I keep scratching my head and wondering why it is that every other review I’ve read of this book talks about how utterly amazing it is and I keep asking myself why I felt bored while I was reading it. Other reviews of Temptation: A Novel by Douglas Kennedy discuss how “thrilling the ride” is while turning the pages and how they were “enraptured by the story” and I just keep thinking, “Really? Because I had a hard time forcing myself to pick it up.”

Initially, the story did start off with a promising hook. A writer finally gets his big break and shoves off his wife and kid. See ya later, deadweights. Who wouldn’t want to read that? He immediately hooks up with a beautiful, rich producer who would never leach him for his fame and money and gets pulled into a reclusive bazillionaire’s plot to get a writing credit. I think this is where the twists and turns are supposed to occur, but, by this point in the story, I no longer cared. David Armitage, the main character of the novel, was unlikable and I had a difficult time wanting to read about him, much less care about why his story should be something I should waste my time reading. My guess is that all the Hollywood type characters were written with a fiendishly cartoonish portrayal so I wouldn’t have to stretch my brain cells too far and try to wrap them around the idea that people could be dynamic.

Fair enough. I’d give it a 1 out of 5 stars, possibly a 1 1/2, because truly the first thirty or so pages were entertaining.

It’s a good thing I got this book for free to review because I would have been irritated if I’d spent money on it.