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The Scent Of Jade (2000)

by Dee DeTarsio(Favorite Author)

3.27 of 5 Votes: 1

languge

English

genre

review 1: Review by Jen: From the blurb, The Scent of Jade sounded like a sexy romantic adventure. Unfortunately it fell flat for me. While the premise was intriguing, as the story went along, all the situations that Julie found herself in... well, each one seemed more ridiculous than the last. I'm pretty sure that the story was supposed to be funny, but more often than not I was shaking my head and wondering how much worse this could get. And then I found the climax, well, anticlimactic. But I think what really made this book a bust for me was that I honestly didn't care for any of the characters. Well, I take that back; the monkey was funny. But the rest of the cast... I couldn't seem to connect with any of them. In particular, I didn't enjoy being in Julie's head throughou... moret the story. She whined a lot, was self-centered and I didn't see any "real" growth in her character. But what it all boils down to is that I didn't like her and for me to enjoy a book, I need like and care about the main characters.It appears that the reviewers on Amazon disagree with me, but I just didn't really enjoy this read.
review 2: A typical chick lit plot device is to thrust the protagonist into an unexpected situation where she is out of her comfort zone. She'll then make a series of questionable decisions, which make her situation increasingly worse. Although flustered, she never gives up, and eventually stumbles on a way out of the situation and finds a way of meeting whatever goal initially prompted her down this road. It's a pattern that works well.In many ways, the plot of "The Scent of Jade" fits this formula. However, it is atypical in the kind of challenges the protagonist Julie encounters. These challenges are often much more physical, giving the book an action-adventure flavor, and the jade artifact adds a hint of mystery to the story.I'll consider a book a solid or competent effort if the story is told well and doesn't suffer from obvious technical flaws. What it takes to elevate it above that level varies. It might be a story that pushes the right buttons. Sometimes it is a unique twist on a typical formula. This book gets partially there on that basis. What pushed it over the top were clever descriptions that made me say, this is why she is the author and I'm just the reviewer. For example, when DeTarsio described a rainstorm "as if a Paul-Bunyan-sized cabana boy was throwing swimming-pool-sized buckets of water at the house." Another was when the protagonist Julie's narration said, "my heart stopped mid-pump while my flight instinct kicked in and kicked my fight instinct's ass." Clever, smart, and funny all in one line. For that matter, clever, smart, and funny describes all of "The Scent of Jade."**Originally written for "Books and Pals" book blog. May have received a free review copy. ** less

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