With Seduction in Mind...at Some Point...in the Near Future

Novel – With Seduction in Mind
Author – Laura Lee Gurkhe
ISBN-13: 9780061456831

It took quite a while for me to get into this book, but I have to admit that there were several moments were I was captivated by the scenes between hero and heroine. As an aspiring writer, I sympathized with both characters. The moments where our hero described struggling with writing and the times when nothing came to him yet he continued to toil were very close to home. His troubles were my troubles, and they resonated with me.

Similarly, the heroine's ability to write page after page of drivel also resonated. I find that I am most adept at producing drivel! And similar to her, I can justify writing crap because at least I am writing something. In my mind, it was clear who these characters were and I never felt that these characters strayed from their intentions.

However, I was disappointed by how slowly the book built up tension. Let me correct that...there was tension from the outset for these characters, but not tension of the romantic sort. And once the romantic tension became apparent, it dragged. It seemed to me that Ms. Gurhke waxed on about the hardships of writing (or not writing) and I became bored. I found myself skipping paragraphs and sometimes scenes because the story failed to move forward. Once the heroine decided to "seduce" our hero with kisses, the story moved along at a nice pace, but getting to that rhythm was sometimes a bit too painful, too brooding, and definitely too much philosophizing about the trials and tribulations of the writing process. We (or at least I) got it already.

Take, for instance, that were teased by the hero's desire to kiss our heroine. In three separate instances the reader thinks she might get some respite and a little passion. But no, she must wait. Maybe this waiting was how the author tried to build conflict. Tension and conflict is often how authors raise the stakes for their characters. But when authors tease the readers with these tension filled scenes time and time again, but then don’t deliver to the reader’s heightened need for resolution, it is distracting. I kept expecting him to pull her into his arms and kiss her passionately…but he didn’t…Okay, I exaggerate…but when he did kiss her it was well past the time that I had given up hope that he would!

Long of the short, is that I found the pacing to be "off", but when we are finally wrapped into the seduction (the 2nd half of the book), the author corrects for her pacing nicely. This makes me wonder if Ms. Gurhke had her own “inspiration” for the latter part of the book...

Ultimately I enjoyed reading this novel and would recommend it.

Happy Reading,
FindingAlpha