Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Pleasant Cultural Flavor, November 22, 2006
Corie Rickman lived an affluent, indulged, and sheltered life but rebelliously married a man from the wrong side of the tracks. After suffering physical and emotional abuse she leaves and tries to start over again; but her ex has other ideas.
Laine Tanizaki hasn't worked undercover for two years, not since a friend was killed during a drug sting. Though many told him it was not his fault, his conscience continues to bother him. Now, to ease it, he wants to complete the sting by working undercover at a fast food restaurant in a Beverly Hills mall. He did not count on playing the role of knight and rescuing a damsel in distress at the bookstore across the way...
I almost did not purchase this book because of one review but decided to give it a chance. I expected to find Corie irritating, but her character flaws did not diminish or detract from the story for me. I enjoyed the characters, cultural diversity, story, and overall I enjoyed book.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Very Disappointing, January 5, 2007
I liked both of Ms. Swanson's previous books- A Drummer's Beat to Mend and Words of the Pitcher- and I eagerly anticipated this book. The book started out with some promise but I was very disappointed when that fizzled out pretty quick.
Cori is from a wealthy background and she is operating a bookstore in the mall. She is getting over an abusive ex-husband who it turn out is a drug dealer. The ex keeps harassng her for something he thinks she took from him. She uses her bookstore as a haven even going so far as to sleep there. Laine is an undercover cop who is looking to stop the drug trafficking in the mall. He is working undercover as a burger bar employee at the mall when they meet.
As I said, the story started out with some promise of their romance and you could sense the chemistry between the characters but this fizzled.
The author was very descriptive about Laine and his desire to have a permanent woman in his life. He was concerned about his budding relationship with Cori because he could not tell her the truth. He felt that the lies he was forced to tell might come between them.
Cori was portrayed as a silly, whiny girl. When she and Laine had an argument, she reacted very silly and childishly. It was as if the author could not make up her mind whether to make Cori a silly little girl or a sexy woman at times. She acted so childish that I was truly sick of her by page 67 (literally). Cori did not act like a woman who knew her mind and was able to take care of herself. I only finished the book past page 67 because I paid good money for it.
Ms. Swanson has proven that she can write a good hero but she really needs work with the leading women. All of them from her books have come across as juvenile and silly acting at times despite their advances educational degrees. However, of the three books, this book was the worst offender.
There were several inconsistensies throughout the book too. The book often jumped from one thought or scene to another without any cohesive flow and the author was inconsistent about the characters' relationships with their family members. Also, the book suffered from some poor editing as there were some grammatical errors and missing words. This problem though was not as bad as some of the other books by this publisher.
The fact that these characters were an interracial couple was not an issue at all except when they brought it up themselves. In fact, what should have actually been an issue was made way too little of and Cori was actually the most offensive person in the book about their differences. Even when she was trying to make a joke about them, she would say something silly and would irritate me anew.
I was heartily sick of the author's continued descriptions of Cori's flowing waist length hair. It was mentioned almost every other page and I cannot tell you another thing about her physical description other than that.
Laine was working undercover but that was the worst undercover I have ever seen portrayed. He regularly went to visit his father. He carried a police badge. He went in and out of the police station and regularly met with another cop and he did not even do any investigation of Cori. He even went to a karate class where everyone knew him from his real life and he attended a party with Cori where he ran into his own boss. What kind of undercover officer is this? A pretty poor one. You do not keep living your own life while you are undercover. The author clearly should have talked to a few cops or at least watched a move on the subject before writing this.
Cori is living in her bookstore in the mall with her cat directly across from a fast food burger place. Again, I do not know what malls Ms. Swanson frequents, but no mall that I have been to allows this.
Also, after all of the buildup to the undercover mission, it was over way too quick. It was as though the author realized that she only had 20 pages left to go and so she hurried up and tied up the story. That or she was on a deadline adn just threw an ending on because she could not figure out how to fix this mess.
There is alot more that I can say about how disappointed I am in this book but that would require me to continue thinking about it. I just want to forget this absolute waste of cash and move on.
Two stars for the promise it started out with and the fact that one is the lowest. I would have given it one but that honor was given to another book that I reviewed that people should avoid at all costs. See my reviews to be warned about that turkey.
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15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Multi-Cultural Romance / Suspense 4-1/2*, November 2, 2006
Undercover narc cop, Laine Tanizaki had noticed the soft-spoken bookseller for weeks when his protective instincts were raised as he noticed her being accosted by a big brute. Instinctively, he knew he had to rescue her, but in a way that wouldn't blow his cover. In the end it turned into a golden opportunity to actually meet her. As his feelings grew, caring for Corie might prove fatal should he let his guard down while trying to maintain his undercover persona.
Corie Rickman was a frightened woman. In an act of rebellion she'd made a horrendous choice that almost cost her life. Now Corie wanted nothing more than to keep the evil away from herself and the people she loved. Trusting a man -- any man would take an extreme act of faith yet feeling safe with Laine, the clerk at the Burger Train, seemed the most natural thing in the world.
*** Swanson quickly engrosses the reader with her deep characterizations and plot in another of her multi-cultural contemporary romances - bravely going where others fear to tred. Born with the proverbial silver-spoon, her female lead Corie, had rebelled by going after a `bad boy' and getting more than she bargained for, so much so, that now she's disgusted with herself for being weak and ineffectual in re-claiming her life. Laine was developed with his own issues of having grown up on the other side of the tracks with an alcoholic father and knowing that even if he could reveal his true self, he could never fit in with the upper echelons of the society she came from. Swanson works magic in developing her characters so that all things become possible as Laine, through his love and patience, manages to give back to Corie her self-esteem and strength in order to re-claim that part of her life she'd lost. Additionally, the sizzling sensuality Swanson conveys as these two finally give into their overwhelming attraction and passion is nothing short of divine. This was a terrific read I recommend.
Marilyn Rondeau, RIO - Reviewers International Organization
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