Full Tilt (One Star)

romance
Full Tilt
Janet Evanovich and Charlotte Hughes
St. Martin’s Paperbacks
©2003
ISBN 0-312-98328-X
342 pages
US $7.99/ CAN $10.99

"Jamie Swift has one priority in quiet Beaumont, South Carolina: running the local newspaper. Romance runs second. But with the arrival of her silent partner, the notoriously mysterious and sexy Maximillian Holt, Jamie’s life gets shaken up. Max claims he’s here to give his brother-in-law a vote of confidence. A former wrestler, Frankie Fontana’s now taking his shots in the political ring. Beaumont could use a mayor with scruples, but what it gets is a crime – and what Jamie gets is a story that’s taking her for a ride on the wild side, complete with two assassins, a washed-up stripper, and an insane poacher. Between a spray of bullets and a fast getaway, could it get any more romantic – or dangerous? Max and Jamie are betting their lives on a long shot."

Like I’ve previously stated, I don’t read much romance. But I’d heard of Janet Evanovich before, and thought I’d give her a try. I read my requisite fifty pages (I give every book fifty pages) and couldn’t go on. I found Max Holt to be the absolute cliché – rich (filthy rich), a ladies man, arrogant, and self-righteous. I almost couldn’t get past the first two pages (he has so much money he’s bought himself a state-of-the-art car with an onboard computer he calls ‘Muffin’, and the car talks back to him like a stripper.) Aside from my problems with the characters, I found the plot to be too blunt. Assassins, bullets, they seemed out of place in Beaumont, even with the characters, and I couldn’t help feeling that the authors created this book for a money grab without even trying to write a convincing plot line. It was far too cliched, and I couldn’t even finish it.