Publication Date: January 6, 2014
Samantha Randall discovers a plot to assassinate the president and sets out to stop the course of events. Coincidentally, she meets up with Logan McCormick, the one man who can help her. Can they work together and foil the plans of the bad guys?
The author, Christina Thompson, gave me a copy of this novel in exchange for my review.
I’ve reviewed two of Christina Thompson’s romance novels and adored them both. They featured characters reacting in real ways in impossible situations and the flow of action was brisk and engaging. Thompson maintains her engaging flow in [easyazon-link asin=”1938216016″ locale=”us”]The Trucker’s Cat[/easyazon-link] but without the heart or elegant complexity. While reading, it’s easy to get caught up in what will happen next as the characters barrel forward into danger, but after a while, it was impossible to ignore how contrived the tale was and nonsensical the characters were.
Thompson’s strength is in her core characters and she wrote them well. There are characters like the catty woman and overbearing mother that are stereotypes in the genre, but Thompson gives them a function and an edge. In this particular work, the characters were written with a big-country/small-world eye on development. Samantha escapes the Russian embassy in D.C. and just happens to approach Logan at a truck stop to ask for a ride. Logan just happens to be the person she’s been trying to meet and also happens to be the man her father once gave a medal and of whom this late icon in Samantha’s mind spoke quite highly. Logan also has former marital ties back at Samantha’s home. Logan’s ex-wife just happens to be an irredeemably catty woman, who is not only a famous supermodel but bends men to her will as though she has a mind control device implanted in her ample bosoms.
Samantha, of course, is the opposite. A virgin until her very recent rape, Sam has never seen a penis until we meet her in this novel — when she’s nearly taken against her will again. The hysterics toward the unattractiveness of said penis and that she offered Logan sex in exchange for a ride not long before belies the reaction. Of course, said “ugly penis man” (as she later calls him in the story) also has the audacity not to have a rock-hard body. Despite allowing herself to be raped for her country (this may sound like a spoiler but truly isn’t), Sam is remarkably wide-eyed and free with her sexuality when it comes to the legend among men, Logan.
While my assessment may sound harsh thus far, the novel isn’t all bad. The story, at its core, is quite an interesting one. Someone is selling secrets to the Russians and they want something the Americans found back at all costs. Had Thompson focused more on the story and less on Logan being awesome and Sam being wide-eyed, [easyazon-link asin=”1938216016″ locale=”us”]The Trucker’s Cat[/easyazon-link] would have easily been a five-star read. In the end, it wasn’t a story that I was sorry to have read because when I wasn’t thinking about what was contrived, the fast and snappy way in which the dialogue and narrative are written pushed me forward.
The background characters are either well-developed or they’re not. We hear much about the deceased father so that he becomes a character in absentia with fully realized motivations still living through his child. His best friend and Sam’s godfather, Bear, is a well-developed military man who isn’t necessarily on the same page as Logan and Sam which makes him fascinating. The bad guy and his girl wonder might as well be Boris and Natasha from the Rocky and Bullwinkle show. The antagonist doesn’t bother to hide how horrible he is from the start of the novel, and it’s clear that he’s in the habit of taking what he wants whether it be Sam, a young member of the household staff or state secrets. He is a development of a character that needs to die at some point, and one can only hope the author makes it painful.
There are readers of the genre who will love this novel and I urge those readers to pick it up. These are a strong male character and ainnocent female character on a journey of good vs. evil, where each side is playing a part to its extreme. I had high hopes for [easyazon-link asin=”1938216016″ locale=”us”]The Trucker’s Cat[/easyazon-link] based on past work by this author but this one just fell flat.
Christina Thompson is a retired acupuncturist living in Michigan. [easyazon-link asin=”1938216016″ locale=”us”]The Trucker’s Cat[/easyazon-link] is her third novel. Her novels [easyazon-link asin=”1937546209″ locale=”us”]Chemical Attraction (The Chemical Attraction Series) (Volume 1)[/easyazon-link] and [easyazon-link asin=”193754625X” locale=”us”]Chemical Reaction (The Chemical Attraction Series) (Volume 2)[/easyazon-link] were also reviewed on this website. Click here to view those reviews.
For more information about Christina Thompson and her work visit her website.
You can connect with her on GoodReads, Facebook and Twitter @ChristinaPOV.