Kimani, $6.25, ISBN 978-0-373-86295-5
Contemporary Romance, 2013
Holly Kendall is a weekend reporter for a TV station. When the story opens, she boards a plane and meets our hero Anderson Gunn, a legal consultant. I’m mentioning the occupations of these characters because that’s the only thing distinguishing them from some random life-sized cardboard cutouts. The attraction is there, and that’s all there is to the plot.
Really, I’m not kidding. Oh, okay, there is a very minor subplot towards the end of the story, when Anderson’s ex-girlfriend causes Holly to frown at him, but that drama is pretty much an excuse to keep the story going a bit longer once these two have started bumping uglies.
My goodness, Love Is in the Air is one of the most stultifying reads I’ve come across in a while. It reads like a… I don’t know, it’s like what happens when someone tries to write a story only to end up with a telephone book instead. Every page resembles a dry and lifeless blow-by-blow entry in Holly’s diary. She does this, she goes here, she does that, and she talks to this person and that person. Time passes – a few days, even a few weeks – with all the excitement of a bingo game in an octogenarian parlor.
Because this book is as tasty as sawdust, I am too numbed by boredom to notice any chemistry, passion, or anything else that can engage my interest. The best thing I can say about this story is that, barring a few childish spats here and there, Holly and Anderson are generally calm and sensible. Still, it’s hard to care when everything else about this story is determined to put me to sleep.
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