A Tense Psychological
Thriller with a Generous Serving of Sex on the Side
For
perhaps the first half of Crazy Love,
I was unsure – just who did crazy refer to?
There was Emily who was the victim.
But Emily had a friend who said she had forgotten conversations, perhaps
even entire relationships and so, was only a victim in her mind. And Emily was having problems with headaches. Then, there was Noah, who was clearly
obsessed with Emily. He was a stalker
and possibly worse. And finally, Isaiah, who shows
similarly intense feelings toward Emily, the difference being Emily liked
Isaiah
while Noah was just a nuisance (or so Emily thought). In my view, Ms. Tamayo had done a masterful
job keeping the reader off balance. But
then I read her synopsis, in order to avoid spoilers in my review, only to find
that she identified Noah as the threat. I
guess my author’s mind was working too hard to find a plot twist when there
wasn’t one to be had. The second half of
the book settles into the delusional obsession that defines Noah’s
reality. It’s creepy, intense, and quite
well written.
The
book contains numerous sex scenes, always descriptive and somewhat explicit in
places. The ones involving Isaiah and
Emily add spice to the story. But they do
little to further the thriller plotline, making the latter ones feel superfluous
even before I knew Isaiah wasn’t a suspect.
The scenes involving Noah, however, did much to further develop the
character of this disturbed individual.
There
were some minor issues in translating the book’s manuscript into the Kindle
format. Within the first few pages, the
word “call” was hyphenated between the two L’s.
Weird, but the same problem involving different words recurred often,
becoming a bit of an annoyance by the end.
A somewhat more significant issue is the plausibility of the story. For example, at least part of the time, Noah
was watching Emily through holes in her ceiling, and yet, no one noticed them
even after several careful searches.
Some of the steps the police took or failed to take seemed equally
farfetched. And finally, Emily’s
character was a bit muddled. The author
makes us feel her extreme fear in one scene with some well-crafted prose. A chapter or two later, however, Emily is calling
Noah to explain things to him. And then,
the pattern repeats. These sudden,
emotional reversals made her seem unreal.
Overall,
Crazy Love is a tense, well-crafted
psychological thriller with a generous serving of sex on the side. A bit more believability in the action and
Emily’s character would have increased its gut-wrenching quotient even more.
Superhero Abilities
with Supersized Character Flaws Make this Book Fly
An intricate plot woven around a potential, technological
nightmare
A Familiar Formula that Fails to Yield Drama
this Time
A Guide for Succinct Guys, Too!
