Title: Talk Me Down
Author: Victoria Dahl
Copyright: 2009
Publisher: HQN
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Setting: A small town–Tumble Creek, Colorado–in the Rockies
Grade: B-
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This is my contemporary romance review for February. I’ve heard quite a bit of buzz about this book so I decided to give it a try. I liked parts of the book and disliked other parts!
As the book opens Molly Jennings has moved back to the small, isolated town of Tumble Creek she grew up in. I didn’t like her very much though I could understand reasons for some of her actions. I thought Victoria Dahl did a good job of showing why Molly reacted the way she did in various situations. Her parents always compared her with her older brother who was a gifted student. She has had a poor self-image though she puts on a good act.
Molly kept a major secret (her job as a bestselling erotic fiction author) from everyone (including her family) and I could understand why she did that with most people, but I felt she should have talked to Police Chief Ben Lawson (long-time family friend and current love interest) before she did. He was the main reason she kept the secret and she knew how he felt about secrets and publicity. He had personal reasons to abhor secrets and publicity (from his childhood) plus a police chief serves at the pleasure of a mayor or city council. They don’t like bad publicity either. I thought it was selfish of Molly to blindside Ben the way she did.
She also kept the problems she was having with a former boyfriend in Denver from Ben for too long. I felt she was manipulative, too. She manipulated Ben into situations that caused him public embarrassment. I liked Ben–he was the strong, silent, honest type and I felt he cared for Molly. However, in the latter part of the book he and Molly both some bad decisions.
I liked Victoria Dahl’s writing. For example, she has a knack for writing comedy. The “trick or treat incident” was classic. (Molly thought a little girl was dressed like a princess. When Molly calls her a princess the little girl starts crying and forcefully tells Molly she is not a princess! I could relate to that since one of my daughters dressed up as Peter Pan one year and everyone thought she was Robin Hood.)
However, though I liked the writing, I didn’t like Molly very much–she would never be my best friend!
