Moonlighting

Moonlighting by Kate Lace 2stars

I normally enjoy the Little black dress series. They are short, fun books which are great as a break after something serious. I brought this as the premise sounded very interesting. Jess Drydon is a Community Support officer by day and a struggling ex dancer by night. Tricked into working at a pole dancing club she is soon recruited her police force to investigate drug dealing which is suppose to be going on at the club. However this seriously impacts on her relationship with PC Matt.

This book started well and the characters are engaging and realistic. I liked Jess and Matt straight away however the author set up the dodgy brother in law too early, hinting at the unanswered questions that Jess and her sister have about him. This is one of many incidents that really makes you wonder if the author really understood her characters as Jess spends the entire novel being very stupid. She ignores all the weirdness with her brother in law and when she is kidnapped, despises the fact that she is a trained policewoman she is completely unable to fathom a way out. Instead we get four chapters of her whining about being locked up and worrying about Stockholm syndrome. If she broke out she wouldn't need to worry about this.

Also the acceptance of stripping in this book was interesting. Either you disagree with stripping or you think it is empowering. You have to pick which. This book tries to make it empowering but in such a uncomfortable way that it should be given out to all teenage girls as an example of why stripping is NOT empowering (don't believe me? Read Living Dolls. Opened my eyes and will change your mind)