Despite its label of Romantic Suspense, this book has barely any romance. In the beginning of the book, when I was enjoying it, I thought I might like the overall story despite my irritation with not delivering on the promised “R” in “RS.” Unfortunately, that optimism only holds true when I’m actually enjoying said book.
I really liked the beginning of the book. It opens with the hero and heroine already sleeping together, which I haven’t seen very often in Romance. But don’t get the impression that they’re in a relationship. They’re not, they’re just knocking boots. Daniel, the hero, wants more, but Charlotte, the heroine, is not interested in ties. She just wants sex. Although it was weird to feel like I was a few steps behind in their relationship, I liked seeing the stereotypical gender roles reversed and was interested in seeing them slowly grow toward an intimate connection.
Charlotte is an attorney and Daniel is a cop, so their professional lives occasionally intersect. When Daniel starts investigating a string of murders related to the carnival that Charlotte used to work for, she finds herself involved in the case. It was a good thing that Charlotte was drawn into the case, because otherwise they would have had no interaction together. Their separate lives had way more page time than any time that they spent together. At first I liked getting to see all the mundane aspects in their day to day lives, but it eventually became old. I wanted to see them together. I liked that the author maintained some realism and made their professions feel necessary to their lives and to the plot, but I needed a better balance on the romance end. Charlotte was so cold that relationship building was really necessary to make their eventual connection believable.
Charlotte was an interesting character, although I didn’t like her much. I was put off by her cold behavior in the beginning but looked forward to her shell eventually cracking to show us the real woman. Well…that shell only seemed to reveal more ice. It wasn’t until approximately 40 pages from the end that the heroine would even consent to use the hero’s first name. She preferred to call him Detective to avoid any false impression of intimacy. She was…odd. I didn’t understand her, but I found her interesting in a distant, character study sort of way. I couldn’t really figure out why anyone liked her, though. At one point her coworkers stop to have a quick celebration (with her) at work and all she can think about is how many wasted man hours are in the room with her. Seriously. That was not a rare comment, either. That’s just the type of person she was.
She was neurotically ashamed about her past “carnie” connections and ruthlessly groomed herself to appear like she was educated in a private school. I didn’t really understand her hang up. Especially since nothing earth shattering happened once she was forced to reveal it to the world. It made her seem a little snobby and small minded. I know that some of the carnival workers lived down to her expectations, but I felt it was a little too two dimensional to feel realistic. Also, I found it hilarious that she was more ashamed of growing up around the carnival than she was about the fact that she stripped her way through college.
I liked the hero, although I never understood why he liked the heroine. His grandmother was great and I loved the little bits we saw of them together. His interactions with his family and his partner really emphasized what a downright decent guy he was. I think that’s why the differences in between him and Charlotte were so glaring. Although I liked Daniel more than Charlotte, I still never felt a strong connection to him. The whole book felt a bit clinical. I stayed distant from everything throughout the read.
Other than that, there were a few things that seemed out of place or just plain wrong. There was a supernatural/seer angle that seemed odd and out of place. I really don’t know what that added to the story. I won’t bother to list all the things that rubbed against me wrong, but I can’t finish this review without mentioning something that drove me nuts.
The heroine reveals that she, not her sister, is the mother of a girl from the carnival. She is upset with Grady (her stepfather growing up) because he did not fulfill his promise of giving the girl up for adoption to offer her a better life.
I just had to stop and stare. She expected him to offer the baby up for adoption??? Uh…isn’t she the mom? If her kid’s welfare was so important to her, why didn’t she put her up for adoption? It was her kid. You can’t just leave her and hope that someone else (who ISN’T her guardian or her parent) will take care of it for you.
I found the serial killer creepy and liked the parts of the book revolving around him, but for such a long build up the story sure wrapped up in a hurry. All of a sudden it was over in a snap.
Favorite Quote:
“I’m living vicariously through you, Danny-boy. My love life is a wasteland. Plus, I like to watch you get revved up when I mention her name. Charlotte. Charlotte. Charlotte.”
Rating: D
Before She Dies by Mary Burton
February 1st 2012 by Zebra
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About Catherine
Great review, and I am sorry that you did not like the book. But thanks for telling why. If you just don’t like the main characters, it doesn’t matter if the book itself is great, you just won’t like it. And now the book itself lets you down as well. Hope your next read is an awesome one again.
Very true. I can put up with a lot if I’m enjoying the characters.
Eh, passing on this one. Even if some parts sounds really good
The good parts were what made me so disappointed in the end. I wanted it to live up to its potential.
Sounds like Brenda Novak’s books. How she keeps getting published as a romance author, I do not know. One of her books I read didn’t have the hero and heroine meet until the 33% mark!
If you want to write thrillers, write them. But stop pretending it’s romance!
Amen! I have no problem with straight suspense, but when I pick up something advertised as an RS, then I expect to get it!