Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Jesi's review of STRANGE LITTLE BAND by Nancy Brauer & Vanessa Brooks


Both Addison and Shane are doctors leading research teams inside the powerful, Triptych Corporation.  Both are extremely powerful psychics.  They don’t like each other much and Addison is livid when she discovers that the embryo implanted in her by Triptych is her egg fertilized by Shane’s sperm in a lab.  Management apparently want to see what their two most gifted psychics might produce for offspring.  Expecting a baby together brings Addison and Shane closer, but just as they are standing on the threshold of love, Triptych steps in and breaks them apart with deceptions.

Years pass.  Addison and Shane waffle between insatiable attraction to each other and hatred.  The whole time, the mystery of Tripych and its creepy management fill the story with intrigue.  While there is some serious steamy sex, this is also the story about a family.  Shane, Addison and their kids have very realistic relationships.  The kids are close since there are few other children in Triptych, and both want to see Shane & Addison work things out.  Both Addison and Shane are good parents who do their best by their kids.  I loved how human the characters were.

There were a few areas in this story which could have benefited some further explanation.  Both of my major issues involved world building.  First, this all takes place with a corporation.  I gather they do scientific and psychic research, but the details are sketchy.  What kind of company has the employees live on sight and dictates every aspect of their personal lives, including who they can sleep with and when and with whom they can have children?  The other thing is regarding the aliens.  We know Shane is half-alien and there are a few full aliens in the story, but there is not a lot of explanation about the aliens.  Where did they come from? What is their role on earth? Are they known to humans outside of the corporation?  I felt a bit like I kept missing some fact that would tie all of this together.

Even with these questions, I still really enjoyed this book.  It was very different from most things that I read, yet, I found myself engaged and thinking about it between reading.  That’s the sign of a good book.

Overall, I give Strange Little Band

Plot – 4 ½ bookmarks
Character Development – 4 bookmarks
Love Story – 5 bookmarks
Sex Scenes – 4 ¾ bookmarks
Dream Cast (otherwise known as who I pictured while reading) – Halle Berry (Addison), Eric Bana (Shane), James Caan (Daniel), Lucy Liu (Joon)

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