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walkitoutI got a walk with M.
I had a delightful phone convo with J.
SPOILERS!!! Come on, you know me, altho if you googled in here, SPOILERS!
Last night I read Beverly Jenkins’ _Rare Danger_, a contemporary romantic suspense novella, set in Detroit with a road trip to Alabama. It is an Amazon exclusive (I think), e-book and audible. I did the e-book. It is set in Detroit. It starts with a Blind Date from Hell, in which the heroine departs after paying for herself and being told she wasn’t getting a ride home. While she awaits her sister picking her up, there is a meet cute with the repo guy (hilariously, the Date from Hell needs a ride home, too).
Anyway. Heroine runs an interesting book service, in which she buys books for people’s libraries for various purposes, and the next day she’s out to interview and develop a plan for a new customer who she has not met before, but whose brother has done work for her shop. Of course you know who he turns out to be.
From there, the plot starts rolling along pretty swiftly, and we meet friends, family members, and get a little better acquainted with our cast. It’s unusual in Romancelandia to have an older Hero / Heroine (I should have read more carefully, but I’m guessing early to mid 40s for both of them); the Heroine forthrightly self-describes as probably too old to have children biologically, but the Hero has actually contemplated adopting as a single man — it’s a lovely, up front conversation to have, in keeping with the age of the characters and the seriousness they bring to this relationship. Also, I delight in their responsible choices in bed while they also have a rollicking good time.
For the suspense part of the romantic suspense, there’s been a murder, and there are some threatening people wandering around, and stolen goods and forgeries, and innocent people who have social connections to the guilty parties are suspected and Fraught Conversations happen, and everyone behaves very, very well, except the guilty, of course, who are impulsive, and not very bright.
Also, there is a missile, which is deployed to hilarious effect and, in conjunction with the helicopter that it is launched from, manages to incorporate a surprising amount of relevant social commentary on government security contractors, small town police departments trying to acquire military type equipment, and so forth, in an even more surprisingly small number of words.
Jenkins’ has been writing for decades; it is _possible_ I read something by her back in the 90s when I was exploring romance broadly, back when African American romance novels were often shelved separately in chain bookstores (*sigh*), however, I do not at this point in time recall what that might have been.
In any event, what a glorious number of books to dip into. I hope others find _Rare Danger_ as pleasant a reading experience as I did.
I had a delightful phone convo with J.
SPOILERS!!! Come on, you know me, altho if you googled in here, SPOILERS!
Last night I read Beverly Jenkins’ _Rare Danger_, a contemporary romantic suspense novella, set in Detroit with a road trip to Alabama. It is an Amazon exclusive (I think), e-book and audible. I did the e-book. It is set in Detroit. It starts with a Blind Date from Hell, in which the heroine departs after paying for herself and being told she wasn’t getting a ride home. While she awaits her sister picking her up, there is a meet cute with the repo guy (hilariously, the Date from Hell needs a ride home, too).
Anyway. Heroine runs an interesting book service, in which she buys books for people’s libraries for various purposes, and the next day she’s out to interview and develop a plan for a new customer who she has not met before, but whose brother has done work for her shop. Of course you know who he turns out to be.
From there, the plot starts rolling along pretty swiftly, and we meet friends, family members, and get a little better acquainted with our cast. It’s unusual in Romancelandia to have an older Hero / Heroine (I should have read more carefully, but I’m guessing early to mid 40s for both of them); the Heroine forthrightly self-describes as probably too old to have children biologically, but the Hero has actually contemplated adopting as a single man — it’s a lovely, up front conversation to have, in keeping with the age of the characters and the seriousness they bring to this relationship. Also, I delight in their responsible choices in bed while they also have a rollicking good time.
For the suspense part of the romantic suspense, there’s been a murder, and there are some threatening people wandering around, and stolen goods and forgeries, and innocent people who have social connections to the guilty parties are suspected and Fraught Conversations happen, and everyone behaves very, very well, except the guilty, of course, who are impulsive, and not very bright.
Also, there is a missile, which is deployed to hilarious effect and, in conjunction with the helicopter that it is launched from, manages to incorporate a surprising amount of relevant social commentary on government security contractors, small town police departments trying to acquire military type equipment, and so forth, in an even more surprisingly small number of words.
Jenkins’ has been writing for decades; it is _possible_ I read something by her back in the 90s when I was exploring romance broadly, back when African American romance novels were often shelved separately in chain bookstores (*sigh*), however, I do not at this point in time recall what that might have been.
In any event, what a glorious number of books to dip into. I hope others find _Rare Danger_ as pleasant a reading experience as I did.