Review: Undertow

From Goodreads:

SHE TAKES THE PLUNGE.

Teal Williams is content with her career as a ship’s master mechanic—until Zane Cutter, the “Casanova of the Caribbean,” makes her an offer she can’t refuse: to climb on board with him for a real-life treasure hunt. Teal must help him dredge up a shipwrecked vessel containing an abundance of gold, silver, and emeralds—and she’ll claim part of the prize.

HE’S BLOWN OFF COURSE.

Zane needs a mechanic—not a lover—and Teal, who can also dive, is perfect for the job. So it suits him just fine that Teal is completely immune to his charms…or so he tells himself. But with a deadly enemy in their midst—one who’s silently edging closer—Zane and Teal sink into troubled waters. Trapped in the middle of a perilous sea, they have no one to turn to but each other as they face down a danger that runs unfathomably deep—and a passion that runs even deeper…

Making the Grade: C+

For My Thoughts



First of all I must comment on the cover for Undertow...it is Aces (you'll get that reference later)!

Undertow is the 1st book in a new trilogy from Cherry Adair featuring three brothers, a gorgeous Caribbean backdrop and a treasure hunting/salvage business.

Hot guy, beautiful scenery, pretty good premise, Undertow had lots of promise and I’ve been a long time fan of Cherry Adair so I had high expectations for this book and while I liked it - I didn’t love it.

I did love the heroine’s name...Teal - it’s a unique name and I loved that she had an unconventional profession as an engineer mechanic - how cool is that?

Then there’s Zane, he’s your typical gorgeous playboy, Casanova of the Caribbean, a total ladies man and a player. I did love Zane’s nickname...Ace…it’s a tennis term and I love tennis…what can I say?

Zane needs an engine mechanic for his latest deep sea adventure of recovering the treasure from the sunken vessel the Vrijheid which he’s been searching for the past 4 years. He’s tickled pink when Teal seems to be the perfect candidate since he doesn‘t find her attractive and that’s a good thing since it seems he lacks control around beautiful women so now they can keep things between them strictly business (ya right!).

So on page 1 here are Zane’s 1st impressions of Teal: Tall, skinny, nondescript; she glared at him from beneath her shaggy, dark brown bangs. Not only did she have the sex appeal of a mop, she didn’t like him. Yup she sounds totally appealing. By page 28 Zane’s calling her “Hey gorgeous” (and trust me she has been anything but a prickly porcupine towards Zane up to this point) so am I the only one who sees his reversal of opinion in 28 pages a bit unrealistic? Teal excels at being whiny and grumpy and carrying on and on ad nausea about how she doesn’t want to be anywhere near Zane, she just can’t be in his presence but she takes the job anyway (she needs the money for her sick dad’s medical bills). While Zane is the main focus of her ire, she doesn’t make a lot of friends among the rest of the crew with her attitude either. Seems a lot of Teal’s ambivalence towards Zane stems from the fact that she slept with him a year ago when she attended the funeral of his father and while he was three sheets to the wind they had sex and he can’t remember her and it’s pissed her off ever since.

So while Zane and Teal snipe and snip at each other and try to tip-toe around their attraction to one another, eventually they can’t deny their attraction and things seem to be moving along in the right direction with both their relationship and their salvage operation. Then about 2/3 of the way through the book a whole new storyline developed involving a plane that crashed right on top of their sunken boat (of all the luck….what are the odds of that happening?) carrying a super secret government techno “alpha chip” that could ruin the world if it falls into the wrong hands. Now Teal and Zane are up to their ears in men in black government types, bad-guy pirates who want the chip for their own nefarious purposes and just for good measure there are some bikini clad bimbos thrown into the mix. Oh yes and they’ve been given a seriously short deadline to of  38 hours to recover the chip on the bottom of the ocean floor - can you say looking for a needle in a haystack?

While I was slightly underwhelmed by Undertow, it was a fast read that keep my interest despite my few niggles and I will be reading Nick and Logan’s book when they are released.