|
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Christmas Reading Fun!
I'm allergic to my parents' house. Or, more specifically, the cat. I spend a lot of time hiding in my old bedroom when I visit. And that means lots of reading. Good thing I was only there for a few days...
Title: Perfect Weapon
Author: Amy J. Fetzer
Dr. Sydney Hale is a brilliant chemist working in a super-secret lab 600 feet below some caves that are a tourist attraction. One day, she convinces the Marine guard to let her use the escape elevator to get some fresh air, as usual, but when she comes back down, death and destruction has hit the labs – they’re under siege, and she just barely makes it back to the surface to run away, covered in the Marine’s blood (she tried to save him, but he was shot point-blank). Sydney reminds me a lot of that character Denise Richards played in that James Bond movie – the one who was supposedly a brilliant and beautiful scientist.
While running away, she meets Jack Wilson, a high-level Marine Captain who’s known for his incredible covert skills, etc. – he’s out with some of his friends, helping to thin the deer population.
The bad guys shoot at Jack and Sydney. They kill his Marine buddies. Sydney gets away from Jack, because she can’t trust anyone, and eventually makes it to her safe house. The NSA, who was responsible for the lab, thinks she’s involved with the attack because she’s the only survivor. Jack tracks her down, then they go on the run together, evading the bad guys and the NSA.
The reason everyone needs to find them is that Sydney was working on an antidote to Sarin gas, and she figured it out, but never wrote down the formula. Thankfully, she has a photographic memory, and remembers exactly what needs to be done to save people.
Lots of shooting. The bad guys kill each other off. And there was an inside person at the lab working with the baddies, but I don’t feel like giving them away (especially since I’d have to provide all kinds of setup for it here).
All you really need to know is that Jack saves Sydney about once every 15 pages. They have sex before they really like each other much. Then they do that as often as possible as a stress relief. Then they finally realize they’re in love, and have more sex. The big climactic scene also allows Sydney to test her antidote, since Jack gets gassed, and if she’s not as brilliant as she thought, her true love will die. And all the people die and the good ones live happily ever after.
Title: Murder Unleashed
Author: Elaine Viets
This is part of a series – the Dead-End Job Mysteries. I think that’s a more fitting description for the book itself.
Helen’s a receptionist at a dog grooming salon in Ft. Lauderdale. She’s on the run from her ex-husband somewhere in the Midwest, so she’s using an assumed name and can only take jobs where she’s paid in cash. All the other people at the salon are flaming gay men (I LOVE flaming gay men!), but they’re, unfortunately, boring caricatures. Anyway, one dog is dognapped by the owner’s ex, who they didn’t know was allowed to pick up the dog post-grooming. Helen goes to drop off another spoiled dog at his owner’s house, and finds her dead and naked on the patio, so she runs and doesn’t tell the police, because she doesn’t want to be revealed.
She’s sleeping with her neighbor, a PI (how fortunate!). The landlady is a stereotypical crazy old lady in Florida who wears purple high-heeled sandals to inspect the roof after a hurricane.
Unlike most reviews, I actually JUST finished the book, and it was so pointless I still don’t really remember anything else from it. Various groomers are accused of murdering the owner. Helen’s in the thick of it all. There’s some blackmail and mistaken identities, but it all works out in the end. Ugh.Labels: hunky armed forces or government operatives, trashy romance
posted by ket at
10:44 PM
2 Comments:
Wow, ket, it sounds like the second one here was too bad even for you to enjoy!
12/29/2006 11:23 AM
They have sex before they really like each other much.
I effing HATE it when they do that, and it happens ALL THE GODDAMNED TIME. Books, TV, movies--I saw it just yesterday in Troy. What the hell?? Who thinks that's believable?? I had to stop reading a Robert Ludlum--which I usually love--becuase HE pulled that shit on me. I can never finish that book. Chips in the brain controlling their thoughts? 4 acres of "secret neo-Nazi" hideout in a German valley, somehow unseen by satellites or planes? Sure, why not. But those two people humping each other's brains out with NO REASON WHATSOEVER besides being the two main characters? Bullshit.
12/29/2006 1:00 PM
|
|
