Beanbag Love

It took a while for me to get into this story. I don't really like politicians as main protagonists. They're always these idealistic to a completely unbelievable degree figments of the imagination. Add to this a heroine who is a non-smarmy political journalist and you've got a fairy tale on a believability scale with Thumbelina.

But it's also a crime story, and that again is a cliche. An Erin Brockovich tale that ensnares both hero and heroine and includes an evil corporation, a dirty factory, corrupt politicians (everyone except our hero, of course), and run down houses with old people on oxygen who have complained to the EPA for at least two years with nary a peep in return. Seen it too many times to be on the edge of my seat.

The leads are good, even though Reece (our hot state senator) is a bit squeaky clean and Gary Stu-ish. Kara is a bit of an emotional basket case, and some moments are not believable to me. She's not stupid, but she does a few stupid things and it gets annoying after a bit. But their chemistry is believable for the most part.

I was surprised by some of the writing. Clare resorted to some ripe repetition, which is unexpected in such a good writer. I'll have to do a search, but I swear Reece had rage boiling in his gut, white hot rage coiling in his gut or some other variation of rage doing something in his gut at any given time. Use the rage too much, and you've got a rather unstable hero for our emotionally confused heroine. It truly was his first reaction to almost any news. Rage. It got very old and I was disappointed with Clare for stepping into a rut with it.

I'll read the next in the I-Team series, but as I said, politicians and reporters are not necessarily my favorite protagonists. The I-Team refers to the "Investigative Team" of a Denver, CO paper, BTW, so we're in the journalist world whether we like it or not. It's possible that Clare was just struggling a bit with the contemporary format and language, as she's typically a writer of historicals. These might get better as I go along. (disclosure: I used to work for several different magazines, which is probably why I'm not all that interested in journalists as heroes or heroines of stories)

HOWEVER, if you're interested in some smokin' sex scenes, Reece doesn't disappoint. Rawr. ;^)