I did a lot of reading this weekend. The first book I read was Flash, by Jayne Ann Krentz
Plot summary:
"Jasper Sloan, a self-made millionaire and venture capitalist, is burned out and in pursuit of a new thrill when he learns of the death of a colleague, a business partner who has left him 51 percent of an up-and-coming company. GLOW, Inc., has always been a family operation, so Jasper's arrival is greeted with the suspicion that he will gut the company and sell it. The other 49 percent of GLOW is held by Olivia Chantry, the niece of the late owner. As Jasper and Olivia lock horns over the future of the company, he realizes that the excitement he's been missing is right before his very eyes in the form of his lovely new business partner. As they argue over the best way to run the company, yet another player enters the field, one determined to destroy Jasper, Olivia, and the people they hold dear."This one was a nice, comfortable read. A B. It lacks some of the excitement of her previous books, but it was nice (and the lukewarm adjective is appropriate).
Jasper and Olivia were lovely for each other, but there was very little emphasis on the physical side of the relationship, and I missed this. It's not that I need all my books to be "hot", but JAK used to be very good at using the love scenes to further develop the characters' relationship, and this was an element I loved in her work.
I found Olivia's work fascinating. I hate this kind of stuff in real life, which probably comes from having to organize a huge party once at work. This was when the bank I used to work for reopened its historical main branch after a huge restoration. This party was especially complicated because of the guest list, which included legislators, cabinet members and even the President. Anyway, I hated, hated, hated organizing it. But reading about it here was fun, probably because I didn't have to stress out about anything, I left that to Olivia!
The suspense subplot was given too much space here, IMO, or at least, more than I like. It was also especially convoluted, with three different villains working against our H/h and each other.
Only two more comments: 1)I enjoyed Uncle Rollie's being a happily gay patriarch and 2)Where were Jasper's nephews? They completely disappear after a first appearance, almost as if JAK had had to cut some pages due to length constraints and had decided to cut all their scenes. It was a bit jarring.