Open Season

Rating:
Summary: Not her best
Review: I would recommend any book Linda Howard has written over this one. She's long been one of my favorite authors, but this was just -- dull.

Rating:
Summary: Cute, but lacks the substance of a Linda Howard book
Review: I've probably read every book Linda Howard has written. She's always been one of those authors that I automatically buy without reading about the plot or checking other people's opinion. This was a "cute" story, but it lacked in-depth character development and history. I think she spent the majority of her time trying to write funny or clever passages. I wasn't expecting 336 pages of cute. Actually, the first passage in the book (which is about a Mexican girl of 17 crossing the border illegally to start a new life in the US) is more of what I was expecting. I cared more about this girl than I did about the main character. That's not to say that cute and funny make for a bad book - but it's less than I expect from Linda Howard. If you look at some of her better books (Mackenzie's Mountain, Sara's Child, All the Queen's Men) you will find a lot more to the main characters than you will find in the characters in this book. This book is worth borrowing from someone or waiting for the paperback. It is not worth the hardback price.

Rating:
Summary: Standard fare from the queen of romantic suspense.
Review: If you're a fan of Linda Howard's (and if you're not, you should be), you will find "Open Season" to be a satisfying read even though it doesn't offer anything new. If fact, I thought this book was VERY similar to Howard's "Dream Man" without the psychic elements. But hey, "Dream Man" was a great book, so a repeat isn't completely uncalled for.

The core story is about a small-town librarian, Daisy Minor, who wakes up on her 34th birthday and realizes that her hair is boring, her clothes are boring, her job is boring, she's boring. Not to mention lonely. Daisy decides that if she doesn't want to spend her life alone, she needs to get busy, and the fastest way to get results is to do a complete make-over into a "party" girl. Sure enough, there is a beautiful, sexy woman under all her frowsiness. Before she even starts her transformation, she butts heads with the new police chief, Jack Russo, an apparent fish-out-of-water Yankee in this sleepy southern berg. He's big, he's intimidating, he's rude. He's also very sexy . As Daisy ventures out to strut her new stuff at the local bars, he becomes concerned that she's way too naive to realize when she's attracted the wrong kind of attention. Daisy wants him to get out of her way so she can continue her man hunt. Dane - I mean Jack - decides that he needs to stick close for her own protection. Then he decides that he just needs to stick close. Somewhere along the way there's a crime to solve and Daisy becomes a target for bad guys. Which means, of course, that Daisy and Jack need to have some hot love scenes.

Howard's unique style and humor are evident throughout the book. Daisy's schemes to get the word out that she's available are hysterical, and you will never see colored condoms in the same light. Both of the lead characters are appealing, but Daisy is the more finely drafted of the two. Her ernest attempts to be a party girl are charming. I particularly appreciated that she isn't one of those ninny romantic heroines who has to go do something foolish that she's been warned not to do in order to prove how independent and spirited she is. In fact, when Jack thinks she's left a safe haven he's found for her, she lets him have it. Her response: "I'm safe here; why would I leave? That's what always happens in movies; either the woman or the kid disobeys instructions and does exactly what they've been told not to do, thereby putting both themselves and everyone else in danger. I've always thought that if they were that stupid, then let them die before they have a chance to breed." Hallelujah!

The mystery plot is good, but the romance is better. The secondary characters are well-developed, especially the bad guys. All in all, this is a quick read, but a good one.

Rating:
Summary: A NICE READ
Review: THE PAST FEW MONTHS I STARTED READING AND HAVENT BEEN ABLE TO STOP. I LITERALLY PICK UP A BOOK AND WITHIN 2 DAYS ITS FINISHED AND THEN PICK UP ANOTHER ONE. THIS BOOK WASNT SUSPENSEFUL OR TWISTED IN ANY WAY. JUST A NICE BOOK TO READ. IT WAS NICE STEPPING AWAY FROM SOME OF THE HARSH STUFF I'VE BEEN READING. READ THIS ON A RAINING DAY.

Rating:
Summary: How I Spent My Weekend
Review: Well, finally, I've read a Linda Howard book that doesn't make me squirm in (pick one of the following negative emotions); embarrassment for an impotent woman; indignation at the cold hearted nature of the hero; contempt at the insistence that sex should contain an element of pain for the woman; and anger at frequent sexual intimidation and humiliation. Can you tell I had a bag full of Howard books to read in an isolated cabin on Memorial Day Weekend? Well, of them all, Open Season was the only one that did not contain any of the above elements. It was fast paced and fun. Howard is not usually strong on character development (maybe she did it once for her first book, but then figued, why re-invent the wheel?), but you do have to like Daisy. She's bold, funny and strong in spite of the kind of naivete I usually find unforgivable. The hero is sexy and responds to Daisy's quirkiness in a funny way. All in all, it was very entertaining. That's not to say I won't approach Linda Howard with all caution in the future.