Samantha is married to Jack Dennison, a man she became pregnant by after barely consensual sex at a high school party. After raising their daughter Lindsay and sending her to college, Samantha discovers that her newly free life is essentially that of a tolerated domestic servant. Jack neither loves her nor hates her, and she’s aware that he’s sleeping with his administrative assistant. However, when Samantha works to get herself in shape and still elicits no particular interest from perpetually traveling Jack, she decides to take a part-time gig as an exotic dancer at a gentleman’s club, where she meets a group of bikers led by the impossibly attractive Slate. It’s not long before Slate and she pursue their passion, and Jack becomes a controlling and abusive husband. But Jack has far larger secrets that could land him in jail, if Samantha can find a way to keep safe while gathering evidence. Will the mysterious Slate step up and save Samantha, or turn tail and disappear into the night?
DIAMOND GIRL should be applauded for an original and mildly hilarious premise. While this book will win no literary awards, its tight, driving narrative and likable, if occasionally preposterous, characters make it a quick and dirty read. The sex scenes are above average for the genre, although they can occasionally dissolve into overly mechanical descriptions. Regardless, Samantha is something of a cipher: her plodding devotion to duty and moral correctness seems 180 degrees apart from her wild, exotic-dancing persona. These splits in personality are perhaps the appeal of the character, but the extreme distance between the two poles makes for a slightly puzzling, if engaging, read.
It’s no rigorously researched, plausible narrative but DIAMOND GIRL offers a quick, original, and occasionally steamy romantic crime drama.
Reviewed by Julia Lai for IndieReader.