Today is my turn on the blog tour for a new romantic suspense novel by Jaclyn M. Hawkes, The Most Important Catch.
About the Book
Title: The Most Important CatchAuthor: Jaclyn M. Hawkes
Date Released: March 2012
Publisher: Spirit Dancer Books
Genre: LDS/Romantic Suspense
She knew too much, and she’d seen too much. And the police refused to help. Knowing that she was to be the next scheduled death, Kelly Campbell hid under head to toe black leather and a tinted motorcycle helmet and ran for her life.
When the weather turned cold, she turned south. She ended up in North Carolina, home to one of the most famed and eligible NFL football stars in the whole league; only she didn’t know that. She thought he was a businessman. Not being a huge fan, all she knew was that he was incredibly attractive, kind, generous, and that she was safe with him. Or was she?
His brand of fame proved to be all but deadly, but his fame wasn’t nearly as lethal as his attraction. He kept her safe and protected. Except for her heart.
Last year, I wrote a review of Jaclyn M. Hawkes's debut novel, Journey of Honor. She has published a second novel, The Outer Edge of Heaven, between that book and this one, a book I haven't had the chance to read. However, I can see that Ms. Hawkes has made tremendous strides in learning more about the writing craft.
I enjoyed the majority of The Most Important Catch, which initially passed my "keep me reading" test. Unfortunately, the ending didn't hold together for me.
At first, when I moved from page 272 to page 273, I thought someone had mis-edited the piece to delete a key scene. But then I came across the missing scene, and it was not only out of place, but the timeline elements were mixed up. A thorough editing should have caught the flaw in sequence and mended it before publication.
After the author spent so much time building up the threat to Kelly's life in conversations with others and narration, I was disappointed in the resolution of that threat.Too much actual tension and conflict were missing. In addition, I didn't find any evidence of the physical pain one character should have been experiencing.
Another disappointment came when too much time was spent on one character attempting to overcome another character's misunderstanding of the actual situation between them. In fact, the pleas and explanations went on for an uncomfortably long time in a public place, with few clues that other characters were present. For me, too many questions remained unanswered, and the ending felt thin.
Because of Ms. Hawkes demonstrably increased writing skills in other areas, I hope I can be assured that she will continue to work on plot structure skills and solve this weakness.
Despite my quibbles, I found most of the book to be a pleasant romantic tale.
Learn more about the author from her website here, and click on the links below to purchase The Most Important Catch.
Purchase the Book
Thanks so much for being part of the blog tour!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome. Thanks for the opportunity.
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