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I finished Linda Howard's Up Close and Dangerous this weekend. Many of those who read it said that the plot reminded them of Midnight Rainbow, especially the heroine's bag of "stuff." For me, I saw echos of her novella, White Out, in which the heroine warmed the hero, who was close to hypothermia. Remember? ;-) Of course, the novella being a short format, the hero got into another kind of body heat remarkably quickly! LOL.
Up Close and Dangerous was enjoyable, more a survival adventure than "suspense." I figured out the bad guy way early because it was that obvious, so no suspense there. Although the romance was definitely a return to the old Howard that I love so much, I still feel the distancing of emotion so prevalent in her latter novels.
Do you know what I mean? Something is missing--La Linda used to love to strip emotional needs to the bare essentials, right to the point where need, desire, possession, love all come together in some kind of urgent primitive ritual. The male recognizing his mate, that sorta thing. For me, I notice La Linda no longer delve into that. The closest she came to doing it was in Kiss Me While I Sleep, but even then she held back by not giving too many scenes with the hero's Point-of-View (POV).
I so miss her male POVs. Simply the best in the romance department.
Talking about stripping down to the bare essentials and showing emotional need, ahem....
;-)
Now how come I never get models like that at art class in college, dammit?
Monday, August 06, 2007
Let Him Tell Me!
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4 comments:
I agree with you, Jenn. Something is missing. I think this is one of the better books since Open Season, but I still was left feeling somewhat empty. We hold her to such a high standard and we expect a lot from her. She just hasn't been doing it for me for the last 4 years.
I agree too. Most of her old books make me cry at least once during the reading and I feel such a connection with the characters. Oh late that has been missing, but that aside, she still writes a fantastic novel.
White Out, in which the heroine warmed the hero, who was close to hypothermia. Remember?
Yes! Yes yes yes!
Actually, my favorite part of White Out was when the heroine talked about how they hadn't been very safe and something could have happened and the hero got a stiffy at the idea of knocking her up.
[swoon]
k, I think you've talked me into reading this one.
Casee and Anonymous,
I was telling my friends, I wanted a few chapters more after the end! It would have been more fun if the suspense was drawn out further so that Cam and Bailey could explore their feelings in normal surroundings, you know? Throw a bit of conflict in there so I could relish Cam's caveman side coming out. But it all ended with them being saved and the bad guy caught, that's it.
Susan,
I enjoyed it. It's suspense-lite. Lots of survival details.
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