Don't Look Down by Suzanne Enoch

Number 2 in the Sam n Rick story arc.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel from start to finish. It has a most wonderfully imaginative denouement scene. Involving a girl-on-girl muddy catfight, cops and polo players. There's plenty of hot but not too graphic bump and grind. And a fairly decent plot. But most of all. It's about interlocking relationships. Between a guy and his attitudinous girl-friend, between an ex-wife and the main couple, between a girl and her surrogate Dad...and some more too. I loved them all. The heroine also allows another guy to put the moves on her but there is never any doubt that she is completely faithful to the hero.

I'll say it straight out. I think Sam is a great romance heroine. Clever, resourceful, beautiful. She can talk clothes, gardens, cars, children at the drop of a hat. Also. For the record. I like the way the characters speak to each other.

Definitely joining my 'to be read again' pile.

So anyway. After I finished my first reading of Don't Look Down I immediately started another novel, Passion by Lisa Valdez. Which turns out to be quite a problematic read for work or public spaces in general. Together with the fact that the heroine gets felt up in public by a complete stranger and does not kick him in his gonads. (Obviously she must be completely desperate to find such behaviour acceptable.) So taking all that into consideration, I decided to return to an immediate re-read of Don't Look Down where everything is completely consensual between the main couple...and leave Passion for some other time.

So. Don't Look Down. The one where Sam slashes the tyres on Rick's BMW. The one where Sam n Rick have sticky food nookie. And the one where quite a few times Sam hugs Rick for strength and comfort. I love all that kind of mushy stuff. Plus. It's one of those novels where the beautiful heroine drives to a Palm Beach place in a Bentley with the dishy hero following behind, convoy style, in a flashy Merc. Not that I worship money or crass style but I totally relished visualising that scene in my mind.

There are some humdinger threads going on in all the 3 Sam n Rick books I have read so far. The Rick's Chicks thread is funny. Rick is absolutely right to encourage Sam to go legit. If only for the sake of their future children. A life of adrenaline rushes isn't particularly healthy. Sam'll find it harder to let go of her mantra that she needs to depend only on herself. But that's such an isolating antisocial attitude to have, imo. There's a great pleasure in depending on people who, no way will they let you down...just as much of an adrenaline rush...with a warm fuzzy afterglow.