thesubplot 's review for:

Archer by Dr. Rebecca Sharp

2.0

mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I’m giving a generous 2 stars to this book. Mostly in hopes that the following books live up to my Criminal Minds bar. Please, don’t advertise books coded as Criminal Minds characters, and then NOT deliver. 

 

My brain was scrambled more than those eggs Kiera was shaking in that Ziplock bag, trying to comprehend if Hotch was even in the damn room with us at all during this book. If I had a dollar for the amount of times I shouted out loud “HOTCH WOULD NEVER!”, I’d be able to buy myself the complete series on DVD. I saw more Reid coded character development in this book than the supposed MMC (which let’s face it, I’m just trying to pull through for the 4th book.) 

 

About halfway through the book, I just had to pretend this had jack all to do with anything CM and look at it from that perspective, otherwise I would have had to DNF the book on principal alone. This book had the bones to be a potentially great one, if we edited about 50% of it. 

 

In theory an age gap, protective MMC, dealing with the mafia sounds great on paper. However, you had to make the FMC the most insufferable stubborn dumbass. You mean to tell me, you’ve lived YEARS in WITSEC, and you didn’t develop one iota of self-preservation? Then when things get dicey, SURELY it has absolutely nothing to do with you? Or the fact that you’re a tattoo artist and tattoo works of art on people, but can’t identify your dad’s paintings? Can you feel my eyes rolling into the back of my head from here? 

 

The MMC (if I completely ignore who he is advertised as), is so run of the mill. I’m protective because of past duty, wahhh but my dick is so hard. I bet if I went back and counted the number of times this MF talked about how hard he was, we’d have at least 20% of the book. I also never want to hear any part of someone referred to a rudder again in my life. 

 

Don’t get me wrong, there were a few moments, that I was like “Wow, I really enjoyed that well written paragraph.” Then it was ruined by the use of the word womb where I instantly just face palmed. 

 

There needed to be so much more fleshing out of the characters to make this more enjoyable as a non-coded book, even. If you’re looking for Hotch anywhere in this book, don’t. Just go read some fanfiction. 

 

I’m going to continue the series in hopes of some sort of redemption.