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cook_memorial_public_library's review
5.0
Start with a strong female character, ex-British soldier, Charlie Fox. Add non-stop action, and a plot that confuses the good guys and the bad guys. Charlie Fox is resourceful, tough, funny and believable. She doesn’t know whom to trust and her 15-year-old charge is annoying, but Charlie is going to do her job. I couldn’t put this thriller down.
--Recommended by Connie
Check our catalog: http://encore.cooklib.org/iii/encore/search/C__Sfirst+drop+sharp__Orightresult__U1?lang=eng&suite=pearl
--Recommended by Connie
Check our catalog: http://encore.cooklib.org/iii/encore/search/C__Sfirst+drop+sharp__Orightresult__U1?lang=eng&suite=pearl
oedipa_maas's review
2.0
Excellent action scenes and awesome setting. You can tell Sharp spent a good deal of time in Florida to get the atmosphere down. It also began with the main action and not a false-start like the others have been. That was great - kept me reading from the very start.
My complaints: the teenagers were horribly written. I taught high school for some time and the characters painted in this story were so awfully one-dimensional that I wanted to throw the book down. There was so much potential for Trey and it was completely squandered.
Also Sharp's ear for American dialogue is, well, embarrassing. I don't think she had an American editor, because if she did, phrases like a teenager saying "mega row" to describe an argument would not have slipped through. And, I'm sorry Ms. Sharp, but while teens do say "like" a lot, they don't say it in the ways that you wrote them. The dialogue alone cost this a full star.
Finally, describing a black person as "colored" or simply as "the black guy" when everyone else gets a name is racist. Sorry no one filled you in on this.
My complaints: the teenagers were horribly written. I taught high school for some time and the characters painted in this story were so awfully one-dimensional that I wanted to throw the book down. There was so much potential for Trey and it was completely squandered.
Also Sharp's ear for American dialogue is, well, embarrassing. I don't think she had an American editor, because if she did, phrases like a teenager saying "mega row" to describe an argument would not have slipped through. And, I'm sorry Ms. Sharp, but while teens do say "like" a lot, they don't say it in the ways that you wrote them. The dialogue alone cost this a full star.
Finally, describing a black person as "colored" or simply as "the black guy" when everyone else gets a name is racist. Sorry no one filled you in on this.
hrkershaw's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
tiggum's review
3.0
Mostly enjoyable, but it would have got a higher score if it weren't for the fact that it's yet another example of the "tough female protagonist is a rape victim" trope. It's such a lazy and overused way to increase the stakes and is almost always totally unnecessary (as it is in this case).
catmum's review
3.0
The first 70% of this book I enjoyed even though thriller-types aren't my favorite. The writing is good, the characters reasonably fleshed out and believable. The last 30%, unfortunately, depends on all characters suffering from galloping stupid in order to move the plot forward. The writing was good enough that I might try another one someday, but it won't be anytime soon.
papercuts1's review
3.0
I have to say I was underwhelmed by this book (I listened to the audio version). Reviews have been mainly in favor of the series, and now I'm wondering if I started with one of the weaker volumes.Let's get the criticism out of the way, shall we?
The plot. I tried, but I didn't really feel suspense, except maybe for the final action sequence. While at first I was curious to find out why Trey was being hunted, and who was eventually behind it, halfway through the book I was so distracted and partially bored by the Spring Breakers, sulking teens, franchise resort golf cart drivers etc. that I stopped really caring. The plot felt like something from an 80s P.I. show - entertaining, but not gripping.
The action scenes are well written, I have to give Sharp that. Crisp, well-paced, no fuss and believable. Made me listen up and lose my disinterest whenever a shootout/close combat scene arrived. Spice of the book.
When I noticed my own disregard for the plot, I decided to focus on the characters instead and care about them. Which is what saved my opinion about the book and lifted it to three stars instead of two. To be precise, Charlie and Sean did.
I never really warmed up with Trey, and neither did Charlie. Not really. The teenagers in the story were something to grin at at first, but they quickly became as much of a nuissance and source for anger as they are in RL (I'm raising two of that species, I know what I'm talking about). I was, in general, missing adult in the book. Only Walt with his warm Southern accent and paternal instincts was a likeable supporting character. The rest - most of them bad guys - were indistinct and even blurred a little in my head.
But thank God there's Charlie. Tough, yet thoughtful Charlie, ghosts of the past haunting her, and battling with feelings of guilt. She's a likeable heroine, the right mixture of hard and soft, and those features are best completed when she interacts with or thinks about Sean. Sean, her partner, whom she's obviously in love with, but on difficult terms. In the few scenes these two have with each other in 'First Drop', there is a lot of chemistry crackling between these characters, a lot of history defining their cautious but clearly smitten ways with each other. And it's because of them that I might go back and read the first book of the series, even if 'First Drop' really didn't meet my expectations. Luckily enough, stories, for me, are about characters more than about plot (for the most part anyway). Which is why, with qualms, I'm giving 'First Drop' three of five stars (would be 2 1/2 if that was a option).
One more word about the narrator:
I listened to the audio version narrated by Clare Corbett, and she couldn't always convince me either. Her voice suited Charlie's character, and her British English is clean and easy to understand. Also, Corbett's interpretation of Sean was done very well - she gives him nuances of cold-blooded, yet evocative sexiness. Unfortunately, Sean only played a small part in the book, and we don't get to hear him often enough.
As for the teenager's voices, Corbett made them sound appropriately obnoxious - which got on my nerves after a while. Possibly intentional.
I had my biggest issues with Corbett mimicking a deeper, male voice and an American accent. Both seemed exaggerated and really took some getting used to. I would've preferred more subtlety here.
For my reviews in German go to www.buchstapelwleise.wordpress.com
The plot. I tried, but I didn't really feel suspense, except maybe for the final action sequence. While at first I was curious to find out why Trey was being hunted, and who was eventually behind it, halfway through the book I was so distracted and partially bored by the Spring Breakers, sulking teens, franchise resort golf cart drivers etc. that I stopped really caring. The plot felt like something from an 80s P.I. show - entertaining, but not gripping.
The action scenes are well written, I have to give Sharp that. Crisp, well-paced, no fuss and believable. Made me listen up and lose my disinterest whenever a shootout/close combat scene arrived. Spice of the book.
When I noticed my own disregard for the plot, I decided to focus on the characters instead and care about them. Which is what saved my opinion about the book and lifted it to three stars instead of two. To be precise, Charlie and Sean did.
I never really warmed up with Trey, and neither did Charlie. Not really. The teenagers in the story were something to grin at at first, but they quickly became as much of a nuissance and source for anger as they are in RL (I'm raising two of that species, I know what I'm talking about). I was, in general, missing adult in the book. Only Walt with his warm Southern accent and paternal instincts was a likeable supporting character. The rest - most of them bad guys - were indistinct and even blurred a little in my head.
But thank God there's Charlie. Tough, yet thoughtful Charlie, ghosts of the past haunting her, and battling with feelings of guilt. She's a likeable heroine, the right mixture of hard and soft, and those features are best completed when she interacts with or thinks about Sean. Sean, her partner, whom she's obviously in love with, but on difficult terms. In the few scenes these two have with each other in 'First Drop', there is a lot of chemistry crackling between these characters, a lot of history defining their cautious but clearly smitten ways with each other. And it's because of them that I might go back and read the first book of the series, even if 'First Drop' really didn't meet my expectations. Luckily enough, stories, for me, are about characters more than about plot (for the most part anyway). Which is why, with qualms, I'm giving 'First Drop' three of five stars (would be 2 1/2 if that was a option).
One more word about the narrator:
I listened to the audio version narrated by Clare Corbett, and she couldn't always convince me either. Her voice suited Charlie's character, and her British English is clean and easy to understand. Also, Corbett's interpretation of Sean was done very well - she gives him nuances of cold-blooded, yet evocative sexiness. Unfortunately, Sean only played a small part in the book, and we don't get to hear him often enough.
As for the teenager's voices, Corbett made them sound appropriately obnoxious - which got on my nerves after a while. Possibly intentional.
I had my biggest issues with Corbett mimicking a deeper, male voice and an American accent. Both seemed exaggerated and really took some getting used to. I would've preferred more subtlety here.
For my reviews in German go to www.buchstapelwleise.wordpress.com
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