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Shot In The Dark (2013)

by Jennifer Conner(Favorite Author)

3.46 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

1481916459 (ISBN13: 9781481916455)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Createspace

review 1: I had mixed feelings about this book. I liked the overall plot of the book, but at times it was hard to keep reading. Not that the book was slow, but because the choice of language used to describe things. I thought the characters were well developed. Luci sort of go on my nerves with the whole acupuncture thing, but it helped Devan with his wound. I couldn't give it 5 stars, because it just didn't seem to WOW me. ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
review 2: This book, though well-written, was a disappointment. I loved the beginning. Luci the barrista is attacked at her workplace (a bikini coffee drive-through) and the surly detective Devon comes to her rescue. The first chapter was wonderful. Every chapter afterwards, though, was bad... more. The story plot about the robber coming back and tracking Luci down from the purse he stole only took up about maybe (if I'm generous) 5% of the story. That's all. In fact, he's mostly forgotten about for most of the book. And, no, I don't count the instances where Devon goes all caveman and says he must protect Luci as part of that plot because it was always just a set up for sex.Which brings me to my pet peeve with this book. I don't mind romance novels. Heck, I don't mind smut. However, what I do mind is if you bill your book in the romance section (where I got it), then I want a thread of plot. Don't promise me a good, thrilling story of a detective and the woman he loves trying to outsmart a bad guy if you're not going to have that as the plot. Seriously, our bad guy, Ivan, has five scenes in the whole book. And two of them are off-screen with us hearing about the action second hand. He robs the coffee shop and terrorizes Luci (off screen), he sneaks around her house, he has an argument with his brother (who I don't think shows up again), he kidnaps Luci (off screen) and he's brought to justice. All of his scenes are maybe two pages worth. Three if I toss in the Deus Ex Machina of Ivan being caught up in some fight (I think), his tattoo being recognized and now they have an address (again, all off screen). Every thing else was Devon and Luci having sex, talking about sex, or rehashing the same plot points over and over again. Such as she can't cook like Rachel Ray (god, I hated that line), she was abused growing up, Devon feels guilty about walking in on a robbery six months ago, his leg hurts, she's into alternative medicine, and she was robbed and needs his kisses to forget all about her terror. No joke, that was it.I also got annoyed at the timeline of the book. Luci gets "fired" from her job three days after the robbery for not showing up. I found that to be very unrealistic. For starters, she never talks about whether or not she was supposed to be working those nights. The first night, understandable. She had been robbed the night before, she should get some time off. Second night, again, understandable. She just got home to find her house had been broken into. The morning of the third day out, suddenly she's fired. I had to go back and count the days to make sure I didn't miss something. It was so contrived. And they both just go, "Boss's loss" and have sex.The writing was good, but the characters were flat, the plot non-existant, and the suspension of belief too much for me to swallow. I would have loved more of a hint of danger in a story about a cop protecting someone than reading about the boring romance between two people who just met and are suddenly humping like rabbits. Very disappointed with this book. less

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