Monday, June 13, 2005

Project Eve - Lauren Bach

I hate it when this happens. This one just didn’t work for me on many levels. The idea was great. Rachel is a kick ass private detective. She is hired by a US Senator to try and find out if his stepdaughter gave birth before her tragic death in a car accident. In order to find out what really happened she goes undercover at an exclusive college funded and run by a highly successful evangelist.
She is teamed up with Elijah, a CIA agent she shares a past with who also partnered with her beloved brother before his tragic death.
It’s hard to pinpoint why I didn’t care for this one, it just didn’t work on so many levels. The storyline sounds great. First off though, the author loaded Rachel down with too much tragedy. Her parents were both killed when she was young and it was left to her brother to raise her. This is where I began questioning things. Her brother raises her and is her sole support after their parent’s die, so why does he join the CIA and participate in dangerous missions?
And if loosing her entire family isn’t enough, she walks into a very compromising situation when she tries to surprise Elijah her lover. That takes care of that.
This poor girl is left with nothing.
When she meets Elijah many years later and is forced to work with him again, supposedly sparks fly. I didn’t feel any sparks. Not a flicker. Not an ember. Nada. Nothing. Lauren Bach has done excellent sexual tension in the past but I didn’t feel it in this one.
We know who the bad guys are right off the bat. Or at least we should. I’m lousy at guessing who the baddies are, but not this time. If I can get it, believe me, anyone can.
The ditzyiness and naivetĂ© of the college students annoyed me to no end. And the college itself was just too far fetched to believe. I know it was supposed to be a religious institute and somewhat separated from the world but the author carried it to extremes. I can’t imagine any campus not serving coffee.
Then, right near the end of the book, out of the blue, her mentor , it is learned has a drinking problem. What on earth does this have to do with anything at this point and why even mention it. This is a character never seen or never heard from before or after.
I wanted to like this book, I really did. But when I closed the cover I was left with rather a nasty taste. A somewhat cold heroine, no real sparks between the hero and heroine, over the top villains and characters coming in and out of the story that add nothing.


Grade 2 out of 5

7 comments:

sybil said...

eh, sorry. Disappointments suck when you were expecting to like something.

I do wonder if a book suffers from the reader wanting to like it so much, where as if you go into a book expecting nothing you might find more to like.

who knows... better luck next time ;)

Alyssa said...

I can’t imagine any campus not serving coffee.

I can: Brigham Young University. Believe me, I know. I was there for five years.

I've actually never had coffee; I don't like hot drinks in general, even hot chocolate. I love Diet Vanilla Coke, though.

(Not that this makes the book any better . . .)

Alyssa

Nicole said...

I wanted to read this one...now I'm curious.


Oh, I had a friend go to a college where dancing was not allowed, R-rated movies were not allowed on campus (not even owned by students on campus), doors must be wide open if a member of the opposite sex was in your room, and if you missed more than one or two chapel services, you were in trouble.

Nicole said...

Oh..BYU.."where good Mormom women go to find husbands" said to me by a Mormon family friend.

Sorry, couldn't resist. I remember the caffeine thing, though I never quite understood it.

sybil said...

Sorry, couldn't resist. I remember the caffeine thing, though I never quite understood it.

oh nic... I could go on and on and on regarding this topic. I keep meaning to warn Alyssa to stay away from any men with my ex's name who is now being a 'good' mormon in utah vs a bad one being married to a nonmormon.

lonnnggg story so I will shut up now :)

Anonymous said...

That's what I was thinking when I read this book, either BYU or doesn't Billy Graham have a college? Anyway, in the book, the women(?) who went there were portrayed as silly little puff piece's only there to learn to become the "perfect" wife. Just like dumb sheep being led to the slaughter. There was no balance.
Besides having no caffine (and how does one do late night studying without it:) there was no TV except video tapes, no internet (gasp), just ......nothing.

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