Review: Rock Chick on Steroids
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 04 24, 2013
3 STARSThis series was tossed around the KA Addicts' Support Group a while back and I can see the similarities: alpha male hero, spunky heroine with mothering ways, secondary characters begging for a mother-figure (lots of cooking on this one)... it was like reading a Rock Chick book without Daisy (which I still strongly believe would be a STUPENDOUS improvement for that series) and the annoying womanly screeching turned to a minimum.Funky cover aside, this little freebie had me cracking up well into the middle of the story. The story starts off with Tilly Chalmers a struggling actress looking for a job after being fired playing as a watermelon for a Department of Health public service play. To a certain extent, she reminds me of a less outrageous(i.e. funny), more socially functional Jenna Maroney from 30 Rock with all the shenanigans she got herself into pre-Heller."I reminded myself that I was proud to be an actor and that no matter what Barnaby said, I knew that I'd made a convincing piece of fruit."She comes across an ad looking for a client manager in a security and surveillance agency where she meets Heller, the enigmatically swoontastic owner who has taken in an odd mix of male characters under his care. The story pretty much revolves around Tilly finding her place in Heller's family and business (which is one and the same actually) and the attraction she has towards Heller (of course).The plot was peppered with irreverent and absurdist humor at the onset but somehow things kind of dwindled for me beyond the 50% mark. . I think the logic patrol in my brain started to work again and made an awful racket that I can't think of anything else but the sheer ridiculousness (the unfunny blend) of how the story progressed. Heller sends Tilly to these seemingly boring assignments that turn dangerous one too many times where she get badly beaten up, saved and patched up only to be sent out again to repeat the cycle. Oh wait, he does kiss her on the forehead every time he fixes her up which should make me regard him with a bit more tenderness but only makes me all the more frustrated and annoyed.Heller was a strange hero. He's definitely not going to make friends with Gloria Steinem and he is quite the scary motherducker. For all the wrong reasons."Can I have a gun?" I asked."No!""Just a little one? For my handbag? It'll give me some street cred with the client.""No! No! No!" His clenched fist pounded the steering wheel with each word.I was picking between petulant child or a control Nazi.At some point it started to feel like watching a movie where the editor went out for lunch somewhere in the middle and forgot about working on it entirely. I usually don't mind, but there's a lot of confusion as to where this story is set exactly. The humor feels British and everyone gets offered tea at some point but there are references from time to time that makes me think it is set in the US. Small nitpick but it throws me off whenever it comes up.I felt exhausted reading the last 25%, the polygamous pastor storyline didn't have any of the lol-lapalooza of the earlier chapters (Lily was more interesting, IMO). I'm sorry I'm trying to entertain myself writing this, this just had me yawning and nodding off trying to finish it.This was a clean read and I'm not one who looks for sex in my reads just because the hero's hot (well not too often anyway) but it is seriously begging for some sexy times. It kind of fits the feel of the story and would probably vastly improve readability if the author runs out of crazy situations, funny one-liners and creative ways of endangering Tilly's life so Heller could come to her rescue.