Believable or Not So Believable Moments

Use this forum to discuss the December 2019 Book of the month, "E-M-P Honeymoon", by Dorothy May Mercer
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Connie Otwani
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Re: Believable or Not So Believable Moments

Post by Connie Otwani »

ohlendorfbe wrote: 16 Dec 2019, 12:17 I think this book is too simplistically written to be believable. Everything goes well too easily for the protagonists. Sue Rhee-jin and her group are too inept, or they were trained really poorly when Steve meets her and sees right through her cover. I hadn't thought of it as a spoof before reading the above comments, but I think you could be onto something!!
I agree. It would have even made more sense if one of her men acted as her boyfriend. Besides, knowing they had a lab at the back of a shop, couldn't they make sure the front was manned at all times?
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Post by DC Brown »

djr6090 wrote: 14 Dec 2019, 09:26
Everydayadventure15 wrote: 10 Dec 2019, 10:57 My take on this book was that it’s more of a mockery of a real event that could happen, but probably won’t (think funny movie like McHale’s navy or Paul Blart Mall cop). The incompetent bad guys and everything working out for the good guys made for a light-hearted comedic thriller for me.
Yep. It's the reader's fault if they take this kind of pulp-fiction to heart.
Absolutely. I thought it was a misnomer to be categorized as a romance novel. Maybe a cozy mystery, a book that's fun to read but not too serious. Seeing it in that light, I loved it
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Post by cpru68 »

I didn’t really take the book seriously, and I don’t know if I was supposed to. A couple is on their honeymoon trying to stop a terroristic attack and conveniently the new bride’s brother is a government official. None of it felt realistic to me and was pretty predictable. Bad guys lose. Good guys win.
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Post by mensah2 »

Sometimes real stories may contain fiction. Sometimes it's necessary to craft a portion of true story. I think this is what the author has done.
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Post by Blindjew »

The collection of skills and happenstance surrounding the investigation was a little too easy. Things fell into place a bit too conveniently, which gave it a lack of suspense or any feeling of actual threat to the situation. For me, the story was more campy than suspenseful, which has its own charm, but it does deviate from what I would believably call reality, but, such is often the case with romance.
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Post by Jeremie Mondejar »

Helene_2008 wrote: 10 Dec 2019, 10:48 I agree that they were several things about the terrorists I found unbelievable. When Steve is talking to Rhee Su-jin at breakfast and she messes up her cover by not begging about to answer his questions correctly about where she lived in California. She's supposed to be highly trained and best of the best! Then when Dear Leader forgot/ didn't know which coast NYC and Washington DC were on. How could you plot a terrorist attack and not be familiar with the country's geography.
Exactly! I realized it somehow, planning an attack needs a lot of study and geographical matters is the number one on the list.
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Post by AntonelaMaria »

cpru68 wrote: 18 Dec 2019, 01:06 I didn’t really take the book seriously, and I don’t know if I was supposed to. A couple is on their honeymoon trying to stop a terroristic attack and conveniently the new bride’s brother is a government official. None of it felt realistic to me and was pretty predictable. Bad guys lose. Good guys win.
I came to the same conclusion. I was just expecting too much of this book when I shouldn't.
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Post by [Danielle] »

I believe that the simplicity of solving the problem and "getting the bad guys" was completely unrealistic. However, as I don't know much about that aspect of the world, the part that bothered me even more was the relationships/interactions between characters. All of the character interactions seemed unrealistic to me.
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Post by Letora »

Honestly, nothign was believable for me. I thought the writing style was light and fun, but things happened too fast and easy for the characters. None of the federal agents seemed to act appropriatly/seriuosly, and the foreign leader was immature to say the least.
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Post by Jeremie Mondejar »

[Danielle] wrote: 25 Dec 2019, 12:45 I believe that the simplicity of solving the problem and "getting the bad guys" was completely unrealistic. However, as I don't know much about that aspect of the world, the part that bothered me even more was the relationships/interactions between characters. All of the character interactions seemed unrealistic to me.
I have a lot of questions about that, why did the team USA never contact the police in the first place? It seems that Honduras doesn't know what's going on in their own place. The coordination between the team and the CIA are okay, but the team did not coordinate well with the local authorities.
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Post by Jeremie Mondejar »

Letora wrote: 27 Dec 2019, 10:14 Honestly, nothign was believable for me. I thought the writing style was light and fun, but things happened too fast and easy for the characters. None of the federal agents seemed to act appropriatly/seriuosly, and the foreign leader was immature to say the least.
It seems that every character is in haste as well as the author. All I felt after reading the book was the climax was also in haste; the climax deteriorates abruptly.
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Post by AntonelaMaria »

Letora wrote: 27 Dec 2019, 10:14 Honestly, nothign was believable for me. I thought the writing style was light and fun, but things happened too fast and easy for the characters. None of the federal agents seemed to act appropriatly/seriuosly, and the foreign leader was immature to say the least.
Yes, the plotline was very convenient for the characters.
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Post by AntonelaMaria »

[Danielle] wrote: 25 Dec 2019, 12:45 I believe that the simplicity of solving the problem and "getting the bad guys" was completely unrealistic. However, as I don't know much about that aspect of the world, the part that bothered me even more was the relationships/interactions between characters. All of the character interactions seemed unrealistic to me.
I don't know much about the low enforcement aspect of the story but still, it seemed very unrealistic that untrained civilians would be so cable to go against terrorists.
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Post by Noosh »

The most unbelievable situation for me was the part where they captured the CIA agent the way they did!
That’s just not possible. Steve’s a CIA not a cop or even a soldier! You can’t just capture him that easily. Right?
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Post by AntonelaMaria »

Noosh wrote: 29 Dec 2019, 09:31 The most unbelievable situation for me was the part where they captured the CIA agent the way they did!
That’s just not possible. Steve’s a CIA not a cop or even a soldier! You can’t just capture him that easily. Right?
I really want to believe it is not simple.
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