REVIEW: The Prada Paradox by Julie Kenner

JayneB Reviews Category / B- Reviews / Book ReviewsContemporary / Julie-Kenner / Play-Survive-Win / romantic-suspense1 Comments

Dear Ms Kenner,

Two years ago I got swept up in your Play.Survive.Win world. The scavenger hunt plot with death as the booby prize for those who lost plus smart protagonists sucked me in and didn’t let go until the last page. “The Prada Paradox” closes the three book story arc and, while not as good as the initial “Givenchy Code,” it still delivers.

My blogging partner Jane has already written a letter outlining the story so I’ll head straight to my thoughts. This was a neat way to get new readers up to speed with the storyline so far without doing a complete info dump. But, even while being neat, the start of the action was slower compared to the two other books. If the tension had been mounting the whole time, it would have worked better but the into 1/3 just felt too languid compared to the rest of the series. The fact that the heroine is a famous actress who has to dodge fans as well as the assassin added a nice twist. I can also believe the attraction between Devi and Blake since it’s based on a previous relationship as well as “we’re dodging death by the minute” outlets of emotions. I did wonder at why it took so much longer in this book to get the antidote to the poison which kicks off the game but I think I see where you’re coming from based on information revealed about who set up this game and why. I also had my suspicions about a certain character. And while I know why you had to have Devi be so mad at Blake, her extreme reaction to his interview on Letterman seemed a touch over the top.

I did figure out quite a few things (the tracking device, the way the poison was delivered) which, agreeing with Jane, made me question if these two had really read up on the background for the movie they were making and ended up lowering my grade for the book. However the actual chase sequences were enough to net the story a B- and I admire that you did something different with the setting other than another NYC one with unknown hero and heroine.

~Jayne

Jayne

Another long time reader who read romance novels in her teens, then took a long break before started back again about 25 years ago. She enjoys historical romance/fiction best, likes contemporaries, action- adventure and mysteries, will read suspense if there's no TSTL characters and is currently reading more fantasy and SciFi.

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