Raging Passion (aka Rage)

I read Rage purely because I was curious to see what [a:Thea Harrison|4443809|Thea Harrison|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1295634607p2/4443809.jpg] was writing back in the 80's under the name Amanda Carpenter.

Rage has some hardcore 80's soap opera stuff happening throughout the story. Glasses are getting shattered dramatically, people are slapping each other's faces all over the place, and the rich protagonists are going around calling each other droll. Now, I love a crazy melodramatic book once in a while but this one did not work for me. Mostly because the story didn't go far enough into the ridiculous for me to enjoy it. There was no rich male stripper with a heart of gold and pet owl (see [b:Lightning That show more Lingers|537516|Lightning That Lingers|Sharon Curtis|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1208437243s/537516.jpg|524940]) or evil twin. Instead, the underlying plot was fairly interesting and believable. It was just the characters' reactions to things that were overblown and that's what made the book annoying. The tone of the plot and character's actions didn't match-up for me. On top of that, the stereotypical snobby rich tone of the dialog was grating on my nerves.

This book was interesting to see how far Thea Harrison has come as a writer. However, if you're thinking about reading this because you're a fan of her recent work, I would recommend you skip it. show less

As I read this I became pretty sure I've read it before but I didn't remember it well enough to ruin my enjoyment of it this time around. It was a fun romance about lovers who agree to no strings but fall into a committed relationship anyway. Of course the hero denies it to both himself and her and problems ensue. I enjoyed the heroine. She was pretty strong except for her love for him which caused her to roll over for him a bit more than she should have. She was also pretty kind and caring. She tried to help the other girl the hero was thinking about marrying and she genuinely wanted the hero to be happy no matter who he was with. A nice book.