Just Like a Man

Well, I for one really enjoyed Bevarly's wacky humor in this book. (It's my first time reading her work.) The repetitions were intended as humor, and I found them funny. In fact, only the first one, which was used more often, got old. Yes, many of the sentences start with "and," "but," etc. People do not think in complete sentences, and much of what is written is the workings of the minds of one of the characters. I thoroughly enjoyed both romances in this book; the characters were very well developed, and their relationships were emotionally compelling, romantic, and steamy. The suspense could have been equally good, and I thought Bevarly would tie everything together at the end. Unfortunately, she did not. The two romances barely tied together, and the spy plot was left dangling with no resolution. That was bad, very bad. She could so easily have connected the spy plot to Pax's computer business and tied everything together. Alas! So, great on romance, and I thought it was very funny, but the lack of resolution in the spy sub-plot and the failure to tie the two romances together loses some points. Come to think of it, Bevarly doesn't really put the finishing touches on the second roance either. I've set the stars at 4 because the rating could use the boost, but it's really about a 3 to 3.5.

For the most part I enjoyed this book. The author has a very good sense of humor with most of it done as internal dialogue which reminded me of Jennifer Crusie. However, I would have liked to have seen more dialogue which I think would have moved the story a little faster. All in all, a good read.

I like Elizabeth Bevarly's books, I really do. They are very witty and have interesting characters. It was hard to decide how many stars to give this book because it has two separate stories in it, only connected by the most tenuous of threads. First, you have the story of Hannah and Michael, which I would give 3 stars. I liked the characters and their emotional connection, but the plot was pretty far-fetched and it seemed Ms. Bevarly couldn't come up with an idea about why the villian of the piece was a threat. Also, this story had an absolutely flat ending with a non-resolving resolution. The story of Selby and Thomas was more enjoyable with an actual end to their story. They each found themselves to be better than they had realized. Thankfully, no villains were involved in this story that had a decent romance plot line and an emotionally satifying ending. Many novels with parallel plot lines at least have some plot-advancing interactions among the various protagonists. This one has only the sparsest of connections. Having read it, I didn't feel like my money or my time had been wasted. I got some belly laughs out of it and enjoyed all the protagonists, but the potential buyer may want to take all of the above into account when deciding how to spend his/her gift cards/money/gift certificates.

Michael "Raptor" Sawyer tells his former boss that he no longer worked for OPUS as he has a nine years old son to raise and parent association meetings to attend. His superior informs Michael that you work for OPUS for life. Furthermore he is needed to deal with the Sorcerer, currently behaving as a model businessman in Indianapolis, but OPUS knows how dangerous this man is. Michael takes Alex with him on his assignment as he has no choice. He enrolls his son in Emerson Academy, but rather quickly the precocious Alex is in trouble with stern headmistress Hannah Frost who lives up to her last name. Hannah calls in Michael to discuss his son's behavior and to her chagrin finds she is attracted to him although he does not fit her controlled lifestyle. Still as Michael works as an undercover secret agent, he and Hannah fall in love, but between the impacts on his son, the danger caused by the Sorcerer, and her stubbornness, the relationship between the Raptor and the educator appears doomed. Though Hannah lives up to her surname for much of the first half of the novel, readers will accept her cold professional approach as an educational administrator and manager, but feel a bit disjointed that she behaves the same way in her personal life even as this rings true. Michael and Alex thaw her. The suspense adds tension as Michael finds he has two people to protect from his enemy and willingly risks all to keep them safe. Fans will enjoy this taut romantic suspense thriller starring three fine protagonists. Harriet Klausner