Book Notices | Never Knowing by Chevy Stevens / The Givenchy Code by Julie Kenner

Chevy Stevens, Never Knowing

Amazon   The premise of this book kept me reading: An adopted woman's search for her birth parents goes about as badly as it possibly could when she finds out that her father's a serial killer and her mother's the only victim who ever escaped form him. Sounds good, and here and there the book did become interesting. But mostly there was a lot not to like. It dragged. The main character whined constantly. Actually, there wasn't a single likable character in the book other than the dog. The serial killer was in fact more likable than the protagonist's six-year-old daughter. The story is told to a therapist in a series of sessions, a dramatic device that doesn't seem to have much point to it. And the twist, when it comes, isn't terribly surprising. So.... But I did like the author's first novel, Still Missing, which I read back in 2010.

Julie Kenner, The Givenchy Code

Amazon   This book is sort of an odd mixture of chick lit and smart thriller, and protagonist Melanie Prescott is herself an odd mixture: part shoe-obsessed shopaholic, part whip-smart code-breaker. I'm not convinced the blend is totally believable, and certainly the "I live to shop!" mentality was a little hard for me to swallow, but still, I enjoyed the book well enough. The deal is that Melanie gets caught up in a deadly game when a madman takes an international online assassin game offline. Suddenly Melanie's got a target on her back, she's paired with a hunky bodyguard, and she's got to run around New York collecting clues and solving puzzles or die. Totally not believable, of course, but kind of fun. I can see it making a halfway decent lighthearted movie. The Givenchy Code is the first installment in a footwear-themed trilogy: The next two books in the series are The Manolo Matrix and The Prada Paradox. I'd read them if they fell in my lap, but I probably won't seek them out.