REVIEW: Diamond Girl by Andrea Smith

Diamond Girl by Andrea Smith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Book Description: 

What happens when a 35 year-old soccer mom from Indianapolis, Indiana sends her only child off to college and suddenly discovers that she has no identify of her own?

That's exactly what happened to Samantha (Sammie) Dennison. Her marriage was loveless from the start; her 'mannequin' husband has his own agenda which has never included her, and she feels lonely, ignored and downright frumpy.

Her best friend tells her to get a life, and that's exactly what Sammie does, starting with a Kickboxing/Pilates class to get into shape, and then continuing her regiment by signing up for pole-dance lessons. Sammie graduates at the top of her class, and ultimately ends up with a secret career as a pole dancer at a Gentleman's Club in Indy called 'Jewels.'

Known only by her dancer name, "Diamond," she is well on her way to finally carving out a secret life and identity all of her own that brings excitement and mystery to her otherwise mundane existence. The thrill of the dance and sexuality she discovers within herself is a potent mixture, but it's all about the dance with Sammie.

That is, until bad-boy biker Slate enters the picture. He is the ultimate 'alpha' male and quickly draws the attention of the dancers - including Sammie. Slate is a 'prospect' for the notorious Outlaw Motorcycle Club, but he is also inexplicably drawn to "Diamond." Sammie is totally out of her league with Slate and the dangerous people he associates with in Indianapolis during the summer of 2012.

No spoilers here, but something BIG is brewing in Indy; and it ain't about race cars either.

Wow. So, I’ve had my eye on this for a while. I met the author at a book signing and she totally sold me on this series. Well, she actually sold me on the second book of the series, but I decided to start with the first book.

From the moment I started it, I couldn’t put it down. I was completely hooked. There were so many twists and turns that I couldn’t look away.

I’m giving this book 4 stars because of how addictive it was, but that’s not to say I didn’t have some issues. My biggest issue was that I didn’t really feel a love connection between Samantha (aka Sammie aka Sunny aka Diamond) and Slate. Yes, they had wickedly hot chemistry, they couldn’t keep their hands off each other…but love…I wasn’t feeling it. And toward the end of the book (literally the epilogue) I realized why. Even though they spent time together, it was mostly in bed. Now, that would be fine if there were some pillow talk, but no…there was nothing. In all the time they were together, they never actually TALKED. So when the ILUs were exchanged, I was left scratching my head wondering WHY they loved each other. They didn’t know about the other person, their pasts, likes, dreams or anything else. It was all attraction and sex. Now, I’m not against that, I just didn’t see anything beyond a physical relationship. And when they found out that neither of them had been truthful (for different reasons) about who they were, there still wasn’t much of a conversation between them. They just picked up where they’d left off.

There were definitely twists and turns with the storyline. Andrea Smith did an awesome job with the storyline. She kept me hooked and anticipating the next twist that would come.

One other issue I had was the lack of some scenes. There were some scenes that were glossed over that surprised me. One was when Samantha was going to tell her daughter about Slate, and introduce him as the guy she was in a relationship with. The reason I was surprised that this wasn’t included is because earlier in the book, Lindsey had had a crush on him and was hoping for a summer fling with him. So I was really anticipating her reaction to finding out her crush was her mother’s boyfriend. But that scene was never shown.

Overall, I did enjoy this book. Yes, I had a few issues, but it was a very entertaining read. Oh, and I can’t forget the audio version…I did receive the audio version from the author in exchange for an honest review, and it was good…done well with a good narrator, but I ended up reading more than listening just because I was in a position where I wasn’t able to sit and listen and I just couldn’t put the book down. I HAD to know what happened next. But I would definitely recommend it!


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