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A review by ria_mhrj
Absolutely, Positively by Jayne Ann Krentz
2.0
Part of me wanted to give this three stars, because I actually rather enjoyed how bananas this was. I know I have to suspend my disbelief at times as a romance reader, but this book was nuts.
So chapter one, we meet our central pair and learn they are working together. The hero, in some really jarring stream of consciousness type exposition, has decided he totally needs to bang the heroine. The heroine has decided she totally needs to fire the hero for being an arrogant dismisser of everything. Both put forward their points of view, and because of reasons (still not entirely sure what they are) the hero wins and their 'affair' (their word, not mine - seems odd as they are both single but ok) begins.
And then we get about eighty five family members from the hero's warring dynasties he has descended from - carnival workers on one side, tycoons on the other - all introduced with a litany of problems that only Harry the hero can help with. The few members of Molly's family and friends we meet pretty much all agree that they find her relationship with Harry weird and recommend caution. In real life, that would be a red flag all over the place. In this book, she proposes marriage to this oddball and he's like "sure, whatevs" and then they're engaged. Like halfway through the book.
And I haven't even mentioned Harry's psychic abilities, often alluded to without ever quite being explored unless for plot purposes, as on top of all this insanity, Molly is also dealing with a stalker who may or may not want to kill her.
I think I am destined to struggle with pre-2000s romance, because the genre appears to have come on leaps and bounds since then. The vivid description of clothing throughout had me guessing this book was from the 80s, but it's actually mid-90s. Molly's red dress with military style buttons, and the awful ex and his natty waistcoat will be fond memories. The writing was so strange, we would leap from dialogue to detailed history of life stories, to random outfit descriptions and then back to dialogue that I couldn't quite believe real humans would say, but despite the oddness being alienating at times, I still wanted to know what was coming next.
So I probably enjoyed this more than two stars worth. Amidst all the weirdness there was a really fun story. It's a shame books don't get rebooted like movies, because with some slightly more modern sensibilities, this story could have been a winner.
So chapter one, we meet our central pair and learn they are working together. The hero, in some really jarring stream of consciousness type exposition, has decided he totally needs to bang the heroine. The heroine has decided she totally needs to fire the hero for being an arrogant dismisser of everything. Both put forward their points of view, and because of reasons (still not entirely sure what they are) the hero wins and their 'affair' (their word, not mine - seems odd as they are both single but ok) begins.
And then we get about eighty five family members from the hero's warring dynasties he has descended from - carnival workers on one side, tycoons on the other - all introduced with a litany of problems that only Harry the hero can help with. The few members of Molly's family and friends we meet pretty much all agree that they find her relationship with Harry weird and recommend caution. In real life, that would be a red flag all over the place. In this book, she proposes marriage to this oddball and he's like "sure, whatevs" and then they're engaged. Like halfway through the book.
And I haven't even mentioned Harry's psychic abilities, often alluded to without ever quite being explored unless for plot purposes, as on top of all this insanity, Molly is also dealing with a stalker who may or may not want to kill her.
I think I am destined to struggle with pre-2000s romance, because the genre appears to have come on leaps and bounds since then. The vivid description of clothing throughout had me guessing this book was from the 80s, but it's actually mid-90s. Molly's red dress with military style buttons, and the awful ex and his natty waistcoat will be fond memories. The writing was so strange, we would leap from dialogue to detailed history of life stories, to random outfit descriptions and then back to dialogue that I couldn't quite believe real humans would say, but despite the oddness being alienating at times, I still wanted to know what was coming next.
So I probably enjoyed this more than two stars worth. Amidst all the weirdness there was a really fun story. It's a shame books don't get rebooted like movies, because with some slightly more modern sensibilities, this story could have been a winner.