Reviews

Don't Look Down by Bob Mayer, Jennifer Crusie

rhodered's review

2.0

Loved Agnes & the Hitman by the same co-authors, but this one was not nearly as good. The plot was just too unbelievable and had holes, the insta-love wasn't substantiated by the characters ever learning enough about each other to see beyond lust, the kid was too cute (and a bit too pandered to), etc. The male lead didn't feel fleshed out at all, aside from his work- persona. It's like he was great at work and sex and there was nothing more to him to the point that I wondered if he had a real brain or soul. Flat.

The only good bits were the self-absorbed actors..great comic relief that had a ring of truth.

georgiewhoissarahdrew's review

3.0

I prefer my Crusie with more relationship than plot. But even plot-heavy Crusie will guarantee taut writing, lots of humour, and genuine 3-D character insights. So if I read this again, I'll skip the slightly confused plot (so who exactly was paying the spooky sniper in the swamp?) and read the slow-burn love story.

ibeforem's review

3.0

I have mixed feelings about this. First, the audio production I listened to was really odd, with the different male/female points of view and male/female dialog done by different narrators (male for male, female for female, of course). It was a little jarring at times, and I think it contributed to the outrageousness of the story. The plot is weak and unnecessarily confusing (I’m still not entirely certain what was going on in the end), and characters are so over-the-top they border on cartoonish. I guess this could be good or bad, depending on your point of view. I’d read more from Crusie, but I might shy away from this particular combination of authors in the future.

missmarketpaperback's review

3.0

Not as good as Agnes and the Hitman but not too bad. A fun read.

brownbetty's review

2.0

This book's main problem is that it is actually two decent books with the exact same plot, cut up and interleaved to produce one rather mediocre book. Crusie co-writes this one with [a:Bob Mayer|19006|Bob Mayer|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1437136106p2/19006.jpg], who may write a decent manly-men with manly-weapons adventure book, (on which subject, remind me later to mention the one point of I-believe-unintentional hilarious homoerotic innuendo) but whose ability at writing a fluffy romance hovers at slightly above zero. I actually attempted to discover if this was because the book was being pushed in two markets, but as near as I can tell, it has only ever been published with the cover you see. On the basis of the cover given, one could be excused, I believe, for expecting a fluffy and amusing romance, not a tale of heavily armed men having shoot-outs in swamps.

Mayer writes the sections that are from the POV of the male protagonist, and Crusie the sections from the POV of the female protagonist. The result is that Lucy, the woman, seems likable, charming, and competent, and J.T. (I don't think we ever learn what that stands for,) seems to like guns and sex. Not that these are not satisfactory interests, but they really failed to make me care if he he lived or died.

I had to force myself to finish this book, and I don't think I so much as chuckled, which for a Crusie book, is a massive fail. Oh, homoeroticism! I think I chuckled at that. One moment, while I find it: damn, cannot find it, but, at one point, J.T. does think fondly of his days with the army as "Manly men doing manly things with other manly men," if I have the quote right. I laughed at that.

olive2read's review

3.0

Way too much militaristic mystery gibberish for my taste. Great characters though.

mutantreptile's review

2.0

I don't think I'm a fan of these collaborations between Crusie and Mayer. So far, I've only liked Agnes and the Hitman.