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trin 's review for:
The Psychic and the Sleuth
by Summer Devon, Bonnie Dee
Look, I usually try to save one-star reviews for books that are actively offensive or truly awful. This isn't either of those -- but it's just so blandly bad that I can't bring myself to plunk down an extra star.
The characters are poorly developed -- are they even characters? You never get more than the labels in the title. The Psychic's growing powers are not handled in an interesting or dramatic way, and the Sleuth is bad at his job. There's random D/s that isn't grounded in characterization and therefore feels meaningless and not sexy. And like: the rape and murder of multiple women is used as a vehicle to get these two boring dudes together to do poorly negotiated puppy play. Again, this is not blatantly offensive and I like some thriller/action/mystery elements in my romance. I signed on for this. But I didn't sign on for it to be carried out in such a limp, careless fashion.
I started reading a K.J. Charles book after this; it's one of her slighter efforts and it's still a thousand times richer in just the first couple of chapters, with real characterization, unusual period detail, and thoughtful political ramifications. The difference is like night and day. That's probably going to be a three (or maybe four) star read, and that gap's why this book has to be one star.
Also because: it isn't good and I didn't like it.
The characters are poorly developed -- are they even characters? You never get more than the labels in the title. The Psychic's growing powers are not handled in an interesting or dramatic way, and the Sleuth is bad at his job. There's random D/s that isn't grounded in characterization and therefore feels meaningless and not sexy. And like: the rape and murder of multiple women is used as a vehicle to get these two boring dudes together to do poorly negotiated puppy play. Again, this is not blatantly offensive and I like some thriller/action/mystery elements in my romance. I signed on for this. But I didn't sign on for it to be carried out in such a limp, careless fashion.
I started reading a K.J. Charles book after this; it's one of her slighter efforts and it's still a thousand times richer in just the first couple of chapters, with real characterization, unusual period detail, and thoughtful political ramifications. The difference is like night and day. That's probably going to be a three (or maybe four) star read, and that gap's why this book has to be one star.
Also because: it isn't good and I didn't like it.