I'm a great fan of her mainstream stories and have started collecting her TDD series as fillers for the time between them.
Some aspects of her books are repetitive, such as there’s always a reference to SEAL training and Hell week to tell us how strong and brave the SEAL teams are and there’ll either be a reference to Star Wars or Star Trek to be found as she’s a major fan. However they’re well written each with a number of story arcs to keep you rapidly turning the pages. Her main stream novels generally have a world war two story arc in them which I enjoy reading though I’d not think to pick up a book of that sort.
Not afraid of a touch of controversy Suzanne Brockmann deals with a number of issues in her books and isn’t afraid of showing ugliness. Terrorism, rape, abuse, racism and alcoholism are shown. As well as a major reoccurring character being gay; Jules deserves his happy ever after and will hopefully be getting a book of his own soon.
THE DEFIANT HERO John 'Nils' Nilsson
OVER THE EDGE Stan Wolchonok
GONE TOO FAR Lt. Sam Starrett
FLASHPOINT Jimmy Nash
HOT TARGET Chief Cosmo Richter (Jules)
BREAKING POINT Max & Gina
GET LUCKY
TAYLOR'S TEMPTATION
Humorous beginning. Early references to Star Trek via Scottie and Star Wars via Yoda and then seven-of-nine. Also get to hear about Buffy and Kryptonite ie Superman .
Very quickly fall for imper-fucking-perterable Karmody with his high IQ and total social ineptness. Like have a romantic hero who isn’t a full on arrogant alpha, Karmody is a strong capable SEAL and yet manages to be endearing with big heart.
A difficulty with series’ were there are a number of characters is bringing them smoothly into play. I felt sometimes that we we’re to obviously being told back story from other books.
Karmody is set up earlier in the series as a computer hotshot however this story has nothing to do with his speciality. I was surprised that only a mention of his ingenious tracking device was mentioned. In fact it took less of a role in this book than it did in Nil’s story!
WW11 story is of Savannah’s grandmother Rose a formidable octogenarian and past double-agent. I liked Rose’s character who managed to be sweet and naive whilst being clever and brave. We learn about her care of her biography which all the other characters appear to be reading. Actually found myself skipping ahead to read more about Rose at times rather than following the main plot.
Hans Solo esk Jones and earth-mother type Molly are a nice distraction and I’ll be happy to read more about them.
Running through the jungle avoiding the bad guys with big guns and various dialects until the dramatic rescue and press conference. This books is a simple adventure yarn and none the worse for it. Not sure why the icky bug eating was included other than as a big bad super SEAL thing. They had power bars, yet instead of eating them first went straight for the wildlife? Liked the lack of squeamish tears and outbursts though personally I’d have been looking for the mysterious hatch and food pantry! I mean come on do the Lost bunch ever eat icky bugs? And on a tangent, the true mystery of the show; who does their laundry? Cause you never see them covered in rank pond slime.
Pop-culture - Jenks is a Star Wars fan and Lindsey a would-be president of the Shatner cult.
A big hit with readers Izzy is around for the comedy taking over from Wildcard with unpredictable outbursts. Many favourite moments inevitably star Izzy with his sarcy irreverent tongue and clearly an actor of many parts.
Personally with an insertion into fantasy world I’d snatch-up Dave.
This book sees some minor confrontations between Sophie and Decker. Sophie still wanting Decker and Decker still running scared. Poor Dave is man enough to be a true friend to Sophie and is angry for her rather than allowing jealousy to rule him. He actually wants the two to get together for Sophie to be happy. When his return with Decker regardless of injuries contradicts the view of being ‘soft’ he is still someone who automatically cuts himself out of the picture. There’s depth here and I really hope that SB will use Sophie and Decker to illustrate the transference we’ve been hearing so much about recently because I’m seriously gunning for Dave!
A change from the terrorist plots this book deals with a particularly nasty serial killer, the details of which will not be for everyone. Made me wonder how SB would deal with a non-SEAL crime plot, though I’m sure her regular readers would de-cry their absence. SB is never easy on her characters and in this there is the added hurdle of extreme weather, in case there’s not enough threat and upheaval she throws in a blizzard. This is however fairly late into the book as it initially starts with a look at Tom’s Trouble-shooter inc and a training excersise between and SEAL team 16. I’ll not spoil the result but just say I liked it, on reading the blurb it seemed like the start to numerous problems but I underestimated Tom, newcomer Koehl and SB’s deviousness. On the humour side the great dog-catching event was hysterical; the concept, the organisation, the man-power. Loved it, just loved it.
Alcholism plays its role. SB did it so well with Mary-Lou and in Heart-Throb, but I’m not convinced Tracey needed it on top of her many insecurities. Still it’ll be interesting to see how she develops. An aspect of these books I like is that there’s generally a lot more going on behind the public facade of every character.
The major conspiracy is a little hard to swallow but my main quarrel with the book is knowing how much better her mainstream writing is. With this there seemed to be to much information pushed onto less pages.
Named Blue due to his dazzling blue eyes I believe he’s only referred to once by his name Carter which we don‘t learn till half way through the book..
Blue is back home for the marriage of his high-school sweetheart to his own brother. The brother dies, he stands accused and instantly ostracised from the entire town except for little Lucy who believes in him. For all the small town politics and family animosity it struck me as strange there weren’t more dissenters to this verdict. The guy being a military hero type should surely have counted for something.
Bit of a lecture in what a SEAL is and how tough they are for those who’ve never heard of the teams. Although I’ve respect for anyone who can go through the training they do, the information can get a bit tiring when your reading a series and hear it re-capped so often. It did seem to be SEAL this and SEAL that at times in the book to an extent that it stopped further character development. You know Blue is a SEAL so any other information about him becomes irrelevant.
Never quite tells us the significance of Blue wearing leather sandals for the whole of the book except at the end it can be used to show he’s human despite his navy-skills.
Of the listed team mates Frisco would be the book to gain my interest and it is in fact the next one.
The book is somewhat formula but that’s expected as the series is written for Mira/Silhouette overall it’s a pleasant, quick read.
Left with his five year old niece while his sister goes into a re-hap program Frisco must learn to adapt to her and himself whilst falling for a neighbour and gaining a pink couch.
Poor Frisco SB certainly picked a doozey when she decided how to torture this books hero. Five years of intense therapy for a knee injury and now only walking through sheer determination. I loved the fact there’s no miracle cure rather the tough unstoppable navy SEAL has to learn to accept himself and adapt. The part at the end where he steps aside to let his team mates rescue his girl was moving. The SEAL talk is less intrusive in this book because it covers how being a SEAL is for Frisco his defining characteristic and around that premise he’s allowed to develop. Tommy is an interesting side character who I’d like to see appear later in the series.
Cowboy makes a very likable hero I have no idea how the heroine pregnant with his child as she is, managed to withstand his charms for so long. His neurotic reading of baby manuals was a winner. Despite not being certain himself about the delights of marriage he manages to sets up one hell of a campaign. A hot guy pitching his tent in your yard and camping there regardless of weather to convince you to marry them? Would it really take a whole book for you to melt? Maybe I’m cheap but for me he wouldn’t have to be a super SEAL capable of the running and swimming and weightlifting for me to snag him. Ho-yah! The sister Brittany shared my disbelief, her and Andrew were a great addition to the cast. I like the scenes with the rest of the SEAL team the teasing seemed natural and gave the names personalities. One of the best in this series.
Don’t have my book to hand for a full review but: ----
Harvard is only the second African-American character in a IM romance. This book is mainly championed on that fact alone. It’s an easy read but didn’t stand out to me as remarkable.
This is one for the feminists with PJ showing she can be as good as the men despite their deriding the idea of her keeping pace.
No disrespect to SB but I do think the book should come with a health warning though!
Quoting it in suitably melodramatic tones at intimate moment then collapsing in a heap of laughter can be seriously detrimental to your love life! ’You want to put…that….where?’ needless to say hubby confiscated my copy which is likely the reason why I can’t locate it now.
Zoe Lange finds herself up close and personal with the admiral as she goes undercover as his wife in a zealots compound.
Was wary of this book because I’d heard the debate about the huge () age gap between lead characters. The age difference didn’t bother me, what made me squirm was the hero worship. In the prologue Jake saves the life of one sergeant Matthew Lange who survives and goes home to produce Zoe. To Matthew Jake is a larger than life hero, he instils this in his daughter who is now in a situation where she has to work in close, very close conditions with him. The story itself and the interaction between the two is enjoyable but that initial hero worship sat uncomfortably with me. It seemed more that she was believing him a god and persuading him he was still a god rather than getting to know the man.
The usual SEAL team go from sceptism to admiration as they in turn read his biography and come to know who their fearless leader was. Jake for his part tries to hard, for someone confident in their abilities who we’re told is less behind his desk than many believe; he certainly seemed to feel he had a lot still to prove. But he’s still the fastest, cleverest SEAL out there and with his blue eyes and killer smile he snags the girl. Not going to be the book for everyone..
A blind date that goes incredibly right despite the ghost of an old infatuation and stalker mayhem.
Great to see no-nonsense Brittany (Melody from Everyday Average Joe’s sister) return in her own book. I loved the meeting of the talkative two and this is probably my favourite of the series, it‘s all to easy to fall for them as they fall for each other.
Even in an IM romance SB is unafraid to broach serious topics and a side story in this is one of date-rape. Its well done and Andy has grown into a fine responsible young man.