Suzanne Brockmann

I started reading Suzanne Brockmann in February of this year. I was at the bookstore and remembered that I had read about the famous couple Sam and Alyssa online, so I bought Gone Too Far. I can tell you from first-hand experience that the book has a much bigger impact when you have read all of the ones in the Troubleshooters series first. When I first read it, I rated Gone Too Far a 3 out of 5 and wasn't sure whether I'd read any of her other books.

As you can tell, I changed my mind. I bought Prince Joe, thinking that I'd try her Team 10 series from the beginning, and I loved it. I figured I would stick with Team 10 until I saw a copy of The Unsung Hero at a used bookstore. It looked new, and I knew it was the first one in the Team 16 series, so I bought it. The book stayed on my TBR shelf for several weeks before I picked it up, read it . . . and was hooked. That required another bookstore trip so I could pick up the books between The Unsung Hero and Gone Too Far. Here's how I rate them:

The Unsung Hero: 4 out of 5
The Defiant Hero: 4 out of 5
Over the Edge: 5 out of 5
Out of Control: 5 out of 5
Into the Night: 4 out of 5
Gone Too Far: 3 out of 5 the first time; 4 out of 5 after second reading

Perhaps it's a cliche, but Sam and Alyssa are my favorite of Brockmann's couples. (See my scrapbook pages below; they are part of my All About Me album.) Of course, I didn't have to wait between installments of the books, so there wasn't time to become too frustrated or impatient. One of the scenes in Over the Edge ranks in my top five list of love scenes. (By the way, there's an interesting blog topic. I'll have to give it some thought.) It's the one where Alyssa goes to Sam's hotel room hours after she's just told him, "I don't even like you." Sam, however, has realized that he's in love with her. Most of the scene is told from Sam's perspective as he wrestles with his conflicting emotions: hurt and anger that Alyssa won't come to him unless she's had a few drinks first; overwhelming desire for her; fear of telling her how he feels; and love. All of Sam's feelings result in a scene that takes my breath away.

That's what I enjoy most about Brockmann's writing: her talent for writing compelling stories that include genuine emotion, and her ability to get into a character's head and take readers with her. This section from the scene described above illustrates what I mean. As Sam and Alyssa make love, he struggles to put aside all of his feelings and focus on "pure sex." Eventually, though, the emotions break through:

He couldn't stop himself from thinking anymore. She was what he'd been missing all those months. It wasn't just great sex that he'd been longing for, as much as he'd tried to tell himself otherwise. It was Alyssa. Her voice in his ear. Her smile lighting up his world. Her take no shit, take no prisoners attitude. Her ability to take what he dished out and give it back to him in large quantities. He didn't just want her, he loved her. And he didn't just love her, he liked her. The world was fifty-two thousand times a better, more interesting, more exciting place to be when he was with her. And that was when they weren't having sex.

Men in fiction with that kind of devotion and love for a woman are irresistible. The fact that I wouldn't typically be interested in someone like him--a cocky, foul-mouthed cowboy--somehow makes him even more appealing, because Brockmann shows us who he really is.

Sweet Thing, Page 1
Sweet Thing, Page 2

Alyssa