Friday, January 8, 2010

Review of Street Game by Christine Feehan


Street Game by Christine Feehan

First let me say that this book broke me out of my recent reading funk. Although it was uneven in certain spots, overall this was a very enjoyable book. In fact, for the first time in a very long time, I became so absorbed in this story, that I forgot I was reading. It was only when my family started harassing me for dinner (for the love of God, couldn't they go to McDonald's or something??), that I was popped back into reality.

Street Game is the latest installment of Feehan's Ghostwalker Series, which I have really been enjoying. Here's my take on this series and Street Game....

1) Feehan is a master of paranormal. The characters' abilities are incredibly cool....invisibility, reading people's locations/emotions from their energy patterns, telepathic brain surgery...and the list goes on. How's this for romantic? Everyone has an energy pattern that displays certain textures and colors, but the hero and heroines' pattern, according to one of the Ghostwalkers, is woven together. Sigh.

2) The male bonding/camaraderie scenes with the Ghostwalkers are superb! Superb! Trash talking, super loyal, sometimes aggressive...yummy alpha male testosterone-jacked stuff! Seriously, JR Ward's got nothing on Christine. Maybe Christine will dye her hair blond, start wearing all black, and sport some stylin' black sunglasses. Hee hee. :)

3) There is a great build up of suspense and anticipation during their missions, in particular when they have to grab Sergeant Major Griffen--I literally could not put the book down. The final mission of the book is also excellent, and exhilarating to finally see Jaimie using and enjoying her powers.

4) The first scene where Jaimie and Mack make love is this really cool fusion of psychic paranormal powers and the physical response between them. I loved it.

5) Now onto the "uneven" parts....I am getting sort of tired of the whole Whitney thing. I realize this is the over-riding story arc that is supposed to tie all of the books together, but I'm sick of Whitney, and I just wish someone would blow him up or something.

6) Feehan loves deep POV. The heroine spends pages thinking about how she lost herself with Mack, how much she loves him, how scared she is of his possession....and the hero is thinking about how he can't live without her, she is the light of his life, she destroyed him when she left...etc etc. It's just too repetitive. Enough already. We got it the first time. Stick with the action!

7) I was not feeling the emotional connection between the hero and heroine as much as past Ghostwalker couples for one simple reason. Their relationship was in the past. Feehan forgot the golden rule...show, don't tell. We need to feel their connection now, not hear about the past ad nauseam. Even the sex scenes were not as hot or intense as others in the series.

8) I was totally irritated with the scene where Mack is "interrogating" Jaimie while she is diligently working at the computer, and he is forcing her to take her clothes off. This was just plain ridiculous. Oy!

My overall take on this book...it was uneven, but still a great read for Feehan fans. Fabulous at spots, slow and repetitive in others. Feehan did an awesome job getting us primed for the other Ghostwalker stories. I personally can't wait for Kane's book, and I really liked Javier, too.

Grade: B

Penelope