“MISCHIEF”
By Amanda Quick

I read this before already but I re-read it so that I could write for PopTarts. From all my Amanda Quick books, I noticed that she has a certain theme (don’t all romance writers?) and this is true with this book.

It’s the story about Imogen Waterstone, aka Immodest Imogen, and Matthias Marshall, Earl of Colchester, aka Cold-Blooded Colchester (notice how AQ’s romance heroes always have to have aliases?). As far as romance novels goes, this has a certified “Amanda Quick” stamped all over it. I haven’t had the chance to read her books under her other alias, Jayne Ann Krentz, but as AQ, she has the mysterious, misunderstood hero… the unique (a nicer way of saying “odd”), Original, incredibly smart, but thoroughly ignorant leading lady down pat.

Maybe it’s just me, but though I admit to liking the main characters, I find Imogen a bit too trying. She irritates me with her high-handedness and twisted logic (and she’s supposed to be smart?) that I wish Matthias would just leave her and find me. Methinks she talks too much and ends up with the weirdest conclusions. And this is supposedly a product of a philosopher and feminist parents? Couldn’t she have, er, stuck to more comprehensible logic and traces of thought? Although I do have to admit that her constant questioning of Matthias’ nerves and sensibilities are quite funny, as Matthias utilizes it every time he wants to get Imogen to do something he wants and ignores it the rest of the time.

AQ’s plot is also quite predictable, something she has used more than once (“Mystique” comes to mind). An object of historic and mystical significance (in this case, a lost fictitious city called Zamar) that binds the two of them together, a search for a mystical and precious object (the Queen’s Seal). Likewise, murder plots abound while the main characters fall for each other under a pretension instigated for said search of the fictional object.

Still, it’s an easy read and if you’re looking for sugary sweet romance fiction without over-using your brain cells, then Amanda Quick’s “Mischief” is a book to read. And let’s all face it, who needs brain cells? It’s not like we all care about the murder when the characters are off doing the horizontal mambo (TrishÔ) in a dusty, moldy museum and trying out Zamarian love-making techniques of which we sadly don’t get the details of. It would be interesting how it would/might differ from the “Kama Sutra” of – dare I say it? – literature. But for those of you who enjoy misguided and misunderstood characters, who earn their reputation by misconceptions of the ton, then this is a welcome addition to your bookcase.