When high-school bad boy Derrick Weston returns after ten years, for his grandfather’s funeral, old rivalries and new robberies place him right in Ginger’s path — whether they like it or not.
I’ve been wanting to read one of Lazette Gifford’s books for a long time now, because she (like me) admires Holly Lisle’s work. So I took the opportunity to check out this novella, Return to Redlin, downloadable for free from Smashwords. She’s billed it as a contemporary romance, though I’m not sure where she’s going with it after having quickly whipped through chapter 1 this morning.
The prose leaves some to be desired from a literary standpoint, even for my tastes. (And as you know, I’m no great fan of literary mumbo-jumbo.) Sometimes, as I’m reading along, I find myself wanting to line-edit: Delete that sentence; it adds nothing to the story. Or Get rid of the copulative, strengthen verbs, and elide redundant adjectives: ‘The night felt chilly and uninviting as I pulled the jacket collar up around my neck, trying to block out the invasive cold.’ Change to: ‘I huddled within my jacket collar, as the night chill invaded my body.’ Stuff like that.
But… I’m really getting into the main character, Derrick Weston. The narrator, Ginger, so far strikes me as a Bella Swan, just going along for the ride– which can be a fine choice, Ã la Dr. Watson and Sherlock Holmes. But Derrick, he’s got stuff happening in his life and in his heart and in his mind. Even after only one chapter, Lazette has already done a wonderful job of creating a sympathetic bad-boy hero–or is that used to be a bad boy, now reformed?–and I really want things to turn out well for him.
Today’s teaser, from ebook-page 32 (randomly selected by Random.org, of 81 “pages” total on my ebook reader) of Return to Redlin:
“The last incident scared the hell out of us and out of your kids. Your work is dangerous, Derrick.”
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just follow the directions at the “Teaser Tuesdays” post.
-TimK
you made me laugh–you wanted to edit as you read. I think I’ll pass on this book 🙂
Kaye—the road goes ever ever on