Smart Bitches Day

I thought I'd bitch today about Linda Howard's book, Cover of Night. Linda Howard is hit or miss with me (more hits than misses.) But Cover of Night was definitely a miss. Howard is known for her alpha heroes, well the hero in this was not, alpha, oh wait yes he was, he just appeared to be beta. (confused?)

Because Howard was attempting to do something different with her hero (always applaud authors attempting the different), she never gave a good description of the hero at the first. This was a problem for me, partial from a reader's POV and partial from a personal POV. The hero's name was Cal and he was so shy he could barely speak to the heroine. Now, I happen to know someone named Cal. He was a hockey player for my local minor league team. You might be thinking hockey player--big, rough alpha. While Cal Ingraham (now retired) was a legend in college and minor league hockey, he's 5'2", a full conversation is one sentence long and on the off season he tended to resemble a bowling bowl. Now, his wife might think of him as a romantic hero, he's definitely not a Howard type. But I was always distracted by the character's name. Not Howard's fault. But the fact I never got a good image from her of the character and I filled in the blanks was her fault.

Second problem, the book took place in a very small town in Idaho. I happen to be a native. Things bothered me that wouldn't have bothered me if it had been set in Colorado. Some were silly, the time it took to drive to Boise to catch a plane was all wrong. (Even if you could drive it in that time, there wouldn't be any time for check-in at the airport, etc). But my favorite part, the one that had me rolling on the floor, was a comment that most every household in that town had a gun. No, believe me, in a small community in Idaho like that, EVERY household would have enough guns and ammunition to hold off the Third Army.

All and all, Cover of Night didn't work. I never believed the heroine who never noticed the hero for two (or three) years, suddenly did (after the cover of beta was lifted) and boom. I didn't like the premise (that bad guys were after something and tried to take the whole town hostage) or the resolution (sort of slam bam).