Hero: Ric Alvarado
Heroine: Annie Dugan
Grade: 4.5 out of 5
Hard-driving suspense and intense passion are the hallmarks of bestselling author Suzanne Brockmann’s pulse-pounding thrillers. In her tales of daring, danger, courage, and desire, men and women of action fight fiercely, love deeply, and time after time raise the bar for adventure to new heights. Brockmann’s latest novel is no exception.
Florida private investigator and ex-cop Ric Alvarado’s life is spiraling out of control. His beautiful new girl Friday, Annie Dugan, is far more interested in fieldwork than filing, and despite Ric’s best efforts to ignore the attraction, sparks are flying between them. Then one of Ric’s clients turns femme fatale and tries to gun down an innocent man. Thanks to quick thinking and even quicker reflexes, Ric comes to the rescue, only to learn he’s done a very good deed for some very bad people.
Suddenly Ric finds himself deep undercover with Annie, working for notorious crime boss Gordon Burns. One mistake from Ric’s painfully inexperienced partner and they’re both dead.
FBI agent Jules Cassidy’s life isn’t in much better shape. For years the FBI has been trying to prove Gordon Burns’s ties to terrorist activity. Now, thanks to Ric and Annie, Jules has found a way into the lion’s den. But in the course of his investigation he comes face-to-face with Robin Chadwick, the charismatic but self-destructive and closeted movie star for whom Jules feels a powerful attraction. Robin’s in town promoting his latest film–and Gordon Burns is a star-struck movie buff.
With Robin and Jules’s help, Ric and Annie are soon entrenched in Burns’sorganization, surrounded by killers who may already have executed an FBI infiltrator. Before long the couple realizes that many more lives besides their own will be at stake if they make a false move. As the heat between them reaches dangerous levels, so do the risks they’re willing to take–in the line of duty, for the sake of loyalty, and in the name of something that runs even deeper.
Since the release of Into the Fire is slowly creeping upon us, I thought I’d get ready and read the books that I haven’t read yet and this was the only one left. I didn’t remember who Ric Alvarado was until Jules mentioned it in this book and then I was like, oh yeah I remember him! haha.
There was so much going on this story that it should have been harder to keep up with but because I’m a Suz Brockmann whiz, I had no problem. Ric and Annie made a hysterical team that just clicked well. Each and everytime that Annie came in to save the day made me laugh. Each and every time that they argued, I laughed like a loon…and in the beginning when Ric did what he did with you know who, I wanted to backhand the fool but over the course of the book, I was able to forgive him for his transgressions and he proved to me that he was the great guy I knew he could be.
Annie was one of those hilarious heroines that is borderline too stupid to live if she wasn’t so good at what she did, even accidentally. I never got annoyed with her when she didn’t stay put or when she didn’t shut her mouth because every time she went against what Ric said, she did so because she felt she had to or something bad was going to happen. She didn’t do these things to get in the way but because she felt it was the last resort. I loved when she tries everything and calls everyone to help Ric when she thinks he’s in trouble and when she couldn’t get a hold of anyone, she took matters into her own hands and put it down for the west side! LOL.
The other romance between Robin and Jules was also a great one. I’m surprised at how much I liked their story because I never really cared to read about man on man action, it just wasn’t my thing but Suz Brockmann has a way of making me cheer her characters on no matter what their sexuality is that I am truly a Robin and Jules fan. When I first started this series, I didn’t see myself reading Jules story but after reading All Through the Night, I couldn’t NOT read this one because I wanted to know what I had missed between these two.
Talk about angst, she totally delivers the angst with these two. Robin’s still in the closet and dying to get out and Jules wants someone to love him out loud, he wants someone to want to scream out their love from the rooftops and just not hide their love for him, without giving up who they are…and to see these two fight their way to being together was just too effing cute. I really enjoyed the Jules and Robin parts of this story and I’m so glad that they could get over Robin’s youtube video and work their way toward the happy ending we’re all wishing for Jules..and Robin. Great, great stuff.
The book was filled to the brim with non stop action, comedy and everything you’d want in a romance novel. The laughs keep coming and the romance is pretty steamy. I’m happy with this addition of the Troubleshooters series and my only complaint would be…SHOW US MORE SEALS, BRING THE SEALS BACK! I miss them, they are what started this series and I’d just like to see MORE of them back in action although it was good to see some of them like Cos and Sam, my two favorites!!!
All in all, this was a good read, one that I’ll most likely be rereading again and though it’s not my favorite of the series, I’m still glad that I read it.
This book is available from Ballantine. You can buy it here or here in e-format.
SHOW US MORE SEALS, BRING THE SEALS BACK!
I think this was pretty much the gist of my review for this book as well. I miss those SEALs 🙁
Loved seeing Jules and Robin muddle their way to a relationship finally! :o)
And Annie is one of my favorite of Suz’s heroines. Ric got on my nerves a bit…but he was stressed, after all.
Lori,
I want to see more SEALS so bad…I miss the TEAM 16 guys, we hear about them but we never see any of them, BRING THEM BACK!
C2,
I enjoyed Jules and Robin’s relationship building and building until the end, it was really cute.
Ric isn’t my favorite hero but he was cool, Annie was a good heroine too.