@# Capital Games

Warning: This review might contain what some people consider SPOILERS.



Rating: 5/10



PROS:

- Doesn't go off the deep end with the sex. It's light, it's fun, it's not terribly detailed, and it doesn't take up the majority of the story.

- Appearances by characters from various other Hauser books (see list at the bottom of this review). The universe she's creating is a lot of fun, particularly if you've read any of the books that the one you're currently reading intersects with.

- I enjoyed the interactions between Steve and his sister and brother-in-law. I had begun to despair that Hauser was incapable of creating a multi-dimensional female character, but there is hope, as Steve's sister proves. And I liked very much the scene in which he comes out to her.



CONS:

- The characters aren't terribly likeable. At least, not the whole way through the book. Mark is (at times) despicable and pathetic; Steve is (sometimes) gutless--although I cheered up when he FINALLY told Mark to stop torturing him and either break off the engagement or leave Steve alone; Jack, Steve's friend, is whiny and selfish; the guys' co-workers are unbelievably nosy; and Sharon, Steve's fiancée, is just plain awful.

- Didn't believe the characters' attraction for each other. They dislike each other at the beginning. Okay. They can hate each other's guts and still be attracted to each other, but Hauser never says anything about that. It's all frostiness and daggers and resentment and disgust...and then they get stranded in the desert one night and it's cold, and WHAM, they can't keep their hands off of each other and the next minute they're having the hottest, dirtiest sex of their lives and they can't get enough from then on.

- Steve falls in love way too fast. I understand that there are people who fall in love after one date (or, more accurately here, one session of sex), but I simply didn't believe it this time. At all.

- Mark's accent (or I suppose I should say 'vocabulary') is way off. He has some British heritage, but he was raised in the States, so his English accent is supposedly slight but eloquent. But quite a few of the things he says are more in line with a Cockney (or Irish) accent than the high-sounding English of Eton: he sometimes uses "me" instead of "my," for example ("He's me best mate"). And he says "bullocks" numerous times when it should be "bollocks"--plus, I had a hard time believing someone who has lived for years in the States would have held onto such a singularly British curse word.



Overall comments: I didn't hate it, but I was disappointed in several different aspects of the story. I found the book just mediocre all around.



CONNECTIONS TO OTHER HAUSER WORKS:

* Miller's Tale (story of Steve and Sonja, who break up before Capital Games starts)

* A Question of Sex (story of Mark and Sharon, who break up at the end of Capital Games)

* The Kiss (Steve reads it while pining for Mark)

* Love You, Loveday (Steve meets Angel Loveday and has a drink with him; doesn't sound like Angel is married off yet, so I suggest you read Capital Games first)

* When Adam Met Jack (Capital Games introduces Jack, so I suggest you read it first)
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