The Particulars: Harlequin Romantic Suspense, 2019, Out of Print, Available Digitally
Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: I had a long-neglected ARC of this on my Kindle. Also, fun fact, Cliff is a pseudonym for Jill Sorenson, who wrote several single title romantic suspense novels that I enjoyed.
The Review: Just look at that cover goodness. What can you expect from this story? Just look at the cover. For once an art department in Romancelandia totally nailed it. There was a lot about this book that screamed Wendy Catnip. I'm a sucker for a heroine in peril story and this one features working class characters. The hero is also an Ice Road Trucker - which gives the story a survivalist "couple against nature" vibe. Unfortunately I didn't love this story as much as I truly wanted to.
Tala Walker finally gathered up the courage to flee her abusive husband in Canada, a matter complicated by the fact that he's a cop. After being on the move for a while, she finally has settled (under an assumed name) in Middle Of Nowhere, Alaska. She's a waitress at a diner that mainly caters to truckers and cops (which she's not wild about - but the owner gives them free coffee and she keeps her head down). She arrives to work one morning to find her boss sleeping off a drunk in his office, so she's alone to open in. In walks a cop (free coffee) and shortly thereafter three rough looking characters. They eat, they leave, and Tala decides to take out the garbage - and that's when she sees one of the rough looking guys shooting one of his companions. The cop gets irritated and tells the thugs to go back into the diner to do further "clean up." Tala, not being stupid, sees this as a threat and takes off. Safety comes in the form of the nearby truck stop and stowing away on a big rig.
The driver of said big rig is Cameron "Cam" Hughes. He knows Tala from the diner, having eaten there in the past and gotten his head turned. This makes him uncomfortable because he's in Alaska to be alone darling. He's a widower, a former cop, with a healthy White Knight Complex and a heaping side guilt. When his wife died he ran away to Alaska to become an Ice Road Trucker. When he finds Tala stowing away on his truck he's not pleased. Besides the fact that she's pretty and tempting? Oh, the minor detail that she's obviously running from something and not giving him the entire truth.
What follows is Tala traveling with Cam on the ice road, even though it could cost him his job, and the bad guys lurking around every snow drift.
The story got off to a rocky start because the early chapters felt spoon-fed to me. I felt like the author was "telling" me the set-up instead of unfolding it through the characters feelings and actions. But the writing did smooth out for me after a bit, and things picked up once Tala stows away on Cam's truck.
Cam is classic emotionally wounded hero. He's still hung up over his wife's untimely death (she was killed in an accident) and is the sort of guy who would rush into a burning building to save a family's pet cat - so even though he knows Tala isn't telling him everything his White Knight Complex kicks into overdrive. This was my main issue with him. I would have hog-tied Tala until she told me the truth or else left her freezing butt behind in a snow bank until I got the truth out of her - but then we wouldn't have a story.
Tala was OK, I guess. I understood her distrust of law enforcement given her past (besides the abusive cop she's still married to, she's First Nations) and she immediately pegs Cam as the kind of guy who would demand going to the authorities (oh, little does she know...). So she tap-dances around the truth a lot. She's also a person whose crisis response is flight - so she runs. A lot. After a while I was not only exhausted, but annoyed.
The lines between Harlequin Romantic Suspense and Harlequin Intrigue have always felt murky to me, but someone once explained it to me that Romantic Suspense tends to be more "romance forward." That's certainly the case here, with Cam getting distracted and wanting to boink Tala even though he knows she's not being entirely forthcoming and Tala starting to not feel dead below the waist. Of course this also means the suspense is kind of meh. Not much is done about the murder, other than to say yes this guy was shot and yes Tala witnessed it. Fleshing out a motive? Not so much (we get one but not a lot of detail). This will probably satisfy 95% of romance readers, but if you're a suspense reader (like yours truly) it comes off as a bit of a Nothing Burger.
I'm left with a story I read fairly quickly but that didn't rise up past a lukewarm response. I wasn't left out in the cold, but I also didn't feel like I was in a house on fire.
Final Grade = C+
4 comments:
"but then we wouldn't have a story, I guess"
I want more authors to find a way around that bullshit; most of the reasoning behind keeping secrets is "the plot, darling" and that just doesn't work when building characters.
I'm sorry this didn't quite work out for you, and yet, envious (at least you finished your TBR read this month ::stares forlornly at blog:: )
I think that's why I've struggled with Rom Suspense "with Cam getting distracted and wanting to boink Tala..." I'm like "you are being chased" (or insert dangerous situation), and all the characters can think about is sex. I don't get it. It's even worse when they have sex with their lives in immediate danger. I'd rather have one or the other I think. But anyhow... It's another one off the TBR pile!
I also dipped into some HQN RS for this prompt, picking Texas Twin Abduction by Virginia Vaughan. It's a Love Inspired Romantic Suspense, and it's basically cover-to-cover nonstop action, with a romance sprinkled in and a deft hand with the God stuff. I just finished another Christian book (more suspense than romance) and it was the exact opposite. The struggle is real to find authors who hit the right notes for me, and at least with this one, Vaughan is a complete winner. Would recommend!
Interesting that you make that distinction between the RS and Intrigue lines! I think all of the RS novels I've read have been more suspense-heavy than romance-heavy. Granted, they've been LI RS, but even with those, the romance took a distinct back seat to the mystery plot (mostly to their detriment IMO). I have a couple of Intrigues on Mount TBR but their blurbs just don't appeal to me these days.
AL: That was most definitely the issue here - the keeping of The Big Secret felt thin to me, especially when you factor in that Cam is a former cop. He just plays the part of White Knight even though he knows Tala isn't being entirely truthful. I would have duct-taped her to a chair and left her outside in a snow bank until she sang like a canary but I'm wacky like that.
Jen: So I will say there is no Danger Banging here, which thank the Lord, because I hate that too. In fact, the whole murder witnessing thing in general lacks urgency overall. Yes, the bad guys are tracking down Tala but it's not edge-of-your-seat thrills. It's almost like an afterthought. I would say her abusive ex plays a more significant role in adding to the suspenseful atmosphere.
Eurohackie: I like Love Inspired Suspense because I'm guaranteed to not get any Danger Banging - but you are so right! Some authors have a defter hand at The God Stuff than others. I've had pretty good luck with reading authors in that line that have also written for Harlequin's secular lines but I'm just really starting to dip my toes in there.
I'm not sure if the distinction I mentioned between RS and Intrigue is really, in fact, fact - it's just what others have told me and I can see it in my own readings of the lines. Intrigue also, typically, tends to be a bit faster paced for me, but I do believe that line is a little shorter on word count, which would explain that.
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