Deception by Amanda Quick

Rating: 3

Olympia Wingfield devotes all of her time to her passion for studying ancient legends. But when she suddenly becomes guardian to her 3 hellion nephews she has little time or quiet for her studies. So when Jared Chillhurst appears on her doorstep after escorting a new shipment of goodies to her from her uncle, she is delighted when he announces that he is also the new tutor for her nephews, also courtesy of her uncle. In reality Jared is there to learn what she finds in the old diary that is in the shipment. The diary was written by his great grandmother and it contains clues to finding a treasure.

When I read the back cover of this book I was expecting an action/adventure/pirate/treasure hunt sort of story. Perhaps the person who had the job of writing that blurb should be fired. It was none of the above! I kept waiting for them to jump on a ship and go find the treasure they kept talking about, but they never did!!! Even at the end they sent someone else to go find it!!! Huh? And for someone who is there to find out what she deciphers, Jared is remarkably uninterested in listening to what she finds. And the heroine. Oh my word. Constant defense of her man is very admirable, but makes for a rather boring story. I also thought the character development was a bit lacking. It was like reading about paper dolls -- there was no depth to them at all. And the author just couldn't decide WHO she wanted to be the "bad guy" so she threw a few semi-bad guys in. If I wasn't reading this book for a book challenge I would have tossed it into the UBS bag 200 (of 400) pages in! *snore*