jethrien

Title: Lola Carlyle Reveals All
Author: Rachel Gibson
Genre: Contemporary romance
Thingummies: 1.5

Synopsis: A secret agent on the run from drug lords accidently kidnaps a supermodel. Hilarity fails to ensue.

Thoughts: I'll confess--I only picked this book up because I was running out of books on vacation, and it seemed like a fast read from what was available at the hotel's swap shelf.

I like a good fluffy romance. It doesn't have to be particularly deep. But I'd like it to make sense, and I'd like it to not perpetuate gender stereotypes so much that I want to throw it against a wall. This fails.

Look, it's ok to start with some stereotypes. But the characters should be able to rise above them a bit. Here, there are repeated opportunities, all of which are missed. For example, the dude is trying to fish. He's using the wrong lure. Supermodel turns out to have had a grandfather who ran a sport fishing boat, so she corrects him, and catches a fish before he does. Awesome. Nice way to bring him down a notch and make him see her like a person. But the author couldn't leave it there. No, he has to then catch a bigger fish than she did. Because he's a man. A manly man. And men are better fishers than women, even when it's established that he's less experienced.

Also, the plot never goes anywhere. Or rather, it goes a bunch of random places. He gets beat up by the drug lords he's trying to bring down, hesteals her boat with her on it, she accidently blows up the controls trying to defend herself. They drift for awhile, giving them time to get to know each other. Great. They land on an island, then discover it's a drug cache. Awesome. They steal the drug runner's boat and get away. Hurray. Have a big showdown with the drug lord and declare victory.

But no, that doesn't happen. They get back to the mainland. There's a little bit where he's decided it's unprofessional to call her and she can't find him, which is abandoned almost immediately. They break into her ex's house and steal some embarrassing photos the ex put on the internet. Nothing really happens with this either. She takes him to her family ruin. Nothing happens there. She's an ex-bulimic who never actually goes into crisis (or has teeth problems), so it's useless characterization. He gets called on another mission, she hands him an ultimatum and walks out when he chooses the job over her, he goes on the job and we don't see what happens, then he shows up and declares that he wants her more than the job and completely undoes all of the characterization from the whole book. Also, we're told, not shown. WTF?

And the drug lords? Never show up again. Despite the fact that much is made of them, despite the fact that her disappearance and reappearance make the news and should make it really easy for them to find her. Major plot, completely dropped.

Basically, this was awful. And because I'm an awful person, I put it back on the shelf for the next unwary reader. Sorry, next reader.