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Kayleigh (12 KP) rated To Kill a Mockingbird in Books
Jan 2, 2019
Well, February is definitely the month for discovering classics I’ve missed! For some reason, I’d always classed To Kill a Mockingbird in amongst the Agatha Christie genre of murder mysteries – not that I’ve read those either – and didn’t know enough about it for it to have piqued my interest. Now I’ve read it though, I can see what all the fuss is about, and it’s not surprising that, despite being published in 1960, it was still the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2012/aug/09/best-selling-books-all-time-fifty-shades-grey-compare">65th best-selling book of all time</a> in 2012. Beware of spoilers!
The story is set in Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930s, and is written from the perspective of Jean Louise ‘Scout’ Finch, who is between six and eight years old as the story progresses. The start of the book does an effective job of introducing us to all the characters. Scout lives with her widowed father, Atticus, a lawyer, her brother Jem (who is 4 years older than her) and Calpurnia, a black woman who acts as a type of mother figure. A friend, Dill, also joins them in the summer. The three children are intrigued by Arthur ‘Boo’ Radley, who lives in the house on the corner but is never seen outside. I really enjoyed this part of the story; it set the scene brilliantly, as well as helping me reminisce about my own childhood. Even if there is no ‘haunted’ house, children will always make one – at least, my brother and I did! With the limitless amounts of imagination children have, there will always be adventures to be had and ‘monsters’ to escape from. There was one particular house, when we were around the same age as Jem and Scout, where they had a doorbell you pulled, like a cord. My brother Josh said it was a doorbell that made you scream every time you pulled it, so we obviously had great fun in pulling it, screaming, and running away. If by some fluke the person living there is reading this, I’m really sorry, but it still makes me laugh! There was also every Christmas, when we went carol singing. We had decided that the houses beyond the wood were richer than the others, and every year would link arms, lighting matches to try and find our way in the dark and telling ghost stories the whole time.
Once everything has been established, the book moves on to a case Atticus is defending. A black man, Tom, has been accused of raping Mayella Ewell, part of a trashy white family with very poor education and even less money. This is where the casual prejudice of the time is evident – Jem and Scout have to put up with people calling their family a “nigger-lover” (sorry if that language offends, it is a direct quote and I mean no harm); Atticus faces repercussions for his whole-hearted attempt to save Tom; and many of the Maycomb women look down on the black community. However, there’s still a touch of hope – the way Atticus defends Tom’s case makes everybody think, a great feat in the setting where black and white people are in completely different classes. In this part of the story, I really looked up to Atticus, in his seemingly-infinite wisdom.
In the final part of the story, Jem and Scout finally get to meet Boo Radley, and it is here that the title of the book becomes apparent. In the middle of the book, after Jem and Scout get air-rifles, it is said:
<blockquote>When he gave us our air-rifles Atticus wouldn’t teach us to shoot. Uncle Jack instructed us in the rudiments thereof; he said Atticus wasn’t interested in guns. Atticus said to Jem one day, “I’d rather you shoot at tin cans in the back yard, but I know you’ll go after birds. Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”
That was the only time I ever heard Atticus say it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss Maudie about it.
“Your father’s right,” she said. “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”</blockquote>
Obviously, not knowing what was coming, I thought the story must eventually be about the children shooting a mockingbird. The last page of the book, though, I realised that it was a lot more subtle and symbolic than that. The mockingjay is Boo Radley, the man who gives when he can and causes no harm.
I really wish I’d read this story as a child, to see what sort of perspective I’d have had back then. Reading as an adult means that, while Scout was a brilliant perspective, I was almost reading as an outsider. I could see her maturing, slowly fitting the pieces together to start acting like an adult, but at the same time it was an undeniably adult reading. I really really enjoyed the book, but I have a feeling it’s one of those multi-faceted ones where you read something different every time. I can’t help thinking that reading it as a child would have been a lot more powerful.
This review is also on my <a href="http://awowords.wordpress.com">blog</a>; - if you liked it, please check it out!
The story is set in Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930s, and is written from the perspective of Jean Louise ‘Scout’ Finch, who is between six and eight years old as the story progresses. The start of the book does an effective job of introducing us to all the characters. Scout lives with her widowed father, Atticus, a lawyer, her brother Jem (who is 4 years older than her) and Calpurnia, a black woman who acts as a type of mother figure. A friend, Dill, also joins them in the summer. The three children are intrigued by Arthur ‘Boo’ Radley, who lives in the house on the corner but is never seen outside. I really enjoyed this part of the story; it set the scene brilliantly, as well as helping me reminisce about my own childhood. Even if there is no ‘haunted’ house, children will always make one – at least, my brother and I did! With the limitless amounts of imagination children have, there will always be adventures to be had and ‘monsters’ to escape from. There was one particular house, when we were around the same age as Jem and Scout, where they had a doorbell you pulled, like a cord. My brother Josh said it was a doorbell that made you scream every time you pulled it, so we obviously had great fun in pulling it, screaming, and running away. If by some fluke the person living there is reading this, I’m really sorry, but it still makes me laugh! There was also every Christmas, when we went carol singing. We had decided that the houses beyond the wood were richer than the others, and every year would link arms, lighting matches to try and find our way in the dark and telling ghost stories the whole time.
Once everything has been established, the book moves on to a case Atticus is defending. A black man, Tom, has been accused of raping Mayella Ewell, part of a trashy white family with very poor education and even less money. This is where the casual prejudice of the time is evident – Jem and Scout have to put up with people calling their family a “nigger-lover” (sorry if that language offends, it is a direct quote and I mean no harm); Atticus faces repercussions for his whole-hearted attempt to save Tom; and many of the Maycomb women look down on the black community. However, there’s still a touch of hope – the way Atticus defends Tom’s case makes everybody think, a great feat in the setting where black and white people are in completely different classes. In this part of the story, I really looked up to Atticus, in his seemingly-infinite wisdom.
In the final part of the story, Jem and Scout finally get to meet Boo Radley, and it is here that the title of the book becomes apparent. In the middle of the book, after Jem and Scout get air-rifles, it is said:
<blockquote>When he gave us our air-rifles Atticus wouldn’t teach us to shoot. Uncle Jack instructed us in the rudiments thereof; he said Atticus wasn’t interested in guns. Atticus said to Jem one day, “I’d rather you shoot at tin cans in the back yard, but I know you’ll go after birds. Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”
That was the only time I ever heard Atticus say it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss Maudie about it.
“Your father’s right,” she said. “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”</blockquote>
Obviously, not knowing what was coming, I thought the story must eventually be about the children shooting a mockingbird. The last page of the book, though, I realised that it was a lot more subtle and symbolic than that. The mockingjay is Boo Radley, the man who gives when he can and causes no harm.
I really wish I’d read this story as a child, to see what sort of perspective I’d have had back then. Reading as an adult means that, while Scout was a brilliant perspective, I was almost reading as an outsider. I could see her maturing, slowly fitting the pieces together to start acting like an adult, but at the same time it was an undeniably adult reading. I really really enjoyed the book, but I have a feeling it’s one of those multi-faceted ones where you read something different every time. I can’t help thinking that reading it as a child would have been a lot more powerful.
This review is also on my <a href="http://awowords.wordpress.com">blog</a>; - if you liked it, please check it out!
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Lyndsey Gollogly (2893 KP) rated Breathless ( Scarlet Suffragette book 2) in Books
Mar 29, 2022
54 of 230
Kindle
Breathless (Scarlet Suffragette book 2)
By Nicola Claire
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Nicola Claire's captivating new Gothic romance series continues with a dark and sinister London City at the end of the nineteenth century - brightened by a fearless and talented heroine and a loyal and secretive police inspector...
Determined doctor? Interfering busybody? Fearless fighter?
The London of Anna Cassidy's memories is not the London she faces today. Having proved her worth as a physician, Dr Cassidy finds herself pitted against the stolid attitude of a male-dominated society.
But it's not only society she has to contend with.
A criminal mastermind has set themselves up in London, England; chosen the dirty streets of Whitechapel and Lambeth as their stage. Competing against a devious and cunning opponent sets Anna and her closest friends off on a dire adventure, which could culminate in a loss so great Anna may never recover again.
Steadfast police inspector? Loyal guardian? Caring lover?
Anna, however, is not alone. Or, at least, she won't be once Inspector Kelly finds her. Facing the ghosts of his past, Andrew Kelly rushes to face Anna's enemies and protect the woman he loves.
But Anna is not unable to defend herself.
Proving she needs him is a task Inspector Kelly would gladly undertake. But the city of Andrew's birth is more in the grip of evil machinations than it has ever been, bringing to mind memories of a dark London, ripped to within an inch of its life by a devil known to most simply as Jack.
Andrew knows otherwise. For his secrets are unravelling and within their shadowed corners lies a murderer, a poisoner, and a villain so deceitful that nothing is what it appears to be.
A gritty, twisted, and authentic Victorian romantic suspense, sure to rip you apart... just like old Jack.
Read preview >
This was so good I love the era and the references to Jack the Ripper and Sherlock Holmes. It has fabulous characters both good and bad. The story kept you wanting to read more. I’m not one for huge relationship storylines but this I loved. Highly recommended if you like murder mystery set in a gothic Victorian era.
Kindle
Breathless (Scarlet Suffragette book 2)
By Nicola Claire
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Nicola Claire's captivating new Gothic romance series continues with a dark and sinister London City at the end of the nineteenth century - brightened by a fearless and talented heroine and a loyal and secretive police inspector...
Determined doctor? Interfering busybody? Fearless fighter?
The London of Anna Cassidy's memories is not the London she faces today. Having proved her worth as a physician, Dr Cassidy finds herself pitted against the stolid attitude of a male-dominated society.
But it's not only society she has to contend with.
A criminal mastermind has set themselves up in London, England; chosen the dirty streets of Whitechapel and Lambeth as their stage. Competing against a devious and cunning opponent sets Anna and her closest friends off on a dire adventure, which could culminate in a loss so great Anna may never recover again.
Steadfast police inspector? Loyal guardian? Caring lover?
Anna, however, is not alone. Or, at least, she won't be once Inspector Kelly finds her. Facing the ghosts of his past, Andrew Kelly rushes to face Anna's enemies and protect the woman he loves.
But Anna is not unable to defend herself.
Proving she needs him is a task Inspector Kelly would gladly undertake. But the city of Andrew's birth is more in the grip of evil machinations than it has ever been, bringing to mind memories of a dark London, ripped to within an inch of its life by a devil known to most simply as Jack.
Andrew knows otherwise. For his secrets are unravelling and within their shadowed corners lies a murderer, a poisoner, and a villain so deceitful that nothing is what it appears to be.
A gritty, twisted, and authentic Victorian romantic suspense, sure to rip you apart... just like old Jack.
Read preview >
This was so good I love the era and the references to Jack the Ripper and Sherlock Holmes. It has fabulous characters both good and bad. The story kept you wanting to read more. I’m not one for huge relationship storylines but this I loved. Highly recommended if you like murder mystery set in a gothic Victorian era.
Bob Mann (459 KP) rated The Last Letter from Your Lover (2021) in Movies
Aug 9, 2021
Engaging love story (at least, the one in the 60's) (2 more)
Lush production values, especially production design and cinematography
Great cast - especially Shailene Woodley and Ben Cross
A proper old-fashioned love story that older viewers will appreciate.
Is "chick flick" a phrase that you can use these days? I guess not, since it infers that a movie is only of interest to a particular gender. Perhaps "Sunday afternoon film" is a better phrase. And "The Last Letter From Your Lover" is a real SAF.
Positives:
- "They don't make them like this any more" the saying goes. This is a love story cum melodrama that is well told by director Augustine Frizzell, in only her second feature. The film zips backwards and forwards between different time periods, trusting the audience to keep up with where we are. The dialogue is suitably soupy for a film of this type, based on a Jojo Moyes book (who wrote "Me Before You", also well-filmed). I've seen a critic review in "The Times" where they mocked the sentimentality of the love letters: but part of me would love to say "OK - let's hear what you would have written"!
- The story ticks all the boxes to keep you engaged. Although never moved to tears, a scene towards the end of the movie certainly generated a lump in the throat.
- All the leads are great. Shailene Woodley has been a personal favourite actress since her amazing turn in "The Descendants". And she certainly doesn't disappoint here.
- The production design is lush, particularly with the 60's scenes of London and the Riviera (reminiscent for me of the recent remake of "Rebecca"). This is nicely brought out by the cinematography (by George Steel), with some of the scenes being 'hang on the wall' beautiful to look at.
- It's wonderful to see the late Ben Cross in the movie, and he gives an excellent and touching performance. Cross died of cancer in August 2020 at the age of just 72. This is probably not his last movie, since he was in another - "The Devil's Light" - currently in post-production. Such a sad loss to the industry.
Negatives:
- The movie tries to construct a love story in the 60's and one in the present day 2020's, contrasting the different rules and values at play. The 60's one works; the 20's one really didn't for me. Ellie comes across as a very unlikeable person. The contrast between the lack of communications in the 60's (waiting at a station, not sure if someone will turn up or not) and today's chat/SMS rich 'always on' world could perhaps have been brought out more. With my Dr Bob directorial hat on, I would have ditched the present-day love story entirely and focused in on two professional detectives uncovering the past together: not everything needs to involve love and sex.
- The film has a couple of rain sequences that are highly unconvincing. One Riviera in-car scene particularly made me chuckle. "TURN FIRE HOSE ON!" You can almost see the blue sky and people cavorting on the beach behind them!
Summary Thoughts on "The Last Letter from Your Lover": There are actually few films around these days that feature love stories outside the teenage years. This is an 'old-fashioned' film that will appeal to an older age group, looking for style, romance and escapism. It reminded me in turns of movies like "The Two Faces of January" and "The Age of Adeline" in its mood and presentation. I'm probably not the target audience for this movie and I really enjoyed it. But the illustrious Mrs Movie Man probably is. And she declared that she absolutely loved it!
Ignore the sniffy newspaper and ex-newspaper critics. I'd declare this to be a "recommended".
(For the full graphical review, please check out One Mann's Movies on the web, Facebook or Tiktok. Thanks.)
Positives:
- "They don't make them like this any more" the saying goes. This is a love story cum melodrama that is well told by director Augustine Frizzell, in only her second feature. The film zips backwards and forwards between different time periods, trusting the audience to keep up with where we are. The dialogue is suitably soupy for a film of this type, based on a Jojo Moyes book (who wrote "Me Before You", also well-filmed). I've seen a critic review in "The Times" where they mocked the sentimentality of the love letters: but part of me would love to say "OK - let's hear what you would have written"!
- The story ticks all the boxes to keep you engaged. Although never moved to tears, a scene towards the end of the movie certainly generated a lump in the throat.
- All the leads are great. Shailene Woodley has been a personal favourite actress since her amazing turn in "The Descendants". And she certainly doesn't disappoint here.
- The production design is lush, particularly with the 60's scenes of London and the Riviera (reminiscent for me of the recent remake of "Rebecca"). This is nicely brought out by the cinematography (by George Steel), with some of the scenes being 'hang on the wall' beautiful to look at.
- It's wonderful to see the late Ben Cross in the movie, and he gives an excellent and touching performance. Cross died of cancer in August 2020 at the age of just 72. This is probably not his last movie, since he was in another - "The Devil's Light" - currently in post-production. Such a sad loss to the industry.
Negatives:
- The movie tries to construct a love story in the 60's and one in the present day 2020's, contrasting the different rules and values at play. The 60's one works; the 20's one really didn't for me. Ellie comes across as a very unlikeable person. The contrast between the lack of communications in the 60's (waiting at a station, not sure if someone will turn up or not) and today's chat/SMS rich 'always on' world could perhaps have been brought out more. With my Dr Bob directorial hat on, I would have ditched the present-day love story entirely and focused in on two professional detectives uncovering the past together: not everything needs to involve love and sex.
- The film has a couple of rain sequences that are highly unconvincing. One Riviera in-car scene particularly made me chuckle. "TURN FIRE HOSE ON!" You can almost see the blue sky and people cavorting on the beach behind them!
Summary Thoughts on "The Last Letter from Your Lover": There are actually few films around these days that feature love stories outside the teenage years. This is an 'old-fashioned' film that will appeal to an older age group, looking for style, romance and escapism. It reminded me in turns of movies like "The Two Faces of January" and "The Age of Adeline" in its mood and presentation. I'm probably not the target audience for this movie and I really enjoyed it. But the illustrious Mrs Movie Man probably is. And she declared that she absolutely loved it!
Ignore the sniffy newspaper and ex-newspaper critics. I'd declare this to be a "recommended".
(For the full graphical review, please check out One Mann's Movies on the web, Facebook or Tiktok. Thanks.)
Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated The Girl on the Train (2016) in Movies
Jun 19, 2019
Rachael (Emily Blunt) is a woman who has hit rock bottom. Her downward spiral has cost her a marriage, her career, and everything else she cherished and left her a severe alcoholic. Rachael is so far gone that she rides the commuter train into New York every day secretly drinking along the way. There is some method to this madness as the train goes by her former home and this allows Rachael a look in at the woman who replaced her and the new family her ex now enjoys.
In the new film “The Girl on the Train”, based on the book of the same name by Paula Hawkins, the locale has been changed from London to New York but much of the content has been left unchanged which should thrill fans of this highly popular novel.
Rachael has become fascinated with a couple two houses down from her old home and she watches and fantasizes about the perfect life she imagines they have.
The reality is that Megan (Haley Bennett) is living in a controlling and abusive relationship and holds a dark secret of her own which she reveals to her therapist as well as her desire to run away and also take him as a lover.
When Rachael sees Megan in an embrace with someone other than her husband one day, she decides to confront Megan and express her anger over her assumed infidelity even though Rachael has never met her much less learned her name and only knows of her from being in the same workout class and seeing her on the train.
Rachael awakens one morning covered in blood and in a have and is unable to remember what has happened. To make matters worse, Megan has gone missing and her husband is the primary suspect in the disappearance.
Despite being warned away numerous times by her ex Tom (Justin Theroux) and his wife Anna (Rebecca Ferguson), Rachael continues to regain her memories of what happened that evening even though she continues to have issues differentiating reality from fantasy in a situation with high stakes and dire consequences.
What follows is a compelling thriller that kept me interested even though I was able to unravel the mystery 30 minutes or so before the conclusion of the film. I had not read the book or much on the film going in as I wanted to try to crack the mystery without any additional help, but still found it an interesting and entertaining film. There was more eroticism than one may expect at first glance but the film weaves a great story of multiple characters all with various degrees of dysfunction.
The cast is very strong and take what could at first be a routine mystery and turned it into one of the best and most entertaining Dramas of the year.
http://sknr.net/2016/10/07/the-girl-on-the-train/
In the new film “The Girl on the Train”, based on the book of the same name by Paula Hawkins, the locale has been changed from London to New York but much of the content has been left unchanged which should thrill fans of this highly popular novel.
Rachael has become fascinated with a couple two houses down from her old home and she watches and fantasizes about the perfect life she imagines they have.
The reality is that Megan (Haley Bennett) is living in a controlling and abusive relationship and holds a dark secret of her own which she reveals to her therapist as well as her desire to run away and also take him as a lover.
When Rachael sees Megan in an embrace with someone other than her husband one day, she decides to confront Megan and express her anger over her assumed infidelity even though Rachael has never met her much less learned her name and only knows of her from being in the same workout class and seeing her on the train.
Rachael awakens one morning covered in blood and in a have and is unable to remember what has happened. To make matters worse, Megan has gone missing and her husband is the primary suspect in the disappearance.
Despite being warned away numerous times by her ex Tom (Justin Theroux) and his wife Anna (Rebecca Ferguson), Rachael continues to regain her memories of what happened that evening even though she continues to have issues differentiating reality from fantasy in a situation with high stakes and dire consequences.
What follows is a compelling thriller that kept me interested even though I was able to unravel the mystery 30 minutes or so before the conclusion of the film. I had not read the book or much on the film going in as I wanted to try to crack the mystery without any additional help, but still found it an interesting and entertaining film. There was more eroticism than one may expect at first glance but the film weaves a great story of multiple characters all with various degrees of dysfunction.
The cast is very strong and take what could at first be a routine mystery and turned it into one of the best and most entertaining Dramas of the year.
http://sknr.net/2016/10/07/the-girl-on-the-train/
Kara Skinner (332 KP) rated Gunning for Trouble in Books
Jun 12, 2019
Bland Characters Gun Each Other Down in Gunning For Trouble
Genre: Contemporary
Page Count: 217 Pages
Average Goodreads Rating: 3.79 out of 5 stars
My rating: 1 out of 5 stars
Caleb was in a dead sleep until his phone alerts him to a break-in to his apartment. Immediately his defensive instincts — honed by his dangerous work of tracking missing persons and protecting witnesses — surface and he springs out of bed with his gun to tell the would-be burglar they have chosen the wrong apartment. But he ends up pointing the gun at Avery Walters, his former boss and ex-lover.
To Caleb’s irritation, Avery is on an assignment from Caleb’s boss about a string of murders in the witness protection program. Now dangerous people are after her and the only person she could turn to was Caleb. Despite Caleb’s resentment and anger toward Avery, he still feels the need to protect her. While they work together to stop the murders, old anger and mistrust rises between them, but so does the lust they feel for each other. Can they move forward and learn to love each other, or will the past always hold them back?
This book was awful. Caleb and Avery have the chemistry of fifth graders in their Drama Club rendition of Romeo and Juliet.
Caleb is a complete jackass. He protects Avery but it’s clear he doesn’t want to do it out of anything other than a sense of duty. Not only is he angry about her waking him up in the middle of the night– you know, just because her life is in danger. She should stop whining, right?– but he constantly makes her feel stupid and makes it clear he resents the shit out of her. He says she fired him so she could get a promotion, when in reality he was a loose cannon who deserved to be fired.
Even his friends and coworkers think he needs to tone down the anger.
“Haven’t heard you apologize to her,” (Zach, Caleb’s friend and coworker said).
“For what?”
“You tell me.”
“I was blindsided by what she did back then.”
“Any chance you had tunnel vision?”
Caleb is also so hot-headed I wouldn’t be surprised if he took steroids on a regular basis. Even someone like Avery, who has little more character than a stock photo, deserves better than that.
Caleb does eventually realize he’s been acting like a PMSing Neanderthal and “forgives her”, still thinking he did nothing wrong but wanting to put it behind him.
Avery isn’t as bad as Caleb, but Avery isn’t much of anything at all. She probably goes down in history as one of the least interesting protagonists ever created.
I might have cared more about the characters if I understood and liked the plot. But even that was a hot mess. While I get the gist of the situation– someone is selling names of people in the Witness Protection Program– I can’t make sense of the finer details. A hailstorm of minor characters were dumped on me at once and I couldn’t even keep them straight, let alone focus on what they were saying.
On top of that, there are a couple of times Avery seems to just “get” stuff and the reader is supposed to just “get” it too. But these aren’t obvious things, nor are they minor.
These things are like why Avery is too dangerous to be around Caleb’s coworkers’ wives. Avery just accepts that it’s reasonable she would put the wives in danger, but it’s not.
Even after reading the entire book and going back to skim parts of it for this review, I still don’t understand the plot that well.
If you are looking for a good Harlequin Intrigue book, you would be better off reading Scene of the Crime: Black Creek by Carla Cassidy. But don’t waste your time reading a half-assed story like Gunning for Trouble
Page Count: 217 Pages
Average Goodreads Rating: 3.79 out of 5 stars
My rating: 1 out of 5 stars
Caleb was in a dead sleep until his phone alerts him to a break-in to his apartment. Immediately his defensive instincts — honed by his dangerous work of tracking missing persons and protecting witnesses — surface and he springs out of bed with his gun to tell the would-be burglar they have chosen the wrong apartment. But he ends up pointing the gun at Avery Walters, his former boss and ex-lover.
To Caleb’s irritation, Avery is on an assignment from Caleb’s boss about a string of murders in the witness protection program. Now dangerous people are after her and the only person she could turn to was Caleb. Despite Caleb’s resentment and anger toward Avery, he still feels the need to protect her. While they work together to stop the murders, old anger and mistrust rises between them, but so does the lust they feel for each other. Can they move forward and learn to love each other, or will the past always hold them back?
This book was awful. Caleb and Avery have the chemistry of fifth graders in their Drama Club rendition of Romeo and Juliet.
Caleb is a complete jackass. He protects Avery but it’s clear he doesn’t want to do it out of anything other than a sense of duty. Not only is he angry about her waking him up in the middle of the night– you know, just because her life is in danger. She should stop whining, right?– but he constantly makes her feel stupid and makes it clear he resents the shit out of her. He says she fired him so she could get a promotion, when in reality he was a loose cannon who deserved to be fired.
Even his friends and coworkers think he needs to tone down the anger.
“Haven’t heard you apologize to her,” (Zach, Caleb’s friend and coworker said).
“For what?”
“You tell me.”
“I was blindsided by what she did back then.”
“Any chance you had tunnel vision?”
Caleb is also so hot-headed I wouldn’t be surprised if he took steroids on a regular basis. Even someone like Avery, who has little more character than a stock photo, deserves better than that.
Caleb does eventually realize he’s been acting like a PMSing Neanderthal and “forgives her”, still thinking he did nothing wrong but wanting to put it behind him.
Avery isn’t as bad as Caleb, but Avery isn’t much of anything at all. She probably goes down in history as one of the least interesting protagonists ever created.
I might have cared more about the characters if I understood and liked the plot. But even that was a hot mess. While I get the gist of the situation– someone is selling names of people in the Witness Protection Program– I can’t make sense of the finer details. A hailstorm of minor characters were dumped on me at once and I couldn’t even keep them straight, let alone focus on what they were saying.
On top of that, there are a couple of times Avery seems to just “get” stuff and the reader is supposed to just “get” it too. But these aren’t obvious things, nor are they minor.
These things are like why Avery is too dangerous to be around Caleb’s coworkers’ wives. Avery just accepts that it’s reasonable she would put the wives in danger, but it’s not.
Even after reading the entire book and going back to skim parts of it for this review, I still don’t understand the plot that well.
If you are looking for a good Harlequin Intrigue book, you would be better off reading Scene of the Crime: Black Creek by Carla Cassidy. But don’t waste your time reading a half-assed story like Gunning for Trouble
The Poetry Deal
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"The Poetry Deal: San Francisco Poet Laureate Series No. 5 gives us di Prima's vision as she looks...