I've read a few of Coulter's other books, and as a general rule, they've been ok. Certainly not my favorites, but I'm pretty critical of what I read. Still, they have had me coming back for more.

So I see "Mad Jack" on the shelf, and it looks fun... we get to see the Sherbrookes again, introduced in another series, and I did enjoy their exploits (I must admit, I enjoy when authors bring back main characters from other books to be secondary characters in other stories. It adds an element of realism for me).

This story is about Mad Jack, a young girl who pretends to be a young male valet named Jack in order to escape an abusive stepfather trying to marry her off. We're told that she is called "Mad" because she is so adventurous. Hm.

Unfortunately, for me, this book never got off the ground. I had to force myself to finish it, because I *did* like the main characters, but overall, I thought Coulter tried to just do way too much in a paperback. You never really find out about Jack's stepfather, you never really find out much about the man he has promised her too, you never really find out what makes Gray (the hero) tick... oh and THEN Coulter throws in another little crisis, which is resolved entirely too quickly and "patly" (is that a word??) for my tastes. This storyline is much better suited to a triolgy, and could in fact be quite fun and interesting.

The main irritation I had with this book, however, is something I've seen in many books that I consider sub-standard, and it annoys me every time--- the use of dialog to tell EVERY single incident. I'm sorry, but people don't talk like that in real like, I don't care WHAT era they lived in. To me that signals that there is simply too much going on. I would love to see just how "mad" Jack gets, instead of just one stolen horse (which is how she meets Gray, the man whose house she is living in, in the first place).

Catherine Coulter certainly is a popular writer, and as I said first, I have enjoyed some of her work. But Mad Jack just didn't live up to it's promise.



Recommended: No