RITA Reader Challenge Review

Killer Countdown by Amelia Autin

This RITA® Reader Challenge 2017 review was written by Shana. This story was nominated for the RITA® in the Romantic Suspense category.

The summary:

A reporter helps a sexy senator evade a deadly assassin in this thrilling Man on a Mission tale

TV reporter Carly Edwards has the scoop of a century! She’s discovered that Senator Shane Jones was diagnosed with a life-altering illness, but she can’t help but be drawn to his courage. So when Carly saves Shane’s life from a killer, she resolves to keep her story—and the irresistible politician—alive…

A politician and a media personality are a recipe for romantic disaster. The last thing Shane wants is to endanger Carly. But how can he prevent her from getting close when the very air between them sizzles? As their lives are threatened, Shane realizes Carly’s the one woman he wants forever—if he can keep them both safe!

Here is Shana's review:

I chose Killer Countdown because I was excited to read a book where the hero had a chronic illness. I also like political thrillers and this seemed more escapist than the current season of Scandal. Ultimately, I fell hard for a man in the book but it sadly wasn’t deadly boring Senator Shane Jones.

From the moment reporter Carly sneaks into Shane’s hospital room seeking a scoop, the two of them fall into insta-lust.

…she couldn’t help the way her gaze was riveted on his impressive physical attributes. Then the legs, the chest, and the rest of his perfect body faded into obscurity as her eyes met his again, and she floundered helplessly beneath those dark orbs.

Shane has just received a diagnosis of epilepsy and wants a distraction. Carly is looking for a newsworthy story. Once she hears why Shane is in the hospital, she tells him that a medical condition is a private matter and backs off the story. Of course, I immediately questioned why she was in a hospital if she didn’t want to hear about a diagnosis. Like most of the plot points in this book, it’s best you don’t try to untangle the (il)logic.

Shane is given medication to control his mild focal seizures and runs into Carly and her “bombshell body” again on his way out of the hospital. Carly witnesses an assassination attempt against Shane and the two of them spend the remainder of the book trying to stay one step ahead of a paid killer who now wants them both dead. The FBI inexplicably decides not to provide any protection for them, so Shane and Carly bed hop around Washington, falling for each other along the way. This isn’t a typical love on the run trope; Shane and Carly continue to go to work every day. Shane even agrees to give Carly an interview about his epilepsy. We get a mix of the intensity of a forced proximity story while watching Carly and Shane struggle to balance work responsibilities with their growing feelings–and staying alive.

The story alternates between Shane’s, Carly’s, and the assassin’s point of view. Carly’s internal monologue was the most interesting of the three, as she explains both Shane’s tragic back story and her own. Carly’s fiancé committed suicide after being injured in a car accident and Shane’s wife was killed by a domestic terrorist. The second chance aspect of the story is handled well—their previous relationships aren’t negated and they’ve had enough time to heal and be ready for a something new. There’s a lot more telling than showing, at least in the beginning, but it’s clear that both he and Carly are yearning for a real partnership, one that may even surpass their first relationships. The transition from a professional relationship to a personal one was smoothly done without any hint of inappropriateness or creepy power dynamics.

Still, this book was extremely hard to get into for me. There was an awkwardness to the language that initially kept pulling me out of the story. I tend to fall in love with characters through dialogue, and the conversations between Carly and Shane felt stilted and brief. Sample line: “Want to blow this hotdog stand?”

I found it hard to get to know the characters or find their intense physical attraction for one another believable. They both have such potentially interesting jobs and backstories, yet their interactions were dull. And Shane has to be the most boring hero on earth. Spending time inside his straightforward and plodding perspective felt like pouring concrete into my brain.

Shane left the Marine Corps after an injury and reluctantly became a politician instead. He doesn’t have much of a personality beyond protectiveness and being a Marine. As “being a Marine” is not actually a unique personality trait, this leaves him feeling more like a two-dimensional Marine-shaped cutout rather than a human being. Shane’s personality never seems to evolve beyond: protective. Marine. ethical. epilepsy. There’s nothing precisely wrong with him. He’s just…bland. He’s the theoretically perfect guy you feel guilty about leaving for the hero. People driven to serve in public office can also be quirky, goofy, bratty, ambitious, mysterious, or guarded. The man’s pregnant wife was killed by terrorists, yet he is placidly angst-free, preferring not to discuss or dwell on the past. It’s unclear if Shane enjoys anything beyond working out and telling other people what to do. For example, he helpfully narrates how his behavior isn’t condescending toward women, because he says so.

…he’d had his manners drummed into him by his parents, who’d taught him a gentleman always helped a lady. Always. Old-fashioned? Yeah. Condescending toward women who could manage for themselves in this day and age? Not at all.

The author takes pains to describe how Shane sees women as peers in the Corps and acts protective out of politeness, not chivalry. On one hand, I commend the author for trying to challenge the assumption that military culture has to be misogynistic. But, the execution just didn’t work for me. Still, if you love Marine heroes, this may be the book for you. Carly and Shane even use “oorah” during sex. Repeatedly.

As the action picks up—both in the bedroom and in the assassination storyline—we get to learn more about Carly. The unresolved pain she feels over her last relationship. The lasting impact of her dangerous work as a war correspondent. Her love of sleeping in. She seemed adventurous and ambitious and the choices she made in her life and career reflected that. Like Carly, I’m not a morning person. My response to every time Shane woke her up early for some earnest conversation was to want to punch him in the face, not think of him lovingly. I guess that’s the difference between being in love with a cardboard cutout and just reading about one.

Meanwhile, we learn that Shane has a lot of siblings and is very good at cunnilingus.

Light from the bathroom spilled into the bedroom, allowing him to see her face clearly. Must have forgotten to turn the light off the last time, he thought, letting himself be distracted momentarily from his contemplation of Carly. Then his focus returned to her.

Two more used condoms had joined the first in the basket–and neither had been wasted. He’d made love to her the second time for more than half an hour. Wanting–needing–to make it up to her for the wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am of their first time. He’d used his mouth on her, and she’d gone crazy. A suspicion resided in the back of his mind that maybe no one had ever done that for her before.

Despite Shane’s amusing belief that thirty minutes is a heroically long time to have sex, I will admit that I started to like him a bit better once he and Carly moved toward a more emotional connection. My favorite moment was when Shane waited uncomplainingly outside Carly’s work for 30 minutes for her to finish a story. So maybe he’s a bit wooden, but he’s a supportively wooden proto-feminist partner.

Luckily Shane’s brother Niall appears midway through the book to provide backup for Shane. Unlike Stepford Shane, Niall has a sense of humor, flirtatious dialogue, a mysterious black ops backstory, a love of sci fi, and sexily rumpled hair. Yummy. Like Shane, Niall also seems to have a strong moral code, cares deeply about his family (enough to drop everything to rescue Shane twice), and is former military. Yet, Niall reads as smoking hot and Shane as what might happen if Mitt Romney and John Kerry had a very earnest son…who was also deeply committed to clitoral stimulation. Partly, I think Niall’s just written with more showing and less telling. We see him demonstrating his love for his family, while Carly has to tell us repeatedly that Shane’s family is very important to him.

Niall only appears in a handful of scenes but he steals every one. Each time he left I wanted to beg him to take me with him. Niall, come back! Don’t leave me with these two and their awkward dialogue. Clearly the author can write sexy multi-dimensional heroes, just not really in this book. And perhaps, not when a chronic illness is the only “flaw” a character is given. Characters who cheat are one of my pet peeves so when I start rooting for the heroine to run off with the hero’s brother, it’s not a good sign.

Meanwhile, some guy is still trying to kill them. As readers, we know from the beginning of the book why Shane is being targeted and who the hit man is. Yet we don’t know the other specific players involved until the denouement, and even then it feels like an afterthought. We don’t see Shane interacting with anyone who could potentially be behind the hit—he mostly only talks to Carly. There’s no opportunity for a reader to try to solve the mystery since we’re not given any information about the players that would allow us to do so. Ultimately the “mystery” of who’s trying to kill the protagonist is so unimportant that it’s left largely unresolved at the end of the book. Maybe this is a set up for a future book in the series? With Niall, I hope. I prefer thrillers when it’s either clear who the bad guys are from the beginning or when finding out whodunit is part of the story. This book takes neither path, and the result is muddled. It’s hard to care about the conflict when you don’t know what the stakes are, especially when the MCs are only mildly interesting on their own.

Which bring us back to part of why I was interested in this story, Shane’s epilepsy. Initially, Shane’s vehement reaction to his diagnosis seemed out of step with his actual symptoms, which are getting goose bumps and feeling cold. Shane’s processing of what epilepsy might mean for his life is largely compressed into the beginning and end of the book. There’s a lot of build up early on around what will happen when/if he comes out but this later fizzles without really being addressed. I wish we could have shown him discovering other politicians with epilepsy, or examining his assumption that epilepsy is worse than cancer.

While Shane is pushed into disclosing his condition sooner than expected, he only accepts that his illness doesn’t have to limit his political career through Carly’s love. This isn’t the worst way to handle disability, as it did include a super sweet scene where Carly proposes to him. But Shane’s paint-by-numbers characterization makes it appear that he has to be literally the Perfect Boyfriend to balance his “character flaw” of having epilepsy. I wish the author would have made him more perfectly imperfect. What kind of message does it send to show that a chronically ill person is only worthy of love if they are never selfish, irritable, or just plain wrong. Our messy flaws are what make us human, and also make us more fun to read about.

One final note. After many years in Washington D.C., one of my particular pet peeves is when there are no characters of color living in this majority-minority city. Shane and Carly are both white but there were occasional interactions with or mentions of people of color, like a Jamaican taxi driver that Carly asks not to play rap music. Since the tight focus on Shane and Carly’s relationship didn’t leave room to develop many other characters I was only mildly annoyed by the lack of diversity.

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Killer Countdown by Amelia Autin

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  1. cleo says:

    “I wish the author would have made him more perfectly imperfect. What kind of message does it send to show that a chronically ill person is only worthy of love if they are never selfish, irritable, or just plain wrong. Our messy flaws are what make us human, and also make us more fun to read about.”

    Yes. This.

    Great review.

  2. Lora says:

    Shane as what might happen if Mitt Romney and John Kerry had a very earnest son…who was also deeply committed to clitoral stimulation

    THAT is the best thing I have read in forever. Great review and you’re a hell of a writer.

  3. Megan M. says:

    This is a great review that made many wonderful points, but this part right here?

    “Carly and Shane even use “oorah” during sex. Repeatedly.”

    OMG, dying. I can’t. What?

  4. Willa says:

    Great review – had a good chuckle, from the ‘oorah’ to the cunnilingus to the 30 minute sex – are you sure this wasn’t a comedy of the farce variety?

    *They have a killer after them, so bed hop around at night but continue to go to work in the day??? Lol!!

    *Gotta love an author that wants to compare and rate serious illnesses – you have cancer, I’ll see your cancer and raise you my epilepsy – /sarcasm

  5. Hopefulpuffin says:

    If my husband had ever exclaimed, “Ooh-rah!” during sex, the marriage wouldn’t have lasted as long as it did.

    I have a very, very hard time reading any novels featuring military – especially Marine – heroes.

  6. Ren Benton says:

    Meanwhile, we learn that Shane has a lot of siblings and is very good at cunnilingus.

    It almost sounds like these two things are ~slips on shades~ related.

  7. Carol S says:

    “…like a Jamaican taxi driver that Carly asks not to play rap music.”

    I guess it would only be a cliche if he were playing Bob Marley? (;

  8. Christa says:

    Wait, being a Marine” is not actually a unique personality trait”??? You have me in stitches!

  9. Hopefulpuffin says:

    I’d maybe argue that being a Marine IS a unique personality trait.

    “OOH-RAH!” When used as encouragement/good job/way to go, definitely pitch your voice up a bit on the “Rah” syllable.

  10. Kareni says:

    Shana, thanks for a review that had me laughing aloud!

  11. Katie C. says:

    @Hopefulpuffin – I agree -the Marines that I know would certainly say that being a Marine makes them special and unique. My father was a Marine (Semper Fi) and iirc, the Marines have always been an all volunteer force which distinguishes them from the Army and the Navy (not sure on the Air Force).

  12. Bonnie F says:

    Awesome review! And now I know how to describe this experience:
    “Spending time inside his straightforward and plodding perspective felt like pouring concrete into my brain.”
    Yes. Exactly.
    But since this makes me LOL I hope I don’t remember it at inopportune real-life moments…

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