Monday, December 26, 2011

Book Review: LUCKY STIFF

Lucky StiffLucky Stiff by Deborah Coonts


My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Bummer!


Maybe my expectations were too high because I had enjoyed the first book so much ... or maybe this book just fell short. Either way, I had a hard time pushing through to finish the book.

What I loved about WANNA GET LUCKY? (the first book in the series):

1. Lucky O'Toole was in charge of customer relations at a big LV hotel, and she had great adventures solving customer problems.

2. Lucky wasn't involved in an annoying love-triangle. She actually picked a guy.

3. Lucky's boyfriend was a cross-dressing-female-impersonator for a big LV show.

4. Lucky was a self-confident kick-butt kind of gal.

5. The secondary characters were all a hoot.

6. The writing was great, and the plot kept me guessing.


What I hated about LUCKY STIFF (the second book in the series):


1. Lucky acted like she was everything BUT in charge of customer relations. She played the role of general manager, food & beverage manager, boss' daughter, nervous-nelly, and police detective.

2. Guys were panting after Lucky left and right ... why?

3. Lucky's boyfriend exited in the very beginning of the book. What? I wanted to see the whole self-confident-cross-dressing-female-impersonator character more!

4. Lucky whined and whined and whined - about everything imaginable, and when she wasn't whining, she was drowning her sorrows in alcohol. Really? *sigh*

5. The secondary characters ... well ... frankly, I was too annoyed by everything else to notice them much.

6. The writing seemed rushed, contrived, and lacking.


I don't understand why Coonts threw Lucky into the detective role instead of allowing her to be the customer relations expert we came to love in book one. Page 232 Lucky thinks: "There was a reason I wasn't a detective--I sucked at it." I agree. Go back to customer relations.

I'll give book three a try (because I loved book one so much), and then decide if I will continue with the series.



View all my reviews

What about you? Are you reading any series where one book has left you frustrated, but you continued on with the series? Were you glad you did or did not?

3 comments:

  1. After I read the first mystery Agatha Christie wrote, I decided to read all her books. The last ones, when she was elderly, were not good at all. It wasn't her fault, but I noticed they weren't even edited. They knew the books would sell because of her name.

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  2. I read the first three novels in Micheal Scott’s, Nicholas Flamel series. The twists and turns in his novels kept me turning the pages, but he has annoying habit of explaining everything to death. By book four, The Necromancer, I had an enough. Once I started skipping pages I knew it was time to give up on the series. My husband, on the other hand, loves all the detail so he was able to tell me how the book ended.

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  3. You are much kinder than I. If I love the first and the second is poorly written I know the third isn't in my future.

    There are so many books out there I find no reason to suffer when reading for pleasure.

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