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karlynp

Karlynp & The Doggone World

Chatting about books, authors, reading devices and the latest events happening around the cyber-world of book reviews.

American Diva - Julia London I really wanted to like this book, as I enjoyed the first two books in this series, but American Diva was just a frustrating read. This story is about Audrey, an ultra-famous pop singer of 28, and Jack, an ex-military, pilot and stunt person for Thrill Seekers Anonymous. Jack gets hired to provide security after she gets a few threatening letters.

First let me say that I think Julia London is a very talented writer, but as I have come to know her stories are either a "Hit" or "Miss". And her misses can almost always be boiled down to the same fundamental problem: the story focuses on characters who you simply don't like or care about. This is the problem with American Diva.

In American Diva, *ALL* of the secondary characters are jerks. Her co-workers, boyfriend, and entire family are all horrible people with no redeeming qualities. None of the sub stories were fun, entertaining, or enjoyable. The story also includes a bad guy, and we know from the beginning who he is, so it was just a lackluster plot device to keep Jack and Audrey together. When the bad guy gets caught, it was very anti-climatic.

To make this book worse, the heroine Audrey is not very likable. She is a diva, and acts horribly through most of the book. She is either a raging bitch without apology, or a complete doormat getting walked all over. She has a few normal moments with Jack, but in most of their very short and totally unrealistic relationship she is awful to him. She makes a few "TSTL" decisions that frustrated me to know end.

Jack was the best part of the book, but truthfully he is the same generic guy from so many other romance novels. His character is so cookie cutter, i.e...tall, built, dark hair, blue eyes, handsome as sin, treats his woman like gold, and can perform in bed like the stud he thinks he is.

I wont even get into how I didn't like the ending, but just know it has a strange conclusion that did not leave my heart melting. It left me scratching my head thinking "huh, that's it?!"

Given all of this, I would highly recommend you read the first book in the series "Wedding Survivor" as it was great. The follow up "Extreme Bachelor" wasn't as good, but it was a likable story. But skip this one.