TITLE – Crazy On You
SERIES – Archie and Isabella Book #1
AUTHOR – James Duncan and J Kahele
GENRE – Romantic Comedy
PUBLICATION DATE – 1-29-2015
LENGTH (Pages/# Words) – 327 pages
PUBLISHER – Amazon
The top east-end London crime syndicate, the insane Pope Crew, fly out to New York to negotiate a mega-bucks weapon trafficking deal with the barbaric and merciless Mafia Don, Giovanni Commarata. All is well; then Archie Pope, a kitten and flower loving softie with a tough exterior, falls in love with Isabella Commarata. Very bad move. Commarata has had every young man who has shown the slightest interest in his precious daughters, hastily executed.
Giovanni Commarata and the Pope Crew are at war! Gun fights, betrayals, warfare on a battlefield scale all ensue. Both sides are either the Destroyers or Destroyed. All mayhem breaks loose. But this is also a rom-com, it is about two young people falling in love under the most difficult of circumstances.
The story is narrated by Archie Pope and Isabella Commarata. James Duncan writes for Archie Pope, using UK English and a fair whack of cockney slang. J Kahele, writes for Isabella Commarata, using American-English. This is a collaboration between an American romance writer and an English comedy writer.
So transatlantic thrills and spills a-plenty, with something to warm your heart!
I observed that the “tramp’s” hands were made out of plastic! I detected movement inside his ridiculously ginormous coat that could comfortably have contained two men. I made an instant decision. As Bell stooped over to drop the score into the cap, I yanked her back by the arm, simultaneously kicking the tramp in the mush – giving him a mouthful of steel-toe-capped boot. Screaming, he hit the deck, as the bullet he had fired from his pistol went awry, hitting a passing motorcyclist in the shoulder, causing the wounded motorcyclist to plough into the rear of the car driving in front of him. The bike toppled and the motorcyclist fell into the road.
‘Nice try, wanker!’ I growled, putting my pistol to the head of the phoney tramp and without hesitation, pulling the trigger. I watched the blood spurt from his exploded face with angry satisfaction.
‘Archie – look out!’
A silver Ford Fusion Titanium had mounted the pavement, and was hurtling towards us, with the intent of mowing us all down...
At first I was excited to read this book, transatlantic love with a little mafia thrown in, I mean come on! As a british expat living in America, who wouldn't love that! Well as it turned out, me for one.
I didn't actually like any of the characters overly much. Both fathers were clearly insane; I mean come on! Who kills sons of other Mafia bosses just for LOOKING at their daughters.
I also found the over use of the east London slang was way too much! And my family comes from that area.
So the idea of this story is that 2 adult children of 2 mafia bosses (well, one was the head of the conglomerate, but now I am just splitting hairs) , one from the states and one from England, fall in love after a few minutes of meeting each other. I am sorry, that is even a little far fetched, even for me. I struggled through the book and in all honestly found it hard to read.
I do think the authors are very talented, but really need to stop with the over generalizations. The basic story would be great, if it wasn't so over the top.
So after all that, I give Crazy On You 4 out of 10
She moved in for the kiss and our lips met with an urgent force as we necked wildly. A long time passed before we were finished. Isabella opened her eyes and smiled at me. Then her eyes flashed over to somewhere behind me and a look of horror filled her face.
‘Oh my God! Archie! It’s Papa!’
The main reason why I am still alive is that I have hypersonic reflexes. I dived to the ground, pulling Isabella with me. Bullets whizzed overhead. The bodies of nightclub ravers standing at the bar fell.
Several bullets’ destination was the optics and it shattered from the almighty impact, hurtling cascades of glass and liquor across and over the bar, glass shards penetrating the backs of bartenders and the faces and bodies of customers. I spun myself around, hauling out my gun as I spun on my stomach. I held it aloft, pushing the safety level down to fire position, my finger straining against the trigger; I would shoot the microsecond I observed my target. The spin completed, my brain registered 6 armed, black ski-masked figures. Giovanni was eminently identifiable from his stocky body shape and his cold eyes that wouldn’t have looked out of place in a cobra’s head. I discharged my semi-auto frantically...
J KAHELE BIO:
I am a married mother of three teenage girls and live in southeastern Michigan. I have one flaw that could rightly be considered the worst flaw possible. I procrastinate constantly, which gets me into a little more trouble than I like, especially with my girls. I love to swim, ride horses, relax to a good book and spend time with my family. Writing has helped me to calm down the very hectic life I have and release the scattered thoughts that often run through my head,(no I don't hear voices), but I do envision characters of my books, when I see people interacting around me. That's pretty much sums up my life!
JAMES DUNCAN BIO:
I started by writing children's books, but progressed easily to adult books, my first being 'Serendipity', my latest, 'Crazy On You', written with J Kahele. Something powerful and amazing happens when we write together. Basically genre-defying, 'Crazy On You' is a gangster rom-com thriller, with something extra that reveals that happiness and success can only be achieved with the unlimited power of love. I also love music, playing and listening, and meditation.
