Fearless by Diana Palmer

So an ulterior motive for this blog is to provide me with something to do while at work. I work at a desk and frequently have to work overnight shifts that get old really fast. Since it's summer and the tv options are lacking, (I watch all my tv online and am a tv addict, but this summer's choices seem limited) blogging seems like a good way to stay entertained. So this very early morning I'm going to review at least one book I read in the last week, maybe more if I have the energy.

Fearless by Diana Palmer is a lukewarm action/suspense novel featuring Gloryanne Barnes (yup, I thought the name was silly too) and Rodrigo Ramirez. The chemistry between the characters is great, the rest of the book, not so much. It was an okay read, though I felt the novel was lacking in character development and believability, and was overly contrived at times.

The novel centres around Glory, an attorney who is a witness in a high profile case against a Crime/drug/gang lord, Fuentes. Glory goes into hiding on a farm to avoid being killed before the court date happens. It is at the farm that she meets Rodrigo, an undercover DEA agent working to catch the same drug lord.

Glory's character was pretty well rounded and her back story was explored in depth, but many of the secondary characters who figure quite prominently into the action, including Consuelo, Glory's friend/colleague who at one point attempts to kill Glory (?!), are really bare bones characters. Rodrigo especially maintains a little too much of an air of mystery, becoming a bit of an unrelatable character who is at times hard to like, an odd feeling towards the leading man of a romance novel.

Consuelo is one of the most annoying characters to a reader, in my opinion. She is a simple cook on the farm, a colleague of Glory in the kitchen while she is in hiding. The woman is continually described as being simple and naive, and despite knowing from the beginning she is completely under Glory's radar as being a potential threat. It is only immediately before Consuelo attacks Glory that a few hints are dropped about her true nature. What bugs me about a character like this is that Glory, a smart, well developed character, never notices anything amiss about her friend. Fine, whatever, it happens that a character can be duped. However Consuelo's one dimensional character seems to have a complete personality overhaul, and then she drops out of the story completely with no real explanation about her background or how she ended up working at the farm before Glory if she was sent as a hired killer or any of the essential loose ends related to her murder attempt. Really bugs me, it's like the author didnt know who the hired killer was going to be, decided last minute it would be Consuelo, dropped one hint, had the murder attempt scene, and then forgot about the whole storyline. A character of convenience, and as a reader I feel a little betrayed.

Another extremely irritating aspect of the story is the fact that even when the couple married they still didn't know each other's true identities, and Cash Grier, a cop who did know, didn't bother to spill the beans. This seemed really strange-- especially since it was a life and death situation... Since the secrets are used to advance the plot and stir up emotions and confusion, I understand why the author felt the need to do this, but this sort of dramatic irony comes across as really contrived and just plain irritating.

Despite my feelings that parts of this story are overly contrived, and some characters under developed, I did cry a couple of times while reading this book. The hopelessness of Glory's situation, her emotional and physical scars, the losing of her baby and her heartache and heart break really does come through the writing.

I say the suspense/thriller scenes in this story are lukewarm and I really feel that way. At no point was I truly concerned for the well being of Rodrigo, mostly because, like I stated above, his character never became real to me, and frankly I didn't like the guy. For the action scenes featuring Glory, it was hard to be truly drawn in because the characters attacking her failed to be truly sinister or threatening. When Consuelo attacked, I was initially confused that the character had been taken in a direction straight out of left field, and before that when her son Carlos attacked, I was expecting it. Carlos had also been made out to be a desperate and somewhat incompetant gang member, so, though anyone with a gun and desperation should be taken seriously, it was really hard to take any threat from this character as realistic.

The best aspect of this novel was definately the emotional transformation of Glory. Her character really grows and her storyline, without all the DEA agent drama, murder attempts and other action taking place in the novel, was really a touching one.

So I say read it, but only for Glory's storyline. The rest of the book isn't really worth it.

Happy Reading
Steffie