Review: Diamond Bay

linda howard, diamond bay, book review
 
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Rachel Jones wasn't looking for trouble, much less a man, but in Kell Sabin she found both. On a hot summer’s night Kell is washed up—barely alive—on a Florida beach and into Rachel’s life. Their love blossoms as he recovers from his injuries. But by falling in love with Kell, Rachel has put her own life in danger from the forces that want him dead. Once fate has bought them together, can they learn to live apart?
Genre: contemporary romance

Published: February 2016 (for the Kindle version; the story is from almost 20 years ago)

Mature content: yes

Review: Linda Howard is one of my favorite romantic suspense authors, so when I saw the Kindle edition of Diamond Bay, I downloaded it immediately. And I'm sad to say I was very disappointed. 

I knew that the original book was older, but after finishing it I did some research and it's actually from 1987. Unfortunately, an outdated story is the least of this book's problems. In fact, Diamond Bay does not make sense from beginning to end. Kell's character was more or less OK, but Rachel? What woman in her right mind (especially one living alone) would find a wounded man at the beach, take him home, hide him and nurse him back to health, not knowing one single thing about him? Based on a hunch that he's a good guy? Of course this is necessary for the plot to unfold like it does, but is it realistic? Is there any one of us whose first though would not be to call an ambulance, or the police when faced with a similar situation? Because there were telephones around already in 1987...

This lack of coherence ruined the whole book for me. My mind kept coming back to the fact that the plot had this major flaw and I couldn't believe anything else after that, not even what could have been a great romance between Kell and Rachel. 

Apparently, Diamond Bay is book two in the Rescues Series, which I also didn't know when I picked in up. But at least for now, I have no intention of reading any of the other three and I'll just focus on Linda Howard's more recent books, which seem to be of much better quality. 

Happy readings, 


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