Friday, September 5, 2014

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Review: Otherwise Engaged by Amanda Quick

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Title: Otherwise Engaged
Series: Ladies of Lantern Street
Author: Amanda Quick
Read copy: eBook
Published: April 22, 2014
Publisher: Penguin Group USA
ISBN: 110162101X
ISBN-13: 9781101621011

Miss Amity Doncaster, world traveler, is accustomed to adventure and risk. Benedict Stanbridge, a man of science and a spy for the Crown, has faced danger in the darker corners of foreign lands.

But they are about to face a threat that is shockingly close to home . . .

One does not expect to be kidnapped on a London street in broad daylight. But Amity Doncaster barely escapes with her life after she is trapped in a carriage with a blade-wielding man in a black silk mask who whispers the most vile taunts and threats into her ear. Her quick thinking, and her secret weapon, save her . . . for now.

But the monster known in the press as the Bridegroom, who has left a trail of female victims in his wake, has survived the wounds she inflicts and will soon be on his feet again. He is unwholesomely obsessed by her scandalous connection to Benedict Stanbridge—gossip about their hours alone in a ship’s stateroom seems to have crossed the Atlantic faster than any sailing vessel could. Benedict refuses to let this resourceful, daring woman suffer for her romantic link to him—as tenuous as it may be.

For a man and woman so skilled at disappearing, so at home in the exotic reaches of the globe, escape is always an option. But each intends to end the Bridegroom’s reign of terror in London, and will join forces to do so. And as they prepare to confront an unbalanced criminal in the heart of the city they love, they must also face feelings that neither of them can run away from. . .

My rating:

Well, this happened. Again.

As with the previous installment in this series, and the last addition to Ms. Quick's bibliography, The Mystery Woman, this one didn't impress me either.

Though there were some similar reasons for me remaining rather cool about this book, like not feeling the attraction or affection between the two leads (because I didn't feel it not even in the end, when they confessed their feeling to each other), there were some 'improvements' from the its predecessor in the heroine and hero department. Unlike many of Quick's heroines, Amity didn't grate on my nerves (at all), and Benedict, was (again) the usual hero fare when it comes to this author.

There was no paranormal aspect, which didn't bother me that much, although I adore those from Ms. Krentz and her two alter egos, and the suspense was great, with the utterly insane serial killer (!), and the spy subplot.

But somehow that didn't help. Maybe it was the fact the blurb promised something that wasn't actually in the book show/hide spoiler(like the two leads being experts at disappearing and the hero being an actual spy).
But it was probably the voice factor. In the beginning this didn't sound like an Amanda Quick book. It sounded more like a print-on-demand first novel by an unknown and an inexperienced author. Later the Quick-voice was somewhat back, but the damage has been done (and kept on being done in some scenes, like the one in the cottage—I've come to expect a certain degree of awesomness when it comes to Ms. Quick's writing of seduction scenes, and that awesomness was glaringly missing in that particular one *shudder*).

It wasn't bad, far from it, especially thanks to the suspense part, but it wasn't as great as I've come to expect from this author.

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