With Her Last Breath

This book was very odd. It's the only one by this author that I've read, so maybe she always writes this way. For example the heroine is driving into town at the beginning and sees a man jogging and knows that he is "prowling over the darkness in him, seeking and frustrated, and fighting the realities he'd found" You know when I see a jogger I think "nice butt, okay I've got to turn left up here. What was I getting at the grocery store?" There's an awful lot of guessing what other peoples thoughts and motivations are, all using bunches of purple prose.

Then she keeps telling him. "Go away. I'm not interested. Leave now, I'm done talking to you." and he just doesn't go away. And she's not flirting with him either. What kind of a modern show more man doesn't go away? I'm thinking..."stalker." Then there's her stupid dog. Okay the dog isn't stupid but she wants to leave and the dog won't leave the hero and come to her so she has to stay and hang out with him. I have a dog. I wanted to tell her "You know the dog isn't the boss of you. Grab her collar and drag the damn dog away." So he's insensitive and she's wimpy. Not my favorite type of read. show less

I've had this book for months, wanting to see an example of the romantic suspense genre. Unfortunately, this one was only okay - not super romantic or suspenseful.The back cover was enticing - a troubled woman, a hot guy, a ruthless stalker - but there wasn't quite enough story to fill the pages. The pacing just wasn't there for me, and the characterization seemed kind of flat. There's a lot of potential...but it wasn't realized. My apologies to the author for what will probably be seen as a scathing review.The story is about a woman, Maggie, with a past that includes the death of her sister, a near rape, and an ostracism from her society (including rejection by her husband). Yes, she has a lot of baggage. She moves to a little town on show more the shores of Lake Michigan to start over with her sister's lover's stolen dog, and meets Nick - a huge, handsome man who's equally huge Italian family makes up most of the population of the tiny town. Even though the two characters go at it tooth and nail, they succumb to the lust that accompanies the passionate arguing.I think that Nick's 'you won't tell me about yourself' rants got too repetitive, as did his being 'nettled' so often, and though he, too, has baggage, it's kind of glossed over. Even though he's been in mourning for 12 years over the death of his pregnant wife and hasn't had sex since her, he jumps into the sack quite willingly with Maggie. His only reservations seem to be that he's moving too fast, not that he's desecrating his ex's memory.There were many minor characters involved - sort of - but they didn't really get enough voice. I would have liked to see the main characters interact one-on-one with more of them, especially Nick's brother, Dante, who had issues of his own that seemed to be stuck in as an after thought.The villain seemed pretty one-dimensional, going through the same motions every time the POV switched to him. I did like the way his OCD was developed over time, but his path to finding Maggie was pretty thin. I would have liked to have seen him do more real work to find her...and the 'I couldn't find her on the internet' just doesn't fly since she made no secret of her name and was actively publicizing her business. And the way he ranted about Maggie for so long, I would have liked to hear more of his thought process as he learned of Maggie's connections and how he decided to go after each one, rather than hearing it in hindsight.By the end of the book I started to hum country western songs because the villain kept obsessing about his dog...'I'll kill the girl, but that dog is going to make so much money for me.'Other characters were set up as red herrings - it would have been nice to see them, especially the woman who wanted Nick for herself, be a little more conniving toward Maggie. There would have been more suspense for me if I could believe one of them would get Maggie or Nick before the villain did.So, yes, I've picked this apart...and now will go after my writing with the same eye. If you'd like to read this book, I recommend getting it from the library, rather than buying it. Hopefully I can find a better romantic suspense soon! show less