A review by wildwolverine
Deception by Amanda Quick
2.0
Deception is the Quick novel that deceived me. I have been on a streak of good Quick novels, and this one had pirates, so it promised to be just as entertaining as the others. Unfortunately, it didn't live up to expectations. Normally, Quick includes a mystery in her novels that must be solved by a tenacious heroine and a brusque, intelligent, and loving hero. Unfortunately, the hero is ridiculous, the heroine an idiot, and the mystery pointless.
The heroine Olympia cares about only one thing: her "research". This research is supposedly about treasure and customs from different cultures around the world. Of course, the implications of this research being based on racist suppositions goes without saying. While this research of hers isn't really explored (thankfully), it was still painful to contemplate. Beyond this, Olympia is completely insipid. She can't tell she is on the verge of being assaulted, and she says multiple times that she cannot be bothered with anything beyond her research, so when Jared starts organizing her household and the education of the three boys she is in charge of, she starts to protest, but really. The woman forgot to pay her own servants. I swear she'd forget to get dressed. She was neither clever nor charming, neither insightful nor sweet. A very uninspiring heroine and the typical "book smart" heroine who has absolutely no common sense and no conversational skills whatsoever.
So, it's a complete shock when Jared just immediately falls in love with her on sight. Aside from his eyepatch, he wasn't a particularly memorable character. He had a propensity to order Olympia around, which annoyed me, and while she would protest, the protest would be swept away in the next chapter. He's a very typical hero for Quick, but usually her heroines will challenge his bossiness and put him in his place, but Olympia seemed like a mockery of a heroine. Her protests held no weight, and so Jared's demands seemed completely reasonable because she was just so flighty.
They mystery is what kept me hanging on, and the promise that they would travel to a remote island to unearth a treasure. I'm sorry to say that the mystery is essentially a red herring, and the story was a whole lot of nothing. I know I'm mostly being hard on the heroine, but I honestly do find the trope of a woman who is book smart but lacks all common sense to be insulting and sexist. The heroine can't be too perfect or readers won't relate to her, but Olympia wasn't really book smart or street smart. She was just stupid, but the universe of Deception really wanted to convince us she was an intelligent and accomplished woman. As a result, this book was really quite dreadful, I'm sorry to say.
The heroine Olympia cares about only one thing: her "research". This research is supposedly about treasure and customs from different cultures around the world. Of course, the implications of this research being based on racist suppositions goes without saying. While this research of hers isn't really explored (thankfully), it was still painful to contemplate. Beyond this, Olympia is completely insipid. She can't tell she is on the verge of being assaulted, and she says multiple times that she cannot be bothered with anything beyond her research, so when Jared starts organizing her household and the education of the three boys she is in charge of, she starts to protest, but really. The woman forgot to pay her own servants. I swear she'd forget to get dressed. She was neither clever nor charming, neither insightful nor sweet. A very uninspiring heroine and the typical "book smart" heroine who has absolutely no common sense and no conversational skills whatsoever.
So, it's a complete shock when Jared just immediately falls in love with her on sight. Aside from his eyepatch, he wasn't a particularly memorable character. He had a propensity to order Olympia around, which annoyed me, and while she would protest, the protest would be swept away in the next chapter. He's a very typical hero for Quick, but usually her heroines will challenge his bossiness and put him in his place, but Olympia seemed like a mockery of a heroine. Her protests held no weight, and so Jared's demands seemed completely reasonable because she was just so flighty.
They mystery is what kept me hanging on, and the promise that they would travel to a remote island to unearth a treasure. I'm sorry to say that the mystery is essentially a red herring, and the story was a whole lot of nothing. I know I'm mostly being hard on the heroine, but I honestly do find the trope of a woman who is book smart but lacks all common sense to be insulting and sexist. The heroine can't be too perfect or readers won't relate to her, but Olympia wasn't really book smart or street smart. She was just stupid, but the universe of Deception really wanted to convince us she was an intelligent and accomplished woman. As a result, this book was really quite dreadful, I'm sorry to say.