B-
Title: Don't Look Down
Author: Jennifer, Bob Crusie, Mayer
Publication Info: St. Martin's 2006
ISBN: 0312348126
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Did the book live up to my expectations? Kind of, but kind of not. Don’t get me wrong: I still enjoyed it, and it’s definitely better than the average bear—it’s just that I’ve come to expect so much more from Crusie. (Can’t tell you what I expected from Mayer because I haven’t read any of his books before.) The action is fast and, unlike the majority of romantic suspense I’ve read, has the ring of authenticity; a former Green Beret really knows his tactics, guns and ammo. Whodathunk? The other elements also work, for the most part; the main characters are likeable, the dialogue is nice and zippy, the comic timing excellent, the action plot interesting and somewhat twisty.
However, the romance itself? That bit didn’t work so well.
Lucy Armstrong, a successful director especially known for her work with dog food commercials, is called down to the Savannah River swamps to finish the last four days of filming an action flick after the original director keels over from a heart attack. Lucy is perfectly happy to direct dogs; dogs are better-behaved and a hell of a lot more predictable than actors. But her sister Daisy, the script supervisor, wants her working on this film, and what’s more, Daisy’s five-year-old daughter, Pepper, really, really wants to see her. And really, nobody says no to the cute kid, especially in a romance novel.
The sinking feeling in Lucy’s gut intensifies when she finds out that her ex-husband, Connor, is also the stunt coordinator for the film. The sinking hits rock bottom once she actually takes stock of what a monumental mess the whole project is. Daisy is almost literally sleepwalking, Pepper is anxious and starving for attention, Connor is acting like even more of a shifty asshole than usual, key personnel have quit, most of the crew doesn’t seem to know or care about what’s going on, the few who do care are actively hostile, and people are strangely reluctant to hand her a complete copy of the script.
And when her lead actor hires his own body double and stunt advisor, a taciturn but OMGHOT Green Beret named JT Wilder, all hell breaks loose—or, at least, key pieces of equipment do, and when you’re on a movie set, that’s close enough.
JT Wilder is on leave when he decides to pick up some easy money by being a nimrod actor’s stunt double. Shit, he’s jumped out of plenty of helicopters into REAL enemy fire; this should be a cakewalk. What he didn’t count on was being dragged into a CIA operation involving international terrorism, money laundering and ancient jade penises. Complicating things even further is the movie director, who looks far too much like Wonder Woman for his peace of mind. And there’s that one-eyed alligator hovering around the swamps surrounding the set….
The whole story takes place over four days. There’s not a timeline so much as a time squiggle that’s then squished into something vaguely dot-like. A LOT happens, and very fast. An inhumanly fast pace isn’t normally a problem with an action book, because hurry-up-and-wait, while no doubt more realistic, makes for a boring read. It’s all very entertaining, but I feel like plot and character development were shoved to the wayside as a consequence.
And for a romance novel, that warp speed isn’t so good. For myself, I really, really enjoy watching the love develop and the tension build. Four days from “Hello, you’re kind of hawt,” to “Happily Ever After”? That’s not romance, folks. That’s creepy. That’s JT-having-to-issue-a-restraining-order-because-Lucy-won’t-stop-stalking-him wacky. The love story is even more strained when you consider that JT and Lucy get almost no time alone at all because they’re both working on a movie set, and the romance doesn’t even start looking like one until about halfway through the book. Yes, JT’s a motherfucking hero, and Lucy gets to watch him do all sorts of hot, hero-ey sorts of things like save the day and shit, but they don’t really get to sit down and interact meaningfully—interaction that doesn’t involve their squidgy bits, at any rate.
This is strange, because reading the book, you get the feeling that both JT and Lucy are, well, sane people who think things through, more or less, before acting. They’re both assertive, organized and logical, which makes some of Lucy’s romantic decisions by the end of the book somewhat puzzling.
What disappoints me even more is that previous Crusie novels have featured protagonists who fall in love incredibly fast, and I bought into those scenarios with little problem. Both Manhunting and Getting Rid of Bradley, for example, have the hero and heroine falling in love rather quickly (though not four days fast); however, in those books, the hero and heroine spend significant amounts of time alone together. So, this sort of thing can be done, but it just wasn’t convincing in Don’t Look Down.
Other conflicts in this book, especially the tensions between Lucy and Daisy, were resolved in what feels like a similarly slap-dash fashion. (Be warned: Here Lie Spoilers, so highlight the area for the Supah-Secret text):
One moment, Daisy seems to be nursing a burgeoning barbituarate habit and some very interesting resentment towards Lucy and her heroine complex, and the next, BAM, they’re more-or-less peachy keen. Crusie is usually stellar at handling tensions like these, and to see this go nowhere made me a bit of a sad panda.
The other parts of the book worked quite well. The secondary characters are memorable and worth noting. Pepper, in particular, is adorable and believable, and I’m speaking as somebody who has a pretty low gag threshold when it comes to the portrayal of cute children in fiction.
The action/suspense portion of the book is a blast, and somewhat more convincing than the love story. I know nothing about the military, guns, tracking enemies or killing people, but I have a sneaking suspicion Bob Mayer does, and it shows.
Overall, the book is a rather insubstantial bit of fun, which is a shame because Crusie always managed to sneak a lot of interesting subtext into her books, even the ones I didn’t particularly care for. This time around, there wasn’t sub-text so much as hurriedly resolved emotional issues. It’s still worth reading, and I enjoyed it, but it lacks that punch that makes it a true keeper.
Aww, that makes me sad. I’ve been really really looking forward to this book, but I guess if it’s not as good as most Crusies I won’t try to fit it in my budget OMGRIGHTNOW like I was trying to all day.
Since I got a romance bookshop catalogue in the mail today and it’s selling for $43.95 Australian, I think I’ll wait till it comes out in paperback.
I guess I’m out of the loop here: why did she need to colaborate with another author? Yours is the best review of the book I’ve seen thus far.
Later.
I guess I’m out of the loop here: why did she need to colaborate with another author?
I think I remember reading on Crusie’s blog a while back that she was suffering from some sort of writing burn out before she started this project with Bob Mayer, and that she felt it represented some of her best writing. But I already have some trepidation about this book (partly because I’m ambivalent about the whole collaboration thing when I don’t know one of the authors and the other has a distinctive voice I like). The funniest part of the whole bit may be the relationship between the two authors, at least as it’s communicated through Crusie’s blog (and now a joint blog for the two of them that I haven’t read). Although I’m sure I’ll read DLD at some point, Candy’s review won’t speed up my trip to the bookstore. I see Harriet Klausner gave it five stars, though . . .
The joint blog is very funny. I am also reluctant to cough up with $43.95 for it, so may have to wait just a little while longer.
The day Harriet Klausner gives fewer than four stars is the day the world blows up and everybody dies.
Anyhow, I thought DON’T LOOK DOWN would be something like Josie Lloyd and her male writing partner Emlyn Rees did for their books, but apparently not. 🙁
I was greatly disappointed in this book. It doesn’t have half the charm of the blog. I realize that when you have a suspense/romance its hard to have both elements be strong but I thought since Crusie was good at one and Mayer was supposedly good at the other (I saw supposedly because I haven’t read him before and wasn’t impressed with the suspense in this book), that this novel would represent a departure from the norm.
Unfortunately, the romance is completely lost in this book amongst the guns, the alligator and the dialogue. I won’t be buying the next collaboration. It will be a library read for me.
Thanks, Candy, for the honest review. I’ve been following the Crusie/Mayer dueling blog with a lot of enjoyment, and I was planning to go see them at one of their book tour stops.
That being said, I’m actually kind of cautious about the book itself. I was afraid it would receive all kinds of glowing reviews and raving buzz simply because of the Crusie factor. Like SB Sarah, I find Crusie hit or miss. Loved Bet Me and Crazy for You but really didn’t like Tell Me Lies and can’t even make it through Welcome to Temptation. Since I’m a huge fan of mil rom and romantic suspense, I was hoping the Bob Mayer/Special Forces factor would be just the thing to push DLD over the edge for me. But I’m disappointed to find the romance lacking, since that’s pretty key for me.
So I’m glad Candy’s told us like it is rather than jumped on the bandwagon just because of the fame of one of the collaborators. It’s these kind of reviews that I find really valuable.
I’m about 120 pages into the book, and enjoying it, but I have to agree that it doesn’t really read like romance. But honestly, that’s not dimming my reading pleasure. JT is a great character and I love his sections. He’s making this book work for me. So far, anyway—as I said, I’m not even halfway into it yet.
But I think I may have approached the book with different expectations. I never thought it would be a standard issue genre romancey thing. Jenny has been pretty open about wanting to try new things as a writer, and then there’s the Bob factor. So I was more or less expecting this book to break, or at least warp, a few molds. And it does, and I’m fine with the way it goes about doing that. So far.
The day Harriet Klausner gives fewer than four stars is the day the world blows up and everybody dies.
No need to worry. Harriet only reviews books she likes. She’s the yang to Mrs. Giggles’ Yin.
How bad would a book have to be to compel Harriet Klausner to only rate it worth a single star? Or even take away all the pretty twinkling sparklies and give it a big black hole of mail-order-secret-baby-sucking badness?
Writing collaborations are peculiar things, especially when the writers have very distinctive voices. They can seem like a really good idea, but more often than not end up as less than the sum of their parts. Maybe because the traditional novel form requires a strong sense of unity, so both authors end up making odd compromises in the quest to find “their” voice.
The duelling blog is really good, but I think it’s because of the fun of seeing them sparking off each other. It’s hard to include this sort of interaction in a novel without pulling the narrative apart or taking the Lloyd/Rees approach.
About the only collaboration that really works for me is Good Omens. It’s absolutely one of my favorite books, but oddly, it’s not actually my favorite book by either Pratchett or Gaiman.
I think Harriet only gave three stars to the instruction manual to her hairdryer, but that might just be a vicious rumor…
I’ve read three Crusie books, loved 2 couldn’t get into the third one. But the 2 I loved I really loved – so she’s still one of my favorite authors.
What the heck is the genre: Romantic Adventure? One of the posters at the crusie list said that it is not a contemp romance but rather a Romantic or Romance Adventure. Does that mean that it should have a disappointing romance? Or that you shouldn’t be disappointed by the lack of romance because the Adventure is the important part? If the adventure is the more important part, why not call it a Adventure Romance.
Actually, there is a sub genre of “Adventure Romance” already. It’s called Romantic Suspense. And there is also the well known sub genre of Road Romances that features Adventure and not suspense (Lord Perfect being the, well, Perfect example).
Thank you so much for the excellent review. What I like about the SB’s is the way you explain what didn’t work for you, and how often it turns out to be exactly what’s wrong with that book.
I really enjoyed the book, but probably because I didn’t have any real expectations. I knew it wasn’t going to be your typical romance, so that part worked better for me than it did for Candy. Of course, I knew it wasn’t going to be your typical action/suspense book, either, so I think it helped that I started the book with the idea that this was uncharted territory.
I do kind of agree on character development, though. For the first time ever in a Crusie book, I wasn’t feeling the heroine that much. But I absolutely loved J.T. I think having a guy write the male POV makes all the difference.
I think I’ll like the book even more on second reading. Reading the dueling blog kind of tainted (but also enhanced, if that’s possible) my experience – I’d often be reading a scene from J.T.‘s POV and see something and think “Well, that’s something Jenny would say.”
For those of you wondering about how effective the collaboration was: I thought the two voices merged more-or-less seamlessly. (I should’ve noted that in the review itself; BAD CANDY!) The writing style was enjoyable and extremely readable. Those of you feeling concerns about that and are hesitating at picking up the book primarily or solely for that reason, please don’t. It works well. Really.
As for the book being a decent adventure novel but a mediocre romance: I have a hard time quantifying how badly my expectations for this book (i.e. that it was going to be a romance novel) influenced my reactions, but I have to say that I would’ve gone “WTF?” at the love story even if I’d gone into it expecting a regular action/suspense novel. It felt tacked-on despite the way it loomed large in the story, and I’m not a big fan of major elements that feel tacked-on.
Plus the whole true-lurve-after-four-days thing just boggled me.
“For those of you wondering about how effective the collaboration was: I thought the two voices merged more-or-less seamlessly.”
Oh, I absolutely agree. If someone who didn’t know the book had two authors picked it up, I doubt they’d ever be able to guess. But I’ve read Jenny’s books so many times – and am familiar with their blogs – that certain words or phrases would hit me as having been written by one or the other.
Sarah’s minireview:
Candy and I discussed this a bit over email, and I’m with her on most of the points she made, but I would give it a lower grade, probably a C. As a romance/action hybrid, the action side kicked ass, but the romance side needed cultivating.
I didn’t like the romance at warp speed, as Candy put it, and I felt like the characters – and the writers – were running towards the ending at all times, with little consequences for the people who did shitass things. There was Death for the Monotone Bad Guy and the collection of bad dudes, but for the sister who isolated her five year old and let herself get hooked on pills to deal with her own personal stress? That’s something, right there. I’m not saying she should have had a bitchslap from DSS but I wanted to see sister own up to her own culpability. It seemed to me like she went backwards, character-development-wise.
As Candy pointed out, a good number of the secondary characters in a Crusie are as charming and compelling as the primary characters, and they often experience growth and development along with the primary protagonists. For Daisy, and Pepper, who are important parts of Lucy’s life, to be tied up with a very neat and unsatisfying ending made me a little ornery. I think it was too easy for Daisy to fix her life by handing it over to someone else, and damn, that part really bugged the shit out of me.
But I liked the heroine, I liked Pepper, and I reallyreally liked the hero. I wanted to follow JT around – and I wanted to find out what ‘JT’ stood for, too! He was interesting, direct, and a developed, clever character. I felt bad for him, though, with Lucy jumping from zero to fo-evah! in 2.2 seconds.
However, the good parts? Action-wise, this is a fun, fun book to read. Movie sets? Stunts? Weapons? Ass kicking? And goofy characters that are largely harmless and therefore fun to laugh at? And Wonder Woman? All brilliant parts that distinguish this book from other fiction, but not so much distinguished as a romance.
Crusie kind of acknowledges the warp-speed relationship. Her character Lucy realizes that it’s too soon to be thinking about fa-eva and that it’s ridiculous to be jealous about ex-wives and Althea, etc., etc.
So my question to Sarah and Candy is this: Does that make it better or worse? Does it suggest that the author knows it’s too fast, but writes it that way anyway because she wants to, dammit, or maybe she just thinks that it’s the way love happens sometimes.
re. Crusie and the development of Romance in her books, I often find the romantic aspects of Crusie’s books to be secondary in importance (or even substance) to the complexity of relationships among the characters (especially the women) and their development as individuals. So the fact that this book doesn’t have the romance front and center doesn’t surprise or deter me (it’s rare, actually, that I find Crusie’s heroes appealing to me as opposed to perfect for the heroine and therefore perfect for the book). Regardless of genre, though, and with few exceptions, character development in general is of primary importance to me. So while I’m definitely planning to read DLD, I’m going to try to forget Crusie participated in the writing and instead try to think of the book as the product of a new author. Good thing I haven’t read any of Bob Mayer’s books, I guess.
It was definitely different. The speeded up romance was problematic for me too, but I did know from reading He Wrote She Wrote that it would all go down in 4 days, and Crusie did set her girl up as a person who rushes into everything. The hero was the one who made it feel a little false to me. His initial reaction was believable and felt true, but then very soon after that with no real turning point that I could see, he was all in love and ready to rush right into forever with her. I still enjoyed it and don’t regret spending $16.00 on it, but a longer timeline would have been nice. This one sort of reminded me of Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves falling in love by the end of Speed or something.
Warning: MORE SPOILERS in this comment. If thou carest, then do not read this, and delete thou this e-mail if thou hast signed up to be notified for follow-up comments.
Her character Lucy realizes that it’s too soon to be thinking about fa-eva and that it’s ridiculous to be jealous about ex-wives and Althea, etc., etc.
Yes, Lucy does eventually realize that boinking JT a few times doesn’t mean they’re going to be 2-gether 4-ever, but she still gives up her NY loft to Gloom and decides to move to SC by the end of this four-day period. Part of her motivation is to be with Daisy and Pepper, sure, but it seems like a large part of her motivation is to be with JT.
WTF, mate?
Does that make it better or worse? Does it suggest that the author knows it’s too fast, but writes it that way anyway because she wants to, dammit, or maybe she just thinks that it’s the way love happens sometimes.
As I’ve noted in the review, the timeline makes the love story a harder sell, but Crusie HAS sold me on speedy romantic relationships before, and made me believe they’d work. DLD just didn’t do it for me. If the hero/heroine don’t have much time to spend together before falling in love, it helps to have them isolated with mostly each other for company under intense circumstances. Road romances and cabin romances are good for this. I just didn’t see JT and Lucy interacting with each other enough to buy into their Luuuurve.
I’m not sure why everything had to be wrapped up within four days, either—I mean, I know why the plot called for four days, but it seemed like a constraint that could’ve been modified or gotten rid of entirely, and the book wouldn’t have suffered—quite the opposite. I closed the book wishing there’d been more to the story.
SB Sarah said:
I didn’t like the romance at warp speed
I think most romances today are written at warp speed, don’t you think? and it’s not the author’s fault per se, with the word count continuing to dwindle down. But four days? Ah-hell-to-the-no on that one. Wouldn’t work for me at all.
Plus, I have no plans to read this book since this a collaborative effort and plus I haven’t really enjoyed a book by her since WTT. I like Crusie and her books because they are fluff for me – good fluff.
Robin, thanks for the explanation.
I love pretty much all of Crusie’s stuff. . . “Fast Women” is actually what got me into reading more of romance genre. So I pre-ordered this book from Amazon (haven’t got it yet), and now I really wish I’d waited to check it out from the library. Darn it.
I always seem to have this effect on discussions. Sigh. I should stick to lurking.
Signing off.
I enjoy thrillers. I love Crusie. When I learned about the collaboration, I read Mayer’s “Bodyguard of Lies” and liked the characters, but thought the writing was klunky and much of the conversation between the two lead women not believable.
I felt that “klunk” in the opening of DLD. Too many characters, too much rushing around, too much dialogue and exposition before the damn helicopter lands.
That “too much” factor continued throughout, leaving little time to develop characters and not much more for plot. Only once in the story did I get that peeling-away-the-veil, oh-my-gosh! excitement of a thriller revelation. Mostly it seemed like a book not quite finding the balance between Evanovich over-the-top and a Paul Lindsay novel of the FBI.
But wait! There are indications they’ll find that balance. As others have said, JT and Pepper are delightful main characters. (Sorry, Lucy.) LeFavre and Bryce are appealing secondary characters. Tyler is a perfect villain. And some scenes do make me want to go back and read them again.
I predict the next Crusie/Mayer will be tighter. But I think my wallet will be, too.
Well, I finally finished reading DLD, and I pretty much have to second about all of Candy’s thoughts about it. Go figure, I thought I’d disagree when I actually read it.
It is too fast. I think it would have been more effective if there’d been more time for the romance. And I didn’t think Daisy was handled well. Why was she even in the story when Lucy acts like Pepper’s mom anyway? Daisy’s not even around when Pepper gets kidnapped and drops out of the story! Maybe Pepper just should have officially been Lucy’s kid, though now I am wondering if Daisy was claiming Pepper was hers when really, Pepper was Lucy’s kid that she was raising for her.
Jennifer, reading your comment reminded me of something:
I mentioned in my review the lack of subtext that I’ve come to expect from a Crusie novel. I also mentioned I was disappointed in the way the Daisy/Lucy/Pepper conflict was handled. I just remembered that wasn’t the only interesting aspect of the story that was glossed over, and which I would’ve liked to have seen explored. JT, for example, seems to have some issues with alcohol and stress-drinking, which isn’t uncommon—I’ve heard that substance (both legal and illegal) abuse rates for vets are higher than average. He also seems to be dealing with some very interesting issues regarding the conflicts he’s been in, especially Afghanistan and Iraq, and I was hoping we’d hear more about that, but nope, nothing. The brief mentions gave some insight to the characters, but I wanted more.
I’ve just started Don’t Look Down and was told the review was hysterical by Jennifer Echols.
I’ve never read either Crusie or Meyer prior to DLD. Not yet two chapters into DLD, I am not loving the “let’s introduce everyone on the first page” approach. I will certainly attempt to finish it, but my reading world won’t end if I don’t.
Thanks for your honest review!!
I just finished this, and even though no one will probably check out this thread again, I have to say SOMETHING to at least the *illusion* of someone about this book.
Candy, I think you had a really big job reviewing this and were actually quite generous, both with your appraisal and your grade.
I *wanted* to like this book so much, and was even prepared to evaluate it outside the parameters of Romanace. In fact, had the book *allowed* me to do that, I think it would have been a much stronger read. But its stubborn insistence on including a romance between a woman who declares she’s found the love of her life in fewer than 4 days and a guy whose backstory never goes past two ex-wives really created some problems for me, not only in all the “forevers” asserted on both sides, but because the rest of the book remained sort of a blurry ‘what was the point of that’ kind of story.
First I had to re-read the first chapter twice, in part because I could not get oriented to any of these people or the geography of the bridge, etc. It was more than 100 pages in when I finally clicked in to the characters and cared who they were and what happened to them. The actions scenes were, IMO, the best thing about the book, and I was really there, following along, during those scenes. Pepper was good, although I kept feeling that the whole Daisy/Pepper thing was a re-tread of the Welcome To Temptation model, and well, JT was no Phin Tucker. I don’t even feel I have a *clue* who JT Wilder is as a *person* and so Lucy’s velcro-like attachment to him seems really forced. I loved Lucy but would have relished way more character development of her AND JT. Maybe fewer ‘main’ characters would have helped. Also, on page 294, JT is musing about someone named “Murphy”—did I miss something? I thought I had everyone covered by that point, so I have no idea if I missed someone (very possible) or if something wasn’t edited well during that section of the book. There were a number of moments where I thought, ‘editor, please,’ I’m losing the story’s focus here.
Basically, when I pulled the very rapid romance out of this book, I was left with a sense of “what was this book supposed to be, anyway?” The mystery didn’t feel really powerful to me, and the way it unfolded didn’t encourage me to put pieces together and try to figure everything out, in part because my attention was needed in too many places at once in the book. All the military thoughts that JT has at the beginning of the book were amusing, but they never gave way to anything deeper, IMO, making it difficult for me to connect to him—shit, neither we NOR Lucy ever find out his first name, and SHE’S going to spend the REST OF HER LIFE with him?
I read somewhere that writing this book with Bob Mayer revitalized Crusie’s writing, and that, IMO, is almost worth this book. You’re right, Candy, that it wasn’t horrible, but were it written by someone other than Crusie, I don’t know how long I would have kept reading past the first 50 pages or so.
Hey Robin, thanks for weighing in. This is one of those books that, with the passage of time, makes me go more and more “meh!” (Whereas other books have the opposite effect. Can’t think of any titles off the top of my head, but I know Christina Dodd did that to me a couple of times.)
Murphy = Murphy’s Law. It threw me off for a couple of seconds, too, though I did manage to figure it out.
And yes, the neither fish nor fowl nor meat character of this book did it no favors. I hope the next collaborative effort is more focused.
Robin, haven’t got anything to add, but just wanted to let you know that you have had at least one person read your comments.
It’s interesting that so many people don’t find the declarations of love convincing. On the blog, Bob Mayer says he didn’t originally want to put in the ‘I love you’:
>>Jenny has a hard time figuring out how to legitimately get her heroine to have sex with the hero in such a compressed timeline for the story. My hero, of course, has no such problem. What he has a problem with is the emotional commitment required in such a compressed timeline. When we presented in Reno at National last year the crowd of 300 women hissed at me when Jenny told how my hero never said “I love you” to the heroine in the course of the book. So I rewrote, bowing to the pressure, and as the chopper comes flying in for the final showdown and JT is standing on one skid and Lucy is standing on the other side on the other skid, he yells across the cargo bay: “Hey, I love you.” Well, that didn’t go over well either.<
<
http://www.crusiemayer.com/blog/2006/02/he-wrote-two-months-and-counting.html
Murphy = Murphy’s Law. It threw me off for a couple of seconds, too, though I did manage to figure it out.
Well DUH! See, that’s how disengaged I was with this book; I just thought “huh” and went on. As it was I was thrilled that I recognized most of the military talk before Mayer explained it (and that annoyed me, too, because it was going on in his head, where nobody but us could listen, so it was awkward every time). Of course, I obviously couldn’t get what should have been the obvious bit of code, so maybe he had a point in being extra-obvious . . .
I will definitely read the next one, because, well, it’s Crusie, and I think Mayer had a few shining moments in here, too. But yeah, flow and focus would be good. Maybe even instead of the romance.
Robin, haven’t got anything to add, but just wanted to let you know that you have had at least one person read your comments.
Thanks, Laura; I should be finishing a big probate project, but instead I’m procrastinating. I think Mayer should have followed his instincts on this one—or at least fleshed out JT in such a way that the declaration becomes believable. The problem for me was that despite everyone’s insistence in the book that JT was a great guy (I think it’s telling that he was constantly compared to Will Kane, another fictional character), it was inexplicable to me why Lucy would fall for him so hard so fast. As Candy pointed out, Crusie has done fast before, but there’s always a lot of foundation built up between the two characters over a short period of time, and at least the heroine learns the hero’s first name!
I have no problem with the mixed genre or even no-genre book, as long as the book *does something* for me as a reader—intrigues me, makes me laugh, moves me, invests me in its characters, creates suspense and tension, whatever. It’s interesting to me that the great dialogue I see on Crusie and Mayer’s joint blog didn’t translate into this first book. Maybe the more they practice *that*, the better their actual literary collaboration will be.
‘and at least the heroine learns the hero’s first name!’
Yes, that was a touching moment in Tell Me Lies, when we find out what ‘C.L.’ stands for. They did reveal JT’s full name on the blog:
>> “What does J. T. stand for?â€
Jim Taylor, who was a football star, according to Bob. Greatest player ever. Something like that. J.T.’s daddy was a football fan. And “P.L.†stands for Penelope Lucille; “Pepper†is a nickname.<
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http://www.crusiemayer.com/blog/2006/04/she-wrote-so-glad-you-asked.html
They did reveal JT’s full name on the blog:
I’m in trouble if reading the blog regularly is necessary for each book! Is the next book related to this one at all? Or is it just that some of this stuff never made it into the final MS?
Seriously, though, I really wish that they had not pushed the romance so much in this book, but had been content to just *hint* at it or even have Lucy sleep with JT without all the HEA projection right away. Crusie has always done lots of interesting things around the romances in her books (in fact, sometimes the relationship is, IMO the least interesting aspect of her books), and I think she and Mayer could have soft-pedaled the relationship between Lucy of JT and come up with a much more coherent book. I guess it depends in part on the reader base they want to cultivate. If they want to include romance, maybe they should (I can’t even believe I’m suggesting this) consider a multi-book story arc, so that we can actually get to know the characters before pairing them off for life. Although I have to say I did enjoy some of the political commentary on the post 9/11 situation.
“I’m in trouble if reading the blog regularly is necessary for each book! Is the next book related to this one at all? Or is it just that some of this stuff never made it into the final MS?”
No, I don’t think the next book’s going to be related to this one. It’s about Agnes, a foodwriter, and a hitman. And I think there’s a lot of stuff that didn’t get into the final MS of Don’t Look Down, and Jenny and Bob were answering questions about it on the blog.
“I think she and Mayer could have soft-pedaled the relationship between Lucy of JT and come up with a much more coherent book. I guess it depends in part on the reader base they want to cultivate.”
From the effort they were putting into the book tour, and the advertisements that were being paid for by St. Martin’s, and what was being said on the blog, it seemed like they already felt they were taking a big risk trying to sell a book that was (a) written by two authors and (b) wasn’t obviously in any one genre, but was a bit of a mixture. So maybe that affected their decision on how to write the romance element, and made them less likely to take risks with it?
I’ve spent rather a lot of time reading the blog because I really wanted to like the book and I wanted them to convince me to buy it, but so far I haven’t bought it, because I don’t like reading about violence. Now, though, I really want to know what they were saying about politics. Can you tell? Or will I have to buy the book to find out?
From the effort they were putting into the book tour, and the advertisements that were being paid for by St. Martin’s, and what was being said on the blog, it seemed like they already felt they were taking a big risk trying to sell a book that was (a) written by two authors and (b) wasn’t obviously in any one genre, but was a bit of a mixture. So maybe that affected their decision on how to write the romance element, and made them less likely to take risks with it?
Wow, with all those pressures looming in their minds, it’s amazing, I guess, that they were even able to *write*—this is maybe where they needed to read Laura Kinsale’s recent piece on the writer and her muse. Seriously, don’t all those rules ball people off when they’re trying to tell a story that coheres on its own terms?
I’ve spent rather a lot of time reading the blog because I really wanted to like the book and I wanted them to convince me to buy it, but so far I haven’t bought it, because I don’t like reading about violence. Now, though, I really want to know what they were saying about politics. Can you tell? Or will I have to buy the book to find out?
Hmm. Well, I’m someone who believes I have a very low tolerance for violence, and this book did not strike me as violent, at all. It wasn’t anything like that scene in Crazy for You where Bill punts Quinn’s dog across the yard (that scene sickened me, and not just because Bill was a creep).
As for the political angle, there is some nice lefty criticism of intelligence and security issues post 9/11. There were only a few overt references, and I’m more sensitive right now because I’ve spent the past 4 months on legal issues related to terrorism. A lot of books won’t even comment on 9/11, so I was impressed that DLD did.
I don’t think a lot of Americans realize 1) how many of our civil liberties we’ve been willing to hand over to the government, no questions asked; and 2) the significant changes in the way government, the intellligence and criminal law communities, and the courts work since 9/11, and how many non-terrorist type things are getting caught in that very wide net we’ve cast.
Hi Robin,
Just wanted to let you know you have another reader here. The “Recent Bitching” sidebar alerted me to your post.
I’m with you on 9/11. I don’t mind giving away some liberties for security, but it seems to me that the administration is going too far. I’m not nearly as knowledgeable about it as you are, but what little I do know worries me.
Re. Don’t Look Down, I have not read it, but then, with the exception of Welcome to Temptation (which I loved), the Crusie books I’ve read haven’t blown me out of the water. I do enjoy them, just not enough to buy them in hardcover.
>>Well, I’m someone who believes I have a very low tolerance for violence, and this book did not strike me as violent, at all. It wasn’t anything like that scene in Crazy for You where Bill punts Quinn’s dog across the yard (that scene sickened me, and not just because Bill was a creep).<<
Okay, but there are people with guns, aren’t there? And a dangerous alligator? I think I’d be waiting for something horrible to happen, and that would make me nervous. Which no doubt sounds very silly, but I read Faking It in whatever’s the readerly equivalent of having your hands over your eyes while watching a film. I was sure they were going to get caught and the tension was really unpleasant. So if my tolerance for a little bit of breaking and entering is that low, I don’t think I could cope with snipers and alligators. But now I want to read more about the politics. Hmm.