The Jacq of Spades by Patricia Loofbourrow (Red Dog Conspiracy; 1)

The Synopsis:

The once-beautiful domed neo-Victorian city of Bridges is split between four crime families in an uneasy cease-fire. Social disparity increasing and its steam-driven infrastructure failing, a new faction is on the rise: the Red Dogs.
Jacqueline Spadros has a dream life: a wealthy husband, a powerful family. But her life is not what it seems. Kidnapped from her mother’s brothel and forced to marry, the murder of her best friend Air ten years before haunts her nightmares. She finds moments of freedom in a small-time private eye business, which she hides in fear of her sadistic father-in-law.
Air’s little brother disappears off his back porch and the Red Dogs are framed for it. With the help of a mysterious gentleman investigator hired by the Red Dogs to learn the truth, Jacqui pushes her abilities to their limits in hope of rescuing the child before the kidnapper disposes of him.

I received this book from the author through BookSirens for the purpose of this review. All comments and opinions are entirely my own.

Review:

The wife of a drug boss, living wealthy and respected highly, Jacqui has a story that is both exquisitely breathtaking, and dangerously life-threatening. She is a powerful woman who likes to use her prowess to help the people that remind her of where she came from–where she truly feels at home.

As much as I admired and enjoyed reading about Jacqui as a character, I wasn’t impressed with the storyline of The Jacq of Spades. The first half of the book took me in circles of Jacqui’s present and past and was very slow to getting into the action or even sharing what the drive for the story was. There was more backstory, it felt like, than current story and that just didn’t quite make my cup of tea.

Once the action did pick up however, it was executed in a way that was difficult for me to follow and I often had trouble distinguishing some of the background characters from each other because of similar personalities. There were many places that I found myself skipping much of the chapters at once as well.

Another big blow to my opinion of the book was the frequent, obscene language and sexual implications (no scenes however). The action did get violent and detailed at times, however I wouldn’t consider it overly gory.

So though I do believe that Jacqui was a well done character, I think that her story could have used some more attention. I give The Jacq of Spades 2 out of 5 stars.