Review: Dream Man by Linda Howard

Title: Dream Man
Author: Linda Howard
Genre: Romantic Suspence
Grade: B-
Reason for Reading: One of my Yahoo groups chose Linda Howard as our author of the month, and since I’d never read her before, I chose a book on my librarything recommendations to get started.

Synopsis: Had she finally met the man she longed for…or was she dreaming?
Marlie Keen was trying to lead a quiet, ordinary life. She thought the
knowing
— the clairvoyance that allowed her to witness crimes as they happened — had been
destroyed in the nightmare of her past. Then one night it returned with a vengeance,
and she desperately needed to find someone to make it stop.
Detective Dane Hollister of the Orlando police department had never met anyone like
Marlie. He had doubts about her clairvoyance, but there was no doubt how much he
desired her. Her soft, sweet scent set his blood afire, and he wanted to wrap her
in his arms and chase the sadness from her eyes. To Marlie, Dane was all heat and
hard muscle, and he made her body come alive as it never had before. But not even
she could foresee where their passion would lead: a hungry quest for the elusive,
dreamy ecstasies of love…and a dangerous journey into the twisted mind of a madman
who would threaten their happiness and their lives….
-
My Thoughts: I really liked this book. It manages to score some points with me by being a romantic suspense novel that doesn’t feature the world’s most retarded heroine. In fact, both characters were well-drawn, and I thought Dane was hot, except for the times where he acted like the romance novel hero that he is. There were also some fun secondary characters, too.

Unfortunately, I’m not sure whether it was the book or just me, but I never felt fully engaged in the story. The characterization should have worked for me, but didn’t entirely, and I set the book down several times and wasn’t in any great hurry to resume reading.

That being said, romantic suspense is not my genre, so it was nice to read a book this pleasant so I’m willing to give it the benefit of the doubt and give it a slightly higher grade.