As a dancer on a luxury cruise liner, Taffy has a dream job: earning tax-free money for something she’s passionate about, while not spending a cent on bed & board. Taffy, however, has a secret and the money is not coming in fast enough for her liking, especially when her focus turns away from money towards the steady, sexy and dark Ashton, whose ex-girlfriend shares Taffy’s crew cabin.
The pool boy, Ashton, is in reality the undercover heir to the shipping company's fortune. When an emerald pendant is stolen, Ashton has to discover the culprit before the company’s reputation is compromised. As much as he hates to admit it, Taffy is the prime suspect....
My thoughts on this story...
First the title captured my attention. I'm not a dancer, though I would love to be and contrary to popular opinion, not all blacks have rhythm. I couldn't imagine trying to dance in front of others and not making a fool of myself.
Next I went to the author's website, http://eve-summers.blogspot.com/, to see how experienced a writer she is. Why? Because I feel reviews are like report cards. You wouldn't grade a 1st grader like a 12th grader, and new authors shouldn't be graded like experienced ones.
Last I read the story. Yeah, I should have read the blurb first but I simply didn't think of it until afterwards. I wanted to dive right in.
As a reader, this is absolutely a great story. It packs a lot of punch for its short length. As someone who recently just finished a 4-day cruise, I could totally relate to this behind the scenes glimpse of the things that can and probably do happen on board ship. It is, like the author said at one point, a floating city.
Because I didn't read the blurb, the surprises kept coming. The mystery aspect of the story was very well done. The only thing different I would have done had I been one of the assigned editors was have the writer give a little more of a description of the characters. I'm a very visual reader. Skin tone, hair and eye color and a few other generalities is all the description a reader's imagination is given to work with. However, even that lack of description didn't detract from the story.
I believe, as a writer, I wouldn't have revealed the hero's identity in the blurb. My not knowing exactly who, or rather what, he was added immensely to the story. It gave me the opportunity to experience the joyful surprise of the pool guy turning out to be undercover security only to discover he was heir to the shipping enterprise. Talk about a fairytale ending.
The reader in me would like to know what happened to the heroine's brother. But then, that's just a quirk of mine. I like all my threads neatly tied together, unless the loose threads are setup for the next book in the series.
Needless to say, I'll be looking forward to Eve's next book in the Cruise Liner Adventures.
4 comments:
What a great review for Eve.
Jane
Thank you for liking my work, and a very good point about the blurb.
Nice review, Sena...when I read I place myself in the story and oftentimes wonder what lay ahead for certain characters in a book...yeah, I know, I'm a Y&R junkie too. This review does leave me wanting to read this book. Thanks for sharing.
Sorry I misspelled your name Zena...typing and talking to hubby at time and didn't check it out before I hit the send button...Again, I appologize. :)
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