Book Review: Death Angel

Started off interesting.

Ended boring.

Too much internal contemplation by the characters.

Not enough dialogue.

Book Review: Up Close And Dangerous

For the life of me I can't figure out why this book is getting the kind of reviews it is getting. I thought it was horrible, and I am a huge Linda Howard fan. For me, this book had the same problems Cover of Night had--underdeveloped characters and a poorly executed conclusion. It just seems like Howard is getting lazy in her hardcover releases, because Drop Dead Gorgeous didn't blow me away but I did like it.

Basically this entire book centers around two people who survive a plane crash in the Idaho mountains. (Howard apparently really likes my home state.) There's almost no mystery, and no suspense, and I thought the romance moved too quickly to grab my interest. And at the end everything got wrapped up quite speedily. Why has she been taking the easy way out recently? Her conclusion in Cry No More was so good! Urgh!

Lindsey's Grace: D+

Book Review: Sarah's Child

I really like Linda Howard sometimes, but I've only really stuck with her romance suspense books. Sarah's Child is, delightfully, an '80's Harlequin-type romance. The general premise is that Sarah has been in love with her best friend's husband for years, even before he met his wife through her (Sarah and Rome work at the same office). Two years before the wife and their two little boys died in a car accident, and although they hadn't spoken to each other since then, Sarah and Rome begin spending time together. Rome likes the convenience of a wife, so he eventually proposes to Sarah, and she accepts, knowing that he won't ever love her like he loved the wife and children he lost, but she's had eyes only for him for years, so she accepts.

In case you couldn't guess from the title, the shit hits the fan when Sarah becomes pregnant because Rome specifically said that he did not want anymore children. How will they overcome this obstacle?

This book was okay, but Rome was a little unbelievable for me because he loved his wife so much, but yet he'd always been physically attracted to Sarah and had lusted after her for years. WTF? He's a retard. But maybe it's not so unbelievable that men could be stupid like that. And Sarah? So boring! Talk about a doormat! Blonde, skinny, and pale, she sounds like she suffers from consumption. I didn't really like either of them, even though I enjoyed the simplistic read.

Lindsey's Grade: C

Book Review: Drop Dead Gorgeous

Hooray! The day has finally arrived! I picked up my copy of Drop Dead Gorgeous as soon as class got out yesterday and didn't put it down until I had finished it (so what if I have finals next week?)

I had to admit that this book was not as fabulous as its predecessor, To Die For, and it probably wasn't that great overall, but I don't really care because half of what made To Die For so fun to read were the characters, and those characters are back in Drop Dead Gorgeous. This time Blair and Wyatt (mostly Blair) are planning their upcoming wedding but unfortunate someone is (again) trying to kill Blair! I know, I know, the plot is pretty incredibly unbelievable, but like I said earlier, I just don't care. Blair is funny in her own ridiculous way, and there is something endearing about Wyatt because he loves her despite of her wackiness.

I wouldn't recommend reading this book without reading To Die For first, because there are a number of subtle references back to what happened earlier such as when Blair made Krispy Kreme doughnut bread pudding, when Blair writes numerous lists about Wyatt's transgressions, when Blair told Wyatt he needed a houseplant and he bought a shrub, and when Blair told Wyatt that saying she was "to die for" was too feminine and he should say something manly like "I'd take a bullet for you." Of course, I've read To Die For at leave five times, so I picked up on all those things.

Lindsey's Grade: A-

Book Review: Shades of Twilight

Dear Romance Writers:

I've noticed lately that there are a lot of romance novels out there that have one heroine character trait in common. No, it's not that they all have flaming hair, or creamy skin, or impossibly long eyelashes. But rather they all seem to be rail-thin and inexplicably, opposed to eating.

I have a button that I purchased at the NOW website that I am rather fond of. It reads: REAL WOMEN EAT FOOD. As healthy female eater, I do not enjoy reading a romance novel that features a "whip thin"/"lean"/"slender" heroine that the hero has to force to eat because she's just wasting away. One reason for that is it's unattractive to imagine a woman with bones sticking out everywhere like Nicole Ritchie or Kate Bosworth. Another is that it's beyond the scope of my imagination to believe there are people in the world so disinterested in food they don't eat or that they're too busy that they don't remember to eat or that they just don't like to eat. Food is yummy! I love turkey sandwiches! Oh, and when I'm picturing a Nicole or a Kate in my mind, the sex scenes are kind of creepy and gross because the men are doing it with a skelton.

So authors, please make your girls eat. If you want them to be slender, make them work out. Make them struggle with their weight like normal people. Because I don't believe your bullcrap about a woman who doesn't like food or doesn't like to eat. That's called anorexia, and that's a mental illness. Not cool for a heroine.

Sincerely,
Lindsey Lou

P.S. to Linda Howard: Your heroine in this book was too skinny, and she was so dull and boring that I doubt there is a man alive that would want her.

Lindsey's Grade: C+

Book Battle!!! - Linda Howard

I recently read these two books by Linda Howard. Killing Time I bought used hardback for $2.50. Cover of Night I bought new hardback. I guess it evens out because while the latter was a disappointment, the former was pretty decent and entertaining.

Buying a Linda Howard book is kind of like playing the lottery. Sometimes you'll win big and sometimes you'll be pissed you spent the money. She's the author of one of my all-time favorite comtempory romance novels, Mr. Perfect, which is filled with likeable characters and witty, funny, smart dialogue. The campy To Die For is equally as delightful and fun. I've probably read each of those books at least ten times. And she can also write great emotional stories, like Cry No More. But every once in a while you get a real stinker, like Kiss Me While I Sleep. So after that bomb came out, I held off reading Killing Time because it dealt with possibly my least favorite romantic genre - time travel.

I HATE time travel stories, mainly because no matter how clever the author tries to be, it is NEVER, EVER credible. Every single time travel story on earth is riddled with flaws if it involves more than one instance of time travel. Diana Gabaldon's Outlander worked out okay because the heroine went back in time and stayed there. But if too many people start going back in forth, stuff is going to get screwed up. So I was a little surprised to find that I liked Killing Time. There were lots of flaws in the plot, but the characters were likeable and Howard spent enough time with them that their relationship was believable and enjoyable to observe.

I thought I would like Cover of Night more because it dealt with a small town in Idaho where a widow and a handyman live. Then one day some bad guys come to town, and like in the movie A History of Violence, the handyman saves the day and the widow finds out there's more to him than she thought. Unfortunately, everything about this story was ridiculous (assassins who take the small town hostage by blowing out the bridge, water, and power because they want a flash drive a tourist supposedly left there. Yeah, I'm not making that up). And Howard spent about half the book from the viewpoint of the bad guys who were completely uninteresting. I started to skip every scene that didn't have the protagonists in it, and I didn't miss anything. The end was nowhere close to neatly wrapped up. Everything bad just sort of disappeared when the townspeople refused to surrender. And the romance aspect was totally lame because Howard didn't spend enough time with the characters to make us like them.

So the clear winner of this battle was Killing Time, although it was nowhere near to reaching Howard's potential. She obviously has a talent for writing comic stories, so I really wish she would stick to them.

Lindsey's Grades:
Killing Time - B
Cover of Night - C-