I've typically loved Maya Banks's books and I hate that I'm rating this one so poorly but I really did not like this book. At all.
Summary: DSS agent I've typically loved Maya Banks's books and I hate that I'm rating this one so poorly but I really did not like this book. At all.
Summary: DSS agent Isaac Washington is shocked to find someone trying to steal his SUV and he's even more surprised when he confronts the person and finds its a scared, battered woman. Before he can adjust his thinking, all hell breaks loose and next thing he knows he's shot and dying. Then, to his shock, the mysterious woman places her hands on him and heals the mortal wound in his chest. From that moment on, Isaac vows to protect her with his life. For Jenna, all she wants is her freedom and she's horrified that her choices may lead to the suffering of others. But she can't escape the protective reach of Isaac and DSS. They are bound and determined to save her from the evil man who wants her for his own.
Series Note: Fifth book in the Slow Burn series. There are a lot of running characters and references to past books, but I wouldn't say it would be impossible to read this one first or on it's own. There's no continuing storyline.
Review: Well....I don't like writing a critical review, especially when it's for an author that I generally love and who is an auto-buy for me. But yeah, I did not like anything about this book. I could have easily rated it 1-star but I gave it a bonus star simply because this is not typical for this author.
My biggest problem with this book was the discrepancy in details. Jenna was kidnapped around 4 years old and held captive by a cult for at least 20 years. She was basically kept in seclusion and treated like a leper. She has little knowledge of the outside world and modern conveniences or anything that is just normal to the rest of us. So I expected a good portion of the story to be the learning process Jenna faces as she tries to assimilate into the real world and that just doesn't happy. Here and there it's addressed but overall it's largely ignored. Honestly, given the background that is built for Jenna I would have expected her character to be much stunted developmentally. I mean, I hardly think the cult people would have educated her and I would have expected the lack of positive emotional support and social interactions to have had a much greater effect on her. But other than a reaction to the TV and learning about food, her characterization doesn't fit at all with what we're told about her. It adds (another) level of unbelievably to the story.
I also had characterization issues with Isaac - on several levels. First, the character is horribly undeveloped. By the time you finish you know almost nothing about him. There are a few very vague references a couple times in the book to some past suffering, possibly being an alcoholic but the reader never gets a clear picture of who Isaac is. Where is he from? Are his parents alive? What happened to him in the past? There's nothing concrete about him prior to the start of this story. Now, I will add the caveat that it's possible past books gave more background on him but I read those ages ago. I don't remember at all what may or may not have been revealed about him. And if the author did develop the character more in past books, it still should have been part of this one. If you are reading them as they are released, the average reader isn't going to remember details about a secondary character a year or two later. This lack of development for Isaac, though, really kept me from getting into the character.
Aside from that, he's a total over-the-top alpha ass throughout the story. Jenna has just escaped 20 years of hell being controlled and abused by a cult and Isaac takes one look at her and goes all controlling he-man. He is all 'she's mine,' 'you belong to me,' and when he starts talking about keeping her pregnant all the time so she can't get away from him...I almost threw the book across the room. I get that he wanted to protect her and love her, but his thoughts, actions and words were just too much given the things that Jenna had been through. It was completely unromantic for me.
And the romance itself? There's the insta-devotion for Isaac which I could have dealt with if the story hadn't devolved into super sappy, mushy, sugary-sweet ramblings and professions of love that just made me roll my eyes. I'm not the biggest fan of super sappy anyway and I didn't like it at all here. It didn't fit the tone of the story either. When I'm reading romantic suspense I don't want to read devotional soliloquys between the characters.
From a storyline standpoint the book was okay. I could nit-pick over the fact that the premise of the storyline is basically a repeat of other storylines in this series - female character has special power and an evil person wants her to exploit the power. I would have preferred some variation in the storylines but it wasn't a book-killer for me. I did find it to be a rather slow moving story with just a lot of sitting around and repetition, not enough development and action. And then end? Ugh. What happens toward the end was so obviously a set up and that you had a group of badass agents fall for it was TSTL. Seriously. It was like there was a big flashing neon sign screaming set up and they all fell for it. Given the danger Jenna was in, why was she put in that situation anyway, even if it wasn't a set up? Again, TSTL on all characters parts. And why were all the women there? That made no sense at all to me. None. Then the finale seemed overly simplified. I just expected more from the plot of this book. It wasn't horrible but by far not the best I've read.
I also think there could have been a little more time spent on the set up of DSS - what it is, who founded it, why, what they do, etc. There was a little bit too much of a reliance on the readers have read - and remembered - everything from past books.
Lastly, one of the things that bugged me most about this book was that there were these insanely long chunks of internal monologue - like pages long. Primarily with Isaac thinking obsessively about Jenna - what an angel she is, how he plans to keep her forever and ever, how he'll do anything to protect her, how he'd never survive if anything happened to her. Etc, etc, etc. There was also Jenna thinking endlessly about her situation, how she doesn't want anyone hurt because of her, yadda yadda. Between the two of them, there's so much repetitive dead space in this book spent on their internal thoughts that it bored me to death. I can't count how many times I put the book down during these chunks because I was so bored from reading the same thoughts over and over and over again. It also signified the overall lack of action in the story. I admit that I did start to skim read some of these chunks as the book went on.
I wish I could give a few good points to the story but there really wasn't anything that jumps out as me as something I enjoyed. I honestly was just glad to finish it. I expected so much more from a Maya Banks book. I will continue to read the series as I'm greatly hoping this book was an aberration. I know the author has multiple series going and also that she's been going through some very serious health problems (which makes me feel like a jerk for writing such a negative review)...so I have very high hopes that this was just the rare book that didn't hit the mark.
((I apologize to the author for the critical (but honest) review! Best wishes for a speedy recovery and I hope your health is on the upswing!))...more
Loading...
