Heat Wave

I read this book after watching the TV series Castle. The book version definitely captures the show, but in a more ridiculously funny way. This had a feel of being the comic relief of the show. Rook (the Castle character) came across as a bumbling puppy following Nikki Heat around (Kate Beckett). He tried to prove his love for her by mostly getting in the way and almost getting himself killed. I spent more time laughing than I did biting my fingernails from the mystery. Having said that, it was a fun, light read. Not a super high-quality mystery, but I enjoyed the story from start to finish. I was entertained and will probably read more in the series if for no other reason than to enjoy the cheese factor.

"It's all the same - only the names will change."

This book is basically if you took the first episode of the first season of Castle, had it gone the way Castle would have like it. Right down to the writer character, Rook (the rook piece in chess is a castle - geddit? har dee har har) who has some conveniently high-placed poker buddies and a overdramatic actress mother who lives with him, and the buddy-cop duo of Ryan and Espisito - oops, I mean Railey and Ochoa. I listened to the audiobook and the narrator even made Railey and Ochoa's vocal inflections similar to those of Ryan and Espisito on the show.

That being said, this was really enjoyable. It was like a special bonus episode in an alternate universe Castle. My only thought is show more this: These are the books Castle writes as a result of hanging out with Becket & crew. Becket reads Castle's novels and is a fan. All of the main characters are CLEARLY based on Becket, Castle, Ryan & Espisito. So... HOW COULD SHE NOT IMMEDIATELY SEE THAT CASTLE IS SO IN LOVE WITH HER AFTER READING THIS BOOK?!

Also, I expected much more steamy sex.

Now I'm going to go read/listen to the next book in the series, Naked Heat. :) show less

I’m not really surprised that this was a perfectly horrible book.

I mean, it’s a series spun off the show Castle, and honestly… it just reads like bad fanfiction.

Nikki Heat is an attractive but stubborn and alone detective. When she gets saddled with a journalist by the mayor who shadows her on the job (sound familiar?), she brushes him off. Then tragedy hits and Rook suddenly becomes useful… and interesting. He connects her with great contacts and his boyish charm delights her, though she’d never admit it.

Maybe, just maybe, she’s falling for him. But first she’s got a murder to solve.

This whole novel feels exactly like an episode of Castle. But badly done, like the last season. The entire cast of characters is there, right show more down to Laney/Lauren and Martha/Rook’s Actress Mother. The only character missing is the best one (Alexis).

As far as crime goes, the story was not very plausible and a lot more time was spent speculating on the potential romance between Nikki Heat and Jameson Rook. “Roach” the collective Ryan and Esposito characters, are actually pretty horrible. Which is a bummer because I liked them on the show.

Ah, oh well. Lesson learned! No more TV show tie-ins. show less

This book was so incredibly funny for all of its quirky inside-joke references and clearly meta takes on the characters that are based on the characters on the show. It's obviously pulp in quality, and is easily read in an afternoon and cliches run amok, but if you are a fan of the show, you will thoroughly enjoy the tie-in universe of Richard Castle's Nikki Heat. Highly recommended.

I wavered between 2 and 3 stars on this one, as every so often I wanted to slap myself around the face for reading it, but actually, taken on its own terms, it was pretty fun and a reasonable mystery

This is a complicated book to comment on because there are multiple levels on which it can be read.

As a stand alone, if someone hasn't seen the TV show "Castle" it's fine, but not great, it starts out very rocky and slowly smooths out as the book goes on. It's not a surprising plot nor does it have twists that are too surprising, but all that said it's not horribly written or plotted by whatever ghost writer/ghost team wrote it.

It would be interesting to know how much input TV writers/producers had into the creation, which brings me to the other level it can be read on. Basically it can be read as one 196 page (plus two pages of half fictional, half not fictional acknowledgments and a fictional dedication) prop of the TV show show more "Castle".

But, even as a prop, it is still weird. I mean, Richard Castle is supposed to have many books and yet here he's basically writing an almost exact replica of his own life (on the show, oops, this explanation could get confusing). But really, would such an 'amazing author' (according to the show) write something that is so thinly veiled as the real life situations and people? I would hope not.

It would be interesting to have them write a Derrick Storm companion book to the series as well, and would it be totally different, or just an uber Mary Sue of Richard Castle.

And honestly, I do get why the book is so thinly veiled, if Rick on the show writes a book about a Detective who's a size 20 and a lesbian, then there can't be all the Kate Beckett/Nikki Heat teasing and other funniness and uncomfortableness, and innuendo on the show.

I don't know, maybe I'm way off base, but as someone who pretends that she can be a writer (i.e. Write stuff but haven't been published yet) generally I think of research for a fictional book to be a baseline and then use stuff here and there and mix and match for the actual story, as well as throwing out the research when needed and putting in totally not based in reality stuff (like a really quick DNA result).

But, maybe I'm being too hard on the book, I'll admit that I did find myself trying to pinpoint scenes in the book that were sort of from the show and then figuring out how 'Rick Castle' had changed them and joined them to put them in the book.

Anyway, for the most part if you're a "Castle" fan and can plow through the beginning, you'll love it. Otherwise, it's probably a pass. show less

Cute inside joke taken to fun extreme. If you're a fan of the show, you might enjoy hearing the actor's voices in your head as you read, but could be disappointed that prose is deliberately purple to mimic the style Castle spouts during cases. Again, it's cute and if you take it as the joke it's intended to be.