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A review by paulabrandon
Prey by Abby Crayden, Linda Howard
1.0
Angie Powell is a wilderness tour guide, and she heads out with accountant Chad Krugman, and his client, Mitchell Davis, little realising that Chad is using the opportunity to murder Mitchell, because Mitchell has found out he's been siphoning funds from him!
Dare Callahan, a rival who has just about put Angie out of business (so she hates him), heads out as well, as a favour for the friend of one of Angie's late father, to keep an eye on her. Good thing he does, because of course Chad does shoot and kill Mitchell, and needs to also kill Angie, the only witness. However, Angie is saved by the interference of a vicious black bear that tears the dead body of Mitchell to shreds! She escapes into the stormy wilderness, where Dare eventually finds her, bringing her to the safety of his cabin. They spend the remainder of the novel getting romantic, until Linda Howard remembers that there's both a human killer and an animal killer out there, and quickly brings them all back together for a final battle.
Phew. What a stinker! While the three sequences (three, in a 3oo plus page novel) involving the bear delivered the goods, they certainly weren't enough to save the rest of this snorefest! You should probably read the first 150 pages and then the last 30, because everything in between that is a complete bore. It's long, long, long drawn-out descriptions of Chad fumbling through the wilderness, or of Angie and Dare sleeping, drinking coffee, going to the toilet etc. It was a chore to get through. I'd rather climb a mountain! Well, actually, no I wouldn't, but this book certainly made me feel like I was trawling through the mud!
The book's biggest sin is a sequence in which Dare, after snuggling with Angie overnight so they can both stay warm, makes a comment about morning erections and how they're unavoidable. Angie makes a sarcastic comment about its size in return. So Dare grabs her hand and puts it on his erection.
I nearly threw the book at the wall in shock, outrage and distaste. The only thing that stopped me was the fact it was a library book!
How utterly disgusting, revolting and piggish (and several other adjectives). I knew then, no matter how could the book might turn out to be (and I had already suspected it wouldn't get any better), it was an automatic 1 star!
Maybe if they were already in a relationship, or had even shared a kiss, and he had given some prior indication he would do this, it might be acceptable. Maybe. But as a response to her making a jibe about the size of his penis? Nope, nope, nope. Would Dare do the same to a man if a man had made a similar comment? I doubt it. Dare is a disgusting pig and I hated him from that point on. That pages later Angie is thinking of him as a gentleman because he let her get changed without spying on her just made me feel in.
I can't believe a woman wrote this disgusting garbage!
On top of this, it's just loaded with non-sensical silliness:
If Chad wants to kill somebody, why is he going into the fucking wilderness to do it, without some sort of prior recon to get a lay of the land? And why during encroaching bad weather conditions, knowing how unpredictable nature can be? The whole book's set-up is based on its villain being a complete idiot!
Angie is still shamed by her first marriage, which she annulled, because her groom stuffed wedding cake into her face when she asked him not to.
Oh yeah, and Dare is a gross, disgusting, juvenile pig!
But the few brief sequences with the black bear were good. If there were more of that, this might have been salvageable. Though I doubt it.
That being said, does anybody know of any good horror books out there featuring a killer bear? I'd read that!
Dare Callahan, a rival who has just about put Angie out of business (so she hates him), heads out as well, as a favour for the friend of one of Angie's late father, to keep an eye on her. Good thing he does, because of course Chad does shoot and kill Mitchell, and needs to also kill Angie, the only witness. However, Angie is saved by the interference of a vicious black bear that tears the dead body of Mitchell to shreds! She escapes into the stormy wilderness, where Dare eventually finds her, bringing her to the safety of his cabin. They spend the remainder of the novel getting romantic, until Linda Howard remembers that there's both a human killer and an animal killer out there, and quickly brings them all back together for a final battle.
Phew. What a stinker! While the three sequences (three, in a 3oo plus page novel) involving the bear delivered the goods, they certainly weren't enough to save the rest of this snorefest! You should probably read the first 150 pages and then the last 30, because everything in between that is a complete bore. It's long, long, long drawn-out descriptions of Chad fumbling through the wilderness, or of Angie and Dare sleeping, drinking coffee, going to the toilet etc. It was a chore to get through. I'd rather climb a mountain! Well, actually, no I wouldn't, but this book certainly made me feel like I was trawling through the mud!
The book's biggest sin is a sequence in which Dare, after snuggling with Angie overnight so they can both stay warm, makes a comment about morning erections and how they're unavoidable. Angie makes a sarcastic comment about its size in return. So Dare grabs her hand and puts it on his erection.
I nearly threw the book at the wall in shock, outrage and distaste. The only thing that stopped me was the fact it was a library book!
How utterly disgusting, revolting and piggish (and several other adjectives). I knew then, no matter how could the book might turn out to be (and I had already suspected it wouldn't get any better), it was an automatic 1 star!
Maybe if they were already in a relationship, or had even shared a kiss, and he had given some prior indication he would do this, it might be acceptable. Maybe. But as a response to her making a jibe about the size of his penis? Nope, nope, nope. Would Dare do the same to a man if a man had made a similar comment? I doubt it. Dare is a disgusting pig and I hated him from that point on. That pages later Angie is thinking of him as a gentleman because he let her get changed without spying on her just made me feel in.
I can't believe a woman wrote this disgusting garbage!
On top of this, it's just loaded with non-sensical silliness:
If Chad wants to kill somebody, why is he going into the fucking wilderness to do it, without some sort of prior recon to get a lay of the land? And why during encroaching bad weather conditions, knowing how unpredictable nature can be? The whole book's set-up is based on its villain being a complete idiot!
Angie is still shamed by her first marriage, which she annulled, because her groom stuffed wedding cake into her face when she asked him not to.
Oh yeah, and Dare is a gross, disgusting, juvenile pig!
But the few brief sequences with the black bear were good. If there were more of that, this might have been salvageable. Though I doubt it.
That being said, does anybody know of any good horror books out there featuring a killer bear? I'd read that!