Book: Don't Look Down
Title: Don't Look Down
Author: Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer
Genre: Action, Contemporary Romance
Pages: 373
"Lucy Armstrong takes a break from doing dog food commercials to take over a full-length feature shoot in the Savannah River swamps, where she finds half the crew is missing, her ex-husband in charge of stunts, and a nonsensical script. Meanwhile, Green Beret J.T. Wilder, stunt double to the lead actor who secretly works for the CIA, thought this gig would be easy money, but he soon finds himself embroiled in a money laundering scheme while trying to catch an arms dealer for the Russian mob, tracking a spy through the muck, and resisting his growing desire for a woman who looks like Wonder Woman-Armstrong, natch. Plenty of big guns, helicopters, clichéd gender dynamics and light repartee follow-and it's all in good fun." - Synopsis taken from Amazon.com
Crusie has been the only romance author I've ever given a chance, based on a recommendation by Chris' mom who was supporting a local artist and, like me, enjoys the casual and funny voice the author uses in her stories. It's because of this voice that I've since read a handful or so of Crusie's books. And while I typically find some cheesetastic fault with each of them that causes me to roll my eyes a little, I must admit that they are entertaining and lighthearted fun with enough humor to keep me reading. Finding this one, a brand new hardback for just one dollar? How could I pass it up?
Spoilers and randomness:
Not sure what genre to describe this as, as it's not clear cut romance. The addition of a male writer is intended to bring a masculine voice to the story, so we certainly have our fair share of action and adventure as well, but 'romance adventure' sounds corny. Perhaps not, seeing as if this were a movie it would be fitting.
I don't remember ever watching Wonder Woman and I know I haven't read any of the comics, but I've always had a distant affinity towards her. Could have something to do with my own WonderWear as a kid, something I wore a lot of particularly in lieu of a bathing suit, but maybe it's just that she is the natural strong woman icon for girls around my age. Either way, I adore the Wonder Woman inclusions in this book and Pepper's own affinity towards the Amazon and, if I had the confidence and physique, would totally want to throw a Wonder Woman party of my very own.
The obvious choice for mole was Connor Nash as he was in immediate knowledge of both incidents (helicopter stunt and Stephanie taking off with the stunt van) to alert Tyler. Which meant to me that it probably wasn't him, and I started to worry that awesome ol' Gloom had actually taken role of mole since his and Lucy's arrival on set. Sometimes obvious is that way for a reason.
The kid agent that gave Wilder his mission? Crawford? Thought he was a fake. Someone who was given enough training to pull off a cover like this to convince Wilder to think he was on a mission, when they were really using him for their own agenda - perhaps as their mole, even. But, nope. I was wrong. That probably would have been too cliched, so I'm glad they didn't go that route.
I didn't expect everything to play out as straight forward as it seemed from the beginning: Nash, Karen, and Doc were all in on it. I kept expecting to be surprised to find that someone else was involved and when that never seemed to happen, I just started to dismiss the idea when *BAM* Bryce and Althea?! I mean, sure, they're both arrogant and selfish and very much like Nash, but they're such great actors that they both played up the idiot thing far too well. Very convincing. Of course, I'm still confused on what role they had to play in all this. It seemed more like Althea was in on it for the money but Bryce was just kind of forced into it at the end.
The knife, protecting him from the bullet? *rolls eyes*
I knew Moot was going to eat Tyler - expected that from the beginning. For the most part, though, that seems to be the case for this book: expect the expected.
Really enjoyed the change up in points of view. Seeing the story evolve from different perspectives certainly added to the interest level. The dialogue was really well done with distinct voices, wit, and comic timing. However, the rush into the romance made no sense at all. Four days and they're all Happily Ever After? When there's no one-on-one interaction to get to know each other? Um. No. But I took it as a love-at-first-sight, undeniable-attraction kind of thing and let it go. *shrugs*
Taking a look at other reviews and, basically, the Smart Bitches Trashy Books review says everything much better than I could. I agree with all their main points; it was a lot of fun despite the flaws.
Words I Looked Up:
arnicaa tincture of the dried flower heads of the European species A. montana, applied externally to reduce the pain and inflammation of bruises and sprains
berma narrow ledge or shelf, as along the top or bottom of a slope or a terrace formed by wave action along the backshore of a beach