RITA Reader Challenge Review

Searching for Disaster by Jennifer Probst

This RITA® Reader Challenge 2017 review was written by HeatherT. This story was nominated for the RITA® in the Short Contemporary Romance category.

The summary:

When Isabella MacKenzie tries to move on from her disastrous past, Officer William Devine is determined to show her that love is the only way to heal. This sexy enovella, the final installment in Jennifer Probst’s heartwarming Searching For series, follows the high-powered women of the popular matchmaking agency Kinnections, located in the small, picturesque town of Verily, NY.

Here is HeatherT's review:

As I read Searching for Disaster, my thoughts about how the review would go changed dramatically.

When I started, I thought that I would like the book a lot. The Prologue was well-written and set up the story well. Isabella (Izzy) MacKenzie is prowling a bar and she chooses the man she wants. She is confident, independent and strong. She picks up her chosen man, they go to her room and talk and then Do That Very Thing. The banter is lively and intelligent and amusing. We learn that his name is Liam. They do the thang, then a friend of hers comes by and drops off some drugs. Liam is upset and tells her that if she chooses the drugs, then he is out. She chooses the drugs, he leaves. Excellent beginning.

We pick up the story six years later. Izzy is now a recovering addict, having been clean for two years. She is a receptionist at a matchmaking agency – it is clear that the women who she works with have been the subject of earlier books because every time we meet someone new there has to be a reference to their romantic partner and how happy everyone is and how love is a cure for all that ails one – blah, blah, blah. The gang decides that Izzy needs a man and they decide to set her up. She is still hung up on Liam and his magic peen, and she spends a lot of time being angsty about that, even though it was one night six years ago. I am sure that you will all be shocked, SHOCKED, I say, to learn that the man that the gang has in mind for her, the man they call “Devine” is Liam. Liam Devine. Liam is a cop, and is single because for six whole years the only woman he can think about is Izzy and her magic hoo hoo.

At this point in the book, I became keenly aware that I am a snob. I don’t think that one needs a love interest to be complete. I do not think that purple glitter eyeshadow is classy. Ewoks are not cute, they are cutesy – there’s a difference. So I found the following exchange grating:

His brow shot up. “Why aren’t you using chopsticks?”

“Cause I suck at them. Like dancing. I have a problem with coordination.”

“Not in every activity.”

She shot him a suspicious look for the innuendo, but he looked innocent enough. Damn, he was whip smart.

Making an obvious sexual innuendo qualifies someone as “whip smart?” It wasn’t that this part of the book was bad per se, it’s just that it was becoming clear that I was not the right audience. I was judging.

Then the book started to actively annoy me by resorting to semi-offensive sexist clichés. Look, a man who likes puppies is not a “pussy” and need not feel bad about liking puppies. If we’re looking for a description of a man who likes puppies, I could go with “normal,” “decent” or “not a sociopath.”

Then after a female puppy barfs on Liam’s shirt, she gives “him the famous look all females did when they were in trouble.” Really – what look is that, that “all” females give, pray tell?

At that point I was well and truly irritated, but then the thing happened that put this book into “D” territory for me. Izzy is angry with Liam (about something contrived and stupid, but within the story she is genuinely pissed). She confronts him, and his response is to grab her hair and yank her head back. She bites him and tells him to “get out.”

She knew it was an order he’d never obey. He also knew she didn’t want him to, so he tightened his grip on her hair.

Oh, really, how does he know that she didn’t mean it? There’s nothing in the narrative where she conveys that critical information to him.

“I’m going to do two things now, Isabella, and there’s not a damn thing you can do to stop me.” In one move, he ripped open her shirt, popping buttons everywhere. . . .”I’m going to fuck you till you’re not mad anymore. Then I’m going to hold you until you know I’m not going anywhere.”

Nope to the nope. “Fucking the mad away” is not a thing. Look, I like a good hatefuck as much as anyone else, but a hatefuck has to be a two-way street. There is a different name for a hatefuck that is only one way, and it ain’t pretty or sensual or proof of love.

At that point I was tempted to DNF this thing, but I was almost finished, so I soldiered on to the predictable and unsatisfying end. The tension between the characters is that Izzy, with her past as an addict, doesn’t think that she deserves to be with Liam, who is portrayed as perfect (other than the rapey thing, which Izzy sees as “strong”). He only wants to be with her, apparently because of her magic hoo hoo. Izzy angsts a lot about not being good enough for Liam, leaves him, has a talk with her dad, and then decides that it is okay for her to be with Liam after all. The tension couldn’t slice through warm butter, and the story limps to an HEA for all the couples and their dogs. I was just glad to be done.

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Searching for Disaster by Jennifer Probst

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  1. Ellie says:

    Thank you for the warning! You just saved me from a dent in my wall! All kinds of nope in this story. Starting with the “whip smart” thing. That’s just insulting, it’s so lame.

  2. Rose says:

    “I’m going to fuck you till you’re not mad anymore.”

    “I’m going to fuck you till you’re not mad anymore.”

    There is no planet, no galaxy, no universe where this is sexy. I really hope he gets mad at her in the sequel and she grabs him by the hair and growls “I’m going to kick you in the dick till you’re’ not mad anymore.”

  3. Issa says:

    I really, really hate the female friends who push the heroine at the hero because she doesn’t have a man or they think she needs to get laid because the magic peen fixes all. Do people really do that? I’ve read these so called friends leave their friends stranded with the hero with no way to get home and force confrontations she doesn’t want. So even without the “fuck the mad out” part, I have to give that a pass.

    I find more and more I appreciate the relationship between the heroine and her friends over her relationship with the hero.

  4. Megan S. says:

    This sounds completely awful. And it’s infuriating that stuff this obviously misogynistic and abusive gets within even a thousand miles of being recognized as one of the most outstanding romances of the year. 🙁

  5. DonnaMarie says:

    Thanks HeatherT, you took one for the team and came back with style.

  6. LB says:

    Who doesn’t like puppies?!?!?! I don’t know any person of any gender who doesn’t like puppies. Honestly, this book sounds like an F.

  7. Rose says:

    Also, can we stop with the “popping all the buttons off the shirt” trope?
    I get that desire is a powerful thing and sometimes the impetus for sexing is too great to waste time taking off clothes properly, but WHO HAS TIME TO FIX THAT MANY BUTTONS? Do you throw the shirt away? Is there a handy TJMaxx nearby? What if you can’t find all the buttons and you have to replace one with a button from a different shirt and it looks weird forever?

    I really don’t think I’d find it sexy if a guy went around destroying my cute tops.

  8. Nancy C says:

    @HeatherT, I’ll ditto that thanks for taking the hit for us. So very much nope here for me.

    And @Rose: LOL about the shirt thing! I am forever and always snarling at books when this happens. FFS, don’t you dare ruin my favorite shirt! Take 5 seconds and unbutton the damn thing or whip it over my head, but there better not be any damage to the garment or someone’s going to pay with a body part.

    Anyway, I’m glad it’s not just me.

  9. Rose says:

    @Nancy C 100% with you. And so often it’s the little things that take me out of the story, not the big ones. An all-vampire police force in a small Wyoming town that also happens to be a hotbed of international intrigue? I am on board. But a hero who ruins the heroine’s clothes is on my DNF list real quick.

    This is 2017. Your average heroine does not have the spare cash to replace outfits these days just because her boyfriend couldn’t be bothered to use his opposable thumbs.

  10. Rasa says:

    Also… a matchmaking agency? As in, not a website? Do these still exist nowadays? And located in a small town? Sounds like a strange business model, especially when the ladies working there mainly set each other up with the “best” candidates (I assume that this is how they find this ideal specimen Liam, but obviously I could be wrong). BTW, does the Heroine have to pay for the matchmaking her employer has done on her behalf?
    The rest of the awfulness has already been covered, so I’m not going to add anything, but this setup irritated me from the minute I read the summary.

    On a different note, while I agree that it is perfectly ridiculous to think that a man who likes puppies is somehow weak, I would still like to point out that the assumption “every decent person likes puppies” is just as generalizing as the “look that all females give” stuff. I’m sure that there are some normal, decent people out there who don’t like puppies or at least don’t react with obvious delight to them (people with severe animal hair allergies, for example).

  11. Robin says:

    Thank you HeatherT for your thoughtful review and to all of you for the follow up comments–@Megan S and @Rose, so true.

    There are so many other good books out there, why does this have to be elevated?

  12. Megan M. says:

    @Rasa – completely agree on the dog thing. I am really Not A Dog Person. Yes, my grandmother’s German Shepard literally tried to kill me twice, but mostly I just don’t like dogs. I don’t like slobber. I hate wet dog smell. I would loathe having to take a dog for a walk every day. I’m tired of people who don’t like dogs being portrayed as some kind of evil person (not that that happened here, obviously, but I’ve seen it many times.)

  13. KB says:

    D for the book sounds entirely appropriate, but I give this review an A!

  14. mspym says:

    Re puppies: not everyone has to like puppies sure but liking puppies is stereotypical “dood-with-a-secret-heart-of-gold” indicator, not You Are No Real Man.

    And yes, stop ripping people’s clothes and expensive underwear. Even if you are paying for replacements, who wants to have to keep buying more?

  15. Louise says:

    I’m going to fuck you till you’re not mad anymore

    What ever happened to the good ol’ tried-and-true “The beatings will continue until morale improves”?

  16. Nerdalisque says:

    Searching for Disaster”? Sure sounds to me like the author found it!

    Excellent review of what is clearly an awful book.

  17. Hope says:

    @Rose – tell me more about the “all-vampire police force in a small Wyoming town that also happens to be a hotbed of international intrigue”

  18. Rose says:

    @Hope I wish. That was a Romance Mad Libs I did in my head. Maybe now I have to write it, since I’ve accidentally summoned it.

    But if you should happen across it in the wild, post it here!

  19. Monique D says:

    Thank you for that review! OMG! I would have hated it, you saved me money, and most important, precious time. Ouch!

  20. mz says:

    I was reading a series, and IN. EACH. BOOK. the hero was called a “pussy” for showing his feelings, talking about his feelings, or something similar. So I gave up the author.

  21. valerie says:

    I think the title said it all! Searching for Disaster? Disaster of a book! Thanks for taking one for the team! Now I can skip over this read.

  22. I did a Rita Reader review for another of Probst’s books, the novella that’s been nominated and I had many of the same issues. Though now I’m kicking myself for not pointing out the part where the hero thinks of himself as a “pussy” for feeling like he wants to cry. But I think I ranted enough about the guy being a chauvinist as it was.

  23. Jillian Boyd says:

    Thanks for this – like Phyllis, I also reviewed the novella in the series for the challenge and I’m adding my voice to having the same issues. It’s a shame to see the whole chauvinist thing seems to be a returning theme…

  24. Lane Vargas says:

    I really HATE insulting a man by calling him a pussy. It didn’t use to bother me. But now I see it as telling a man that the worse, most insulting thing possible is to be a woman or woman like.

  25. Amanda says:

    Oof, that sounded rough. Great review though.

    This book also touches on one of my biggest pet hates: referring to women as “females.” It’s one of those things that I’ll hear and my eye immediately twitches.

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