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A review by lilith_elinor
Don't Look Down by Bob Mayer, Jennifer Crusie
3.0
This is the first book Crusie wrote in collaboration with Mayer. Consequently it was quite different in vibe, with much more action and suspense going on. I liked that you could tell Mayer was bringing his expertise on the subject to the table, and that it's likely that all those little details added to the story are authentic.
Lucy divorced her Australian special forces husband, Connor, 12 years ago. Now she directs dog food commercials in New York while he is a stunt coordinator down south (I think ? USA geography is not my forte). When her sister calls her, offering a directing job with Connor, Lucy wants to turn it down, but her niece sounds so miserable that she decides something is wrong and comes down to Georgia to take charge. And indeed when she arrives, the shoot is disorganised, some ridiculous action sequences with a helicopter have been tacked on to the end, her sister is completely out of it, her niece Pepper is lonely, and no one wants to tell her what's going on.
T.J. Wilder was in the USA special forces too. He is hired out of the blue by a clueless actor to be his stunt consultant and his body double. But when he arrives on set, he is not impressed by the way things are run, although he does take a liking to the director. Soon he is asked to meet up with a handler and told what his mission here really is.
Everyone has an agenda and conflicting goals in this story. We see a lot of helicopters and various guns, some risky stunts, temperamental actors, as well as a one-eyed alligator, lots of Wonder Woman merch, and a very observant little girl.
Lucy is determined and capable, and I liked that she didn't cave and become a pushover when these very dominant macho men tried to assert their authority. She held her own. She did lack that spark of warmth and personality that Crusie at her best manages to give her characters, but she was a decent lead.
Wilder was also a good person, he tries to help and protect these people. I imagine Mayer had more of a hand in writing him and it showed because he wasn't as warm and endearing as Crusie's heroes usually are. She has written some brilliant heroes in the past and I wasn't really seeing it here. Don't get me wrong, he's a decent person and seems to care about Lucy, but he lacked personality and seemed rather one note, I wanted to see more from him.On a rational level I am ok with Wilder sleeping with Althea in the beginning, he is not a monk after all and is allowed to have fun, but seriously... It didn't reflect very well on him and he didn't seem to be aware enough that it would make things awkward for Lucy. I don't necessarily think he shouldn't have slept with Althea, but it should have been made clearer how in retrospect it wasn't a satisfying encounter and he wouldn't make that choice again if he had a redo.
I am not sure that a 5 year old like Pepper would be quite so observant and able to understand everything around her. She sounded more 6 or 7 to me, but what do I know. Having the kid inexplicably pressure all the adult females in her family to wear Wonder Woman underwear when it is precisely the fantasy of the hero felt more than a little contrived, I wasn't buying that.
The beginning was a little hard to get into because it was mostly a lot of conversations introducing a large cast of characters, I had to concentrate to try to keep track. Then the first half in general felt like a lot of setting up and waiting for shit to hit the fan. The second half though takes off and you are taken on a roller coaster of events that comes to a rather abrupt stop at the end. I would have wanted to see a glimpse of their romance some time later in calmer times, especially since they came together so very fast, 4 days is lightning speed and already hard to believe, a small epilogue would have grounded the story for me. I also wanted more closure on the other characters. How do things work out with Daisy and Pepper, Gloom, do the conspirators get their just deserts or weasel out of it.. They are just left in the lurch. This is especially the case for Althea, who we find out pages before the end is a devious conspirator (I'd been having suspicions). And then bam : ending and we have no idea what the fallout is of that. It dulled the impact of that twist.
The ending was quite bloody for Tyler ! I get that he was a monster but I thought that since this is a romance it would happen off-screen, I really wasn't expecting that to be the last note of the book, it was a little jarring for me.
It might seem like I have a lot of quibbles, but really all of this is minor and none of it was big enough to spoil my enjoyment of the book. Overall this was a fun, lively read that definitely kept me entertained. What an interesting partnership. I think after this first effort, with all the kinks ironed out, these two could write great books, so I'm looking forward to reading about Agnes.
Lucy divorced her Australian special forces husband, Connor, 12 years ago. Now she directs dog food commercials in New York while he is a stunt coordinator down south (I think ? USA geography is not my forte). When her sister calls her, offering a directing job with Connor, Lucy wants to turn it down, but her niece sounds so miserable that she decides something is wrong and comes down to Georgia to take charge. And indeed when she arrives, the shoot is disorganised, some ridiculous action sequences with a helicopter have been tacked on to the end, her sister is completely out of it, her niece Pepper is lonely, and no one wants to tell her what's going on.
T.J. Wilder was in the USA special forces too. He is hired out of the blue by a clueless actor to be his stunt consultant and his body double. But when he arrives on set, he is not impressed by the way things are run, although he does take a liking to the director. Soon he is asked to meet up with a handler and told what his mission here really is.
Everyone has an agenda and conflicting goals in this story. We see a lot of helicopters and various guns, some risky stunts, temperamental actors, as well as a one-eyed alligator, lots of Wonder Woman merch, and a very observant little girl.
Lucy is determined and capable, and I liked that she didn't cave and become a pushover when these very dominant macho men tried to assert their authority. She held her own. She did lack that spark of warmth and personality that Crusie at her best manages to give her characters, but she was a decent lead.
Wilder was also a good person, he tries to help and protect these people. I imagine Mayer had more of a hand in writing him and it showed because he wasn't as warm and endearing as Crusie's heroes usually are. She has written some brilliant heroes in the past and I wasn't really seeing it here. Don't get me wrong, he's a decent person and seems to care about Lucy, but he lacked personality and seemed rather one note, I wanted to see more from him.
I am not sure that a 5 year old like Pepper would be quite so observant and able to understand everything around her. She sounded more 6 or 7 to me, but what do I know. Having the kid inexplicably pressure all the adult females in her family to wear Wonder Woman underwear when it is precisely the fantasy of the hero felt more than a little contrived, I wasn't buying that.
The beginning was a little hard to get into because it was mostly a lot of conversations introducing a large cast of characters, I had to concentrate to try to keep track. Then the first half in general felt like a lot of setting up and waiting for shit to hit the fan. The second half though takes off and you are taken on a roller coaster of events that comes to a rather abrupt stop at the end. I would have wanted to see a glimpse of their romance some time later in calmer times, especially since they came together so very fast, 4 days is lightning speed and already hard to believe, a small epilogue would have grounded the story for me. I also wanted more closure on the other characters. How do things work out with Daisy and Pepper, Gloom, do the conspirators get their just deserts or weasel out of it.. They are just left in the lurch. This is especially the case for
It might seem like I have a lot of quibbles, but really all of this is minor and none of it was big enough to spoil my enjoyment of the book. Overall this was a fun, lively read that definitely kept me entertained. What an interesting partnership. I think after this first effort, with all the kinks ironed out, these two could write great books, so I'm looking forward to reading about Agnes.