There was no love connection between me and the romance Don’t Look Down written by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer.
I like to lose myself in books -- live vicariously through them -- and I could not get into this “humorous love story.” Though the appeal of romance is supposed to be an emotional one I just did not feel connected with heroine Lucy Armstrong and her love interest J.T. Wilder.
When the novel opens, Lucy, a director for dog food commercials in New York City, and her assistant, Gleason Bloom, have been called in to take over the final four days of filming on an adventure film in Savannah, Georgia, by Lucy’s sister, Daisy. To complicate matters her hunky ex-husband Connor Nash is the film’s stunt coordinator. Captain J.T. Wilder is brought into the action by the film’s leading man, comedian Bryce McKay, as his stunt double and military consultant.
The book neatly fits the Romance formula since the heroine and hero are “easily identifiable” character types. Lucy is a strong, bright, independent director who is also very attractive. She resembles Wonder Woman. Captain Wilder is a rugged, strong, dangerous Green Beret in a Special Forces unit, definitely the dangerous, silent type. There is an attraction between them from the moment they meet. But Lucy is concerned about saving her sister, her niece and the production and doesn’t want to get involved with another strong man after her disastrous marriage to Connor. She resists her attraction to J.T. until she decides that she wants somebody that makes her feel “chills up my spine” and she believes that she can give him “real warmth” and she could “rescue him.”
The movie Lucy is directing is being used as a front to launder money for the mob and novel contains elements mystery and suspense. There is also side action relating to Lucy’s niece Pepper, J.T.’s friend LaFavre and hit man Tyler Branch, but the main action is focused on Lucy and J.T.
I selected this book because Joyce G. Saricks listed Jennifer Crusie as a writer of romance with humor and described one of her other titles, Faking It, as “laugh-out-loud.” I guess funny is subjective because I did not really find this book very humorous. There was too much description and emphasis on women’s bust sizes and pre-Columbian collection of jade phallic symbols and that is not the type of humor I enjoy. Maybe this title would appeal to readers with that junior high sense of humor where anything sexual is funny. The book, as most romances, also contains some actual sex scenes but they aren’t too graphic and they don’t appear too often.
This book is definitely a romance. I think it misses on the humor and I cannot recommend it for readers who are looking for an escape.
Don’t Look Down by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer
Published in 2006 by St. Martin’s Press, New York
373 pages
Setting is the Eugene Talmadge Memorial Bridge spanning the Savannah River at Savannah, Georgia and South Carolina, and surrounding area.
Television Advertising Directors – Fiction, Motion Pictures – Production and Direction – Fiction, Humorous Fiction, Love Stories
I tried reading this book, too, and never finished it. These writers collaborated on another book, "Agnes and the Hitman," which I thought was much funnier (I read this first, which is probably why I was so let down by "Don't Look Down.") If you feel the urge to give this pair another chance, I'd recommend Agnes.
ReplyDelete