Crazy Love by Tara Janzen
Jul. 2nd, 2006 11:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jmc_bks
He's a bad-boy Special Ops hero.
She's too hot to handle.
Government operative Dylan Hart has survived some of the riskiest missions known to man. But no nemesis could have prepared the Special Defense Forces commander for the newest member of his team. A street-smart heartbreaker in Day-Glo pink and black leather, Skeeter Bang has been recruited to aid and abet Dylan's latest mission: steal a top-secret file and bury it before all hell breaks loose.
Teaming up with a man who may be the last bona fide defender of the free world is a risk Skeeter's ready to take. Until a black-tie Washington soiree erupts in a bullet-flying free-for-all. Now Skeeter's got danger on her trail and Dylan arousing every bad-boy fantasy she ever had. Being in the wrong place at the wrong time is about to plunge one man and woman right into the sizzling line of fire....
Let me throw my opinion out on the page up front: I was totally disappointed by this book. I'll detail why below, but spoilers will be included, so if you want to read the book untainted, stop now.
You kept reading, so you must either not plan on reading the book or you don't mind spoilers.
If I compare the substance of Crazy Love to the other Crazy books, it is not all that different. I gave them a range of grades from C+ to C-, I believe, so why was this one such a drag? Because Janzen did a huge build-up; Skeeter and Dylan have been mentioned in all of the books running up to this one, with nuggets of information scattered, hinting at their story, and sadly the nuggets in the other books were better than the book that focused on them. It's another book with a good idea (goth princess matched to cool, controlled thief) ruined by the execution. Grade: D for me. [I should've taken Jane's review to heart and left the book at the library.]
First problem: the backblurb is not consistent with the story. It makes it seem as if Skeeter is a new hire. Wrong. These two have a bunch of backstory, which is sort of relevant. She wasn't recruited for this mission, she already worked for SDF; Dylan had to be talked into taking her along. Also, what's up with Dylan being "the last bona fide defender of the free world?" What about the other guys on the team? And frankly, I didn't get the idea that he was a defender of anything as much as he was a thief; he steals for the US government, yes, but there was no rah-rah patriotism on his part.
Second problem: Janzen's single word paragraphs. Yes, I get that the structure was supposed to key the reader to how fragmented and on-edge Dylan was feeling. If fragmented sentence structure is an author's style (coughStephanie Laurenscough), that's okay. But the fragments need to be a single thought. And using the trick once is okay, using it three times is not.
Pink.
Sweater.
Short.
Skirt.
Long.
Legs.
Would work better as:
Pink sweater.
Short skirt.
Long legs.
Third problem: it seemed like a lot of the action occured off-stage, and it was all told, not shown. Dylan at the soiree, breaking in and stealing the file? Not seen. The prep work for the op? Mostly not seen. The take down of the uber-bad guy? Described in retrospect, not seen.
Fourth problem: the sex. Let me count the ways that the sex was lame in this book. a) It was late, late, late in the book. b) It took place in the middle of an operation. You're supposed to be on your way to back up the team and you stop for sex? Uh, okay, you're fired. c) All of the sex in the book took place in cars. In a Honda Civic. In a POS. In a custom bed built from a car frame. Yes, cars are cool, but for all three sex scenes? Too much.
Fifth problem: details and characteristics and characters that were introduced in earlier books evaporated or were given short shrift in Crazy Love. Skeeter's spooky psychic stuff? A couple of mentions, but not used to any advantage. Her drawing? Same. Travis the peace-loving, non-violence advocate has morphed into a stone cold killer overnight, and become an SDF operative. WTF? How'd that happen overnight? The potential love interest introduced in the last book (with a significant number of pages devoted to her individually and to his interest in her) has disappeared.
Sixth problem: a character (Red Dog) was introduced solely (it seemed to me) to create a storyline for the next book.
Seventh problem: the bad guy. A character from an earlier book has morphed from an @sshole who resents the SDF into a traitor who only wants to see Dylan dead and Skeeter put in her place. From a pissed off professional to a sulky mercentary who hates/fears women. Yeah, because stymied career CIA operatives always go bad when thwarted. :eye roll:
Another niggle that may be based on my assumptions: Travis and Skeeter both did research about the bad guys while traveling by air. Last time I flew, there was no using the internet to search online while in the air. Maybe they had files already on their laptops? Maybe they were able to get online during layovers? Not clear. The word "research" to me means that they went looking, searching for information from fresh sources, not pulling up a file someone has already compiled; if that's what they did, it's just a language precision issue, but if they actually did research, then I have to wonder if inflight rules matter to SDF operatives or if they have a special dispensation from the FAA. Or I could just be splitting hairs and looking for something to bitch about, since I felt so let down by this book.
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no subject
Date: 2006-07-02 05:36 pm (UTC)Worth reading?
Date: 2006-07-02 11:02 pm (UTC)I've read the whole series, but I'm finished now, no more Tara Janzen for me, unless her next books go in a different direction. A lot of people like the books. [Check out KristieJ's review at http://kristiej.blogspot.com.] On the pro side, they are fast reads: they worked okay as commute books for me -- I could spend 40 minutes reading them and put them down without a regret when the train arrived in the station. On the con side, there is very little character development and the HEAs were not all that believable. Hot sex, yes, but real relationship material? Not so much.
I would vote for checking these out of the library rather than buying.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-02 10:08 pm (UTC)Hi, Eve!
Date: 2006-07-02 11:12 pm (UTC)I saw that you are an aspiring writer. Have you always written? Have you submitted to publishers other than Ellora's Cave?
Just curious. I'm not a writer myself, other than blog entries.
~jmc
Re: Hi, Eve!
Date: 2006-07-03 01:00 am (UTC)Right now, LiquidSilverBooks.com has my full manuscript submission. I am awaiting news!
Thanks for asking.
-- E
no subject
Date: 2006-07-03 02:48 am (UTC)~Jay
POS
Date: 2006-07-03 01:28 pm (UTC)Yeah, the car frame bed, even though it was a custom job out of a real, classic car chassis, made me think of those bed frames that little boys love. Puts a damper on the hot sex for me.
Re: POS
Date: 2006-07-03 01:38 pm (UTC)Don't say I didn't warn ya!
Jane
Re: POS
Date: 2006-07-04 02:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-09 04:00 am (UTC)