Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Review: ROSE, UNDERCOVER by Rashelle Workman


Rose is a regular Doogie Howser as she was a high school graduate at 14 and a Harvard graduate at 18. Not only is she smart and intuitive, which makes her a good police detective, but she is also an empath—she can see someone’s intentions with a touch, which is why she tries to avoid getting close to people.


Everyone calls her a rookie cop. Let’s face it, the police force has always been a boys club.

Rose is snarky, smart, and sensitive, but she is also shy and reserved. So when they ask her to go undercover as a stripper to catch a serial killer, of course, she is doubtful and resistant. This is SO Miss Congeniality because Rose is not a girly girl. But, like Sandra Bullock, Rose is the best kind of beautiful: Natural. She is the plain Jane—very UN-stripper-like but with a killer figure under all that oversize clothing. Rose is a ninth degree black belt and the sharpest shooter on the force, but has no idea how to turn a man on. Yep, that’s me! I could NEVER be a stripper and this makes Rose a relatable character for me.

Fortunately, Rose has Agent Mackey, the one that got her into this gig, to coach her in this whole stripper thing. But how does he know she is an empath?

Nice, easy read, although I thought the original cover art was a better fit (the one with the stripper image.) I also thought that the story had a too many gaps in it. The story is certainly compelling enough to read and it had a good start, but it didn’t utilize the character’s empathic ability very much. Her ability could’ve been used to sense the killer among the crowds. There was a missed opportunity there. We didn’t even get to see her rocky stripper performance. A good chunk of plot was definitely missing her to complete the story. Additionally, the ending was anticlimactic and conventional. No pizzazz at all.

Overall, this could’ve been better and it just needed MORE.

My rating: 3 stars



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