Agent Provocateur

Author: Faith Bleasdale

Publication Year: 2004

Synopsis:

Betty writes for Modern Woman magazine. Grace works for a detective agency that specializes in infidelity through "honey trapping"-- that is, tempting men whose wives hire her because they believe their husbands are unfaithful. When Betty's boss (Fiona) sends her on an assignment to profile Grace's unusual job the women clash. They seem to clash because they are incredibly similar -- that is, incredibly insecure, and bitchy.

Grace and Betty end up entering into a completely pointless bet that neither wants to do. They bet that Grace cannot trap Betty's perfect husband, Johnny. Betty's boss (Fiona) puts her up to it (after already enticing Grace to take part). Then Fiona regrets the bet. Then Fiona "has her reasons" for the bet. Then Fiona regrets the bet again. And at the same time Grace and Betty regret the bet. But they also feel they have to fight to win the bet. Then they regret it again... and.. CONFUSED ARE YOU? Me too.

Thoughts:

This book was pointless. Do not waste your time and money.

Okay, I'll elaborate...

I'd never read Faith Bleasdale before, but when I was perusing the reduced fiction at Chapters (my favourite way to buy books - I get them cheaper than at the used bookstore!), I thought I'd give her a shot. The cover of the book and the synopsis on the back sounded alright, so why not?

I'll now tell you why not.

Horrible, horrible, utter crap writing style.

Even Dawson's Creek had less pointless "character feelings" exposition than this book. Every time a character spoke, the author wrote out their feelings and oh-so-important inner-thoughts. Often repeating things A BILLION TIMES. I get it, Nicole is very maternal. Nicole has maternal feelings towards Grace. Nicole is weirdly maternal. GOT IT, Faith. GOT IT.

The characters came across as the following:

a) Drunks

b) Idiots

c) Stupidheads

On the back cover of the book Cosmopolitan reviews it as, "A sharp, funny read that will make you fight for the cause of love".

You know what, Cosmo? Stick to what you know. What's he REALLY thinking about your moves in the bedroom? is not enough to qualify you for reviewing pieces of literature. Otherwise you might recognize that this book is CRAP.

Sadly I bought two Faith Bleasdale books at Chapters that day (from now on I'm going back to my old routine; start with ONE book by a new author and if I love it then read everything they ever wrote). I'll probably give the other book I bought a chance, but first I need to get back to some skilled writers before my brain melts out of my ears from lack of quality stimulation.

I'm not even going to give you links for where you can buy this book. If you're willing to waste your time reading this book, you can waste even more time by first finding it on Amazon all by yourself. So there.