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claudia_is_reading's review
3.0
Cards on the Table by Josh Lanyon
It will come as no surprise at all that I loved the mystery. A Hollywood's Golden Era mystery is the theme of Timothy North's book, and oh, my god! the characters are glorious! The old diva, the astrologer, the gangster and his son (Tony the Cock and Frankie the Weenie, c'mon!), all of them are endearing, and the story is easy to follow but keeps your interest until the end...
The romance is what takes one star of the five for this book. I like Tim and Jack, although for moments I want to shake them and shout at them. A bit. The sex is hot, and the reasons both of them have to behave the way they do are solid and understandable. Angst, miscommunication and hurt are at their best, but... the final understanding feels a little bit rushed.
Murder at the Heartbreak Hotel by Sarah Black
Okay, this is a weird situation. I love the descriptions, I love her writer's style... except when it comes to dialogue. Any time there was dialogue I was thrown off from the story. I think that in close to 80% of the dialogue, the first word of each sentence was a name. And, the next 20%, at least 15% have a name randomly tossed in it. And it's a shame because the story was interesting, and there were some really fascinating characters.
I didn't understand Peter and Sebastian's relationship, and I didn't understand Sebastian. At all. But it was a compelling read, so there is that :P
I'm willing to try another book by Sarah Black, in the hope that she had got a better editor.
It will come as no surprise at all that I loved the mystery. A Hollywood's Golden Era mystery is the theme of Timothy North's book, and oh, my god! the characters are glorious! The old diva, the astrologer, the gangster and his son (Tony the Cock and Frankie the Weenie, c'mon!), all of them are endearing, and the story is easy to follow but keeps your interest until the end...
The romance is what takes one star of the five for this book. I like Tim and Jack, although for moments I want to shake them and shout at them. A bit. The sex is hot, and the reasons both of them have to behave the way they do are solid and understandable. Angst, miscommunication and hurt are at their best, but... the final understanding feels a little bit rushed.
Murder at the Heartbreak Hotel by Sarah Black
Okay, this is a weird situation. I love the descriptions, I love her writer's style... except when it comes to dialogue. Any time there was dialogue I was thrown off from the story. I think that in close to 80% of the dialogue, the first word of each sentence was a name. And, the next 20%, at least 15% have a name randomly tossed in it. And it's a shame because the story was interesting, and there were some really fascinating characters.
I didn't understand Peter and Sebastian's relationship, and I didn't understand Sebastian. At all. But it was a compelling read, so there is that :P
I'm willing to try another book by Sarah Black, in the hope that she had got a better editor.
evila_elf's review
5.0
Rating is for Cards on the Table only. I loved this book and was very sad to see it end. Would have loved to have it be a full novel with some more twists and turns. But I cared more for the characters than I did for the mystery, not that that was a problem at all.
As for the second story in this volume, I hated it and couldn't get past the first few pages. Too many characters all introduced at once, and everyone had the annoying habit of using first names in every other line of dialogue. How often do you really say the name of the person you we speaking to in conversation?
As for the second story in this volume, I hated it and couldn't get past the first few pages. Too many characters all introduced at once, and everyone had the annoying habit of using first names in every other line of dialogue. How often do you really say the name of the person you we speaking to in conversation?
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