. The "hero" in the book is an ex-marine who has written an action movie screenplay and he has come to a tropical island to learn survival skills in the jungle so that his movie will be more realistic. The author tries to downplay how stupid it is for an ex-marine to have to hire someone to learn survival tips by having the heroine ask him just that. The hero's reply that he only learned desert survival skills, thanks to all the latest middle east conflict is stretching it to say the least. I have trouble buying that the marines only teach desert survival, however, if that was the biggest flaw, I could get over it. Unfortunately, that is just the beginning. Another huge problem is that the woman he meets the day he arrives who is to teach him said tropical survival tips, reads his screenplay and basically rewrites it in two days before they head off to the jungle to learn how to survive. Maybe living in LA I'm a little jaded, but I can't think of anyone who would let a stranger rewrite their screeplay, however beautiful she may be. But, that still is also forgivable.
The real fatal flaw is this: After the screenplay is rewritten so that a female saves the hapless guy instead of the guy saving the helpless woman, she makes them act it out in the jungle to make sure it is accurate. Hello, what? This premise is so ridiculous, seriously, I can't get past it! She won't let him eat before heading into the jungle for three days because the male character in the screenplay is sick so doesn't get to eat before he has to flee into the jungle to get away from the bad guys. She picks out costumes that the characters would wear in the movie, makes them leave in the evening like the characters in the movie. Won't let them be intimate until they have acted out enough pages from the screenplay. There are no bad guys chasing them like there is in the screenplay, so how accurate can "acting it out" be? What is the point? I could go on and on but I'd have to read more of the book, and I'm sorry, I'd rather rip out my fingernails one by one than try to convince myself again that this book is worth reading.
Without that whole acting out the screenplay premise, it probably could have been a good book...two people attracted to each other on a lush tropical island with the dangers of a jungle thrown in, that i could do. But every time the heroine says that the script doesn't do that, or mentions the accuracy of the screenplay at all, I get a feeling of frustration and annoyance much like hearing fingernails on a chalkboard, which makes me want to rip my nails out one by one by one....
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Returned book to store, December 12, 2005
This review is from: Take My Breath Away (Mass Market Paperback)
This book looked really interesting when i picked it up. Also i like discovering new authors. The premise of the book sounded like something Rachael Gibson or Lori Foster would do and i totally love their writing but this was such a let down. I got to like chapter 3 and closed it, found my receipt and took a trip back to the bookstore to return it. I could not stand either character and how they were portrayed. I'm all for the strong independent woman but she was a bit overdone in my opinion and she made him look totally incompetent in his writing and he didn't seem to stick up much for his ability at all. It just wasn't a very good book in my opinion and I don't hold out much hope for the next title available by this author.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Totally Disappointed., July 20, 2005
This review is from: Take My Breath Away (Mass Market Paperback)
When I looked at this book, I could looked like a fun read. After slogging through the book, I can tell you that I'm hugely disappointed. The hero, Cole Ryder in this story sounds like a pretty great guy although why he puts up with the heroine's neurosis is beyond me. I mean, come-on, lust/attraction will only carry you so Far. I don't know too many guys that would jump through the hoops that Ariel puts Cole through. Even more, why would you require someone to jump through those hoops? Protecting your heart is one thing, being obsessively neurotic about it something else. I lost total patience with Ariel and began to wonder about what kind of a guy Cole was after he put up with all that nonsense. I know that I will not be spending my hard earned money on any Tina Donahue books from now on. It was just a total disappointment.
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