Friday, April 17, 2009

The Admiral's Bride by Suzanne Brockmann *****

This is book 7 in the Tall, Dark and Dangerous series - and it's another great story! This contains a spoiler for book 6... the hero is Jake Robinson! Jake was supposedly assassinated in book 6, although you learn at the end that he didn't actually die.

Jake was Crash's sort of substitute father - Jake and his SO, Daisy, helped raise Crash. Jake was also a SEAL during the Vietnam war, and through his heroic efforts, saved hundreds of American soldiers' lives - including Matthew Lange, who was left to die with several other severely wounded Marines. Matthew's daughter Zoe was conceived after he returned from the war - and today (in the book) she's 29, and a secret agent specializing in biological warfare.

Zoe is called in to consult on a special, supersecret Gray Group mission: a crazy white separatist group in Montana has stolen 6 canisters of an incredibly potent and dangerous substance from the government testing labs and have it within the walls of their compound. The plan: Jake and Zoe will go into the compound as husband and wife, with Jake's cover being that he's running from the government and has a lot of secrets to share with the group. They will get the dangerous powder and save the day.

Most of the story - in spite of its interesting premise - actually revolves around Jake's and Zoe's attraction. It's been 3 years since Daisy, the love of Jake's life, died, but face it - Jake is in his 50s and obviously old enough to be Zoe's father! But Zoe's been attracted to the war hero forever - she's read his biography, heard the stories and alway thought he was wonderful. Then when they meet, she realizes he's also shockingly handsome and buff to boot.

I found Brockmann's characterization of Zoe as a remarkably intelligent heroine, capable of holding her own and knowing what she wants, as credible and refreshing. Credible heroines are something I've remarked on in my last few reviews - to me, as long as the author has shown me the heroine has the background and personality to match her actions, I'm satisfied. It's when the heroine is some desk jockey wearing stilettos who wants to protect the highly trained superman cop from danger that I start rolling my eyes!

The plot was interesting and credible as well, ok, except for that part about following all the video cameras around the compound - is that really possible?? We got to hear a little bit more about Lucky (Brockmann considers books 7-9 all part of Lucky's story) and the others: Joe Cat, Harvard, Blue, Cowboy, Wes, and there was suspense and even grief when the team all believes Zoe has been killed. Hey, it's romance, no romance author kills the heroine at the end!!

So - it's a 5 star read for me, and it's in my Serial Readers Challenge to boot.

1 comment:

Heather said...

I think that I am going to have to try this series out. It definitely sounds interesting.