You know, aside from a couple of things, I actually liked this book. I mean, if I lock my eye-rolling arm-wringing BS-calling die-hard cynic away. The dialogue was quite witty.

Also, a note -- rather, a long-ass ramble, -- that doesn't concern anyone at least remotely interested in translation: the further down the Russian Harlequin line, the worse the finished product. Some of the late ones are so bad, I actually find myself with a pencil, editing -- and I'm a very bad, very literal translator. When you read the first two hundred books or so (not that I read that many), you can actually tell that the translators were once involved in working on actual literature.

It's also interesting to see how many Englishisms were introduced into the Russian language just during the last two decades. Take 'mall', for example. In this book, published in late nineties, it's still referred to as 'the city shopping centre'. Which is actually close to a combination I might still use in Russian when I want to convey to someone that I'm going to a mall. But, if I use mall*, everyone will get it these days. A lot of word combinations that are now translated word for word were phrased differently back then. Some things make more sense when made more literal, others sound way better when replaced with organic-sounding Russian equivalents.

... The word 'wow' in Cyrillic (уау/ вау) still fazes me, though. Colour me old-fashioned. I use it when I speak, but written down it just looks odd.

... Alright, this is not Translator's Soapbox, I shall shut up.

* Although, there's a big-ass shopping centre where I live that everyone calls The Mall** by default. And if I go to other places and call those places 'mall', people might end up surprised.

** That mall is actually the only place that is rather like a mall***. All others are more of shopping centres.

*** I think I have effectively confused myself. ( )