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Title: Played
ISBN: 0451219694
Author:
Barbara Freethy
Publicate Date: 2006-10-03
Publish: 2006-10-03
List Price: $6.99
Average Customer Rating: 3.5
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $2.97
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $0.01
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1: Not a good end
Albeit the reading material is quite good the book's end is almost nonsense. I think both ends written in this book could be better. Nonetheless you'll get hooked with the characters performance and that's good while you read a story. Someone wrote that to read this book you have to read first its prequel but I don't think so.
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2: complex story
I think the first book I ever read by Barbara Freethy was Summer Secrets. After that, she became a must-buy author for me. I do have a couple of her backlist in my TBR pile, but haven't bought them all yet.
Played is about a jewel theft. The Benedetti diamonds, including a legendary 97-carat yellow diamond, are set to be auctioned by Barclay's auction house in San Francisco, and the night before the auction, they're displayed at a party--worn by art historian Christina Alberti.
Christina is uneasy--she's responsible for the diamond, but hasn't had a chance to examine it personally, and if anything goes wrong, she'll lose the last of her professional reputation--most of it already lost because of her father, notorious thief Marcus Alberti. And that's before FBI agent J. T. McIntyre warns her that the man he's tracking, Evan Chadwick (who first showed up in Taken), is a master of disguise and intends to steal the diamond.
Unfortunately, Christina can't be sure her father won't also be tempted. She wants to trust him, but can't. And J. T.'s suggestion that Marcus might be working with Evan doesn't help.
Of course, the diamond does go missing, impossibly, and J. T. and Christina end up working together, though at somewhat cross purposes, to find it. They fall in love, complicated by suspicion and Christina's need to clear her father's name. And then things turn deadly.
There are wonderful twists and turns in this story, including sleight-of-hand, myriad culprits and motives, family secrets and curses, and both J. T. and Christina have hard choices to make: J. T. between love and revenge, and Christina between her father and J. T. Whodunit isn't all that easy, either, and Freethy's talent for complex storylines really shows here.
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3: This book was a dud.
I'm sorry, I can't agree with the reviewers that said this was a real page turner. It was a page turner only in the sense that I was reduced to skimming through the last fifty pages so I could be done with this boredom. This is my first Freethy novel and while I'll give her another chance, I wasn't terribly impressed with this one. It started out okay. Sounded like it might be a pretty good read from the synopsis on the back cover. There's Christina, the artsy expert and then there's J.T., the FBI agent. And then there's a missing diamond. But the excitement ended there. J.T. was a bumbling fool who couldn't seem to do anything right. Christina grated on my nerves with all her whining. The dialogue between the two seemed to repeat itself over and over and the plot seemed just a little too shallow. The whole book, really, was just a dud of a read. A little too cheesy for what the back cover promised.
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4: Evan is back... and just as evil as ever
Sociopath-chameleon Evan Chadwick is back taunting JT McIntyre in this sequel to Barbara Freethy's "Taken." This time out he's in San Francisco in search of a mysterious yet valuable yellow diamond necklace, which some believe is cursed. Gemologist Christina Alberti can no longer work in a museum thanks to her father's Robin Hood tendencies which resulted in her getting blackballed; the only place willing to give her a chance is auction house Barclay's, where the necklace will be sold to the highest bidder. Christina's world is turned on its axis when the necklace disappears and all suspicions turn to her. JT is convinced that Evan is behind the theft (as well as the frame up). Upon further investigation, she learns that the priceless necklace once belonged to Catherine de Medici. With JT at her side, the two go on an odyssey that will take them to Catherine's birthplace in order to learn the secrets of the curse, and a history she's not sure she is ready for.
Freethy has penned a breathtaking and action-packed story that will have readers enthralled from the opening pages to the conclusion - I thought it was better than the first. Just when you think you know what'll happen next, Freethy ratchets up the suspense to keep readers guessing. In order to truly appreciate the story, readers should read "Taken" first, as it provides a lot of background on the relationship between JT and Evan, as well as their respective motivations.
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5: Everybody wants the diamond...
Christina Alberti, antique jewelry expert working in an auction house, is plagued by association to her criminal father, a jewel thief. If anything goes wrong with the upcoming auction of a large diamond owned by a famous Italian family, she'll be blamed. She ignores the warning given by FBI agent J.T. McIntyre, who believes the diamond is the target of his nemesis, Evan Chadwick. The diamond is stolen and the search ends in Florence, Italy, where more is discovered about the diamond than Christina could ever guess.
There's plenty of plot to the story and action, but there were also spans of downtime as the romance developed. Though a little bit disjointed in feel and repetitious to a fault, I still enjoyed the book.
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