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The Courier
Melanie Jackson
2004, Urban Fantasy Romance
LoveSpell, $5.99, 315 pages, Amazon ASIN 0505525763
Part of a series
| Grade: |
C |
| Sensuality: |
Warm |
The Courier is a paranormal romance that starts out with an absurd, confusing plotline and one dimensional characters. By the end of the book neither of these problems really resolves. Yet, as flat as the characters were and as puzzling as the plotline seemed to be, the fast pace and bizarre story will keep many readers interested enough to read the book until the very end.
Lyris is half sylph and half human but frankly I have no idea what a sylph is. In Melanie Jackson’s world, from what I could gather, a sylph is some kind of nonhuman being with small wings. Lyris has spent most of her adult life studying Goblins and trying to prove that one, in particular, was behind the assassination of JFK. And here we have absurd plotline number one. In the end the JFK problem has little to do with the story, even though this is the major problem for Lyris in the beginning. She is supposed to be somewhat reserved, cold and untrusting in her attitude, yet she only comes off as rather cardboard-like in character.
Roman is half pooka. Again, I am not quite sure what Jackson’s definition of a pooka is. Apparently it has something to do with being able to change into an animal, eating quite a bit, and not taking anything seriously. Roman goes to New Orleans undercover as a stripper, and seems to enjoy it a bit too much. This is where he meets Lyris who is in the Big Easy for assistance in defeating and exposing the Goblins. Their first encounter is in Roman’s strip club, at which point a scene ensues in which Roman (aka Romeo) dances over to Lyris. If this was meant to be sexy and hot it wasn't; I simply cringed in embarrassment. Not only is Roman a stripper, he has a Jag named "baby," and says things like "nighty-night." He is supposed to be fun and carefree - to me he seemed immature and annoying.
Quede is a goblin/vampire with a sick love for orchids and sylphs who rules New Orleans. He is downright creepy, and of all the characters presented in the book, he's the only one with any depth. As a villain he is number one in evilness, possessing amazing powers and the ability to sense when Lyris is nearby. With all his spies running around New Orleans and his amazing feat of somehow knowing exactly what Lyris and Roman are doing at all times, you'd think it would be easy for Quede to capture them, but for some reason he doesn’t.
Roman and Lyris are on a mission to stop Quede - they know that if they don't, the world will be overrun with death, horror and creepy goblin/vampire characters. They are not eager to pursue him because they realize how impossible it will be to defeat him, but stop him they must. And so they go after the one being who can destroy them and their sudden love for each other.
The book runs quickly toward the finale. Everything happenes much too quickly while at the same time little is resolved. The result is a disappointment, and only partly because it's obvious another Goblin book will follow.
What sizzle exists in the first love scene between Lyris and Roman is tampened by the ultimately corny dialogue:
"Oh, Roman...what big eyes you have," Lyris said.
"All the better to see you with, my dear," he answered.
The Courier is part of a series that has fared quite well among my AAR colleagues, but it's clear it cannot be read as a stand-alone. It's simply too confusing in terms of who is who, what is what (and who is what). The author provides a list of the good and bad at the end of the book, yet the list was incomplete; it needed physical descriptions of the characters as well as their special abilities. But reading the earlier books in the series would not have helped the flatness of the lead characters; when the villain is the only character of interest in a romance, that's a huge problem. On balance, the one-dimensional leads and a sub-plot that went nowhere can be weighed against the truly evil, grotesque, and fascinating villain and the rush of suspense toward the end of the book that kept the pages turning.
-- Lori Sowell
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