All or Nothing

Rating:
Summary: A pleasant summer night's read...
Review:

This was my first Elizabeth Adler book, so unlike other reviewers here, I had nothing to compare this story to.

I liked the combination of legal professor Marla and ex-cop-turned P.I. Griaud, but like others here, I felt their many sex scenes were just so much fluff. After the first one, where the author shows how much they care about each other, the rest were pretty much just for show.

Also, Pepperdine is a Church of Christ school, so I'm not so sure they'd let Marla and her skimpy skirts past the guard gate, let alone teach a class!

I liked the premise of a femal being the heavy for a change, but the overall plotlines were pretty jaded and trite for my tastes.

I am a fan of Los Angeles and I liked reading about places I've visited. So, all in all, I spent a peaceful summer's night with a so-so book. Not great, but better than channel surfing!

Rating:
Summary: Short but enjoyable,
Review: All Or Nothing by Elizabeth Adler, is a short but enjoyable book. The characters are fun, the dialogue interesting, and the plot had me swiftly turning the pages. An appealing combination.

John Savoy
Savoy International
Motion Pictures
B.H. California

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining, but not spectacular
Review: This was my first Elizabeth Adler book. It started off good, and it did have several worthy twists that were different and refreshing, but...

There were too many times the POV switched within the narrative. First we're in Giraud's head and in the next sentence we're in Marla's. At least this was consistent, but disturbing. Sometimes there was a chapter or scene break to let us know we're in someone else's head, but that was the exception rather than the rule.

I also found Marla a bit too conveniently motherly to the poor accused man's wife at times. She seemed like a sex pot one time and then she suddenly had all of these maternal instincts pouring out. Didn't jibe with me.

Overall, however, it was not a bad read. I didn't put it down or want to stop and it was easy to get through. And I did like Marla and Giraud's playfulness. They would be a good duo for a sequel.

Rating:
Summary: The Details Make the Story
Review: This was the first book of Ms. Adler's which I've read. The good news is that her writing skills are excellent and that she paces the story beautifully, so that the reader gallops along with her premise. The details she provides are thorough and fascinating.

I have spent considerable time in L.A., where this novel is set, and I never had heard of most of the restaurants she writes about; they may be known to a resident such as Ms. Adler, but they are not in the guide books. So, on my next trip back to L.A., I do hope to try a few of the places she takes her characters.

The problem, of course, is that this is a mystery, and not a tourist guide. Though the read was fast and easy, after the ending is reached, it is inescapable that even as fiction, the plot is too filled with holes.

The heroine is a gorgeous, sexy, young, magnificently dressed, sexy (that's right, that's twice)... law professor? Oh, please. There aren't too many law professors who are only 32 years old, and those that are that young rarely are sexy. This small group of wonderkids have been much too fixated on their careers to have been worrying about their hair. Even assuming "arguendo," as the legal eagles say, that she is 32, gorgeous, sexy and magnificently dressed, I doubt that a Pepperdine University professor would fly to San Francisco to give a guest lecture at Berkeley, or meet with the L.A. district attorney to discuss the abilities of one of her students that the D.A. is considering hiring, or give a pop quiz to her class. A pop quiz? For law students, that's a new one. And when would this lusty little creature find the time to grade it? Between orgasms? None of this makes any sense.

Yet all of these objections don't even get to the underlying premise of the psychopathic homicidal maniac. Fiction should move readers along, not make them stop and snicker. Ms. Adler displays too much skill as an author to pander to the market for sex-and-violence as she does in ALL OR NOTHING.