The Tempering Agent by Victoria Pitts-Caine

She wrote it as if it was normal to do that. Sometimes “insta-love” is the point of a novel, but if you’re going to do it, just be upfront about it. Now, I don’t usually read books for the romance, but the “Hi, I’m Donnie, and I’m going to flirt with you because I already decided that I like you.” Followed by the, “I’m in love after two meetings” from her… Ugh. The worst part of the book for me, however, was the romance. I purchased this book last night, so I’d suggest to the publisher to take another look at it. For those bothered by those things, you won’t be able to miss them. There is also a bit of repetitive telling, run-on sentences, and a few other editing issues. At those times, there are unusual sentence structures and diction. Unfortunately, she does have her characters tell stories as if she’s writing them. However, I have to give her props for usually keeping descriptions interesting, not overloaded, and without info-dumps. Inconsistencies in behavior and descriptions made things a bit difficult to swallow at times. Little things bothered me-things like how Priscilla is a Brit, but she speaks with American syntax and diction. The Tempering Agent opened with a choice of words that made dating the book confusing, but I figured out it was contemporary soon enough. Unfortunately, the book didn’t live up to my hopes.

I loved the idea of a grieving woman working through that grief to find justice for her murdered fiancé as well as the new crimes that seem to be putting her in danger. As you can see from the synopsis, the concept of this story is fabulous.

The Tempering Agent by Victoria Pitts-Caine