Review: An enjoyable read with character-driven plot
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 01 13, 2011
FRIDAY NIGHT JAMIE is a pleasant romance with a primarily character-driven plot and an action plot that drives the story to a certain degree. As a lover of character-driven stories which focus on the emotions between the main characters and the feelings as they evolve, I found Bren Christopher's book to be an enjoyable read.Jamie is an orderly person who likes to live life by his rituals and schedules. When he encounters an irregularity in one of the accounts he was covering for an ailing colleague, he becomes immediately drawn into figuring out the problem and bringing the problem to the attention of those who need to know.Yet, there is another dimension to Jamie, the side that derives from his childhood of being moved around and brought up by two parents who couldn't put him first, or even second for that matter. Through scampering for food and housing as a child, never knowing if he would be warm or have a full belly, the order in his life as an adult seems to be a necessity, bordering on a compulsion to prevent his life from ever becoming unstable again.When Matt enters his life on one of his weekly Friday Night outings to a local gay club, we see a side to Jamie that demonstrates a dichotomy in his personality. On the one hand, he is the crisp, proper nine-to-fiver who catches minor glitches on his accounts during the week. Yet on Friday night, he likes to release that stress in back alley encounters since he is uncomfortable with bringing people home to the safe haven of his apartment.The glitch he notices in the account and meeting Matt on the Friday night, which opens the book, sets the story in motion and the plot remains tightly wound around the development of the main characters' relationship as well as figuring out what caused the problem in the financial account. Each leads Jamie down a dangerous road, although for different reasons.The financial glitch turns out to be a larger problem than Jamie had ever anticipated and he gets drawn into an FBI investigation. Emotionally, his relationship with Matt forces Jamie to face his greatest fear; allowing someone else in. To do so would be to alter his life, his routine, in ways that would change his life forever.Ms. Christopher has woven a tale that drips with genuine feeling and it is clear throughout that she deeply cares about the characters and crafted the story with great attention to detail and alignment of plot. The believability of the Jamie and Matt's feelings as they unravel from the beginning to the end captured my attention and made me want to see how their story would end.At the same time, I felt that Ms. Christopher could have incorporated a bit more subtlety into her writing and insinuated more, allowing me, as the reader, to put pieces together for myself a bit more. In many places I felt as if I was being told how to feel about the two characters rather than their relationship developing organically.Similarly, there were some key plot twists, which were relatively predictable. This detracted from the action plot, but took nothing away from the character-driven plot.In the end, there was high tension and I truly found myself surprised by some of the events that took place, yet, as I stated earlier, once the story concluded, there was nothing that wasn't cleverly woven into the story before the climax occurred at the end. I appreciated that the author did not throw last minute new information into the story, which can be very frustrating.One thing that Ms. Christopher did consistently well was to draw the reader directly into the love scenes. They were at once sensual and emotional, but were also quite steaming and hot. I appreciated her ability to bring the images and actions right off the page, portraying a highly sensual and sensory picture for me to enjoy.Overall, an enjoyable read. With the caveat that there are some predictable elements to the plot and there are times that the author gives the reader a bit too much guidance in how to feel about Jamie and Matt, the story was a well-crafted and pleasurable read, one I recommend for this cold winter season.Reviewed by DH Starrfor The Romance Reviews