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Erin Moira O'Hara has written an fun romantic suspense set in the sticks of the Australian back country where it's a small town community and everyone knows everyone's business. Makes it interesting for a group of spec ops guys to blend in ... or not!
Let's start with Kallie because she frustrated the ever loving heck out of me. I started off liking her, I really, really did. I thought she was cute, if rather naive and somewhat innocent, and then she got annoying. She turned into one of those typical blonde bimbo heroines in horror movies where you tell them "do not go into the haunted house alone", so what does she do? She goes into the haunted house alone, repeatedly, and then needs to be rescued, repeatedly, and puts the investigation the guys are there for in jeopardy, repeatedly. It's like she was a perfectly sensible girl, running her own farm, looking after an invalid grandfather, growing a successful business and then Sam comes along, and BAM! suddenly all her brains leak out of her head and the only thing she can think of doing is getting in his pants and getting in his way. She was fine till about 40% of the book and really, after that, it was all down hill. She was pretty much one stupid thing after another, from getting in the way of an investigation to being determined to seduce Sam to finally trying to get away because she eavesdropped on Sam and got the wrong impression of what was happening. In her own way, she thinks she is helping but instead she makes a big muddle of things and then not only does she not help the investigation, she goes off and gets herself in a situation where she is the one that needs rescuing and all efforts end up being focused on that instead. Ugh! Perhaps I'm being to harsh on her, my Steve says I have a tendency to be a heroine hater, so I'm going to say that many people will probably find Kallie to be sassy, resourceful, tenacious and protective of her family and friends, but frankly for me, all of that falls short of the stunts she pulls every fews pages or so. I'll go out on a limb to say that's also probably what Sam sees in her, aside from her being incredibly beautiful which we are told often she is, but sheesh, she drove me bananas. I even vented my frustrations on Goodreads.
41.0% "Well Kallie, I was liking you just fine until you decided to be stupid."
45.0% "Good thing Sam's quick on his feet."
57.0% "Oy! What is it with these silly heroines?"
61.0% "For crying out loud, how do you think you're helping? You're just going to get into trouble and need rescuing."
65.0% "Rapidly losing patience with Kallie. Stupid girl. Annoying too."
73.0% "I think Kallie's brains leaked out of her head at about 40%. All she's done so far is one stupid thing after another."
75.0% "I'm so annoyed with Kallie I don't even know if I care enough to read to the end to find out who the bad guy is."
76.0% "Oh no. I'm no going to listen to reason. I'm just going to jump to all sorts of conclusions and make a mess of things."
77.0% "Ugh. Just drown and die."
81.0% "Of course you're confused. It's because you jump to conclusions and don't listen."
92.0% "Why won't this end??"
94.0% "I'm persevering since I've come this far. I want to know who the bad guy is. I think I know. Or rather, I have my suspicions."
As for Sam. Poor, long suffering, patient Sam. I loved Sam. He's the kind of slightly broody, slightly sweet, incredibly sexy spec ops type guys I always fall for. He's trying to so hard to do the right thing, do his job and not get involved with a silly, naive girl who keeps throwing herself at him, but a man can only take so much before he snaps. Of course, he's incredibly attracted to silly little Kallie, but he's trying to be honorable. And Kallie is all about putting the kibosh on him being honorable, so poor Sam was bound to cave in eventually. I gotta say, for a guy who is constantly pulling Kallie out of scrapes while trying to protect her and keep her safe, and trying to resist her attempts at seduction, I reckon he should be nominated for a sainthood. It's really hard for a man to do a job while trying to manage a handful like Kallie. Good on him for even trying and falling in love along the way.
As for the whole small town community thing, this story is the perfect illustration of why I will not live in a tiny, tiny town, where you can count the number of people who live in the town on your fingers and toes. I would go batty with everyone knowing my business and gossip spreading so fast, you can sneeze and the person at the other end of town will know you've come down with a cold before you even reach home.
It was however great to see how the whole town came together in the face of the flood. It's really a community effort to save the town and to keep everyone safe. I did like how everyone helped out and stood by one another to help avert disaster. I guess that's the plus side of small town living.
For the most part, I like Ms O'Hara's writing style which was light and but engaging. This story was well written even if I found Kallie annoying. I also liked Sam a lot and the guys on the Steele Ops teams. I'd like to read the other books in the series, but I sincerely hope the other heroines are not like Kallie.
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Hi Deanna
ReplyDeleteGreat review I have this book in paperback sitting in my TBR pile and I am looking forward to reading it
Have Fun
Helen
I think you will enjoy it. I expect you will be more patient with the heroine than I was.
DeleteI sure hope the other heroines are different then
ReplyDeleteYeah, I sure do hope they are.
DeleteI couldn't live i a small town either. It's bad enough living in an apartment complex where everyone where everyone wants to ask what's going on in your life. lol
ReplyDeleteTrue but your apartment complex is pretty crazy.
DeleteYour review is pretty descriptive, so I'm smiling and definitely picturing how it all went. (lol) That was one of the reasons I stopped watching horror movies because somebody always did something they knew they shouldn't have. (lol) I love a good romantic suspense, but it has to have good characters to make it real. Hugs...RO
ReplyDeleteOkay, I have to admit, this book and the heroine got me a little ranty. That may have led to my less than restrained review. :-p
DeleteOh ergs on heroines sometimes. Some of them are just...too much. lol #HeroineHatersUnite
ReplyDeleteYes, yes. Love the hashtag. Heroine haters indeed. I don't hate ALL heroines. Some of them I am quite fond of. This one was something special though.
DeleteGood readiing this post
ReplyDelete