Review: Just A Bit Too Long
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 5, 2011
*********Soft Spoiler Alert*********The first two chapters of Hell Bent started slowly, but there were quite a few characters to introduce.  It took me a little while to get the setting, background & the people sorted out.I started off liking the female protagonist, Annabelle.  I like my female leads to be strong & intelligent.  But by the end of the book, I found Bella wasn't making great decisions, especially when it came to her assassin love interest, Jack Thane.  Her need to be independent collided with her need for love.  But then again, there would be trust issues arising from being drugged, lied to & handcuffed wouldn't there?Overall I enjoyed the story and the writing with some reservations.  The action scenes were well written & suspenseful, the storyline complex and mostly fast-paced.  The supporting cast well fleshed out although a few too many of them, I think.On the down side, I found Thane's mysterious background a bit unbelievable as was his 10-year platonic relationship with Annabelle.  It just didn't ring true to me.I wished the author hadn't used dialect for Clara & her mother.  I suppose she was trying to add colour, but it was a terrible distraction from the storyline, which demanded concentration.  A few too many silly typos as others have noted too.  And yes, a lot of sexual tension but then no steamy sex scene - kind of disappointing.  Then there was the annoying habit of the often-repeated phrases like "chewing the inside of her cheek" and "Jack's flashing eyes" which brought down the caliber of the writing.A major complaint for me was the introduction about 2/3rds of the way through of the Adam Black character.  The story was solid enough for me without this addition of Thane's fiercer, younger and more ruthless "brother".And then somewhere towards the end of the book the writing and tight plotline became a little uneven and took a bit too long in winding things up.  Not a lot, but just a bit.  Perhaps after all the preceding action, I was feeling a bit tired.  I felt the book needed just a little more editing to keep it lean and taut.  Also, highly unusual for me, my reading time was interrupted for a few days, so perhaps that influenced my opinion somewhat.A pretty good read for $1.00 and I just might check out the author's other books that some reviewers like even better than this one.  This author knows how to write a good, if not great, story.May 8, 2011 - Edited typo