Review: from riveting to cheesy
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 29, 2013
Some spoilers ahead.Our two leads are Detective Inspectors with the Metropolitan Police Service assigned in London... but don't expect a crime plot here at all. This page-turner is primarily focused around a plane crash where our two leads struggle to survive Canada's Arctic temperatures during the course of a blizzard. When they take refuge in a remote fishing cabin, they spend 2-3 isolated and intense weeks together. Very realistic! This part of the story is the very best part of the story and is difficult to put down. I didn't care too much for what preceded and especially what followed the survival mode. And I'd of definitely edited out the sappy Epilogue myself. Had these other parts of the book been better (or at least aligned with the primary tone), I'd of rated it higher.Alex Blake is a hot-headed detective from a wealthy and literate family who doesn't flinch at bending a few rules to get the job done. She's tall (6 ft!), athletic, has a very sharp mind, and is described as model-like with short dark hair and dark eyes... and very lesbian. Not entirely femme, but too pretty to be butch... maybe some of that sexy Olivia Benson something from back in her SVU short haired and dykey looking heyday, lol.The book opens with a glimpse-like prologue of when our two leads first meet and bump heads. The emotion here is immediately evident, and while it's a tad vicious... the promise of passion evolving from this is what drew me in. I love emotional characters (I didn't say sappy). And I love it when opposites clash! Thirty-two year old Maggie Campbell is also a Detective Inspector with around the same amount of experience as Alex, but she's quite straight, uptight, and does everything by the book. This green-eyed and auburn-haired detective is 5'4", has a taste for boring suits and comfortable shoes and is of Scottish origin.These characters supposedly have accents but they could have been American as far as any dialogue goes... yes, there was some English vocabulary, but nothing to intrigue or confuse American readers. This is an American writer and I'm really not sure why she bothered considering the light English/Scottish characterization. One quibble is that I could have done without the word "knickers" entirely, lol... the connotation to my American ears is something goofy and will never quite make it to the sphere of "panties" as far as sexy goes.This author ran with several beloved elements in lesfic that is sure to win over fans when the writing is good: snowy setting, being stuck in close quarters together, and the sizzling resistance of opposite energies. Love it. But I'm immune to the breeder and dog threads also found here and didn't care for this direction at all. I just felt this author tried too hard to please everyone in the end. Really. It changed the tone I was enjoying in the arctic wilderness. It went from edgy to cheesy fairy tale sappy and I just lost interest after the rescue. Actually. I was probably losing interest the minute these two submitted to each other... happened way too easily. And the only dog I wanted to imagine in this story was a rabid wolf stalking our leads, but alas, the story just wasn't THAT scary or adventurous. I wish it had stayed more in survival story and adventure tone. The rest was just silly.And while I enjoyed Alex and could visualize her clearly... Maggie wasn't so interesting or vivid. Her attraction to women is so absent or buried that she was practically a new character in the cabin to me. I think we shoulda had more clues on her true feelings upfront. Yet I also thought she shoulda been more uptight and more vulnerable. She just didn't exude the contradictions these sorts of women normally do which makes them so damn irresistible. Then she gave in way too easily!! I also thought she shoulda been really blonde... because a) I love blondes and b) I like my opposites to look fully opposite. This story had the potential to be so much more on so many levels. But their dynamic wasn't as juicy as it could have been. Ultimately, I just didn't like this lead too much.The sex is graphic and sexy, but not gratuitous. These characters are passionate about each other; the sex reflects that. It's worth a read. At this price, you'll feel you spent more on lamer stories.Beautiful book cover. But I think a real editor and publisher would do wonders for this writer. Though I suppose if you sell your books cheap enough (as this author does) you can still hook buyers and sit fat and complacent with a partially awesome book that never realized its full potential.3 1/2 stars