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drey72's review against another edition
4.0
Rebecca York’s Private Affair is a story of a young woman who’s looking for a killer, and the sexy private investigator who’s helping her do so. The setting is a high school reunion, where people who somehow got along then (or not) are trying to put together a gathering where they can show off how far they’ve come since. (This is entirely my own interpretation of a reunion, I haven’t been to any of mine…)
I liked Olivia, our heroine. She’s pretty down to earth even though she’s a successful model, and she’s mostly level-headed; “mostly” because even the most level-headed person loses it every once in a while.
I liked Max, too. He’s what I expect out of my heroes – smarts, strength (and not just the physical kind), and charm. Plus the security-geekery is icing on my cake. *grin*
The rest of the cast of characters (excluding Max’s partners) filled what I term the “Clue” set. There’s the jock and his mates, the cheerleader and hers, the “in” crowd, the ones they let hang with them, and the ones they didn’t. In this case, there’s also the moneyed crowd and the not-haves. I imagine going to Donley High was not the highlight of Olivia’s life…
Then you find out what happened back when (in dribs and drabs, because of course you can’t find out everything at once, it wouldn’t be a suspenseful story then), and you begin to understand why Olivia’s so hesitant to share the whole story with Max.
Rebecca York’s deftly talented hand strings you along on Olivia and Max’s adventure, and the twists while expected do come as a surprise. The romance is hot, the plot well drawn, and the story will keep you on your toes. Fans of the genre will definitely enjoy this third addition to the Rockfort Security series.
drey’s rating: Excellent!
This review originally posted on drey's library.
I liked Olivia, our heroine. She’s pretty down to earth even though she’s a successful model, and she’s mostly level-headed; “mostly” because even the most level-headed person loses it every once in a while.
I liked Max, too. He’s what I expect out of my heroes – smarts, strength (and not just the physical kind), and charm. Plus the security-geekery is icing on my cake. *grin*
The rest of the cast of characters (excluding Max’s partners) filled what I term the “Clue” set. There’s the jock and his mates, the cheerleader and hers, the “in” crowd, the ones they let hang with them, and the ones they didn’t. In this case, there’s also the moneyed crowd and the not-haves. I imagine going to Donley High was not the highlight of Olivia’s life…
Then you find out what happened back when (in dribs and drabs, because of course you can’t find out everything at once, it wouldn’t be a suspenseful story then), and you begin to understand why Olivia’s so hesitant to share the whole story with Max.
Rebecca York’s deftly talented hand strings you along on Olivia and Max’s adventure, and the twists while expected do come as a surprise. The romance is hot, the plot well drawn, and the story will keep you on your toes. Fans of the genre will definitely enjoy this third addition to the Rockfort Security series.
drey’s rating: Excellent!
This review originally posted on drey's library.
booksuperpower's review against another edition
2.0
A Private Affair by Rebecca York is a 2015 Sourcebooks Casablanca Publication. I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I've read Rebecca York's work for many years and she is usually very consistent, especially in her romantic suspense series. However, this one missed the mark.
Successful and driven fashion model, Olivia, returns to her hometown after the death of her best friend from high school. Olivia believes her friend's murder and the recent deaths of a couple of other people in her graduating class, is linked. Since the police are not going to buy into the conspiracy theory, Olivia puts her career on hold and hires a private detective, named Max to help her figure out what is going on.
Romantic suspense is actually a favorite of mine because it combines mystery and suspense with romance- my two favorite genres in one book. Win- Win. But, in this case, I was stunned by an incident toward the end of the book where Olivia is in a situation that should have taken her a very long time to recover from emotionally and is very controversial, at least I thought it was.
However, she shrugged it off really quickly and had no problems picking up her sexual relationship with Max almost immediately after this very difficult to read passage that I found disturbing on many, many levels.
But, even without that controversial scene and Olivia's very understated reaction to it, the plot was full of holes and paper thin.
I had the feeling I was reading a manuscript for the 1980's that had been touched up just enough to release as novel, because the story had a really dated feel to it.
I'm usually pretty easy to please and don't usually go in for harsh critiques in my reviews, but I can't recommend this one at all. 1.5 stars rounded to 2.
I've read Rebecca York's work for many years and she is usually very consistent, especially in her romantic suspense series. However, this one missed the mark.
Successful and driven fashion model, Olivia, returns to her hometown after the death of her best friend from high school. Olivia believes her friend's murder and the recent deaths of a couple of other people in her graduating class, is linked. Since the police are not going to buy into the conspiracy theory, Olivia puts her career on hold and hires a private detective, named Max to help her figure out what is going on.
Romantic suspense is actually a favorite of mine because it combines mystery and suspense with romance- my two favorite genres in one book. Win- Win. But, in this case, I was stunned by an incident toward the end of the book where Olivia is in a situation that should have taken her a very long time to recover from emotionally and is very controversial, at least I thought it was.
However, she shrugged it off really quickly and had no problems picking up her sexual relationship with Max almost immediately after this very difficult to read passage that I found disturbing on many, many levels.
But, even without that controversial scene and Olivia's very understated reaction to it, the plot was full of holes and paper thin.
I had the feeling I was reading a manuscript for the 1980's that had been touched up just enough to release as novel, because the story had a really dated feel to it.
I'm usually pretty easy to please and don't usually go in for harsh critiques in my reviews, but I can't recommend this one at all. 1.5 stars rounded to 2.
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