Review by masterhawk88 -- Escape by Belle Ami
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masterhawk88
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Review by masterhawk88 -- Escape by Belle Ami
[Following is a volunteer review of "Escape" by Belle Ami.]
3 out of 4 stars
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Escape by Belle Ami is a romance thriller set in the modern era. A well-built setting fleshed out characters, and predictable but exciting plot sucked me in from the first page. Unfortunately, the dialogue between the two protagonists brought things down for me and prevented the book from being a must read.
Layla Wallace is kidnapped from her hotel with her boyfriend from Harvard and finds herself in an Iranian prison. Rescued from nearly being raped by a guard by Cyrus Hassani, a mole working for Mossad within Iran’s nuclear program, the two are asked by the Israeli agency to get her out of the country ending Cyrus’s career as a spy in the process. Soon a chase begins Cyrus and Layla trying to flee the country before his superior and former mentor catches and kills them.
Both protagonists are well fleshed out characters, their lives and personalities before meeting inter-playing into the story and their interactions with one another. The way they react to situations that arise within the book fit well with the knowledge of them given and make them very believable. What surprised me was how well the primary antagonist and even the side characters were made believable.
I found the book to be very well paced. It never seems to hurry or drag along, the main plot of the escape from Iran intermingling very well with the romance subplot. Even the interludes that shifted the story from Cyrus and Layla to Layla’s father and the Mossad agents helping them escaped struck me as adding to rather than subtracting from the narrative as is the case in similar books I’ve read.
My only major complaint is the dialogue is sometimes off. While most of it is well written there are sections between the romantic leads that knocked me out of the story as I contemplated whether or not any humans on earth had ever communicated in that fashion. The worst offender is during a scene where Cyrus barges into the bathroom while Layla is showering. I won’t say more for fear of spoiling, but after reading that scene three times I was certain something was off. After thinking on it for several minutes it hit me that it had felt forced. A departure from the character of Layla that had been built previously.
I give Escape by Bell Ami 3 out of 4 stars. The issue with the dialogue didn’t throw me off so much that I would call it a bad read, and that flaw is more than made up for by the story itself. I recommend this book to anyone who likes romantic chase thrillers. It’s not perfect, but it’s a solid read, and I look forward to reading more of Belle Ami’s books.
******
Escape
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3 out of 4 stars
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Escape by Belle Ami is a romance thriller set in the modern era. A well-built setting fleshed out characters, and predictable but exciting plot sucked me in from the first page. Unfortunately, the dialogue between the two protagonists brought things down for me and prevented the book from being a must read.
Layla Wallace is kidnapped from her hotel with her boyfriend from Harvard and finds herself in an Iranian prison. Rescued from nearly being raped by a guard by Cyrus Hassani, a mole working for Mossad within Iran’s nuclear program, the two are asked by the Israeli agency to get her out of the country ending Cyrus’s career as a spy in the process. Soon a chase begins Cyrus and Layla trying to flee the country before his superior and former mentor catches and kills them.
Both protagonists are well fleshed out characters, their lives and personalities before meeting inter-playing into the story and their interactions with one another. The way they react to situations that arise within the book fit well with the knowledge of them given and make them very believable. What surprised me was how well the primary antagonist and even the side characters were made believable.
I found the book to be very well paced. It never seems to hurry or drag along, the main plot of the escape from Iran intermingling very well with the romance subplot. Even the interludes that shifted the story from Cyrus and Layla to Layla’s father and the Mossad agents helping them escaped struck me as adding to rather than subtracting from the narrative as is the case in similar books I’ve read.
My only major complaint is the dialogue is sometimes off. While most of it is well written there are sections between the romantic leads that knocked me out of the story as I contemplated whether or not any humans on earth had ever communicated in that fashion. The worst offender is during a scene where Cyrus barges into the bathroom while Layla is showering. I won’t say more for fear of spoiling, but after reading that scene three times I was certain something was off. After thinking on it for several minutes it hit me that it had felt forced. A departure from the character of Layla that had been built previously.
I give Escape by Bell Ami 3 out of 4 stars. The issue with the dialogue didn’t throw me off so much that I would call it a bad read, and that flaw is more than made up for by the story itself. I recommend this book to anyone who likes romantic chase thrillers. It’s not perfect, but it’s a solid read, and I look forward to reading more of Belle Ami’s books.
******
Escape
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on Smashwords
Like masterhawk88's review? Post a comment saying so!
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