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wyvernfriend's review
4.0
I did enjoy this story. Set in a near future where things are worse than they are now and you need money to get anywhere. Shane Laughlin is an ex-naval SEAL, dishonourably discharged and looking to do something, preferably honest. He's offered a chance to take part in a project and finds himself caught up in some very complicated politics and learning more about himself and human potential.
There were moments where it didn't work as well or flow as well as it could but this is the author's first SF/Near future fiction. It's not bad and I'm looking forward to more in this series. I also loved the romance between two of the male characters.
There were moments where it didn't work as well or flow as well as it could but this is the author's first SF/Near future fiction. It's not bad and I'm looking forward to more in this series. I also loved the romance between two of the male characters.
samie_k3's review
4.0
One of the things I think I love about Suzanne Brockmann is the fact that she's not at all afraid to go There. To That place. The place that a lot of authors are afraid to go. You know the place I'm talking about, right? It's the place that some authors hint about visiting, but never admit to stepping foot inside of.
It is the land of controversial, and taboo subjects... Rape, Torture, Gruesome acts of violence and of course today's hot button, same sex relationships. Some authors sugar coat this stuff, or hint that such things happen in their books but they don't go into detail—Brockmann does. And it's just the right amount of detail (for me anyway) to make her books seem real and really engage me in her stories.
This book was not at all what I expected it would be—it was better. I admit I was curious to see if Brockmann could pull of a Paranormal Romance as brilliantly as she pulls of Romantic Suspense, and she did it. It was raw, gritty, and believable. The characters were easy to fall in love with, and the twists were executed very well. Granted I will admit it took me about half of the book to get to the, "OMG I can't put it down!" stage of reading... But it's the first book of a series and that is to be expected—and once I did get there, well, lets just say, I finished this book at 5:15am. :)
Oh and that last twist at the end? Yeah, I'll definitely be waiting for the next installment.
It is the land of controversial, and taboo subjects... Rape, Torture, Gruesome acts of violence and of course today's hot button, same sex relationships. Some authors sugar coat this stuff, or hint that such things happen in their books but they don't go into detail—Brockmann does. And it's just the right amount of detail (for me anyway) to make her books seem real and really engage me in her stories.
This book was not at all what I expected it would be—it was better. I admit I was curious to see if Brockmann could pull of a Paranormal Romance as brilliantly as she pulls of Romantic Suspense, and she did it. It was raw, gritty, and believable. The characters were easy to fall in love with, and the twists were executed very well. Granted I will admit it took me about half of the book to get to the, "OMG I can't put it down!" stage of reading... But it's the first book of a series and that is to be expected—and once I did get there, well, lets just say, I finished this book at 5:15am. :)
Oh and that last twist at the end? Yeah, I'll definitely be waiting for the next installment.
lynseyisreading's review
3.0
This is only my second book by Suzanne Brockmann (I've also read book one in her long established Troubleshooters series about a Navy Seal team) but I'm going to go ahead and assume that she follows the same pattern in all of her books of running three simultaneous romances in each novel. There's a main one, the one mentioned in the blurb, but there are also two others that get almost the same amount of page time. I have to confess, I don't love this approach. The laws of probability state that you're likely going to love one of the romances much more than the others, and so the inordinate amount of time it takes to get back to that thread of the plot will probably get on your nerves, as it did for me. It also means there are a lot of sex scenes, although the main couple do steal the show on that front. The other problem with having so many romances is the fact that it made the book very long. Over 500 pages.
I predicted I would enjoy this more than the Troubleshooters book I'd read because of the fantasy sci-fi woo woo elements in it which is more my thing, but I actually ended up rating it one star less. And the reason for that wasn't the the genre or world-building (I did really like those as predicted) but because none of the three romances did much for me, unfortunately. There were some sweet moments here and there, especially from Shane, but Mac (Michelle Mackenzie), his love interest, was largely unlikeable and very against starting a relationship with him which sometimes made her seem quite rude considering she'd already slept with him on the first night they met. The second romance was a gay relationship, a story of heretofore unrequited love, which was surprisingly sweet since I don't usually read any m/m stuff, and the third was the least explored, and yet showed the most potential for me, and that was between the leader of the Obermeyer institute and the victim in the crime the story revolves around.
The Obermeyer Institute is a place where Greater Thans (this is Brockmann's name for those who, in this future society, have been found able to access higher percentages of their brain functionality and have developed extra abilities such as telepathy, telekinesis, accelerated healing, not ageing, etc) work and often live, and also the command centre for their operations which mostly consist of taking down Jokers. Jokers are the members of society who have overdosed on a new killer drug out on the streets called Destiny, which as well as providing eternal youth- its main lure for the rich and vain- also appears to be giving them symptoms that could rival a Greater Than's abilities, only without any of the common sense and restraint to go with it.
Like I said, I enjoyed this aspect and the whole idea of us not using our minds to their full potential, and I think this will keep me interested enough to try the next book in the series. And hopefully, with less world-building to take care of, Brockmann can concentrate more on providing us with at least one (or even better, three) really nice romances to sink our little teeth into.
3 Stars! ★★★
Review Copy: Received from the publisher for an honest review
I predicted I would enjoy this more than the Troubleshooters book I'd read because of the fantasy sci-fi woo woo elements in it which is more my thing, but I actually ended up rating it one star less. And the reason for that wasn't the the genre or world-building (I did really like those as predicted) but because none of the three romances did much for me, unfortunately. There were some sweet moments here and there, especially from Shane, but Mac (Michelle Mackenzie), his love interest, was largely unlikeable and very against starting a relationship with him which sometimes made her seem quite rude considering she'd already slept with him on the first night they met. The second romance was a gay relationship, a story of heretofore unrequited love, which was surprisingly sweet since I don't usually read any m/m stuff, and the third was the least explored, and yet showed the most potential for me, and that was between the leader of the Obermeyer institute and the victim in the crime the story revolves around.
The Obermeyer Institute is a place where Greater Thans (this is Brockmann's name for those who, in this future society, have been found able to access higher percentages of their brain functionality and have developed extra abilities such as telepathy, telekinesis, accelerated healing, not ageing, etc) work and often live, and also the command centre for their operations which mostly consist of taking down Jokers. Jokers are the members of society who have overdosed on a new killer drug out on the streets called Destiny, which as well as providing eternal youth- its main lure for the rich and vain- also appears to be giving them symptoms that could rival a Greater Than's abilities, only without any of the common sense and restraint to go with it.
Like I said, I enjoyed this aspect and the whole idea of us not using our minds to their full potential, and I think this will keep me interested enough to try the next book in the series. And hopefully, with less world-building to take care of, Brockmann can concentrate more on providing us with at least one (or even better, three) really nice romances to sink our little teeth into.
3 Stars! ★★★
Review Copy: Received from the publisher for an honest review
frannieman's review
adventurous
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Medical content, Kidnapping, and Medical trauma
icecoffeebookqueen's review
5.0
second time reading this book and it just keeps me going. I love it but very upset about how some things ended with a few characters in the book.
mamabears_fabulous_book_finds's review
4.0
Three separate stories all tied together. A very dangerous drug and the Organization that backs it. A team of men and women who utilize more of their brain, than the rest of us. A great thriller and romance. I'm really excited about reading the rest of this series.
qu33nofbookz's review
1.0
What a fuck mess of a bullshit book! Why did I read this? How did it get such a good rating? This is described as an action with a little romance but it's a lie! The plot takes a back seat in a limo of this farce of a romance where everyone falls instantly into lust them immediate love with a stranger who they think about all the time and want to hold hands with and live forever with and just plain fuck at all times....and at some point during all this they are supposed to be saving a bunch or girls, one in particular from the bad guys, named The Organization (really! that's the name you use for the new scourge of the criminal element?) who use said girls to make a drug that is the new scourge of the human population that only the insanely rich know about?
Also I got tired of hearing about all the characters internal and halting outward talks with the people they love but shouldn't but they do and they can't but they can and their not supposed to but have/do and don't want to but just can't seem to help it. (There are chapter after chapter of 2 characters arguing that "I love you", "no you don't" "I know what I feel", "I forced you to feel that", "no", "yes"....and on and on! If you cut out all the repeated conversations, almost word for word from the last one, from after the first time they argued you could probably have taken out 50 pages!!!!!!) Half the very adult middle aged men with former relationships can't even say the word sex or the pill without stuttering and working around it and saying everything but.....if you can't say it you shouldn't be doing it! But they do, a lot. A point that pissed me off about this is how the people with power agonize and argue over how they would be raping their partner since their power makes it so that they seem extra appealing or that their fantasies are shared or know to said partner when this is not an issue at all. Along with that the author has no problem with describing and pointing out multiple rapes of other characters all during this story and not making a big deal out of that since they aren't main characters.
Michelle “Mac” Mackenzie is the most annoying character of the book and she's the main heroine of the story. I wanted to kill her just to get some other character to step up as the main female lead. At two points she is injured enough to die and I was rooting for her to kick the bucket. She's a grown ass woman in an almost military organization that assists the police and has been since a teen but she acts like a toddler or little brat throwing tantrums and talking back at everyone and does everything she can to piss everyone off and disobey her superiors. At a few times she goes against direct orders jeopardizing her health, the case they are working and make things worse for everyone and she doesn't give a shit....neither to her superiors! She comes back to base after one such stint and asks what her punishment is (she should rightly deserve to be locked up) but is told that a night of her self agonizing over what she's done wrong is enough!!!! First of all she doesn't regret it or even think about it once she has done wrong and second she spent all night having sex. Also if I have to read one more time about her looking into Shane Laughlin's so pretty eyes one more time....or him about looking into her so pretty eyes, I'd scratch mine out.
The book switches POV way too many times and is very repetitive having each POV go over slightly the same dialogue or description of an event as the previous one, seriously this book could have been half it's length and you would have gotten the same story. Also the dialogue sucked, very...person...talked...in...halting...conversations. Also two of the main MC's most used words were "Holy crap!" and "Holy shit!" or just "shit". The plot was full of holes big enough to drive a semi through and it wasn't helped by the dialogue. There were a ton of inconsistencies and it seemed that the structure of how these characters were designed and acted and could do was never really solid, it kept shifting. Like character A is this way and so does this and can do that...but wait now they act like that and can do this....but wait now they...it was annoying.
This book needed better editing and a sit down with a story board before it was published.
Also I got tired of hearing about all the characters internal and halting outward talks with the people they love but shouldn't but they do and they can't but they can and their not supposed to but have/do and don't want to but just can't seem to help it. (There are chapter after chapter of 2 characters arguing that "I love you", "no you don't" "I know what I feel", "I forced you to feel that", "no", "yes"....and on and on! If you cut out all the repeated conversations, almost word for word from the last one, from after the first time they argued you could probably have taken out 50 pages!!!!!!) Half the very adult middle aged men with former relationships can't even say the word sex or the pill without stuttering and working around it and saying everything but.....if you can't say it you shouldn't be doing it! But they do, a lot. A point that pissed me off about this is how the people with power agonize and argue over how they would be raping their partner since their power makes it so that they seem extra appealing or that their fantasies are shared or know to said partner when this is not an issue at all. Along with that the author has no problem with describing and pointing out multiple rapes of other characters all during this story and not making a big deal out of that since they aren't main characters.
Michelle “Mac” Mackenzie is the most annoying character of the book and she's the main heroine of the story. I wanted to kill her just to get some other character to step up as the main female lead. At two points she is injured enough to die and I was rooting for her to kick the bucket. She's a grown ass woman in an almost military organization that assists the police and has been since a teen but she acts like a toddler or little brat throwing tantrums and talking back at everyone and does everything she can to piss everyone off and disobey her superiors. At a few times she goes against direct orders jeopardizing her health, the case they are working and make things worse for everyone and she doesn't give a shit....neither to her superiors! She comes back to base after one such stint and asks what her punishment is (she should rightly deserve to be locked up) but is told that a night of her self agonizing over what she's done wrong is enough!!!! First of all she doesn't regret it or even think about it once she has done wrong and second she spent all night having sex. Also if I have to read one more time about her looking into Shane Laughlin's so pretty eyes one more time....or him about looking into her so pretty eyes, I'd scratch mine out.
The book switches POV way too many times and is very repetitive having each POV go over slightly the same dialogue or description of an event as the previous one, seriously this book could have been half it's length and you would have gotten the same story. Also the dialogue sucked, very...person...talked...in...halting...conversations. Also two of the main MC's most used words were "Holy crap!" and "Holy shit!" or just "shit". The plot was full of holes big enough to drive a semi through and it wasn't helped by the dialogue. There were a ton of inconsistencies and it seemed that the structure of how these characters were designed and acted and could do was never really solid, it kept shifting. Like character A is this way and so does this and can do that...but wait now they act like that and can do this....but wait now they...it was annoying.
This book needed better editing and a sit down with a story board before it was published.
geisttull's review
3.0
read very quickly - brockmann does relationships well. this is the first in a new series. I don't know about the weird scientific stuff, but if you're willing to accept the outlandish powers, than the characters should carry you through. i'll read the next one just to see what happens to one of my favorite characters.
alboyer6's review against another edition
3.0
I finished it! (I gave it 3 stars but it is more like 2.5) The bones of the story are great. I like the concept of Greater-thans and their different abilities and the Institute set up to research, train and protect. Where the story failed me was the characters. A number of times I just wanted to tell them to shut up. Mac just was constantly angry. And then in the last third of the book I felt Anna needed to just shut up because it was making it worse for the situation she was in. I was glad I stuck with the audio book and I will probably listen to the next one but this wasn't Brockmann's best book.
smallness's review
4.0
Not the best book I've ever read, but ridiculously entertaining and just what my tired brain needed this weekend.