Puzzling

I read The Givenchy Code by Julie Kenner because it had quite a few 5 star ratings on Amazon. The plot is a rip-off of The Da Vinci Code, obviously, with a twist on fashion. Except it's not as good.

Graduate student Melanie Prescott loves high fashion, history and math--particularly ciphers. However, if not for the author telling us she's in grad school, you'd never know--she doesn't do homework, worry about classes, etc. Instead, she's involved in a game called "Play.Survive.Win." (PSW), a sort of role-playing game with assassians, targets and protectors. PSW was just an internet game--until some sicko transferred it into real life.

So Mel is now a target, with some guy named Lynx after her. Yeah, you barely even get to know Lynx or even care about him. Instead, you meet Matthew Stryker, a hott ex-Marine who's been assigned to protect her.

The rest of the plot is basically Mel figuring out clues around New York City, Lynx using GPS to track them, and Stryker being hott/pushing Mel out of the way of bullets.

Character development is a bit thin. Mel and Stryker end up sleeping together and maybe end up together in the end....but you don't know! I hate it when characters end up together just because they're both pretty people. The ending is so vague and not really explanatory--I don't think anyone was even punished for starting P.S.W. And there's one character (Todd) who may be bad or may not...but honestly, I can't even remember. And it's been a day since I finished it. That should sum up this plot-driven book for you--lots of action, but forgettable characters.

Rating: 5/10

I do have to thank this book though, because it's helped me realize I hate reading about high fashion. It just kills me when people spend so much money on CLOTHES that will be out of style in a year or two. That really bothers me.