"A Dead Red Heart" by R.P. Dahlke

I received this book to review from the World Literary Cafe (WLC). I requested it with the hope that it will be a quick read, and indeed it was.

I noticed that the writing needs some mild editing, as in, there are words repeated twice like "this this", and it wasn't a single case scenario.

The story was entertaining and engaged my attention almost the entire time. It had a nice mystery that wound through the pages. There was also a sweet romance which at times felt a little forced.

I give the book 3 stars, because I don't really agree with the reality of it. I mean, we're talking about a 40-year old ex-model who suddenly turns private investigator and is damn good at it with no experience behind her back? Seriously? That's not only incredible - it's impossible. I know that there are many books like that, where the main investigator isn't really a police officer, but they always, ALWAYS have a real officer/retired cop/real private investigator behind their back to feed them info and help with the clues. Not here. In "A dead red heart" Lalla is the only one with brains and a thought process. Okay, sure I give it that Dal was a journalist who was helping her. But my point still stands.

I think that even though this is a work of fiction, there must be some realistic boundary in it. After all it's in the contemporary genre, not the paranormal or urban fantasy where all sorts of things are possible. Here we're talking about normal people with no special powers.

I don't agree with the author on her portrayal of the cops either. Sure, some cops really are lazy asses and all, but how come not even one of them had brains? Why did all their information come from Lalla, the ex-model? She fed them clues that she stumbled upon and she figured out and they never got to think at all? That's lame, and smells of prejudice against the law enforcement.

Also, I think that Lalla should've been scared at least a little bit. But no. She was real steel. She only got a bit shaken when she got the threat note and the dead rat (ewwwwwwww!!!) but that's about it. If it were me (or any other woman in her right mind) I would've freaked out!! Instead, what did Lalla do? She got into the mess even deeper.

Her relationship with Caleb, like I said, felt a little forced. He wanted her, she wasn't sure half the time. He ran after her, called her, wanted to live with her and marry her. And Lalla was just so whiny! She hurt him without thinking twice about it, then he kept running back to her!It was kind of annoying too.

The characters were well developed in their unrealistic situations. The one person I liked the most was Lalla's father. He was funny and sounded real.

My rating is