Title: Dark Ride
Author: Angela Smith
Series: n/a
A solid effort but needs work
The author asked me to read and review her work, and I was happy to oblige. She provided me with a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.
When Adrienne Fuller witnesses a horrific incident of vehicular homicide, she prays the perpetrators didn’t notice she’d witnessed the crime—but they did, and weren’t about to leave a loose end. Luckily for Adrienne, one of the perps was an undercover FBI agent, and he got to her first. His cover blown, Agent Henry Alexander “Zan” Duncan whisks her away to safety, but with the bad guys hot on their heels, they worry that they will never truly escape the nightmare. Will Zan and Adrienne continue to run, or stand and fight?
Before I start griping, I do want to say that I felt Smith’s enthusiasm. I felt that she enjoyed writing this, enjoys writing in general, and I also feel that she has massive potential and a healthy drive to better herself. I wish her all the luck in the world. But enthusiasm doesn’t equal quality or success.
This was amateur work, though it’s far from the worst novel I’ve ever read. Hopefully, a proofreader will give it a once-over for punctuation and spelling before it’s final, and there are a few lines that didn’t make sense to me, but generally Smith is very good with grammar and sentence structure. Mechanically speaking, it flowed and was easy to read, just needs to be polished up.
Narratively speaking, it’s a clusterfuck. I have a long list of notes, from inconsequential nitpicks to fundamental problems. In short, the character’s personalities and mindsets were all over the place; they demonstrated an extreme lack of urgency that killed any momentum and energy a good suspense novel requires; and the suspense subplot was more like a sub-subplot. There wasn’t enough to it; we didn’t know enough about it to make us care. The only time I felt the danger was when Jason confronted Zan in Adrienne’s bathroom. Everything else was predictable and superficial. It felt rather like Smith herself wasn’t quite taking it seriously; she doesn’t seem to know how to marry a dark, gripping suspense plot with a sweet, sexy romance. It’s a tricky tone to balance; I don’t envy her the task.
That’s the gist of my thoughts. For a list of specific gripes and passionate rants, read on.
1. I have never heard of a shift in any profession that goes from 2PM to 2AM. It’s entirely possible, of course, but it has to be very unconventional. Furthermore, I cannot believe Adrienne can leave her shift early by any amount of time, let alone more than an hour. That’s just horseshit. A few of my family members are nurses, and unless there’s a major personal emergency, they stay late if anything. Report can take time. No one I know just leaves their job early. My sister-in-law, a loan officer, might leave a bit early sometimes, but only if she stayed late a previous night. No, a scheduled 12-hour shift for a hospital nurse, at least at Mayo, is typically from 7 to 7. I’m sure Adrienne’s weird shift was to account for why she was up and letting the cat out at 2 am, and thus present to witness the crash, but it’s weak. I’d have bought it more easily if Adrienne had simply been unable to sleep because of a nightmare or even just the stress she felt, and happened to look out the window at the fated moment. Equally convenient, but less contrived.
1.a. How does she have a house cat that isn’t trained to use a litter box? Why wouldn’t she house-train her cat if letting it out to go potty makes her so anxious, if she doesn’t trust it to come back? Cats are pretty much nocturnal and naturally like to hunt and run around all night; how can she not expect it to do so when she lets it out at 2 am? If she wants it to come back right away, she should put a leash on it or something. She just seemed to make things harder than they needed to be, and it didn’t make sense to me. Of course, she needed to be outside looking for her cat in order to witness the crash. Again, weakly contrived circumstances.
1.b. Why did the crash happen on that specific road? What were they doing out there in the boonies? It seemed so random. Maybe there was an explanation, but I didn’t notice. I assumed I was supposed to assume that there was a crazy car chase that just happened to make it out into ranch country. You know, as they do.
2. That fishing scene was bizarre. I’m not sure what its purpose was; I don’t believe it set up anything to be paid off later. It was probably just supposed to endear me to the agents so I care when they get blown up, but it didn’t. Or it could have been an excuse to get Adrienne and Zan to hang out. Either way, it did nothing but confuse the tone, slow the momentum, and waste time. Adrienne and Zan both liked to fish. So what? It doesn’t matter. Also, were those agents on duty? I think they were. If they weren’t, I don’t recall it saying. If they were, what the fuck were they doing fishing?
3. What are “leather-shaded eyes”? Oh, was he wearing a leather cowboy hat? *searches for the words “hat,” “Stetson,” and “cowboy”* If he was wearing a hat, it wasn’t mentioned before the “leather-shaded eyes” line. So…what the fuck? Either way, it was an odd description. Just say “shaded eyes” or “shadowed eyes.”
4. Zan: “But I wanted you to know nothing you did was your fault.”
Me: Bullshit. She’s entirely accountable for her actions or lack thereof. Telling her she’s not is a recipe for a psychological disorder. Was it her fault that the crash happened? No. Was it her fault that she witnessed it? Not necessarily. Was it her fault that she didn’t report it? Was it her fault she didn’t trust the police? Was it her fault she was all alone when the bad guys came to tie up loose ends, as she feared they would? Yes. Those are the results of choices she made, regardless of the reasons she had for making them. I dislike people who play the victim and blame the world for their bad decisions. More so, I dislike people who encourage that behavior. She could have told the police, asked for their help, or just plain left. But no, she decided to bury her head in the sand and wallow in self-pity and resentment, not do the right thing, and wait to be killed or not killed.
4.a. Later in the book it says she doesn’t harbor grudges. Not according to the one she has against the police.
5. Just because you’re a romance doesn’t mean you don’t have to earn sweet/intimate gestures. Before they’d had sex, before they’d kissed, before they’d even begun flirting with each other, Zan was tweaking her nose (which isn’t even sexy) and touching his forehead to hers, and Adrienne was resting her hand on his thigh. No. They didn’t have nearly enough chemistry to make those premature gestures halfway okay. It was creepy, and they should have thought so, too.
6. “Adrienne watched in horror as the news panned over the nightmare that had plagued her life since this morning.”
Me: *squints* Can you really say something has plagued your life if it happened less than 24 hours ago? Bit of a hyperbole.
7. Zan: “I can show you how to use it right quick if it would make you feel better.”
Adrienne: “I’d feel better if you just take it with you. If someone intends to hurt me, having that gun isn’t going to help.”
Me: *gapes in disbelief*
8. Zan: “It’s dark, which makes it harder to hide.”
Me: *stares*
9. Tonka the cat was “the reason she’d stayed sane all these years,” but Adrienne didn’t give him a moment’s thought when the compound exploded. Once she’d handed him over to Meagan, he wasn’t spoken of again until several chapters later when she mentioned she missed him. I find it strange that she wasn’t freaking out wondering if he was caught in the explosion. She had to be told later that Tonka and Meagan survived, meaning she didn’t know what happened to him for over a month. Yet she never grieved for the all-important cat she could only presume she lost.
10. Oh my god, the hair cutting scene. Not scene, chapter. Maybe even chapters. That was probably the height of my irritation with the book. I understand she had intended to make a great gesture of support and victory by cutting it alongside her niece, who was a cancer survivor, and donating the strands to Locks of Love. That’s lovely. But she’s on the run for her life. Her niece was healthy and happy in France, and Adrienne needed a disguise if she wanted to survive. Her priorities needed to change. Plus, guess what—hair grows back. Yet she acted as if, by cutting her hair, she was committing some heinous, unspeakable, irreparable crime. She had an effing breakdown. She was crippled emotionally. She collapsed to the floor surrounded by her shorn locks and balled as if a loved one had just died tragically in her arms. It was such a pathetic, melodramatic display of self-pity that I wished I could reach into the text and smack her.
10.a. But what really gets me is that she didn’t have to do it. See, Zan was going to make a quick trip to town for supplies, and Adrienne wanted to come along. He, wisely, told her she’d have to cut and dye her very recognizable hair first. He may as well have marched her to the gallows. She acted like she had no choice, when he didn’t even want her to go with him; he wanted her to stay at the house for her own safety. Her hair was important enough to her that the thought of cutting it gave her an emotional breakdown, but goddamn it, she wanted to defy good sense and go along on that quick trip to town bad. This is just one example of the characters’ messy mindsets. She meant to come across as selfless, saving her hair to cut with her niece, but the entire episode was the epitome of selfishness and narcissism. She can’t be both selfless and selfish at the same time. It was so fucking ridiculous. The part about her niece warranted a bit of sympathy, otherwise IT’S JUST HAIR.
10.b. And the way Zan handled her at the time—holding her and soothing her and whatnot. I do not know a man who would do that, sincerely, unless he was desperate to get in her pants. I cannot imagine a man who would consider cutting her hair a big deal. Sure, he could understand and sympathize once he knew about her niece and understood what her hair meant to her, but most guys would have still been exasperated, especially given the circumstances, because she was being dramatic and causing herself pain over a fricken trip to town. Over fricken hair.
10.c. Another example of their messy personalities—so he was Mr. Sensitive at the time and handled her hysterics with aplomb, then, like ten minutes later, she’s crying again—I think about her hair yet, I don’t remember specifically—she cried a lot—and I read this: “He didn’t know what to do for her. Crying women were a conundrum, and his experience with them was rare.” I’m sorry, what? You can handle a woman sobbing hysterically, but when she’s weeping quietly you’re at a loss? Again, you can’t have it both ways. I, personally, found it much more believable and endearing when he was awkward about it.
10.d. After they return from that precious trip to town, it says this: “He admired her as she worked in the kitchen, bouncing back from disaster as she had ever since he’d met her. She didn’t dwell, or cry, or panic. She just kept going, living, fighting.”
Me: *LMFAO*
11. Zan doesn’t keep a stash of condoms in the house. He has absolutely zero in his possession. He says his parents didn’t need them, and he more or less doesn’t have time for sex. Which is the steamiest crock of shit I’ve ever heard. Considering he says nothing about being a particularly religious or chaste man, I find it very, very hard to believe that he’d ignore sex to the point that he doesn’t see reason to have condoms on hand. Even if he legitimately believed he didn’t have time, he’d have kept them on hand out of pure hope. I’d have accepted it if he had condoms, but they’d expired, and he was too responsible and respectful to try using them. It’s still a crock, but not laughable.
12. I mentioned that I felt no urgency in regards to the suspense plot. Part of that was because Zan didn’t seem at all motivated to figure out what was going on. He expressed more desire for a steak than to catch the bad guys and avenge his fallen brethren. After working for Nick for over a year, you’d think he’d have taken the fight against him more personally, been a bit more driven to see Nick taken down once and for all. Zan shouldn’t have wasted any time, not for Adrienne, God, or country. He should’ve gotten to safety, told her what she needed to know to stay safe and out of his way, then he would have set up shop and gotten to work. Instead, here, he dinked around giving her a tour, lingered over meals and bottles of wine, watched her wallow in useless self-pity—and wallowed in it a tiny bit himself—among other time-wasting activities. Like they were on a freaking spa getaway or something. He made no efforts to fight back—he just sat back in the luxury of his safe haven and occasionally checked for email updates from his supervisor.
13. On one of the trips to town, Adrienne asks Zan why his father used false identities when the family came to visit. Zan says: “I think it was his way of thriving, staying sane, and keeping his trust in people alive.” Something about that bothers me. It’s backward, even hypocritical. Zan’s dad lied to everyone about who they were, and that helped him to trust people? Why not just say Zan’s dad didn’t trust people? What’s wrong with that? Why try to make deception seem like an acceptable attribute? He obviously didn’t trust people, and I don’t blame him, considering the dark shit he must have witnessed working undercover for the government. Embrace the darkness, book! Don’t try to make everything flowery and sweet. Shit stinks, and that’s that.
14. So Zan’s full name is Henry Alexander Duncan. In Ridgepost, the town near the safe haven cabin, he goes by Henry Alexander. That by itself might not be a neon sign—though it’s definitely not incognito—but not giving Adrienne an alias and going around as Henry Alexander and his girlfriend Adrienne when all you’ve done to disguise yourselves is change her hair?? How is that hiding, Zan? I don’t care how much you blend in, you still look like you! Ever heard of facial recognition? Yes, of course she needs an alias, and something more than Addie. Are you in hiding or not? Did your father’s paranoia teach you anything or not? And it strikes me as a bad idea to have the same nickname, X-man, for both identities. I’m with Adrienne; it’s risky, and it’s too easy to find him in that town. Honestly, he didn’t strike me as a good agent.
14.a. Then when he actually exhibits some caution, like when he insists on checking out the house before he lets her in, Adrienne sighs as if annoyed by his paranoia. Pick one. Either she wants to be cautious and thinks he’s too lax, or she doesn’t.
15. There’s a part where an irritated Adrienne is making dinner and Zan hovers, not sure what to do. Eventually she snaps at him to go away. So he goes to the home gym to work out. When Adrienne is done making dinner, she goes to tell him it’s ready—but first stops to grab a condom, thinking: “No way could she waltz into the gym and let him know dinner was ready, and then leave him there. She had to be ready.” Of all the absurd… Aside from the demoralizing implication that she wouldn’t be able to control herself upon the sight of him sweaty and half-naked (that’s way too close to how women wearing revealing clothing are “asking” to be harassed), last he knew, she was irritated and wanted him to get away from her. Then she’s just gonna walk in and jump his bones? That’s not healthy. Do mixed messages get any worse than that?
16. “He wanted to kiss her so bad his blood was boiling, and she’d allow it out of gratefulness.” That’s messed up. It’s terrible that he could even think that about her, that he could think she would use herself like that. Their relationship really wasn’t all that healthy. I don’t think he ever learned to trust her.
17. Zan: “The people who knew my mom knew her ring. They would know something wasn’t right if you weren’t wearing it.”
Me: What the fuck are you talking about? Nobody’s keeping tabs on your mom’s ring, you manipulative sack of shit. Not one person asked if he’d given his wife his mother’s ring when they learned he’d married. It’s not a thing.
18. Zan: “But it’ll look suspicious if I don’t have a phone.”
Me: You seriously think people will care much less take note of whether or not there’s a phone on your person? Fuck you.
19. It mentions twice that Zan sewed sneaky pockets into their clothes to hide things, yet Adrienne complained about wanting to sew and they acted like there was a complete lack of sewing equipment at the house. It turns into this huge thing, and finally Zan buys her a sewing machine. Pick one—either they could sew at the house or they couldn’t.
20. I don’t understand why Zan insisted on being largely cut off from the outside world. Their weird gadget situation is probably the third thing that irritated me most. He and Adrienne never used phones, computers, or televisions—security monitors excluded—during their time at the house. Or if they did, I don’t recall. They had to go into town to connect to the internet, to get phones, and later he acquired a wireless card so he could connect at a select few other places outside of town. (There should have been one built into his computer, all he needed was a hotspot. I mean, this is 2018. You can get on the internet just about anywhere. Wireless capabilities are expected now.) He never let Adrienne touch a computer or phone; he fed her any news. At first I thought the safe house just might not be equipped with those amenities for some bizarre reason—I think it was mentioned that the reception was unreliable if at all present—but then the bad guys make themselves at home, turn on the TV, and watch the news without a hitch. I would assume that means there’s either cable or satellite—I would assume satellite that far from town—so they should be able to get internet somehow, right? So why did Adrienne never pop on the tube for news? Why not use the internet? All of the equipment and email, etc, were supposedly untraceable or encrypted or whatever. I don’t understand why he wouldn’t want to find out for himself what was going on, why he wouldn’t want to look into things. It goes back to his lack of motivation to do anything about the situation. I do understand that he didn’t want her to have access to anything that she might accidentally use to give away their location, but did he have to have such a stick up his ass about it? All he did was make her want it more, when he could have let her satisfy her curiosity while he monitored her. He seriously didn’t trust her, he treated her in turns as a child, an idiot, a captive, or a sex object, and that’s why I didn’t like Zan. That’s why I don’t believe for a minute that they could stand each other, much less fall in love.
21. Margie grated on my nerves. I had no patience for her from the moment I met her. She was pushy, obstinate, and presumptuous. Zan and Adrienne told her several times that they didn’t want a goddamned party, so what did she do? Threw them a goddamned party. If she was a close relative or family friend, her insistence would be a little more legit—-though still annoying as fuck—-but this mere acquaintance was way too obsessive about throwing them a party, and she’s a dick for completely ignoring their wishes.
21.a. So if Adrienne had decided to go back to Texas and throw away their efforts at hiding for the last month, why did she suddenly want the ceremony to happen after resisting until literally the morning of? She wants to end the lie, so why would she waste time perpetuating it with the party? Why would she want to continue to deceive the town when doing so has bothered her from the start? And if she’s so driven to give her testimony, if she feels such urgency to help the children, why in god’s name would she want to keep dicking around in that town for selfish reasons? If I didn’t know better, I’d say she wanted to take advantage and get all the presents. I mean, her attitude literally turned the moment she was given a special dress for the party.
21.b. That stupid party was the bane of this book. It made no sense on any level. I live surrounded by towns smaller than Ridgepost, and the only thing I can think of the entire town coming together to host is a fundraiser for someone recently diagnosed with a horrible disease and who couldn’t pay the medical bills if they hawked the Hope Diamond. None of the towns would collectively throw a party for a guy whose family only visited a handful of times a year. There were probably tourists who visited more often than the Duncans did. Now, if several generations of Duncans had lived there all their lives and been very active in the community, and if there was some tragic reason why they couldn’t throw their own goddamned party—I can’t think of one—then I could swallow the town coming together to celebrate for them.
21.c. But for some reason it happens, and for some reason Zan and Adrienne go through with it—but that’s not all. The narcissistic psychos take the gifts home and open them like they’re a real newlywed couple, wasting even more time on the lie and wasting my time with a ridiculous gift-opening scene that doesn’t belong in the plot. They said they would donate the gifts to charity, blah blah, of course that doesn’t happen. They shouldn’t have accepted them to begin with.
21.d. I just—I don’t understand how it could be portrayed as sweet and sentimental. It was not cute or romantic. It was deception and extortion. People do not like to be tricked, period, much less to the point where they’re spending not a small amount of money on the liar. They wouldn’t just shrug it off and call it good times, they’d want their gifts back, and I doubt Zan or Adrienne would be all that welcome in town anymore. I mean, come on—in any other book or movie, this would have been something a villainous con artist couple pulled off. People get a little bitter when they spend money on a legit couple that end up divorced within the year. They’d be pretty angry to spend money on a fake couple that was never actually married to begin with.
22. Zan’s dad was quite a guy, with the carpentry skills to build a fancy house with a panic room, the engineering and computer skills to create what’s more or less an AI program, and the spy skills to work for the CIA and create false identities for his family. Talented guy. Some might call him deus ex machina.
23. At one point Zan tells Adrienne, “You know when to call for help when necessary. Like when you called me after being followed instead of trying to be brave and do something stupid.” I understand what was meant, I understand that she’s not trained and he is, but the way it was worded has to be one of the most sexist and patronizing things I’ve ever heard. You did the right thing, little lady, cowering in the corner until a big strong man came to rescue you. Funny thing is, a few lines later he said he knew she could take care of herself. It can’t be both.
24. Adrienne to Zan: “If you knew my internal terror, you wouldn’t call me strong.”
Me: Courage is not the absence of fear, you moron.
25: What point and purpose were there to the kittens? I mean, I wuv wittle kitties as much as anyone, but they had no reason to be there. If they were a way for Zan to be out of the house buying cat food when Colton showed up, I’m not sure it was necessary. The same things would have happened, just without delay.
26. So, the climax and third act. Where do I start? The big bad is revealed to be—gasp!—Charles Davenport, some mustache-twirling dude we’ve only ever heard about. At 33%, Zan tells Adrienne that Charles was his dad’s best friend and colleague and to contact him if something happens to Zan and she needs help. Charles was the one man he would dare turn to–so of course he would betray Zan. It says he hands her Charles’ card, describing him as Zan’s SAC, which presumably means Special Agent in Charge; I don’t believe the acronym was explained in the text. But that in itself baffles me. Zan’s dad worked for the CIA, and Charles was his partner; Zan works for the FBI. Why would a CIA officer be an SAC for an FBI team?
26.a. Out of curiosity, how is a Special Agent in Charge different from a Supervisory Special Agent? Mills seemed to be acting like a SAC, but he wasn’t. I’m confused.
26.b. Anyway, furthermore, at the end Charles drops a bomb saying that he changed jobs to the director of immigration and customs. Aside from me having no idea if a CIA officer acting as SAC for an FBI team can easily become the director of I.C.E., I don’t understand how it’s possible Zan didn’t know this. There’s no way, as an agent, he wouldn’t know who his SAC was or if the title changed hands. Absolutely no way. That’s a pretty important thing to know. Also, as someone who works for the government, as someone who’s investigating sex trafficking, as someone who was working undercover as a sex trafficker or at least the employee of a sex trafficker, HOW DID HE NOT KNOW WHO THE HEAD OF I.C.E. WAS? But wait, there’s more. At that 33% mark, it says he didn’t talk to Charles as much as he should, but they’d caught up on the phone recently. Am I supposed to believe becoming the director of I.C.E. isn’t something Charles would mention? That it was something he could keep secret from a federal agent? Fuck you, book. Just fuck you.
26.c. It’s never made clear just how the safe haven cabin was discovered. Nothing really makes sense to me. It was portrayed as one short step from invisible, yet thugs just walked up to it one night. It’s revealed that creepy Jeff was apparently Charles’ right-hand man, so I wanted to assume that he followed them or otherwise discovered the house. But it wasn’t Jeff who came after them, it was Nick Perkins’ men, including Jason, who was supposed to be in custody, according to Mills’ email. Maybe I’m supposed to assume he got out on bail or something; if so, that should have been mentioned. Anyway, how did those idiots find Zan’s safe house? And if Charles didn’t know about the house, what the fuck was Jeff doing in Ridgepost? Did Jeff know where Zan and Adrienne were hiding out or not? And if he knew who they really were, why did he never do anything about it? Why did he lie in wait? None of it makes any sense.
26.d. So Jason is part of a company of four. One of them, Colton, showed up at the house hours before the other three. It’s never explained why Colton showed up first. I would imagine perhaps he was supposed to lie his way inside so he could be there to let the others in, but I don’t remember that being said. Colten shows up, gets locked in the guest room, then ceases having anything to do with the story. Things could have still gone down the same way if he hadn’t existed.
26.e. As for the other three, they try to walk up to the house but of course trip the alarm and make their presence known. They know Zan knows they’re there because he turns a spotlight on them, yet they continue to the house, for Colton’s sake, I think. Zan lets them in so he can contain and neutralize them. But you know what the knuckleheads do? They make themselves at home. They know Zan knows they’re there, they have to know he won’t cower in his panic room, that he’ll fight and try to take them out, and yet they completely let down their guard, crack open a beer, and settle in in front of the tube. It’s almost like they made a conscious decision to make it easy for Zan to overtake them. I don’t understand it. Maybe they were stupid, but they couldn’t have been that stupid, or in their line of work, they’d have fucked up and gotten themselves killed a long time ago. All I can think of is the derogatory phrase “too stupid to live.”
27. Adrienne got out of that cellar way too easily. The guy delivering dinner would unlock and open cells, his hands would be occupied, and they never thought maybe he should have backup to make sure no one tried to overtake him or escape while his hands were full? Trust me, people who have succeeded in committing and getting away with major crime like sex trafficking for quite some time would be a lot more cautious than that.
27.a. And the entire operation was under one roof? All the thugs were in one place (save the knuckleheads stashed at Zan’s cabin)? Charles let it all happen at his house? What if the feds had gotten a lead, had gotten wind of where it was all going down, and raided the place? How would Charles have denied it? I mean, jesus. And if Zan had been part of the operation, wouldn’t he have been there, then? No, wait, he spent his time at Nick’s house. How was Nick involved again? The details were sketchy.
28. or 7.a. Adrienne refused to have anything to do with guns, refused to have Zan show her how to use them, yet she saves his life, saves the day, because she shoots a couple of the last thugs? Doesn’t even miss. I think it was one kill shot for both. Sure, she said she’d used guns before, but not without guidance. Just…whatever, book.
29. At the end Adrienne kept remarking that all she did was cry these days. Enough emphasis was put on it that I thought for sure she’d announce she was pregnant. Thankfully, the earlier ridiculous conversation about condoms did not become ironic.
30. My OCD refuses to end on 29.
So yeah, I could see the romantic suspense novel Smith was going for, but she needs to put more thought into it and take it a lot more seriously if she wants to be commercially successful. Logic, reality, and facts can’t be ignored; maybe smeared a little for the sake of fiction, but not ignored. Explanations can’t be skipped. There needs to be a reason for everything, or if not everything, at least every important part of the plot. There need to be rules for the world and the characters, and you have to stick to them for consistency and continuity. You can break a rule here and there, but you’d better have a damn good and clever reason for doing so. Respect the intelligence of your readers and the value of their time or they won’t respect you.
For research and inspiration as far as romantic suspense goes, I recommend a few of my favorites: first and foremost, all of Karen Rose (Dark Ride reminded me a lot of Scream for Me); a good portion of Suzanne Brockmann; most of Julie Garwood’s FBI series; Rebecca Zanetti; Catherine Coulter; Maya Banks; Karen Robards; Nora Roberts. I know Smith already reads Sandra Brown, which is great. Keep on reading and writing.
