Gale Reads: Sweet Talk by Julie Garwood

Hello everyone! I'm back from my long vacation. I'll try to upload a lot starting today coz I've accumulated a couple of posts that should've been up this week :)

I will start with a book review. Some of you know that I'm a fan of Julie Garwood since I was in high school (that's over 12 years!) and I collect her books. It is my dream to be able to collect all of her titles in hardbound versions as well as the first released covers of her historical romances. So you can really imagine how excited I am that she released a new contemporary title this August titled "Sweet Talk" and it was still connected in a way to the Buchanan clan. I'm glad I was able to get an ebook copy from my best friend so I can read it while I wait for the paperback version to arrive here in our shore.

GENRE: Romance, Contemporary

PLOT: (from Goodreads)

Attorney and IRS agent Olivia Mackenzie is the kind of tough, wise-cracking, powerful woman fans expect from a Garwood protagonist—but this time she has outdone herself. Olivia is not just any woman, she is every woman; flawed in the familiar ways so many of us are.

On the trail of an elaborate Ponzi scheme, one that threatens to ruin the lives of naïve and unsuspecting victims, Olivia suddenly finds her own life is in danger after she asks questions of the wrong people. She is accustomed to fighting for the underdog, but being vulnerable herself is a very different story. Smart enough to know when enough is enough, Olivia calls for reinforcements.

When she meets FBI Agent Grayson Kincaid there is an immediate and obvious attraction, palpable on both sides. Together they make an excellent team to fight corruption but Olivia is also fighting the immediate and intense attraction she feels for Agent Kincaid, and that may be a battle she is bound to lose.

COVER:

I love the cover! It fits perfectly to the description of Grayson Kincaid-- a very manly, smart, strong and skilled FBI agent. I am happy that they have decided to not include the whole face of the model as that would probably ruin it. I prefer imagining what he looked like so I can match him with the heroine. Love this cover! I'm giving it 5/5 ^_^

MY REVIEW:

I love this book! I loved how it showed Julie Garwood's trademark of putting an alpha-male leading man who is very masculine, smart and skilled together with a fiery, courageous and intelligent heroine. I love the fact that she continues to use this formula even after so many years because that's what attracted me the most to her books. As you know, I hated the damsel-in-distress whiny heroines the most and you can never find those on Garwood's books. There is also no love-triangles which is quite common to YA books which made me think that I am getting way too old for that genre haha.

This is a terrific story of two people who are both intelligent and knows what they want. They are both mature and the decisions and actions that they do are based on rationalizing and analyzing instead of basing it on impulse. This is also rooted in reality so this made me feel the story is real and I can relate to it more. I can see the events happening in real life and that made Julie Garwood a great story teller.

I guess the only negative thing I can say in this story is the fact that I feel it lacks more romantic interaction between the 2 main characters. Garwood showed how they are attracted physically to each other but I was hoping it would also show how much they love each other too. I think it lacks the depth of love I was hoping for and she was unable to portray those feelings to the readers. This seems to be more of a contemporary/investigative/suspense type of book rather than romance.  

OVER-ALL RATING: 4.5/5 

If this only showed more "love" between the two main characters, I would definitely give this a 5. I'm a romantic at heart and I prefer to read a "I love you till death do us part" story that "I'm so in lust with you" moments haha ^_~

 

Anyway, Sweet talk is definitely a well crafted story that both have action and passion. I also liked the fact that this is still connected to the Buchanan's in a way and I can't wait to see if she will create a separate story for the other side characters mentioned in the book like the other 3 in the Pips squad or the other Buchanan brothers (Zach and Michael). Better yet, I would love to read a story about the 2nd generation of the Buchanans.

I definitely recommend this book :)

Thanks for dropping by!