Filed under: D Reviews, Reviews
Dear Ms. Butcher:
Jayne’s review of No Control got me interested in reading your books. Jayne isn’t the biggest fan of romantic suspense so her B- review of your book is a golden recommendation to me. But many of the things that bothered Jayne in her review of No Control bothered me in No Escape and with one scene in the middle of the book, the entire story went down the drain for me.
The basic plot of the story is this: The hero, Grant Kent, a former special forces guy going to work for a private investigative agency/protection agency/security firm, stops by a girl he once knew in foster care. He killed a man for her and he’s never forgotten how in the short amount of time that they were together he grew to care for her. (Killing a guy for a girl kind of imprints that girl on a guy’s mind, I would imagine).
Isabel Carson has recovered from her nightmarish childhood where she shared a foster home for a brief time with Grant Kent. Even though she has not seen him in 14 years, she sends him a note saying that she needs his help. He rushes to her side. She convinces him that some mad man is killing all the former foster children from their shared foster home. Isabel isn’t so concerned about her own safety but the safety of her 17 year old foster son and her former foster siblings. While Grant is in a hurry to get to his new job, he feels like he can’t leave Isabel just yet.
Jayne mentioned that No Control had little blow by blow violence. Not so in this book. There’s plenty of explicit violence including one scene that traumatizes a little girl. Generally this type of thing does not turn me off but as I have become a mother, I’ve been more sensitive to children in RS books. Other readers’ mileage may vary in this regard.
Jayne also mentioned that the heroine in No Control was a bit of a martyr. Isabel is like that as well. She’s not a very nuanced character. She’s a good person, wants to be a foster mom, and stays in touch with all of her former foster siblings. It’s not that these traits aren’t positive, it’s that she’s almost too good to be true to the extent that I wondered if birds sang as she stepped out of the house. She does tell off Grant at one point, but it wasn’t enough for me to see her as anything but a Snow White type of character (she did have long straight black hair too).
Moving on to Grant. Grant is a standard Special Forces dude. He’s strong and bad ass. He doesn’t think he’d make a good father and so no matter how much he wants Isabel, he won’t be sticking around because she wants all these kids and he’d be the suckiest dad ever. This does not stop him from taking the offerings of Isabel’s sweet body even while Isabel has a 17 year old kid in the house who is from a broken home, so broken he is in foster care. No matter, readers, the 17 year old kid knows what’s what and if Grant wants to play slip the sausage with Isabel, the 17 year old isn’t going to stand in their way. So anyway, every sex scene that took place while said kid was in the house made me slightly uncomfortable.
But even with those drawbacks, I thought that the story was decent. It had good suspense and it was very readable. Then I turned the page and read this scene which I suppose is technically spoilerish:
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Half the time Grant acts more immature than the 17 year old foster kid. He’s about the only one I ended up liking by the close of the book.
Sadly, Isabel, did not listen to my urgent warnings to flee Grant. Instead she ends up with a very Happy Ending. On the plus side, this book, while connected to previous Butcher novels, can easily stand alone. D
Best regards,
Jane
This book can be purchased on September 30, 2008, in mass market from Amazon or Powells or ebook format (no direct link here yet.
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Well, since I wasn’t too impressed with No Control either, I think I’ll pass on this one.
I didn’t like the first two but since I try not to give up on an author too easily, I’ve been checking out No Regrets’ reviews but each one mentions the same issues that put me off - unappealing characters. I can let plot holes pass but characters are way too important for me and what Jane just described is something that would make the book a wallbanger.
Bummer. Excess violence in rom susp books is a no-deal for me.
Thanks for the review. I purchased both No Control and No Regrets together and read them both. Didn’t like either… I see I wasn’t the only one… won’t be buying this one.
I enjoyed both of the first two books and while not even close to well written, I am looking forward to reading this next effort as well.
I rather enjoyed the first two also, so I indulged in No Escape… and immediately I finished it, it wound up on the Bookmooch pile with her other two. I found it flat and disappointing, and I doubt I’ll read anything else by her. Rather than improving with each new book, Butcher seems to be going downhill.