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Review by Jodi Israel
Is Deep Waters worth the cover price? Absolutely, positively! In what is likely to be her best-selling novel to date, Jayne Ann Krentz takes herself less seriously and her characters more so.
Krentz heroes are often alpha males who view softness with disdain, but in Deep Waters she makes hotshot Pacific Rim-Seattle businessman Elias Winters a tough guy looking for something more than financial success. In a riveting Prologue, Elias is on the verge of destroying his father's murderer, but he discovers that revenge doesn't give him the peace he thought it would. With apparent recklessness he abandons his business and takes up residence as a shopkeeper in a small town outside Seattle.
Krentz's heroines tend to be on the odd side. Charity Truitt is a real departure for Krentz: she's refreshingly normal. After five years as the CEO of Truitt Department stores, she is burned out and frightened. On the eve of her engagement she walks out of Seattle and becomes a bookseller on Crazy Otis Landing -- the same tourist area Elias picks.
From Elias ordering from the Abberwick Spice and Tea shop to Charity, the bookseller, stocking the romance novels of Stella Cameron, this novel has a lighter feel than some of Krentz's other books. The clever and constant repartee between Charity and Elias is of the laugh-aloud quality without being slapstick. The sexual tension and subsequent lovemaking burn holes in the paper.
Krentz's signature mystery is there but it is only a subplot. Highly recommended for anyone feeling the winter blahs.
Jodi Israel is an avid reader of romance. She can be reached at israel@faxon.com.
©1997, ProMotion, inc.
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