Another book I'm conflicted about. I like the setting, which is a future New York, and the main character, Eve Dallas, who is a police lieutenant. The plot, which involves the investigation of the murder of a licensed prostitute from a politically influential family is interesting.
What I don't like is Eve's love interest, the rich and mysterious Roarke, who's apparently so cool he only needs one name.... He's also very bossy and treats Eve in a way that would have any sane woman kicking him in the fork and running for it. He bullies and coerces her into doing things she doesn't want to do and this is presented as being healthy and caring and breaking through her repression. I suppose I should have expected something like this, since when the author has her other hat on, she's romance novelist Nora Roberts, but I'd rather hoped she'd leave the bodices unripped in this series.
On a more technical level, the author also shifts point of view like a drunk driver changing lanes on the motorway, such that the reader wonders why a character is thinking something so unlike them until it becomes clear that the point of view has shifted to someone else. This is sheer bad writing, of the type you wouldn't expect from a published author.
But the thing that annoys me most is that despite all this, I was hooked in enough to read to the end, because I wanted to find out what happened. And I'll probably read the next one too, although I'll get it from Bookmooch or the charity shop.
