Sheer Dynamite

Mystery of Love #2

by Jennifer Skully

In a family of bona fide psychics, Opal Smith feels like, well, a misfit. So when she sees a phantom body falling from an overpass, she's thrilled because this is her first honest-to-God vision. Unfortunately, the guy she's just rear-ended doesn't share her excitement, particularly when she enlists his reluctant help in preventing her vision from becoming reality. He is a man who's had too much "crazy" in his life… But Jack Davis is still determined to save Opal from her folly. Of course, Jack didn't bargain on Opal's matchmaking Grandma Blue, who claims he's the reincarnation of "Dynamite" Davis—her all-time favorite race-car driver. Or that Opal's caring demeanor would punch all his knight-in-shining-armor buttons—and a few other "hot" buttons, as well! Or that she's about to show him that whether he's truly Dynamite Davis or just plain old Jack, she makes his life complete….

Genres: Romance, Contemporary, Chick Lit, Paranormal, Fiction, Contemporary Romance, Amazon

384 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 2006

About the author

If you like your romantic suspense fast-paced and laced with humor, try award-winning author Jennifer Skully. Jennifer adores quirky characters. The whackier the better! And you’ll find a whole cast of them in each and every Jennifer Skully book. Of course, being in the same body with alter ego Jasmine Haynes, she doesn’t let you down on the hot, sexy love scenes either.

After a long hiatus, Jennifer Skully is back!

Reviews

[Cym & Her Books 🍉 · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 ⭐️ rounded up

Cheesy but cute. Loved the sexual tension but a lot of it was totally unbelievable and I couldn’t see past it. This really made me want a cute construction hunk tho

[Elena · Rating 1 out of 5]

This review is just me recounting the events of what happened in the book so I can I remember what I've read.

I suggest not reading this if you don't want to know all the details I'm recounting.

Okay, so I don't have high hopes for this one. The author is already making the main woman out to be someone stupid & that always pees me off when an author drags their main character down like that.

We got psychic Opal & construction guy Jack. Then we have grandma blue who believes that Jack is the reincarnation of dynamite Davis. In the beginning we have opal trying to find the guy from her vision jumped from an overpass - she brakes suddenly & ends up causing an accident w/the car behind her, who just so happens to be jack. She's going over both of their vehicles to see where the dead guy is & can't find him. Jack thinks she goes nuts. She later on retells the story to her grandmother who they then decided that the vision hasn't happened yet & opal needs to find the man before he jumps off - grandma blue also suggests she enlist Jack's help to find the guy, then afterwards have him admit that he's the reincarnation of dynamite Davis. Oh boy.

Apparently she's trying to prove she's psychic. And apparently dressing in a short skirt & top while walking under the overpass suggests she up for business as a prostitute- she was proposition by two dudes already - Jack didn't help because he already knew apparently whatever she decided, it wouldn't change the outcome of what she wanted to do.

Wow, this author makes me think she really hated her main character - constantly dressing her inappropriately late at night, standing on the iverpass bridge while having men come up to proposition her & have her actually thinking "it's all so innocent" how stupid do you want your character! I mean really! The poor girl - you made her into a blond ditz who can't determine self-awareness! Ugh!

Anyway, since she a practice psychic who has had no real visions till the jumper of the overpass, another customer comes in & asks for a reading of his dead wife - Victor patell (the other guy she cause annaccidentnw/the 1st night she had said vision & met jack) he wants to committed w/said dead wife.

I want to punch grandma blue! She's a "pick me l" girl through & through, giving jack advice that women want their breasts stared at, salivating over is bs, including the other crap where she suggests to lie to opal so she gets it in her head that Jack's focus of getting her into bed is more important to opal than seeing her vision come to life instead. Bull crap!

So, we got her back out on the burdge but this time she takes granny blue w/her instead of jack. Short guy comes back & asks her out again, to which granny & opal still believe he poses no harm. Jack tells granny in the car while waiting for opal to do her thing that this vision of opals is never going to come true & she'll be heartbroken. That's when they devised the plan to distract opal from her vision to getting jack into bed. Whatever.

Oh yeah, opal has a sister named pearl - pearl had a boyfriend names nile, who cheated on her.

Ugh, this is so annoying ! Not once, not once has she told any of these idiots that are propositioning her that she's not a God dang prostitute, including the short bald hair guy, which is why he keeps coming back. For crying out loud! Stop w/all the rando excuses, including the one "ive got a boyfriend" for crying out loud & literally tell them ur not a prostitute. But of course, the author doesn't do that - no, she'd rather have her main character dumb & stupid. Stupid enough to get herself arrested. Whatever. And getting jack arrested too when he tried stopping the whole thing.

Opals shop is called bedazzled. She sent jack flowers at work with a card that said he's nice & kind, to which jack takes that as he'll never be getting any. Then he tells her not to do that again because it's embarrassing- he likens it to when girls pass construction cites & the works make catcalls at them but it only last seconds whereas his will last hours because he can't leave, which honeslty is not the same thing compared to when women are catcalled to a man recieveing flowers - total bs.

Also, the jumper finally jumped - the cops saved him though

Opals having a party - she invited her mother Lillian & her brother Julian to it - she wants to announce how amazing it is her vision came true. But they end up insulting her all the way through it, which technically I'd go along w/their assessment because what opal did was basically creat her vision into existence, like what her bro & mom suggested, regardless of how mean spirited they were.

Remember that short, bald man, who kept asking for a date & she kept saying no but not explaining she wasn't actually a damn prostitute- yeah, well, he took the rejection pretty hard & decided to end it, but thankfully the cops were there after she'd been arrested for loitering & prostituting about, ugh, that they managed to save him in time.

They are doing a seance for Victor patell's late wife...it includes, blue, opal, pearl, & Lillian, no julian - oh yeah, Jack's there too. But beforehand, blue & jack drive to the location - they talk about opal & his sex life...ish (not really because jack doesn't want to), talk about opals new car.

Okay, apparently we have another character named Darius. He's a bad guy. Injuries victor (whose Jack's grandfather) wanted to kill nile "make it look like a sucide), has now taken opal as hostage. Ugh. Oh, my bad, Victor is Darius grandfather, not jack - also, Darius killed vics wife prudence - & there's a Tamara - she's dead but Nile is looking for her still (Darius killed her) - Victor's not dead yet, juts ingested pills - ambulance is on the way (blue & jack are w/him) - Darius takes opal to the overpass, jack finds em, saves the day- hea.

[Elbev2002yahoo.Co.Uk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brill!

New to this author but will be looking for more! I laughed out loud at some parts and was on the edge of my seat at others! Loved Grandma Blue !

[Victoria Sturlini · Rating 5 out of 5]

ADORABLE STORY!!!!!😊

I loved this book! It was so cute.... It was funny, quirky, very sexy and romantic!! The characters were very interesting and Grandmother Blue was a hoot. Jack and Opal were the perfect match....... right from the first moment we met them they leaped off the page at you. Their characters were vivid and endearing..... The storyline was very unusual and fascinatingly presented as well as fast moving!!! I couldn't wait to see what was going to happen next.

We also got another romance besides the main couple that was really engrossing, thought provoking and fascinating!! This was an intriguing and very enjoyable read and I am so glad I came across this author.... I know she is going to lead to many, many hours of great reading!!!!!😁

[Gretchen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I adored this book and could not put it down! Opal and Jack's story was absolutely delicious. She is the Calm in the swirling psychic vortex that is her family. Jack is a heroic, caregiver. But Grandma Blue is one of my favorite characters EVER.

Grandma Blue always had two TVs going, one for stock car racing and one for hockey.

She wears fabulous mumus, has blue hair and is famous for her yummy appetizers. Not meals like a normal grandma. She eats raw cookie dough and is all up in her grandchildren's lives. I want to be exactly like her.

[Stacia · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was sandwiched in between several bundled books. I probably wouldn't have chosen it, however, its nice to stray from the norm occasionally. It has a bit of Harlequin romance in it with a psychic plot.

[Coco.V]

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[Luis Nuñez · Rating 4 out of 5]

a clever story

The characters were great and very different. The book story line was good. It provided me with a lot of laughs.

[Conna N Condon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is such a silly and funny ‘out there’ story. Family of The Mother and The Brother and sister are all ‘blessed’ with psychic ability. Grandma Blue is addicted to stock car racing and a long ago fan-girl love of “Dynamite” who died in a racing car crash. Sister’s former boyfriend is cursed with ability to see people being harmed in kidnappings or otherwise ‘lost’. He doesn’t want the emotional spiritual pain. Meanwhile Grandma is very caring of non-psychic granddaughter who has just had her first vision … and is off and running to save the person she saw … and the guy who rear-ended her is off and running to save her from her insanity. It is a silly and very fun read! Not so much about romance as it is about people who are wacky caring about each other.

[Kerri · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn’t finish this book. The characters annoyed me too much and it seemed like nothing was happening. The main character, Opal, was completely obsessed with “seeing a vision,” that she dropped her entire life to find out if it is true. Her sister, Pearl, has been moping about a guy she dated six months ago who dumped her. Then he finally comes back into her life and gives her a letter explaining everything, but she refused to open it. Grandma blue is obsessed with fixing her granddaughters up. Basically everyone is crazy in this novel.

I read the first hundred pages, skimmed the next hundred and it still has two hundred pages left. I would say this book had potential, but everything just moved too slow. There are too many excellent books in this world to read a book that should be two hundred pages shorter than it actually is. I don’t even have a desire to know the ending.

[Jessi · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book that I picked up because it was on sale at a book closing. Opal Smith wants nothing more than to be psychic like the rest of her family and is ecstatic when she finally sees a vision. Of course, the pileup she causes when she sees that vision is somewhat inconvenient but it does introduce her to hunky Jack Davis, construction company owner, who is obviously also attracted to Opal since he agrees to her wacky scheme to haunt the overpass where she saw her vision in an effort to prevent a suicide. Add a wonderfully vulgar granny and you've got a fun story. Characters don't grow much and I wanted to grab Opal by the shoulders and shake until she could stand up to her obnoxious family, but it was a fast read.

[Sue Q · Rating 3 out of 5]

Type and Source of Book:
Ebook borrowed from the Ontario Library Service


Thoughts:

Cute


Quotes I Highlighted:

"...You don't even care what other people think anymore. It's very liberating. Sort of like passing gas in a five-star restaurant, pointing to the guy at the next table, saying 'he did it' and waiting for the fallout."

"The universe gives you what you want if you open yourself up to the possibilities. That's what I did."

She'd always been opinionated. And a fighter. In fact, one might have used the label bitch. And no smooth-talking, lying sack of bleep bleep car saleman ever got the better of her.


Words:

plebeian - one of the common people

obfuscate - to make obscure; confuse

[Molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

The characters were quirky and the story line was great. I'm not really a "psychic" fan, but it was tough to not love Opal, Jack and grandma Blue. I would have given it 4 stars but the sex was a little much for me...

[Pauline · Rating 1 out of 5]

Skim read most of this book as I don't like giving up on one but this was really rubbish.

[Kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Escapism at its best. Not my typical genre but it effectively got my head out of my own reality. For the lovers of the romance novel, Jennifer Skully is a good read.

[gert · Rating 2 out of 5]

cute, i guess.

but so syrupy i think i caught diabetes.

if you like your romance painfully cute, with a side order of a minimally 'wacky' family - then you'll like this. or you won't.

[Angie · Rating 4 out of 5]

very cute! Chick lit and romance meet

[Nath · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5 (B-)

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very sweet light hearted read.

[Doris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the characters and humor and ridiculous premise. A fun story with a great message about who we are and what we aspire to be.

[Nancy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not my cup of tea. I won't be reading anymore from this author.