Intrepid
authors Janet Evanovich and Charlotte Hughes have teamed up once again to bring us the
next installment in the adventures of reporter Jamie, billionaire Max and talkative
computer with an attitude, Muffin! This time the trio are hot on the trail of the
unscrupulous and renowned evangelist with mob connections who’d sent some hit men to
kill them in the previous book.
Jamie
and Max continue to argue and bicker as usual, and as a result, they both arrive
separately at the small Southern town of Sweet Pea, which is Reverend Rawlins’
headquarters. Jamie decides that the best way to catch the womanizing preacher’s eye
is to act the slut and that’s exactly what happens! Max is outraged as well as a bit
intrigued when he sees Jamie a.k.a sex-addict Jane in the shorter than short slutty outfit
batting her eyelashes at an obviously smitten Rawlins!
Before
long, Max and Jamie realize that working together is their best option and so they pool
their resources. Soon the combined efforts of Max (who can’t seem to stop making
passes at Jamie), Jamie (who is doing her best to resist Max and evade Rawlins), Muffin
(who’s working at top speed cracking codes, fighting menopause and flirting with an
MIT laptop), Fleas the decrepit dog (a new acquisition of Jamie’s with a passionate
hatred for country-western music) and Dave (the hypochondriac electronic whiz) begin to
rattle someone’s cage very badly. And the person inside the cage just happens to the
extremely dangerous mob maverick, Nick Santoni, a man who hates Max as passionately as he
desires Jamie!
Poor
Jamie is now caught between Max, Rawlins and Nick! What’s to happen?
There
is humor-a-plenty in this second book in the Evanovich and Hughes ‘Full’ series.
When you take two very opposite lead characters who inspire love and lust in each other
and who’re equally bull-headed, the readers can be sure that sparks will fly and
indeed they do! Add to this some dangerous mob guys on the loose, a skirt-chasing
evangelist, a hound dog called Fleas and a wise-cracking computer with an imaginary case
of menopause and it’s a situation ripe for comedy of which there is an abundance. In
this book the passion, which was just hinted at in the first book of the series, takes on
a life of its own until at times it feels to almost too much to bear, even for Max and
Jamie themselves. But you’ll just have to read the book to find out what exactly
happens! There is also plenty of suspense, a murder mystery and many dangerous characters
who add a treacherous edge to the story. Tension is the name of the game as events speed
up to an explosive finish! While the story is undoubtedly delightful, at times it feels as
though the plot is too hurried or that events happen too conveniently; even the humorous
angle could have been explored at greater length to far greater effect.
But
regardless, “Full Speed” is fast and furiously entertaining!!
Reviewed
By Rashmi Srinivas for The Road to Romance
October
6, 2003 |
