Traveling Books: Second Honeymoon by James Patterson // How do Co-Authors Work?

I've returned to the snows of Chicago... and am actually going skiing tomorrow! :-)

But my trip was excellent and I read both Persuasion and Monstrous Regiment by the third day. 

So what the heck was I going to read on the three hour plane ride home?

Guess what my mother found on a beach chair by the pool:

The note reads "Free to good home :-) Read it and pass it on."

I've never read any James Patterson, but I've heard a heck of a lot of good things about him, so I thought I'd provide the book with a good home and read it on the airplane.

Well, it was definitely entertaining. Patterson's (and Roughan's? I don't know how to deal with co-authors. How much did Roughan actually do?) - anyway, Patterson's characters are fantastic and the plot twists and turns in such a way that left me trying to figure out the connections. The story is basically two different detectives each working on a different mystery. The cases are not at all connected - but somehow they are. I love it when an author does that.

Also, the characters are just so real. Especially the two agents - they are both such decent, average people (with really good observational skills). 

The writing style wasn't absolutely my favorite, as the vocabulary was rather simplistic and there were moments of choppy sentences, but overall wasn't too bad. And Patterson really has a tendency to allude to major cultural figures today. Open any page - and there will probably be the name of a famous person (or company). 

So in summary:

• Plot - excellent
• Characters - fantastic
• Writing - just okay

I will definitely read more Patterson at some point. And I think I will take Second Honeymoon and "pass it on" in the cafe of the ski lodge tomorrow! 

~Sophia

(Posts on Persuasion and Monstrous Regiment coming later this week.)