Sunday, January 25, 2009

On the Fence with Cherry Adair

I just finished Night Secrets by Cherry Adair (book 4 this year, for those of us who are counting). I'm really torn on how I feel about it.

I loved--loved--her nonparanormal romance books (Out of Sight, In Too Deep, Hide and Seek, etc.). They're action packed, with dynamic characters and hot romances. I'm also a big fan of paranormal romances, in general. However, the combination of Adair with paranormal isn't as spectacular as I might have imagined.

The problem might be a rather simple one: her characters were already fantastical enough without having paranormal powers. All the men, and some of the women, are T-FLAC operatives, who are the badass of the badass when it comes to military/fighting situations. They're the elite of the elite and able to perform feats that are nigh inhuman. Which was fine and lovely when it was a regular romance and everyone was using their guns, fists, and knives on the tangos. At least everyone was fighting in a world that followed the normal rules of physics.

However, combine all that badass with the ability to teleport (self and objects), mind control, memory wipes, and a plethora of other paranormal powers, and it becomes overkill. I mean, the normal romances already have characters who manage to have sex atop a running camel in the middle of the desert, at night, in between fights; they have underground bunkers with cabin fronts and elevators in the middle of a forest; and every T-FLAC can shoot seven tangos dead before one can shoot at him, a shot that merely nicks some nonmandatory limb. Wasn't that fantastical enough?

I've read two of Adair's paranormal romances now, this one and Edge of Danger. I feel the same about both. However, this one has an added gross factor. As I've expressed, I'm not fond of violence and romance combined (though perhaps I need to take a second look at that, since I liked all the other Adair books...), and for the most part, Adair keeps the two separate--meaning there's some distance on page between the characters in bloody action and their sex. However, there's one scene, one horribly suspenseful scene after which any person would be needing intense therapy and a long, screaming run in terror away from the scene of the incident before they'd be calm enough for tender sex. Not these main characters, though. The female lead was in a state of terror for at least an hour--pure, unadulterated terror--and less than five minutes after she's rescued, they're softly touching each other, ignoring all her wounds.

Or maybe my aversion comes from the fact that this is the first book in a long time that I almost stopped reading merely on gross factor (not the sex, but the action, which was centered around black market organ transplants). Some of the scenes...haunting.

So I'm on the fence. Do I buy another Adair book?

1 comment:

TikiBird said...

I vote not for now. I think there are lots of books awaiting your reading enjoyment to read another one you're on the fence about.