At The Edge is the first book in a new trilogy by Cait London. The spine classifies it as "Romantic Suspense" - which it is... but it has an equal amount of paranormal elements as well so I'd call it a paranormal suspense romance.
I've read a Cait London book in the past. I don't remember which one, so obviously I wasn't terribly impressed because a) I have a great memory for books I've read - if I liked them; and b) I haven't felt compelled to read another. But I saw this on Amazon and was intrigued... it actually came out in June but I was hoping to get it at the used bookstore... no such luck.
The background basics:
Triplets and their mother all have mega psychic gifts. They are decendants of a Celtic seer. Because of the nature of these gifts they cannot live close to each other.
This book's characters:
Claire is the youngest (by 6 minutes). She is the empath and has a very hard time blocking out the world around her so she lives in an isolated house in Montana. Claire's pretty much a hermit except for an elderly woman who lives in a house in the same clearing. When the elderly lady dies, her nephew inherits the house, moves in, and causes a huge amount of ruckus and noise.
Neil Olafson is the nephew that moves in. He's sexy, outgoing, and troubled by the disappearance of his son 8 years ago. After finding Claire on the floor of her house, the victim of a vicious intruder, he decides she's his to protect... she and her kooky sisters obviously need keepers.
This book, the premise of which was so promising, just didn't work for me... much.
First off, there were two seperate suspense 'plots' affecting the same characters but the bouncing back and forth between them was choppy and took away from the build-up of suspense. It left me feeling like the mouse in the maze wondering which way I should run to get to the end. Also, both of the suspense plots end strangely... rather unsatifying and flat. The one about Neil's son ends especially weird and is lacking the emotional depth you would expect. I can't go into more detail without spoilers so I'll leave it at that.
Second, I liked Claire and I liked Neil -but together... Not so much. In the beginning, Neil is portrayed as an EXTREMELY social person. And, of course, Claire cannot be around people without suffering from her psychic gift. And yet, this MAJOR compatability problem is never really 'solved' or even addressed properly. On the other hand, his playfulness and sensuality balances Claires somber solitude so they're not totally wrong for each other - if the other problems had been addressed sufficiently I would have been fine.
What I liked best about the book was Neil's determined protectiveness... I love that in a hero! Also, Tempest, the middle sister, was a fascinating character. I know my 'review' of it sounds pretty negative, but it wasn't a horrible book. It was just rather scattered feeling and a bit flat in the plot.
Overall, I would give it a C-. It's worth reading and I'll read the rest of the series... but I'll probably wait for the books to be at the used store in the future.
1 comment:
I just read this one last week and I have to agree with you. Although there were some interesting points, for the most part I just walked away not really caring.
And although I liked the hero, he bordered on stalkerville a couple of times. Like when he waited outside her house to see where she was going, etc. I realize he was trying to protect her, but it sort of left a bad taste in my mouth.
Of course, I'll still read the next two. :P I'm really curious about Tempest.
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