Laura Summers's Reviews > Dangerous

Dangerous by Diana Palmer
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Jun 30, 11

bookshelves: audio-books-i-own, bcc-reviewed, listened-to-in-2011, romance
Read in March, 2011

** spoiler alert ** Reviewed for Book Chick City's Audio Book Sunday Feature

(1 out of 10 on the blog)

*Warning this review contains spoilers*

I'm not usually one for sweeping statements, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to go with it here. This has to be on the list as one of the worst contemporary romances I've read. I will put a caveat and say that some people on Goodreads have given it 4 or 5 stars so this is my personal opinion, but it was sheer grit and determination that I persevered until the end. I've read a few Diana Palmer books before and I've found them a fun and cosy.

This is the story of FBI agent Kilraven and sweet and quiet dispatcher Winnie. Winnie has had a soft spot for Kilraven for a long time, but having lost his wife and daughter in a shoot out relating to a crime he was investigating, Kilraven does not want to settle down again.

My biggest problem with this novel is that the plot was both confusing and had a lot of holes in it. The murder mystery element of the story gets incredibly confusing. There are lots of characters and sub plots running which makes it very hard to keep track. I ended up getting a little lost as to who was who, and who was a suspect.

Then there were the general plot holes. For example, I found it quite remarkable after in the early chapters Winnie comments on how much she and her estranged mother look alike, so much so that her father used to beat her for it. Then when it turns out that Kilraven has been friends and worked with her mother in the FBI for years, he is stunned to find out she is Winnie's mother. Additionally, Kilraven's brother, also in the FBI, is in charge of the investigation into her wife and daughter's murder. What about personal interest? And there are lots of incidents like this, that just do not add up.

While this book was a contemporary romance, the story would have been much better suited as a historical. Firstly, let's take the reason Kilraven and Winnie 'have' to get married. During the course of the investigation, they will be staying alone in Winnie's family home in the Carribbean. As Winnie is a virgin, Kilraven does not want to sully her reputation by staying with her. So his solution to this problem is to marry her. Of course he then adds that they can then have have a dirty weekend together and then he can just divorce her afterwards! Despite knowing that Winnie has the total hots for him too. Despite my moral objection to Kilraven's view of using and discarding Winnie. Do people really think about women's reputations like this anymore?

Then, while discussing his problems with ex-wife, Kilraven's expresses how upset he was that his wife wasn't a virgin on their wedding night. I can take the fact that in a romance that more often that not the heroine is a virgin is this is part of the formula, and actually I usually find it quite sweet. But, let's face it this is the 21st century and the author needs to treat her readers like modern women.

In terms of the characters, I found Winnie sweet and I very much liked her, but I actually ended up entirely disliking Kilraven, finding him to be a cold and selfish person. Putting aside the implausible reason as to why they had to get married. The very reason he thought it would be acceptable is pretty ghastly. Then let's look at the sex scene itself. Kilraven ends up hurting Winnie so much during their consummation that she cries all the way through it. But this is ok because he hasn't had sex for seven years and couldn't help himself and you know, he made up for it afterwards! Ugh, at this point I did actually shout at my iPod.

The narrator to the audiobook was male. I'm not sure how I feel about male narrators to romance books, or whether I just did not engage with this narrator. But he certainly didn't help with my overall problems with the book. The falsetto voice he used for the female characters was very odd.


I do hate giving negative reviews to books as I am conscious that this is someone's livelihood. But I'm afraid my advice here would be to save your money.
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Laura Summers Ugh I'm not sure I have the patience to finish this book...

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