Title: Uneasy Alliance Author: Jayne Ann Krentz
Read copy: Mass Market Paperback
Published: June 1, 2009
Publisher: Harlequin
ISBN: 0373200056
ISBN-13: 9780373200054
Some men can be terrifying—jealous, possessive and, ultimately, destructive. Abby Lyndon knows this all too well. Yet even after swearing off alpha males, she finds herself watching Torr Latimer…and wanting him.
Torr is reserved, contained and every inch the kind of man Abby thought she didn't want. But when Abby receives threats of blackmail, he's the only one who offers his protection. Will their alliance prove that he's everything she expected…or so much more?
My rating:
Some people have complained that this story hasn’t aged well. But, beside the “archaic” dialogue or two, I would politely disagree. Yes, the hero, Torr, was a jackass. Overbearing, dominant, possessive, didn’t take no for an answer when he knew what he wanted or thought he knew what was right. A very Alpha hero. If this story was written twenty or thirty years later as a paranormal, no one would even arch an eyebrow. But I guess, as long as the hero is some ancient immortal being (be it vampire or Alpha shapeshifter), his overbearing nature is oh-so hot and oh-so right. But if it’s a romance written in the eighties, the hero suddenly becomes a Neanderthal and whatever he does to the heroine is borderline rape.
I’d say it was the contrast with the heroine’s character, that made Torr out worse than he actually was. She was a doormat most of the time, letting him do whatever he pleased despite all her protestations about disliking overbearing men. It was her character, contrasting so starkly with his, that made me want to smack him with a cast-iron pan. A good two-handed grip and let loose.
But once the story started rolling, and especially in the end, when it became clear Abby had clear TSTL tendencies, I actually apologized to Torr (in my mind) for wanting to bash him with that pan. No wonder he was the way he was, asserting his will all over the place, telling her what to do and how to do it, determined to protect her no matter what...Because she didn’t know better. She was a flake, all over the place with her vitamins and her I-know-better, I’m-a-woman-and-won’t-be-dictated-to attitude. In the end, I actually felt sorry for the guy.
So, no, the rating has little to do with the hero, quite a lot to do with the heroine (she annoyed me more and more as the story progressed), but mostly the low rating is because the story itself is redundant. The blackmailing scheme could be solved with one simple phone call.
Idiotic premise, redundant story, stilted pacing, annoying heroine, jackass hero...Did I miss anything?
2 stars, bitchslappable heroine/hero, contemporary, contemporary romance, harlequin/silhouette, Jayne Anne Krentz/Amanda Quick/Jayne Castle, suspense/mystery/adventure/thriller
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