Okie dokie, first post in a brand spanking new blog. For those of you who don't know, last summer I kept a blog of my summer adventures. Today while eating Japanese food at Asha (I had fried chicken, not totally my definition of Japanese but much more to my taste) with summer work colleagues and amazing friends, Alyssa, Elise and Shaeneez, we decided we should share our expertise on various subjects with the world wide web. And so, our little group set out to take over the world by sharing our thoughts on fashion, food and romance. In case you aren't certain, I'm the romance portion of that equation-- romance books that is.
This blog is different from my previous blog. Instead of being all about my daily life, the plan here is to center things around reviews and thoughts on romance novels. Please, though, don't be surprised if my life sneaks into it now and again, it's inavoidable. First up in the reviews is the book I finished ridiculously late last night, (or early this morning I suppose) Guilty by Karen Robards.
Guilty is super suspenseful, up-all-night, can't-put-it-down thriller, so I would strongly advise not starting it right before you want to go to sleep (a lesson learned by yours truly). The novel follows an attorney, Kate White as the courtroom of her first case literally explodes into the chaos of a gunfight, and then keeps the action going as she deals with being a hostage, her shady past, a blackmailer, being a single mother and of course, a love interest.
The love interest in this case is Tom Braga, a cop involved in getting Kate out of the courtroom the day of the chaos. Tom walks a very thin line as he grows to care about Kate, a woman he is sure is hiding something potentially incriminating.
The best part of this book is the action sequence in the courtroom. The entire scene is set really well and the action happens at the ideal pace. The suspense, even knowing that our heroine must survive (happily ever afters, always, right?) is incredible and her terror really comes off the page. The twist of having Mario, a criminal introduced in the novel's prologue, come back in the scene was one I should have seen coming but didn't, and it was a terrifying added layer to the drama.
I also liked the development between Tom, Kate and her son, Ben. The struggle of a single mom dealing with how to keep her son safe is well dealt with, although Tom and Kate saying 'i love you' to each other in the middle of planning how to contact Ben's kidnappers seems a little out of place.
The 'big secret' being kept by Kate, was, while a driving force in the plot, a little annoying after a while. The big 'to tell or not to tell' inner conflict went on for a really long time, and the scene where she finally told Tom was glossed over. His reaction as a man who cared about her, not just as a cop ensuring she wasnt prosecuted for it, could have been explored and could have created a touching moment.
I felt a bit like the novel ran out of steam towards the end. The final conflict, in which Tom and Kate face down the bad guys to recover Ben from the kidnappers has none of the suspence of the initial courtroom scene, and is only a few pages long. While Kate's horror over the loss of her son is palpable, the scene feels anticlimatic, and the book ends rather abruptly after Ben is saved. A half page epilougue in which the characters get married provides some closure, but the novel felt like it could use another ten pages tying up loose ends and just coming to a more natural feeling close.
All in all though, I really liked this book. It was written in a captivating voice and the first half, especially, was extremely exciting. There was chemistry between the two very well developed characters, and the supporting characters were interesting as well. Everytime I read 'Tom and Kate', though, I couldn't help but picture Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes...
Guilty is super suspenseful, up-all-night, can't-put-it-down thriller, so I would strongly advise not starting it right before you want to go to sleep (a lesson learned by yours truly). The novel follows an attorney, Kate White as the courtroom of her first case literally explodes into the chaos of a gunfight, and then keeps the action going as she deals with being a hostage, her shady past, a blackmailer, being a single mother and of course, a love interest.
The love interest in this case is Tom Braga, a cop involved in getting Kate out of the courtroom the day of the chaos. Tom walks a very thin line as he grows to care about Kate, a woman he is sure is hiding something potentially incriminating.
The best part of this book is the action sequence in the courtroom. The entire scene is set really well and the action happens at the ideal pace. The suspense, even knowing that our heroine must survive (happily ever afters, always, right?) is incredible and her terror really comes off the page. The twist of having Mario, a criminal introduced in the novel's prologue, come back in the scene was one I should have seen coming but didn't, and it was a terrifying added layer to the drama.
I also liked the development between Tom, Kate and her son, Ben. The struggle of a single mom dealing with how to keep her son safe is well dealt with, although Tom and Kate saying 'i love you' to each other in the middle of planning how to contact Ben's kidnappers seems a little out of place.
The 'big secret' being kept by Kate, was, while a driving force in the plot, a little annoying after a while. The big 'to tell or not to tell' inner conflict went on for a really long time, and the scene where she finally told Tom was glossed over. His reaction as a man who cared about her, not just as a cop ensuring she wasnt prosecuted for it, could have been explored and could have created a touching moment.
I felt a bit like the novel ran out of steam towards the end. The final conflict, in which Tom and Kate face down the bad guys to recover Ben from the kidnappers has none of the suspence of the initial courtroom scene, and is only a few pages long. While Kate's horror over the loss of her son is palpable, the scene feels anticlimatic, and the book ends rather abruptly after Ben is saved. A half page epilougue in which the characters get married provides some closure, but the novel felt like it could use another ten pages tying up loose ends and just coming to a more natural feeling close.
All in all though, I really liked this book. It was written in a captivating voice and the first half, especially, was extremely exciting. There was chemistry between the two very well developed characters, and the supporting characters were interesting as well. Everytime I read 'Tom and Kate', though, I couldn't help but picture Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes...
Anyways, that concludes my very first book review written not for a school assignment. Since I haven't proof read, please don't judge any errors, I figure since no one is marking it... oh who am I kidding, I'll probably proofread it later today. Since after dinner Shaeneez, Elise, Alyssa and I dodged raindrops, bought 2$ umbrellas and went to Indigo and Starbucks, I have a lot of books on my wishlist that should be showing up on here very soon...
Happy Reading
Steffie
No comments:
Post a Comment