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Irina Melnikova ir_mell — I don't give out a 1-star rating lightly. In the 1500 or so romance books I've read, less than 20 were 1-star, but for this book, I felt like I couldn't do anything but give it a 1-star. There were so many holes in this book, so many places it fell apart. When I finished reading, I took out a piece of paper and made a list of all the issues I had with it so I wouldn't forget the big points for my review...and I ended up with 14 items listed. 14! And they weren't really minor things either. If I were the type that wouldn't feel bad writing a snarky, sarcastic review, this is one I would do it for. But I'm not like that so I'll stick to a constructive review. Tall, Dark and Deadly is a serial killer police procedural that is, I believe, author Lorie O'Clare's first mainstream, full-length release (not sure on that though). Years ago, Grace Jordan was kidnapped and held captive for five years by a sadistic beast. She managed to escape when she burned down Master's house with him inside. Now she is a former D.C. cop who has moved to the small town of Rockville, S.D. to be a deputy with there police department, hoping to give her daughter of a more normal life. Then teenage girls start showing up dead, sadistically beaten, raped, and murdered. The FBI is drawn in and hometown boy Justin Reece is assigned the case. From the start he's attracted to Grace, but because of her past, she wants nothing to do with him. Justin is relentless, though, and as they struggle to find their killer, he insinuates himself into her life. The two must work together if they have any hope of keeping more young girls from ending up dead. And Justin will do anything to protect Grace from a killer who seems to be sending messages to her. Hmmm...where to start on my thoughts about this book? I bought it randomly at Wal-mart...I saw it on the shelf and recognized the author as one who wrote for Ellora's Cave. So I was intrigued and curious as to how the author translated to full-length romantic suspense (which is my favorite romance sub-genre). Plus reading the summary on the back made the book seem interesting. So I had high hopes this would be a sexy, sensual, suspenseful story. Unfortunately, it came up lacking in just about every area. The "romance" was one of the first things about this book that bothered me. Grace is a woman who went through sheer and utter hell, being held captive as a sex slave and forced to do unthinkable things. It screwed her up bad emotionally. So I found the way Justin treated her baffling. He was always manhandling her...yanking her, grabbing her, cornering her against walls, ripping her pants off, etc. I cringed whenever I read descriptions of how he was with her. What man, knowing what Grace had been through, would treat her like that? It didn't put the "hero" in a very favorable light. Aside from that, there just wasn't a very romantic feel between the H/H. There was a non-stop power struggle between the two. They just always seem to be battling with each other. And Justin is always coercing Grace. Near the end, it softens a little, but mostly, their "relationship" is very acrimonious. I didn't even find the sex scenes all that hot. Mostly because Justin is trying to steamroll his way into Grace's pants. And when I read a line like "Justin fucked the shit out of her."...well, yeah, that's just not romantic. I can't even say much about the cop skills of the two. I knew very quickly in the book who the bad guy had to be. It was very, very obvious. All through the story these big, huge, blinking-neon-light-obvious clues were dropped in their laps and neither one considered the very obvious possibility about who their killer was. I just kept shaking my head because it was kind of ridiculous. It tempted me to give up on the book. I know Grace had a kind of mental block on the issue, but being a good cop with so much evidence staring her in the face, it should have occurred to her. And it really, really should have occurred to Justin. That it didn't made the book rather unbelievable as a serious police procedural romantic suspense. The more I read of this book, the more it frustrated me. There were so many holes and loose ends that I didn't feel the least bit satisfied when I finished. There were issues/aspects introduced into the story, then dropped and forgotten completely. Early in the book, a teenage girl disappears, the third to be kidnapped. Her car is soon found completely burned, with young Vicki nowhere to be found. Grace and Jordan talk about how the killer is making a point, letting them know he has Vicki. Then that's the last we hear of poor Vicki. And I don't mean she's just never found and presumed dead...I mean that she's never mentioned again in the book. Ever. After the H/H investigate the car and talk to some neighbors, the whole Vicki thing completely vanishes from the plot. I felt sorry for the poor girl. She could still be locked up somewhere and forgotten about. And there were other things like that. Justin's son Daniel gets in big trouble in the beginning of the book because he robbed a convenience store with a gun, and the issue is dropped and never brought up again. Then there's the thing about Grace and orgasms. She 'can't let go'...a sort of after effect of what happened to her. And it's never dealt with. I swear the woman had only 1 orgasm through the entire book, and that was in the first sex scene when Justin sort of bullied her into receiving oral sex. After that, it seems like she never orgasms. I reread the last two sex scenes and there's no obvious sign that she did. In the second to last sex scene, she's still saying she 'can't let go.' It's a pretty big issue and it's just never handled in the book. There were other issues basically ignored as well. Grace and Justin never seriously talked about what she went through. Which I really felt like they needed to do. Bit and pieces come up between them about it, but never the whole story. Grace's history in general is done all in bits and pieces. I never felt like I truly understand the whole situation of what happened to her. And Justin never talks to Grace of what happened to his sister, which is an important element of how he handles life. It comes up once between them...he mentions his sisters name...and he tells Grace it's not important or something like that. Then it never comes up again. This aspect of Justin's life was something Grace really needed to know about. Even the ending of the book felt incomplete. The "revelation" of the bad guy's identity brings up several questions...the big one being how it was possible for him to be there. And it's never answered. That frustrated the hell out of me. Plus the bad guy makes comments about being responsible for finding the psychiatrist Grace saw and that's never explained. There's also never an explanation for how the bad guy got connected with another character...actually, it's not even clear if he was connected to that character. There's a big detail saying he is, but it's just not clear. And that's annoying. I hate finishing a book with so much left unexplained and unclear. And last on my list of problems is just the writing itself. The book was just not the most readable I've come across, more so earlier in the book it seemed. Convoluted sentences, non-sentences, wrong verb tense, bad flow, etc. It just didn't make the book very enjoyable to read when you end up having to read sentences over to get the point. So that covers most of my 14 fault points. There were a couple I left out, but I included the main ones. Bottom line being that I really struggled to get through this book. It was endlessly frustrating and when I finished, instead of having fuzzy feelings over the HEA, I was annoyed by all the holes in the story, but mostly just really glad to be finished with the book. There was a lot of potential for this one. The story premise is interesting, but the execution was severely lacking. As I sat here writing this, I tried to think of one thing I liked about the book and I drew a blank. That pretty much says it all. WARNING, this book contains: fairly explicit sex, explicit language, rough sex, references to rape, murder & bdsm, references to horried treatment of a captive sex slave, and fairly graphic violence to women

Rachelle Tan rachelletan — I'm reading this for my Science and Social Policy class.

Federica Lamberti fedelamberti — i read this book about 4 years ago, and i think this is a great book. and also, its a must read for women. the author gives an honest and courageous account of a women life in saudi arabia. trust me, you can feel it..