Sunday, June 15, 2008
Hot Target
****½ Hot Target by Suzanne Brockmann. Contemporary romance.
This book demonstrates why I'm not a Brockmann fangirl--the books her fans love, I hate, and the ones they don't like, I love. I'm still not sure why, but I think part of it is familiarity with the military.
Movie producer Jane Mercedes Chadwick is making a film about a war hero that openly and honestly portrays his homosexuality. As a result, she's had thread on her life, and the studio is demanding that she use a bodyguard.
Enter Navy SEAL Cosmo Richter, on a month's leave and moonlighting for a security firm.
It's a typical bodyguard romance: she doesn't think she needs a bodyguard; he doesn't want to let romance keep him from doing his job. The constant proximity and the very real danger make it inevitable that they'll end up together. There's nothing new there.
But that's okay, because the real stars of this story are FBI agent Jules Cassidy and Jane's brother Robin.
Jules is gay and dealing with a painful breakup. Robin is trying very hard to convince himself that he's not gay--with an endless stream of heterosexual one-night-stands, and vast quantities of alcohol. Jules recognizes his earlier self in Robin, and sparks fly.
This is such an emotionally charged story. My heart breaks for Jules, whose heart is already damaged, and who really doesn't need to deal with Robin's problems on top of his own. It's also heartbreaking to watch Robin's denail and his slow path to realization, and to see this couple for whom it's just not the right time. There's no happy ending for these two--yet, but it does end hopefully, and even without knowing that they do end up together in a future book, I could believe that they'd both end up happy eventually.
It's just a gorgeously intense story of star-crossed lovers, and I can't rave enough about it.
It almost makes me feel bad about making some complaints, but without these, it would have been a 5+ star story.
The biggest problem is that there are too many points of view, a couple of which were really unnecessary. I was a quarter of the way through the book before I figured out who the primary couple was.
And then there were the military errors, which just grate:
- It's not OUTCONUS. It's OCONUS (Outside the CONtinental United States).
- You can't have "one of his XOs." A commander has one XO (executive officer). She probably meant one of his staff officers, which is something else entirely.
Categories: Books, 4.5stars, ContemporaryRomance
Labels: 4.5 stars, books, ContemporaryRomance
Comments:
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I know your hate/love with Suz's books for long time now. I'm just glad though that even if you have different take on each books, at lease you keep reading Suz's books. That is a good things *grin*.
And as long as you given this 4 1/2 stars...I forgive you LOL! *run and hide* Love ya! *grin*
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And as long as you given this 4 1/2 stars...I forgive you LOL! *run and hide* Love ya! *grin*
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