Pearl's World of Romance - Reviews with a Passion: Julia Harper

Showing posts with label Julia Harper. Show all posts

March 11, 2009

For the Love of Pete - Julia Harper

10:00 AM |

Back Cover Copy:
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN OPPOSITES ATTRACT?
Free-spirited Zoey Adler is about to hijack a federal agent. And not just any federal agent, but very Special Agent Dante Torelli, a man whose designer suits and Italian shoes are more GQ than FBI. But when her baby niece, Pete, is snatched right in front of her eyes, Zoey doesn’t hesitate to scramble into Dante’s spotless BMW. She needs his help to rescue the baby . . . if only she can ignore his Lips of Sin.

OH, BABY!
Dante’s original mission is down the drain and he’s dodging bullets with a loopy redhead by his side. He likes quiet. She never shuts up. He likes to follow the rules. She throws the rules out the window. But these opposites do more than attract—they ignite. With a henpecked hit man running wild, cooking-obsessed matrons chasing down contraband spices, and a relentless killer tracking them all, Dante and Zoey will risk everything—for themselves and . . . FOR THE LOVE OF PETE

In the middle of an argument between Zoey Addler and Dante Torelli about a parking space the kidnapping of Zoey's niece Pete by a hit man, sent by a mafia to kill the federal witness Dante is protecting, propels them into working together to find the kidnapper and the child. They chase after the kidnapper, Neil Janiowski. But things get very complicated when Neil's car, containing not only Pete but also Neil's own son Neil Junior, is hijacked by two bickering Indian ladies wanting something back that Neil stole from them. Soon bullets are flying, old ladies are on the run, fights are fought, babies are tossed from one stolen car into another, hit man and traitors run in abundance. Everything leads to an eventful adventure with a happy ending in all aspects.

The main characters of this book, Zoey and Dante, are wonderful! They have such contradicting personalities you just can't believe there's a love match there. Zoey is spirited, colorful and artistic but she's also quick-witted, sympathetic and caring. Dante is the proverbial in-control male. He is serious, coolheaded and orderly but he is also compassionate, helpful and driven. Even their backgrounds and they way they were brought up are totally different. These contradictory characters do complement each other perfectly however. What lacks in one, the other has plenty and vice versa.

But Zoey and Dante weren't the only characters to catch my attention. The variety of lively secondary characters, that all had their unique contribution to the plot, truly complemented the main couple and stood out on their own. I even felt sympathy for Neil, the kidnapper and the two arguing Indian sister-in-law are just plain hilarious. Together all the secondary characters and their antics formed a perfect background for the love story between Zoey and Dante.

This book is one hilarious laugh-out-loud read. Julia Harper took a bowl, threw in a federal witness, FBI agents -one of which is crooked-, a poet, a mafia hit man, a mafia boss, two quarreling Indian sisters in law who own a restaurant, two adorable babies and finally she added the setting of a car chase with a bullet-ridden BMW convertible in the leading part. You would think with these ingredients the book is bound to be a bit chaotic and disorderly but nothing is further from the truth. Finally she stirred it a bit and out came a delightful contemporary romance.

She delivered a heart warming, fluent and funny story that keeps your attention from the first to the last page and managed to throw some satisfying romance in the mix as well. She made it funny, suspenseful and romantic without taking it over the top. It's a great contemporary romance with lots of good humor and not the slapstick type of humor I did find in Harper's first book (HOT), with thoroughly fleshed out main characters who had a nice kind of chemistry going and with a plot that was a pleasurable mix of the right amount of suspense, action, funny situations, romance with emotional depth and character development. She linked several storylines and POVs throughout the book and brought them together in the end perfectly.

I definitely liked this second book whole lot better than Harper's first contemporary romance. For me that one was a trial run and it couldn't compete with the historicals she writes under the penname Elizabeth Hoyt, but with this one she nailed it. What I really like about Harper/Hoyt's writing is her ability to think outside of the expected and come up with characters that are as surprising as they are strong. They quirks they have, make them human and easy to relate to which enriched my reading pleasure.

This book was funny, fast-paced, action-packed and touching. In short, everything I expect in a contemporary romance. After HOT, which I labeled an average read, Harper has amazed me with this second book, giving me a quality contemporary read that truly didn't disappoint. I unquestionably enjoyed myself reading this book. If you want uncomplicated, unadulterated fun, you can’t go wrong with FOR THE LOVE OF PETE!

Labels: Contemporary Romance, Grand Central Publishing, great reads, Julia Harper, reviews | 0 comments |

February 10, 2008

Hot - Julia Harper

11:44 PM |

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A Woman With a Plan
For most people, being held at gunpoint by inept bank robbers disguised as Yoda and SpongeBob SquarePants would make for a bad day. For local librarian Turner Hastings, it's an opportunity. Using the distraction to pull a little heist of her own, she dives into a new life... on the run.

A Cop on a Mission
FBI Special Agent John MacKinnon always gets his man... or woman. After watching Turner Hastings dump the contents of a safety deposit box into her purse on a surveillance tape, he knows this case won’t be run of the mill. What he doesn't expect is how the cell phone contact between him and his bounty is about to blur the line between professional ambition and personal desire. When bullets from a hired hitman start flying in Turner's direction, giving weight to her claims of injustice, John is willing to cross any line to save her life...even if it means losing his own.

When town librarian Turner Hastings, the person most unlikely to commit a crime, turns a bank robbery into her own heist in the name of personal revenge, the chase to capture her ends up being as unconventional and surprising as the act of the heist itself. Special Agent John MacKinnon, the FBI agent in charge of the case, finds himself capturing a lot more than he bargained for and Turner in the end doesn't mind being captured by this intriguing agent at all.

Both John and Turner are characters you can easily identify yourself with, their feelings are normal and everyday feelings and their motivations are ones that aren't that far-fetched although they find themselves in less everyday situations, thrown in an unusual and extreme setting. Their sanity and logic are a big contrast with the almost over the top stupidity and insanity of secondary characters of the bank robbers Fish and Nald.

But still as normal as John and Turner might be they are not average characters. They both have something special that comes to life in their interactions. John doesn't seem very alpha male but when he talks to Turner or is with her he has something utterly appealing.
Turner is a woman with a mission, a mission to right a wrongdoing committed a long time ago. She's waited for the perfect moment to execute her revenge and nothing is going to stand in her way. She has her hang-ups and complexes but with John she forgets all about them and relaxes into a heroine who's focused and determined but sometimes also very headstrong.

Under the pseudonym of Julia Harper, historical romance writer Elizabeth Hoyt has gone in a very different direction and I found it a refreshing and witty one although I also must be honest and say I liked her historicals more.

In this book humor has the upper hand, sarcastic humor, laugh-out-loud humor, witty bantering, slapstick humor. You name it and this book has it, especially in the first half where the focus is almost purely on the plot and less on the romance/relationship between John and Turner. The love story gradually picks up though, evolving more after the first real contact between hero and heroine, be it on the phone. After that the perspective alternates between, Turner on the run and John chasing her down, the emotional interactions between John and Turner on the phone and later in the flesh and the slapstick, almost absurd scenes of the fleeing bank robbers.

I found it difficult to classify this book into one particular genre. There was a bit of suspense, a bit of action, a bit of comedy, a bit of romance and a bit of drama. This is definitely a contemporary with many layers to it.
I was able to discern to different parts in the book, the first half being witty, funny and hilarious, focusing more on the robbery and the chase. The second part being more emotional and intense, focusing more on the relationship between Turner and John. But you are able to see the slow build up in the first half towards the second half. It starts out seeming a funny story about a robbery but underneath you know there's something more waiting to come out.

There's something very down-to-earth and straightforward to this book that appeals to me despite it not being extremely intense or mind-blowing. I can't pinpoint exactly why but it somehow got to me on a whole other level than other contemporary novels I've read. I do think the small twists in the plot, the witty bantering, the unusual characters, both primary and secondary certainly contributed to this feeling.

I enjoyed Ms Harper’s first contemporary romance even though it wasn't the emotional rollercoaster I prefer my romances to be.
She was able to turn an average small-town robbery into a story of revenge, justice and companionship, spiked with romance, wit and a main couple who both give as good as they get. She has this cunning talent of getting away with bringing together plots, characters and emotions that seem irreconcilable, in a very easy and believable way.

Quote:
There was something essentially erotic about his need to pursue. To capture and reveal her. He was the predator, and she was his wily, seductive prey.

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