Thursday, June 28, 2007

Safe Harbor *disappointed sigh*

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket


I just finished reading Christine Feehan's latest book Safe Harbor and it makes me so sad to say that I was really disappointed. I will probably be in the minority in this opinion - I've already heard that it was really good from several different people but I just have to disagree.

This book does not live up to expectations created by the other books in the series, nor does it do justice to two very interesting characters whose antics livened up many-a-scene in the sisters' books. The portrayal of the Jonas and Hannah didn't feel right when compared with what we've learned/seen in past books and I didn't like them in Safe Harbor. The action between Joley and her SO-obviously intended 'mate' was way more interesting than anything going on between Jonas and Hannah.

I found Safe Harbor to be fairly trite and semi-boring. The plot felt like it stalled several times, especially the suspense. This book had WAY less action but not only that, there wasn't enough going on between the main characters to carry the story forward without dragging. In addition, several of the elements and scenes almost appear to be copy/paste jobs (with a few sentences added) from other books, most noticeably the Ghostwalker series.

Has anyone else noticed that recently Feehan's male characters have become less "powerful alpha male" and more "borderline-scary and controlling"? I have absolutely NO problem with a possessive alpha hero. They're my favorite kind of hero but the heroes in all three of her series' have been getting weirder since Conspiracy Game. Actually, I started noticing it in Dark Secret but it was more obvious in future books. In Safe Harbor, Jonas has several violent outbursts which result in him throwing a fit and destroying entire rooms in the sisters' home, including furniture. That's just kinda disturbing, in my opinion.

Now please, don't get me wrong, it wasn't a bad book. It was more.... mediocre and therefore, was a disappointment to me and I can't help but focus on the negative. There were some scenes that many will find touching, if a bit overdone, and the interaction between Joley and her highly mysterious intended 'mate' are intriguing and made me wish for their book ASAP!

Do I recommend this book? Not really. If I had it to do all over again I would have waited for it to be at the used bookstore or even the library.

Is it worth reading? Yeah, I'd say so. If only because it builds on the series, wraps up the whole Hannah/Jonas clash and gives, what I believe to be, broad hints about the futures of the two remaining sisters.

Now I'm off to read Mind Game to remind myself of why Christine Feehan is the queen of paranormal romance and that there is hope for future books.

3 comments:

Bridget Locke said...

Hello! It's Kaitlin from Nalini's Blog! :) Thought I'd come over to yours & check it out. I like it!

My blog is http://bridgetlocke.bravejournal.com.

If you were to click on my name after this posts, it'd take you to my defunct blogspot account. So, if you're interested, just copy & paste.

Hope you're having a great night! See you around, I'm sure. :)

Lila Dubois said...

Good Review!!

Holly said...

I'm in the process of reading this right now and so far I have to agree with you. For some reason, even though she drives me batty half the time, I'm still compelled to read CF.

So far I've just been scratching my head over Jonas' behavior.

Great review.

Oh, and I'm Holly from Book Binge, BTW. Nice to meet you. ;)