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I totally agree with y'all on Cynthia's flawed character but hey, she is young and probably not very sure of what she want yet. The problem I have with her character is that considering her position, I expected better.

B Creech wrote: ↑06 Jun 2019, 01:13 WOW! Seems like we all felt the same about Cynthia! From the very beginning when she allowed a stranger to manipulate her into lunch and then going to his apartment! I mean really?? Her character was very shallow. I hated the way she treated Dan. She was an attention seeker, in my opinion.

Yes! I hope the author gets the idea that we want stronger, smarter characters. Cynthia's character was what I used to call a "TV Woman" in the 1970s! A damsel in distress. There is a plot type for those, but this kind of book isn't it.

sarahmarlowe wrote: ↑16 Jun 2019, 20:19

B Creech wrote: ↑06 Jun 2019, 01:13 WOW! Seems like we all felt the same about Cynthia! From the very beginning when she allowed a stranger to manipulate her into lunch and then going to his apartment! I mean really?? Her character was very shallow. I hated the way she treated Dan. She was an attention seeker, in my opinion.

Yes! I hope the author gets the idea that we want stronger, smarter characters. Cynthia's character was what I used to call a "TV Woman" in the 1970s! A damsel in distress. There is a plot type for those, but this kind of book isn't it.

I agree. With the type of job she had, she was supposed to be a strong female figure not a damsel in distress! And certainly should have been smarter than to go to a strangers apartment as soon as they met!

Helena91 wrote: ↑15 Jun 2019, 23:27 I totally agree with y'all on Cynthia's flawed character but hey, she is young and probably not very sure of what she want yet. The problem I have with her character is that considering her position, I expected better.

Exactly, so did I!

I definitely had concerns about Cynthia's character, but was more focused on the disconnect between her extremely thorough professionalism in the Senator's office and with his security and her lackadaisical attitude toward her own safety. She went home with Sky the afternoon that she met him, which we can call a romantic or even lustful whim. However, why wasn't she concerned when he had a cup of coffee brewed and waiting for her in her own apartment the very next morning? Or how he knew where she lived the night they first met? There are way too many red flags about Sky for a trained security expert to not notice. I was disappointed that there was so much incongruence in her story.

Helena91 wrote: ↑15 Jun 2019, 23:27 I totally agree with y'all on Cynthia's flawed character but hey, she is young and probably not very sure of what she want yet. The problem I have with her character is that considering her position, I expected better.

While I agree that Cynthia's youth could contribute to this, I wouldn't use it to excuse it entirely. The problem is that as a character she's completely flat and inconsistent with no real arc. It's a shame because the stuff you pointed out could have been used to great effect had it been done differently.

sarahmarlowe wrote: ↑16 Jun 2019, 20:19

B Creech wrote: ↑06 Jun 2019, 01:13 WOW! Seems like we all felt the same about Cynthia! From the very beginning when she allowed a stranger to manipulate her into lunch and then going to his apartment! I mean really?? Her character was very shallow. I hated the way she treated Dan. She was an attention seeker, in my opinion.

Yes! I hope the author gets the idea that we want stronger, smarter characters. Cynthia's character was what I used to call a "TV Woman" in the 1970s! A damsel in distress. There is a plot type for those, but this kind of book isn't it.

I mean, to be fair, not every 1970s tv woman was a damsel in distress. That being said, totally! Flaws are one thing but she wanted people to treat her a certain way without actually working for it.

I have a very similar opinion of Cynthia's character. There were so many red flags she blatantly ignored or immediately justified that I found it difficult to respect the other aspects of her character. I mean, it truly is a book with a female lead, followed by an all-female team of women who are skilled, intelligent, and balancing lives of their own. I feel that was incredibly lost during the book due to the representation of Cynthia's romantic relationships. The extreme length Sky went to be in Cynthia's life was borderline obsessive. His disregard for boundaries and understanding of steps taken in a relationship was boggling to me, but then her lack of accountability in seeing this all play out was simply ridiculous. I found myself very frustrated with her character. I do appreciate watching characters experience difficult life events who then learn and grow (e.g. Eleanor Oliphant) but this one was tough. Tying up loose ends of their whirlwind relationship moved quicker than their traffic jam meet-up, and I found myself lost in the dust.

When reading the book personally I just disliked Cynthia’s character. She lacked common sense and did some things that are just plain dumb. Cynthia cheating when nothing in the book portrayed even the slightest bit of problems in her and dans relationship to be cheating on him with a guy she just met that day.

I just couldn't get past her impressive position as Head of Security for a U.S. Senator (even though a family friend it seems) and her excessively irresponsible behavior. The two don't go together - it seemed like the author had a story in mind and just placed characters into it without considering the type of person that character needed to be.

Stephanie Elizabeth wrote: ↑04 Jun 2019, 12:57 I really don't like Cynthia's character because I believe she lacks common sense and she is insensitive to others. Anyone who would cheat on someone like that is seriously flawed in my opinion. She should have had the decency to tell Dan as soon as it happened, but instead, she strung him along.

That really irked me as well. She had been with Dan for so long, she shouldn't have treated him like that.

Giana08 wrote: ↑18 Jun 2019, 11:35 When reading the book personally I just disliked Cynthia’s character. She lacked common sense and did some things that are just plain dumb. Cynthia cheating when nothing in the book portrayed even the slightest bit of problems in her and dans relationship to be cheating on him with a guy she just met that day.

Especially because Sky was so plain creepy. He knew all this stuff about her and she didn't even question it.

I don't know that I like nor dislike Cynthia's character. But, at the beginning she never said that she loved Dan she summarized their relationship as comfortable. Also as the story goes on and the meet up again in the restaurant it becomes aware that there was no real foundation or commitments within the statues of the relationship between her and Dan.

But I do also feel that she made very bad decisions when it came to her job or the position of which she held as a spy or secret agent.

Yes, you're right in your line of thought as touching Cynthia character. I also agree with Helena91 " i expected better". Though I didn't expect her to cheat, i expected a genuine remorse for what she did, but...

Cynthia was a very flawed character. I had a problem with her cheating and also the fact that she always had to be rescued. She wasn’t a character that you could emphasize with too much, as she had too many negative qualities.