Money Shot

I'm glad I picked this one up.

I've heard a lot regarding this book and I finally ordered it through Barnes and Noble. To my surprise, it's quite an easy read and not terribly long and wordy.

This book is basically about revenge. No other way to put it.

Angel Dare is brutally attacked and left for dead in the trunk of a honda civic. As she begins to piece together what has happened and why, we begin to see her story and why everything has happened. The characters in this story are all strong and have a purpose. The violence is good and the story plot keeps you turning the pages. Great read and will be sure to check out more of Christa Faust's work.

Don't miss out on this mystery, you'll be dead wrong if you do!

6 out of 8 people found this review helpful.

The First Lady of Hard Case Crime Scores A Knockout!

Christa Faust's debut novel for Hard Case Crime is a slam-bang thriller. Angel Dare is a retired porn star nowadays enjoying a steady life running her own model agency. But that life as well as the woman she thought she was all changes one day when she's tricked into one last shoot. What follows up is a revenge-driven narrative that is fast-paced and exciting. What's really refreshing about this novel is Faust's attention to her protagonist. Angel's voice is original and real, and Faust provides ample moments of subtle, dark humor to go along with her. All in all Money Shot is a terrific debut novel for Faust, making it one of the best I've read in the Hard Case Crime series. While some may be turned off by the often frank and graphic handling of the sex/porn industry, this gives the book a even seedier pulp feel to it. If you enjoy the Hard Case Crime series, this novel is one of their best and should not be missed!

5 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

Christa Faust Now a Must-Read Author

One can't help but notice the irony of the books published by Hard Case Crime. In the nearly fifty-book run, every cover has a woman on it, usually painted to be beautiful, evocative, steamy, and just plain sexy. Another constant is that all the books have been written by men. Until now. Christa Faust's Money Shot is the first book written by a woman and published by HCC. Let me just tell you: it was worth the wait. Most of the women on other covers of the other books have at least some clothes draped over them. The lady whose eyes bore into you from the cover of Money Shot is naked. Not nude. Naked. She's wearing earrings, a cleverly-placed $100 bill, and nothing else. She's got one hand teasing her hair and the fullness of her breasts are merely hinted at, covered by the folded bill. The smooth sway of her hips extend outward from the C-note, suggesting even more. You can't tell if she's standing or laying down but you can tell one thing for sure: she's got a gun point right at your gut. And you know what she's saying. In that soft teasing voice, she's saying 'You know you want it. I can see it in your eyes. Come on. Pick me up, open me, devour me, ravish me. I dare you not to. Because if you don't, I'll blow a hole in you.' Thusly dared, thusly threatened, I picked up the book and discovered the woman's name: Angel Dare, former porn star now owner of Daring Angels, an adult modeling agency. She's through with the porn business--at least, from in front of the camera--but not with the what the industry can still give her. And the cover blurb helps to define her character: 'It would take more than bullets to stop Angel Dare.' So, if you, a potential reader, were not already drawn to the book by the cover painting 'by Glen Orbik, here's a short interview' or the blurb, just give the book the first sentence and/or paragraph test. The first paragraph's too long to quote here so I'll give you the first few sentences. Coming back from the dead isn't as easy as they make it seem in the movies. In real life it takes forever to do little things like pry open your eyes. You spend excruciating ages trying to bend your left middle finger down far enough to feel the rope around your wrists. Even longer figuring out that the cold hard thing poking you in the cheek is one of the handles of a pair of jumper cables. This is not the kind of action that makes for gripping cinema. But it does make for gripping fiction. From that first paragraph, I dare you not to read further 'see, there's that dare word again'. Or how about this, the last two lines from the excerpted section in the front pages of the book. 'Angel Dare,' he said. 'Wow. You look amazing. This is gonna be awesome.' Then he punched me in the face. This book is eye-opening. In stylish, unsentimental prose that holds nothing back and slaps you every now and then like they knows you need it, Faust and Dare skewer the porn industry, showing uneducated readers like myself what happens to the 'glamorous' guys and gals when the camera lights go off. It ain't pretty. Nor is Angel Dare pretty after being punched, beaten, tortured, raped, shot, and left for dead. Oh, and then she's framed for murder. She's got ample reasons to be pissed off. It's a good thing the folks at HCC didn't commission that painting. People would run from the bookstores, screaming about the scary-looking woman with a gun in her hand and revenge in her eyes. For that's what Money Shot is: a revenge book. But unlike so many other crime fiction stories 'mainly with men', Angel Dare is not a stone-cold killer who was trained in combat and can take out an adversary with her bare hands. She's a normal, not-usually-violent person, just like the rest of us. And that's when you realize that Angel's story is our story. What would we do given the same set of circumstances? Angel Dare has to make those choices and make them from within herself. She does have help along the way but in ev

4 out of 8 people found this review helpful.

Superb

This gripping novel starts with a bang and never lets up. Written in a terse, razor-sharp style that evokes the giants of the genre while breaking new ground, Money Shot will certainly be recognized as a benchmark in the field of mystery/suspense. Its authoritative dissection of a seedy world brings relevance and depth to a story whose narrator grows into an engagingly complex person. Can't wait to see what Christa Faust comes up with next.

4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

Umm

The cover looks inapropreate is it ok to read

2 out of 11 people found this review helpful.

Entertaining but the suspension of disbelief eventually became overwhelming

Good first (or early) attempt at the pulp--the sheer shock value of the mature entertainment industry presented a distinct backdrop from other pulp fiction novels, but after a while, things got a little ridiculous--the heroine surviving unbelievable things, the supporting characters changing allegiance seemingly without cause. Beat the Reaper and others did the neo-noir thing better.

2 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

Exciting read!

Extremely entertaining! couldn't put the (nook) book down! Loved the feisty ANGEL DARE! Will be reading Choke Hold next.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

LOVE LOVE LOVE IT

I HIGHLY recommend this book. This was my first from this author, but my 2nd of the Hard Case Crime books. This story keeps moving, while you go on a exciting adventure. If you like adventure/murder/mystery you need to read this. Very very good.

Wow!

I couldn't put this book down! The story just kept rolling one thing to the next. Love the setting and the issues Angel faced in the book. The only downside was the use of the f word alot.

Decent

Not bad. Fast read.

Liked it. Different twists.

Kept me reading. Some of it very good you coudn'f expect.

Mediocre writing-especialy the last fifty pages.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

weird

Raely weird

0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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