One Taste of Crazy

ROMANTIC SUSPENSE

Title: One Taste of Crazy
Author: Amanda Siegrist
Publication date: 07/28/2017
Kindle Unlimited: Yes
Cliffhanger: No
Rating: 3.5 out of 5

I’m going to admit to something here, folks. I’m not a romantic suspense fan. I usually find the premise of romantic suspense novels to be soooooo ridiculous. I mean, there’s a serial killer stalking you and you’re more worried about whether the hot bodyguard thinks you’re pretty than you are about the lingering threat of DEATH hanging over your head? No WAY would that happen in real life. So, I approach romantic suspense reads VERY carefully. (As carefully as I approach giant hairy spiders and anything with tofu in it.) 

But I’ve read this author’s work before and was impressed, and frankly, the whole notion of a “shy and awkward” police detective in a romantic suspense novel totally piqued my interest (they’re usually slick, swaggering, alpha-holes), so I decided to give this one a try. Overall, I’m really glad I did.

Sauer was a great hero. He was tough and alpha when he needed to be, but sweet and patient and endearingly shy when it came to emotional matters. He was a rarity in Romance Land, and I  appreciate the hell out of unique, totally non-cliche characters.
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The mechanics of the story were also good. The pacing was even, the dialogue felt natural, and I found very few typos and other grammatical errors. (Hey, no one’s perfect. There’s no editor alive that will catch EVERY typo, so I urge all you grammar Nazis out there—you know who you are—to ease up a bit.)

I had a couple of nitpicks, but nothing so egregious that it really damaged my overall enjoyment of the story:

1. All the characters in the book kept telling me how loud and crazy and wild Dee was, but I didn’t really ever get to see much of that personality in Dee’s actions and dialogue. A little more “showing” rather than “telling” in this case would’ve been nice.
2. I was a little irritated with Dee’s insistence on impeding Sauer’s investigation and “helping”. My husband’s an engineer. I don’t ever force my way into his work and insist on “helping” him program robots and shit. I’d be in his way if I did. No one needs that kind of “help”. I know you’re a “spunky” heroine, but let the man do his job, Dee!
3. I would’ve liked some insight into the villain. Maybe some scenes from his perspective, or something? Something to make him less of a one-dimensional crazy dude?
4. This group of cops talked about their feelings and relationships quite a bit. I could be wrong, but I find it hard to believe that a group of hardened police detectives would ever sit around and give one of their own a bunch of romance pep-talks and sage romantic advice.     

      
And fair warning: as stated in the blurb, there is instalove. It personally doesn’t bother me too much. I don’t find instalove to be any more unbelievable than, say, werewolves, and I read the crap out of werewolf books. I only mention it because I know that instalove is a huge no-no for some readers. (*shrugs* To each his own, I say.)

Does this book contribute to or help crush the romance stigma?
Some elements of the story border on unbelievable, as is often the case with romantic suspense reads, but this is well-written enough to avoid contributing to the romance stigma, in my opinion.

Other reading suggestions
Well, like I said, I’m not a huge reader of romantic suspense, so I can’t offer much in the way of recommendations on that front. But, for a fantastic read about a socially awkward but totally sexy hero, try Melanie Harlow’s Some Sort of Happy. ​

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