Love at First Sight (Intrigue, 555)

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Summary: One of my favorite authors
Review: B. J. Daniels is one of my favorite authors, and she hasn't let me down with LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT. I couldn't put it down.

Rating:
Summary: Laugh and love at first sight!
Review: B.J. Daniels has a unique storytelling voice that keeps the reader turning the pages and entertained until the very last page. Her mixture of humor and suspense creates a winning combination and a book that is defintely a keeper!

Rating:
Summary: A great read
Review: B.J. Daniels has a unique storytelling voice that keeps the reader turning the pages and entertained until the very last page. Her mixture of humor and suspense creates a winning combination and a book that is defintely a keeper!

Rating:
Summary: A wildly entertaining ride to a taut, suspenseful climax
Review: B.J. Daniels is known for weaving twists and turns into her stories, and LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT is certainly no exception. What a roller coaster of emotion--funny, engaging, and dangerous! What more could a reader want in a book? I loved Jack as a hero, and he more than met his match in Karen. Besides these two great lead characters, there is also a chilling villain worthy of fear and a great ending. Bravo!

Rating:
Summary: Laugh and love at first sight!
Review: B.J. Daniels never disappoints. Love at First Sight will keep you laughing and guessing to a chilling ending!

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Summary: I loved writing this book!
Review: Hi, I'm B.J. Daniels and I have to tell you LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT was one fun book to write. It all started one warm summer day when I saw a great looking tanned hunk of a guy in a Jeep and Jack Adams was born. He needed a woman who would really sweep him off his feet and if anyone could do it, it was Karen Sutton, your average girl next door. Except nothing is average about Karen as Jack is soon to find out. Although fun -- and hopefully funny -- this is also one of my most suspenseful books. I scared myself writing this one! I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I loved writing it. Don't forget to try Aunt Talley's recipes for fried pies and gingersnaps! Happy trails, B.J. Daniels

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining, but Overstuffed Romantic Mystery
Review: In her latest novel, B.J. Daniels takes an "everything but the kitchen sink" approach to storytelling, throwing in far more elements than can be comfortably handled in such a short book. Terrible blind dates, long-kept secrets, matchmaking aunts, murder, grave-digging, amnesia--even a secret baby. Then there's a love story. The setup is so bizarre and unwieldy it's almost impossible to describe what the story's about (which is one of the reasons the back cover copy is so misleading). The gist of it is: When an old friend is found murdered, Karen Sutton realizes she may be able to identify the murderer. The determined Karen throws herself into the investigation and goes chasing after a man she thinks is the killer--only to run into Detective Jack Adams. It may indeed be love at first sight, but she's going to need more than his love. When she becomes bait to catch the killer, she's going to need his protection.

While I would love for books to be this ambitious, in this case the story's strong points are often buried by its excesses. The first few chapters, while often funny, are also really goofy, with a series of far too coincidental encounters taking place one right after another. The back cover dutifully informs the reader that the heroine is struck with amnesia, but that aspect takes so long to appear--and then does so out of nowhere--that it seems like a bizarre afterthought in a story that didn't need one more twist. Even if the "man pretends to be married to woman who can't remember otherwise" plot hadn't been used in an Intrigue just last month (#552, "A Night Without End"), I doubt it would have worked here. It adds nothing except to give the heroine a sudden personality transplant. The spunky, determined Karen of the first half bears little resemblance to the starry-eyed, lovestruck version that appears after she loses her memory. Compared to "A Night Without End" and even this month's "Forgotten Lullaby," the heroine's reaction to find herself married to someone she doesn't remember--simple acceptance--doesn't ring true.

Daniels' tale does have more than its share of strengths. Boring is not a word anyone would associate with it, as Daniels' plotting will keep readers on their toes from start to finish. Jack is a solid hero bound to win a few hearts, strong, sexy and charming. Though everything wraps up a bit too neatly to be believed (Unless Missoula has a population of ten, the way all the characters happen to be connected to one another is ridiculous), the mystery element is the book's strongest, a puzzle many will be eager to solve. Unfortunately, the wildly shifting tone is its weakest. The climax is so taut and suspenseful, the final image of the villain so wonderfully haunting, that it seems completely out of place with the wackiness that started the story.

While nowhere near as good as the moving stories full of in-depth writing Daniels used to pen ("Hotshot P.I." "Undercover Christmas" "Odd Man Out") but seems to have moved away from, readers seeking a fast-paced, lighter tale with a dash of mystery shouldn't go wrong here. I was certainly entertained by "Love at First Sight." I also didn't believe a word of it.

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining, but Overstuffed Romantic Mystery
Review: In her latest novel, B.J. Daniels takes an "everything but the kitchen sink" approach to storytelling, throwing in far more elements than can be comfortably handled in such a short book. Terrible blind dates, long-kept secrets, matchmaking aunts, murder, grave-digging, amnesia--even a secret baby. Then there's a love story. The setup is so bizarre and unwieldy it's almost impossible to describe what the story's about (which is one of the reasons the back cover copy is so misleading). The gist of it is: When an old friend is found murdered, Karen Sutton realizes she may be able to identify the murderer. The determined Karen throws herself into the investigation and goes chasing after a man she thinks is the killer--only to run into Detective Jack Adams. It may indeed be love at first sight, but she's going to need more than his love. When she becomes bait to catch the killer, she's going to need his protection.

While I would love for books to be this ambitious, in this case the story's strong points are often buried by its excesses. The first few chapters, while often funny, are also really goofy, with a series of far too coincidental encounters taking place one right after another. The back cover dutifully informs the reader that the heroine is struck with amnesia, but that aspect takes so long to appear--and then does so out of nowhere--that it seems like a bizarre afterthought in a story that didn't need one more twist. Even if the "man pretends to be married to woman who can't remember otherwise" plot hadn't been used in an Intrigue just last month (#552, "A Night Without End"), I doubt it would have worked here. It adds nothing except to give the heroine a sudden personality transplant. The spunky, determined Karen of the first half bears little resemblance to the starry-eyed, lovestruck version that appears after she loses her memory. Compared to "A Night Without End" and even this month's "Forgotten Lullaby," the heroine's reaction to find herself married to someone she doesn't remember--simple acceptance--doesn't ring true.

Daniels' tale does have more than its share of strengths. Boring is not a word anyone would associate with it, as Daniels' plotting will keep readers on their toes from start to finish. Jack is a solid hero bound to win a few hearts, strong, sexy and charming. Though everything wraps up a bit too neatly to be believed (Unless Missoula has a population of ten, the way all the characters happen to be connected to one another is ridiculous), the mystery element is the book's strongest, a puzzle many will be eager to solve. Unfortunately, the wildly shifting tone is its weakest. The climax is so taut and suspenseful, the final image of the villain so wonderfully haunting, that it seems completely out of place with the wackiness that started the story.

While nowhere near as good as the moving stories full of in-depth writing Daniels used to pen ("Hotshot P.I." "Undercover Christmas" "Odd Man Out") but seems to have moved away from, readers seeking a fast-paced, lighter tale with a dash of mystery shouldn't go wrong here. I was certainly entertained by "Love at First Sight." I also didn't believe a word of it.