Something About You

Author: Julie James
Genre: Light Mystery, Romance
Type: e-audiobook
Series: #1 in the FBI/US Attorney series
Source: Public Library
Duration: 10 hours, 3 minutes
Publisher: Tantor Media
First Published: July 23, 2012
First Line: "Thirty thousand hotels rooms in the city of Chicago, and Cameron Lynde managed to find the one next door to a couple having a sex marathon."

Book Description on GoodReads:  Of all the hotel rooms rented by all the adulterous politicians in Chicago, female Assistant U.S. Attorney Cameron Lynde had to choose the one next to 1308, where some hot-and-heavy lovemaking ends with a death. And of all the FBI agents in Illinois, it had to be Special Agent Jack Pallas who gets assigned to this high-profile homicide. The same Jack Pallas who still blames Cameron for a botched crackdown three years ago—and for nearly ruining his career.

Into each other's arms...

Work with Cameron Lynde? Are they kidding? Maybe, Jack thinks, this is some kind of welcome-back prank after his stint away from Chicago. But it's no joke; the pair is going to have to put their rocky past behind them and focus on the case at hand. That is, if they can cut back on the razor-sharp jibes—and smother the flame of their sizzling-hot sexual tension.

My Review:  I have never proclaimed to be an avid read of the romance genre but I thought I'd give it a go as an e-audiobook.  I've only tried listening to a couple of audiobooks over the years and always struggled with keeping my attention on what was going on.  So this time I wanted to try a lighter book so I could make sure that my attention span (that rivals a gnat's) could keep track of what was going on and who was who.

I listened to this book in a variety of settings - on a short road trip, on some walks and while driving back and forth to work.  I have to say that I quite enjoyed a way to 'read' when I couldn't have a book/Kindle in my hand.  I liked it so much that I've put a hold on several e-audiobooks at my library.

So ,I liked the format of the book but unfortunately the storyline was just 'meh'.  After reading the book description I was expecting a mystery with a romantic storyline.  What I got was a full-on romance book with a very small side of mystery and a weak plot.  Not a glowing review.

The main reason why I didn't love the mystery part of this book is because there isn't enough tension and suspense -- and no mystery after about a third of the way through.  This is because the reader is told, fairly early on, who the murderer is.  Letting the reader in on this little secret pretty much wipes out any chance of a suspenseful read. Plus, the murderer's point of view is taken into account so we're privy to his/her next move as he/she tries to avoid getting caught.  I prefer to find out the 'whodunnit' on my own. I don't think adding the point of view of the murderer added anything to the storyline either.  If there was some huge, explosive 'ah-ha!' moment at the end I could have overlooked it but there wasn't.  

That's not to say that I hated this book.  I found it to be a very light read and enjoyable for what it is ... literary fluff.  Cameron was a good main character and was likeable enough and Jack was the typical brooding good guy if a little bland.  The humour (via their banter) came through in several parts of the book which I enjoyed.

I liked that Cameron and Jack had believable reasons for initially hating each other.  It wasn't some simplistic, stupid reason for them to be bantering back and forth.  That said, their dislike for each other turned to lust a little too quickly to be believable but I'll chalk that one up to the genre.  You can't have a 'romance' if the two people are constantly bickering at each other, right?

As with most romances, there were steamy love scenes which I could take or leave.  In fact, I fast-forwarded through one of the steamier scenes because they quickly went into the cheesy/corny territory.  Towards the end even some of their conversations were hokey and riddled with each other calling the other 'babe' and uttering their devotion to one another when only a week before they hated each other. 

Overall, this book was okay.  It wasn't earth shattering, nor was it boring but could have used a healthy dose of action and less predictability. It kind of tread somewhere between entertaining (due to the humourous banter) and a very light read that just barely kept my attention.  If this book had more action (as in suspense, not bedroom scenes) and the reader wasn't privy to the murderer's inner thoughts I would have scored this book much higher.  As it stands, this was a good book to ease my way into my first e-audiobook and I would recommend it as a light beach read.

My Rating: 2.5/5 stars