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3.83 AVERAGE
3.83 AVERAGE
I really enjoyed the majority of this book. I am not a fan of YA romance and this book was supposed to be an adult book. It is, mainly, but there is a parallel story that features Mallory, Tom's niece, that I really could have done without. If I wanted to read about the angst of an 18 year old I would have looked for that. I was only interested in the main story of Tom & Kelly, and the past between Joe & Charles. It was slightly irritating that I felt that Mallory's storyline was wedged in between the story that I was actually interested in reading. This little irritant sucked because I REALLY enjoyed the main story so I'll most definitely be reading more from Brockmann. I am just hoping the teenagers won't be making further appearances. Full review to come.
It was definitely a quick and easy read that kept me awake for two nights.
I have to admit that I skipped all the parts about the World War II. This was nothing about this book particularly, I just can't stand any stories about this period, they upset me. I had some hard time when I was at school with all these obligatory readings about the War. Now, that I read mostly for pleasure, I just avoid this subject. So I skipped those parts in this book. I also have to admit that I also skimmed some parts of Mellory and David story, I just wasn't interested in them knowing from the beginning how this will end (right, like I didn't know what will happen with Tom and Kelly :) ).
The characters are likeable, their personalities unobvious.But I'm not sure about the scene of Tom crying, it just seemed strange and out of his manner. I liked that Kelly and Tom have had a crush on each other in the past, it makes the romance part quite believable and much more interesting.
I also enjoyed the first sex scene and the fact that it is Kelly who is pushing. And that Tom is more certain of his love and that he copes better with his feelings. Again, it isn't very obvious and makes this story unique.What I didn't expect is Tom staying in SEALs after all that happened, to me it felt like they have betrayed him by not giving him any trust.
This was my first book in this series so beloved by everyone and I will definitely continue with it.
I have to admit that I skipped all the parts about the World War II. This was nothing about this book particularly, I just can't stand any stories about this period, they upset me. I had some hard time when I was at school with all these obligatory readings about the War. Now, that I read mostly for pleasure, I just avoid this subject. So I skipped those parts in this book. I also have to admit that I also skimmed some parts of Mellory and David story, I just wasn't interested in them knowing from the beginning how this will end (right, like I didn't know what will happen with Tom and Kelly :) ).
The characters are likeable, their personalities unobvious.
I also enjoyed the first sex scene and the fact that it is Kelly who is pushing. And that Tom is more certain of his love and that he copes better with his feelings. Again, it isn't very obvious and makes this story unique.
This was my first book in this series so beloved by everyone and I will definitely continue with it.
Wow, just wow. The first in Brockmann's Troubleshooter series, The Unsung Hero was a fantastic read. It had it all--action, drama, romance, human relationships, history--and was a whole lot of fun to read. If I'd had the time to read this all in one sitting, I'd have loved to; as it was, when I wasn't reading this book I was thinking about it and figuring out how soon I could finish what I HAD to do to get back to it. I loved all the characters--they were well written, believable people who you'd want to know in real life. The main characters are Lt. Tom Paoletti and pediatrician Kelly Ashton, but the secondary ones--Kelly's father Charles and Tom's uncle Joe, World War II veterans; Tom's niece Mallory and her geeky friend David; and the makeshift members of Tom's thrown-together anti-terrorist team--are just as solidly written. The main storyline: Tom, on convalescent leave from the Navy, has thirty days to prove he's healthy enough to keep his leadership position, but believes he sees a presumed-dead terrorist on his first day back in his uncle's small New England town. Suffering from headaches and dizziness, he is torn between his fear that it's all in his head and his need to act on his instincts. This book had me laughing and crying--multiple times--and really caring what happened to each and every one of them. The storylines were all well-crafted, and came together nicely in the end. This series was begun before 9/11--significant both because it follows a Navy SEAL special ops unit and its terrorist theme--so it will be interesting to see what the author does with the books that take place after that time. I will definitely be looking for more books in the series.
3.5 stars
The Unsung Hero, the first in the Troubleshooters series, starts off as a military/war book, but quickly devolves more into romance, love, and sex. It's clearly written by a woman, for a female audience, with some very steamy scenes. I enjoyed the characters and their development but at times found myself annoyed with the dialogue. It also seemed like the story was being replicated over the 3 generations, showing the evolution of both the times and the different possible outcomes of those that were not “meant to be” a match. The story is told from 5 POV (Tom’s, Kelly’s, Mallory’s, David’s, and Charles’s; the other main character Joe’s story is told from these other characters and his interactions with them). I enjoy books with differing POV storylines, but I feel like in this instance it may have been better had it been narrowed to 3 and beefed up through the dialogue. The story was mainly focused on Tom and Kelly’s relationship, the young love of Mallory and David, and Charles and Joe’s friendship of 60+ years. Meanwhile, there is an overarching international terrorist plot at play. In short, there’s a lot going on! Overall, it did keep a good pace, and I enjoyed it. Will likely pick up the next book in the series at some point.
The Unsung Hero, the first in the Troubleshooters series, starts off as a military/war book, but quickly devolves more into romance, love, and sex. It's clearly written by a woman, for a female audience, with some very steamy scenes. I enjoyed the characters and their development but at times found myself annoyed with the dialogue. It also seemed like the story was being replicated over the 3 generations, showing the evolution of both the times and the different possible outcomes of those that were not “meant to be” a match. The story is told from 5 POV (Tom’s, Kelly’s, Mallory’s, David’s, and Charles’s; the other main character Joe’s story is told from these other characters and his interactions with them). I enjoy books with differing POV storylines, but I feel like in this instance it may have been better had it been narrowed to 3 and beefed up through the dialogue. The story was mainly focused on Tom and Kelly’s relationship, the young love of Mallory and David, and Charles and Joe’s friendship of 60+ years. Meanwhile, there is an overarching international terrorist plot at play. In short, there’s a lot going on! Overall, it did keep a good pace, and I enjoyed it. Will likely pick up the next book in the series at some point.
It’s been so long since I’ve reread this book and the whole Troubleshooters series. The Unsung Hero was never my favorite of the bunch, so I was nervous that my love for it would diminish as would my fond me memories of the rest of the series. Fortunately, I very much enjoyed this, and now I’m even more motivated to read the rest again.
I forgot how much I love this world and how much I adore Suzanne Brockmann’s storytelling. The central romance isn’t the greatest, but Tom and Kelly only became a favorite couple of mine after reading about them over the course of multiple books. This is still a solid 4-star read, though, because of the plot, the cast of characters, and the other minor love stories. I also loved this because I got my first glimpses of Sam and Alyssa—a couple that I will stan until the end of time.
I forgot how much I love this world and how much I adore Suzanne Brockmann’s storytelling. The central romance isn’t the greatest, but Tom and Kelly only became a favorite couple of mine after reading about them over the course of multiple books. This is still a solid 4-star read, though, because of the plot, the cast of characters, and the other minor love stories. I also loved this because I got my first glimpses of Sam and Alyssa—a couple that I will stan until the end of time.
A bit rough compared to what I've read of Brockman's later work, but an enjoyable read. I'll probably keep working through the series in order.
Action romance novel. Suzanne Brockmann understands and loves military men. This is the first novel in her troubleshooters/Navy Seals series and we get a strong male lead in Lt. Tommy Paoletti, a compelling female lead in Dr. Kelly Ashton but it's the depth of the secondary characters that moves this romance novel a cut above the rest. Mallory Paoletti, Tommy's niece courtship with David, Tommy's "crew" even if they are there for only a moment have great potential and add the life long friendship of Joe, Tommy's uncle and Charles, Kelly's dad, WWII vets with secrets of their own. Brockmann manages to create 3 dimensional characters that the reader cares about.
I went into this one with some lowered expectations since there are mixed reviews on the start of this series. I don't if it was that, the fact that I've read a later book in this series so this wasn't my introduction to it or the fact that I have a lot of family who served in WWII but I really liked it. I admit that I thought the main romance between Tom and Kelly was probably the weakest in the book. I loved the romance with Tom's niece, it was really sweet. I think I'm in the minority but I like the WWII flashbacks in this series. So it's onto more in this series for me.
I liked this book. It was a little harder to read than I expected because it was less upbeat than I was prepared for. It features three love stories : Kelly and Tom, a "good girl" pediatrician and a "bad boy" Navy seal with a recent brain injury who have both been holding a torch for each other since they were neighbours as teenagers and have to come to terms with their history and how their image is at odds with who they really are. Tom's niece Mallory, a prickly and unhappy teen who struggles with how her stunning appearance makes people treat her like an object, and David, a geeky, uncool graphic novel artist. The last story is told in flashbacks to WWII and features a love triangle between Charles, Kelly's wealthy father who got injured in the war, Cybele, a Frenchwoman in the Résistance who has suffered much loss in the war, and Joe, Tom's great-uncle who is in the secret service. Obviously this last story doesn't exactly end well, so for a while I was dreading reading the bits about it. This has more to do with my state of mind than the book though, I think. I enjoyed the writing of this book. It was slower than the previous romances I have read, deliberate and skillful. Some parts actually made me think "wow, this is well observed", and stop and ponder. There are a lot of characters though and the jumping about between them made the pace seem a little slow, but that wasn't too much of a problem. A good point for the author is that she manages to draw very different characters very well, they all have a different feel and it gives the book variety. The mystery only really kicked into gear at the very end of the book, but I wasn't reading for the mystery anyway so that was ok. Tom was a really good character, I appreciated his honesty and how comfortable he was with showing his emotions. I felt like Kelly was a little harder to connect with, but that made sense for her character. Overall a very good read, I am curious to try others from this series.
This Would Have Been Far Better as a YA Novel with Just Mallory and David. Where is Their Book?
Warning: Language, Frank Sexual Topics, Reader Rage and Spoilers
This book had a lot of potential and some solid moments, but it was a "military thriller" (I use that designation loosely) couched in a flimsy romance, with two of the whiniest "leads" I've ever had the displeasure of coming across.
Kelly and Tom: The World's Most Boring Romantic Leads
Let's jump right in, shall we? Brockmann couldn't actually seem to make up her mind about who the hell she wanted Kelly be. She was neither a vixen nor an angel, just a mash-up of the two that resulted in inconsistent, sloppy characterization. Ex: Kelly talks about wanting to give Tom a blow-job in a movie theater (ooh, risqué!) but then, mere paragraphs later can't even say "I want to fuck you" out loud. She deliberately writes around the four letter word. It could be a restriction of the genre - though Tom has no trouble with it - but it was unintentionally hilarious, considering Kelly was just ranting about wanting to shuck her "good girl" reputation.
Both of them became progressively dumber as the book moved forward. Tom went off to pout whenever Kelly didn't follow his Magical Silent Love Clues, and Kelly was clueless in the last few chapters. Knocking on the window of the Super Secret Van Headquarters, standing there with her thumb up her ass, waiting to be let in? Way to blow the covert operation there, Doctor Ashton. You know, the one your dream-boat's career is dependent upon, the one you knew was in progress? And the stupidity continued with Kelly declaring her love - and blabbing about their sex life - over radio communications. She rambled on for a paragraph or more, without even considering there might be other people on the line during the (I keep feeling the need to point this out) covert military operation! I mean ...
She should not be this stupid. She’s an intelligent, capable doctor, but you'd hardly know it from her actions. Both Tom and Kelly are fairly oblivious to normal human behavior, but together? They're simply to stupid to live - or carry a book. Which explains The Unsung Hero has, not one, not two, but three different subplots.
Lastly, I'd like to take amoment long-ass time, to discuss the complete lack of engagement I had with them as a sexual pairing. I'll start with a disclaimer: I hate that - in the era of FSOG and Anita Blake - any sex not involving rubber suits, choking, or some other form of BDSMdom, gets slapped with the "vanilla" label. For me, there is no such thing as vanilla sex. It's less about the actions and more about the attitude that the characters (and the author) approach sex with.
[In fact, vanilla is an incredibly complex flavor originating from freakin' orchids and cultivated by the Aztecs, it's also the second most expensive spice (other than saffron) in the world. Stop using this descriptor, it's lazy and scientifically false. End of lecture, thank you and good night.]
In a book with a passable heroine, written by a woman, for women, it doesn't seem to give a flying shit about female pleasure. The sex was pedestrian - a word Brockmann uses with horror in the book - not because it was bland (which it was), but because I didn't actually care. These books are supposed to fluffy fantasy filler, so I ask you, where in the hell was the quality sex for Kelly? Or - frankly - THE READER?
The sexual encounters are mainly written from a male perspective - in all three "romances" - and they aren't even that good! (David appeared to have some skill, more on that later.) Tom and Kelly were paint-by-body part, at best. He's written as this absolute God of Pleasure, but no one else really confirms this outside Tom himself. I’m not counting Kelly, she's the heroine, it's clearly her job to accept that he is the Lurver of Her Dreams. Yet we never see his skill in his actions or his (monotonous) internal dialogue.
Where is the romance, where is the sensuality? Not here. And calling everything a "soul kiss" or a "soul touch" does not fucking count. For the first half of the book, I honestly wondered if Kelly's "soul" was outside her body, it was referenced so damn much.
I especially hate-loved how, with the most least amount of stimulus, she's always wet and ready. All the time. Without the tiniest hint of needing lube - after, presumably eight years of no sex, and mad amounts of stress in her life - or a little extra time, before he goes right for gold. Because, apparently, her vagina turns into a slip-n-slide whenever he’s within 100 feet of her. She's always slick and "sweet" - how he makes this judgement without ever tasting her, I will never know. All the women are repeatedly referred to as “sweet”. So much, that I think they might be sugar-loaves masquerading as human women. Or, they're all stuck in 1987 with Def Leppard.
The sex wasn't "making love", they were masterbating with one another's bodies. There's very little build-up to the actual sex. It's all instant horniness and ripping each other's clothes off, while racing blindly towards penetration that always ended (of course) in mutual life-altering orgasms. I'm not saying this doesn't or can't happen, but Brockmann points out, at least twice, that Tom is older and losing his hair (which can be a sign of diminishing male libido) and grappling with a major head injury. Meanwhile, Kelly is struggling at work and at home, facing death on all sides and hasn't (presumedly) had much sex since her divorce. (Brockmann also points out "neither one of them is 16 any more", despite the fact that they act like just that through 95% of the book.)
Yet in spite of all this, in spite of of the lack of time, attention and sensual build-up, they go from eye contact to orgasm in a matter of minutes. When you add the way that Tom treats Kelly (and her sexuality) on top of this - constantly making decisions about what he thinks she needs / wants/ deserves, while treating her like a precious little unsullied teenybopper (instead of, you know, asking the grown damn woman what SHE wants), the sex scenes plummet into patronizing machoism. It should have been about two people reconnecting AS ADULTS, rekindling a love from the past and allowing it to deepen in the present. But it failed, spectacularly.
Now, I ask you, how is this not exactly like everything people bitch about with porn? With the insta!orgasm and auto-lubing? Portraying false ideas about female (and to a lesser degree, male) sexuality. Oh, that's right ... IT'S THE EXACT SAME THING, EXCEPT WRITTEN BY A WOMAN! Is it somehow more acceptable, because books aren’t visual media? Justify it for me, dear reader, because I do not fucking get it.
If this were a 1980s bodice ripper, I'd be able to let much of this go. Hell, it if were a 1990s novel, I'd roll my eyes and just keep skimming. But in this day and age? Fourteen year old Divergent readers would mock the shit out of this, with good reason. Or, I would have forgiven a lot more if this were her debut novel, but it's not. I can understand a rocky start with new characters and such, but this is her 21st book, set in (practically) her home town! There is no excuse for this.
The Love Triangle: Where the Best Man Loses, Twice
Now, we move onto Charles, Cybele and Joe. I discovered Suzanne Brockmann through the charming, slightly cheesy (in a good way), M/M romantic comedy The Perfect Wedding. It's on Netflix and she co-produced (and possibly wrote?) it; while nowhere near as "gritty" as shows like the L Word or Queer as Folk, I considered that a major selling point. It treated same-sex romance like normal, showing kindness and character growth, rather than burnt out cliches. When I found out she was an author, who also included M/M romance in this very series, I jumped on her books.
Hence, as soon as Joe and Charles came on the scene, I thought were going to be lovers. I thought that was going to be the big "secret", and my expectations (and excitement) shot sky high. Only to be shot back down when Cybele arrived. Oh yay, another boring love triangle. Just what this already boring book needed. I wish Joe and Charles had been lovers, it would have made so much more sense than the awful triangle of doom and heartache.
All the flashbacks were depressing and over-wrought for the sake of drama. It's as though Brockmann knew the main plot was bullshit, so she wedged in a "historical" romance and a scoop of (charming, actually) young love in to strengthen the plot. It's the literary equivalent of shoving a playing card under the leaning tower of Pisa, and screaming, "I fixed it!"
The best part of the WW2 flashbacks (as tedious and annoying as they were) was when Cybele had her second child taken away by the Nazis. It was awful, but it made her seem like a real human being for once. Rather than this magical rebel dream woman that both Charles and Joe were in love with. My biggest bitch, however, with the flashbacks was: not ALL Germans were Nazis, and not all Nazis were German. The author frequently uses the words interchangeably, and as someone of German-Irish heritage, it pisses me off. Use the proper term and stick to it.
Next, can we talk about Cybele and Joe for a hot fucking second? I am so damned tried of the "good woman falls in love with bad man" cliche. This book was published in 2000 for Gods' sake. Enough of that bullshit already. Joe spends the entire fucking book being this amazing, stalwart, compassionate, brave, selfless man, and what does he have at the end?
Nothing.
Because Cybele [the Nazi fighter, keep that in mind] falls in love with Charles. The bastard with a heart secretly filled with rainbows and mewling kittens, with his - not at all Aryanesque - good looks, and [I kid you not] a magical golden aura. Really, I mean ... fucking really, woman? That is absolute bullshit. I call bullshit on both Cybele and the author. Throughout the entire book Charles has perhaps three acts of human decency. 1) Saving the kids WWII. 2) Telling Kelly he loves her. 3) Turning himself into a human fireball to save the town, but two out three were only because he's at Death's door! Do you think he would have done it if he were healthy? I doubt it, unless it was an act of suicide to be with precious Cybele.
Somehow, someway after twenty or so chapters of Charles being (essentially) an unrepentant, abusive, unfaithful bastard these three acts are supposed to make us forgive at least thirty years of destroying his daughter's self-esteem and worth. Not to mention devastating his "best friend" - twice - and cheating on, as well as potentially abusing, various ex-wives.
No. Abso-fucking-lutely, unequivocally no.
Just because the old man is dying, does not mean you can pull a rabbit out of a hat in the last five chapters, so he can die a hero. He showed barely any remorse, whinging on and on about the saintly love of his life, whom he missed more than anyone else. Including the daughter sitting there, patiently listen to him bitch about things that were predominately his own. damn. fault.
The grand redemption of Charles was incredibly shit. I mean sure the old man gets to be a hero, woo! But Kelly is forced to watch her father explode and is left with almost no closure. No funeral, no last look, just a send-off where Charles monologues and they exchange tearful dialogue. After all that time together and that's how they say goodbye. But it's heroic and triumphant!, you say. Fuck that. It's Charles running away, again. Forcing everyone else (especially Joe) to deal with being abandoned, again. I honestly expected there to be an epilogue with Mr-Golden-Aura was reunited with his beloved Cybele in the hereafter. We were spared that, thankfully.
Mallory and David: They Were Too Good for This Book, Seriously
I wish this entire book had been about Mallory and David - despite some flaws - they were the best part. Their romance grew over time and was actually [gasp!] based on friendship and respect. Yes, David was initially attracted to her for her looks, he consistently proved that he wanted to know her as a person. He cared about her emotions, her opinions and her desires. He was thoughtful without trying to make decisions for her, as Tom is so fond of doing. While he does warn her about Brandon, he does it without patronizing her or telling her what to do. It was a wonderful change after the other two "relationships".
I do have some minor to moderate gripes, though.
I think it was lazy (and stereotypical) to make David both Asian, adopted and initially unattractive. There are some seriously sexy Asian men out there (Won Bin, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Daniel Henney - to name a few), and it would've been great to see a caucasian women / asian man pairing who found one another attractive from the start. (We sure have no problem with caucasian men with asian women ...)
I liked that he was an artist and wore glasses, but there were super sexy nerd glasses in 2000. The whole excuse for the broken Harry Potter glasses felt too "She's All That" (take off the glasses, fix the hair and I'm secretly a male model underneath [cue smolder]) for me. I appreciate that once she got him out of clothes, Mallory could see his physique better, but a little nod to him actually being a runner or swimmer - rather than just "looking" like one, would have added nicely to his sexuality. It might have foretold that, like Mallory, there was more to David's sexuality than met the eye.
On a related note, Asian? Just "Asian"? I won't say I found it offensive (because I didn't), but I did find it intensely lazy, that Brockmann couldn't be bothered to figure out whether David was Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Filipino or any one of the 47 countries that encompass "Asia". That's cardboard characterization at its finest.
As another review pointed out ... the whole hymen diabolical during their first time. [sigh] Not everyone has an unbroken hymen, not everyone bleeds during sex, not everyone experiences serious discomfort, and everyone's experience is unique. Barring being very tense or having a medical issue, with how patiently and carefully they both approached sex, there's a strong chance Mallory would've been pretty damn comfortable. The whole "having to push through the barrier" was rage-inducing, because - again - it puts an important moment (for a female character, aimed at a female audience) in the man's perspective. Which is sad, considering there are many aspects of this scene that are so well done.
"... but the idea that he was the first—ever, only, because there was only one first time— […] And he wanted her, now, more than ever."
- Kindle Locations 5348-5350
Emphasis up there is mine. Thank you for dragging out the old "first time" baggage, along with ideas of "purity" and vague mentions of "ownership" in the middle of an otherwise intelligent, touching sex scene. BECAUSE WE SO NEEDED THAT. I couldn't help wondering if Mallory actually had experience, would David still have loved her? If she wasn't a virgin, and had her fair share of partners, would he have felt the same about that moment? I'm not sure I want the answer.
Mallory doesn't judge David for his past - though it does make her feel insecure - but David acts like their sex is so much purer because she's a virgin. It's a particularly sad bit of bad female sexual politics, especially after everything Kelly has suffered through with the whole good girl / bad girl monotony, and the town rumors Mallory has been stuck with. Without those bits (and Brandon giving off gross rapey vibes the morning after) that would've been a perfect sex scene. It still beats all the other ones in the book - combined - but to see it fall short in such away is disappointing.
Next, I honestly expected the whole issue of whether he loved Mal or Nightshade to come way earlier. I noticed it right away, and once they started falling in love, I found the whole thing quite uncomfortable. Having that issue come up, only to be swiftly resolved in five chapters or less, was far too easy. What could have been a beautiful arc that dovetailed with Kelly and Tom, about loving the actual person verses who you want them to be, was tossed out and dealt with far too swiftly to have much impact.
Lastly, they have been dating for month and they're already talking about marriage? That seemed incredibly hasty, as though everyone is absolutely desperate to have the perfect happy ending. I would have much rather seen Mallory go into the Navy - she seemed to handle that hostage situation, and the gun, quite well given her absolute lack of training - or art school. Marriage would have been a lovely little nod, to see two or three books down the line. Not at the end of a month-long relationship.
Other Things
Did anyone else notice that the characters - Mal, Kelly, Cybele - have no female relationships? Kelly instantly views Locke as a threat, without bothering to get to know her. Mallory only has her horrid mother. Cybele only has the pregnant woman who's name I can't even recall. Again for a book written for women, by a woman, and (somewhat) about women ... none of them have any fellow women in their support systems (except for a fleeting moment of Kelly/Mal). Not a single crucial scene happened between two women without a man (or three) present. I'm not going to break out the Bechdel test (which I dislike), but considering the author and the audience? That strikes me as incredibly bad form.
Lastly, I greatly resent that the “action” portion of the romantic suspense book was wedged into the last two chapters. Locke and Jazz should have had starring roles from the beginning, not supporting roles in the last two chapters. For a book about romance and suspense there was no balance between the two. The former vastly outweighed the latter. I've had more than my fill of this series and this author.
The Verdict
You might think I hated this book, and you would be absolutely right. Two stars for Joe, Mallory, David and Locke. That is all. There was practically an embarrassment of plot riches between Tom/Kelly and David/Mallory that deserved to be fleshed out, along with a good espionage plot, and it was mostly wasted on filler. The book was too busy juggling too many slapdash love affairs, meaning none of the quality stuff was allowed to hit the ground and take root.
Warning: Language, Frank Sexual Topics, Reader Rage and Spoilers
This book had a lot of potential and some solid moments, but it was a "military thriller" (I use that designation loosely) couched in a flimsy romance, with two of the whiniest "leads" I've ever had the displeasure of coming across.
Kelly and Tom: The World's Most Boring Romantic Leads
Let's jump right in, shall we? Brockmann couldn't actually seem to make up her mind about who the hell she wanted Kelly be. She was neither a vixen nor an angel, just a mash-up of the two that resulted in inconsistent, sloppy characterization. Ex: Kelly talks about wanting to give Tom a blow-job in a movie theater (ooh, risqué!) but then, mere paragraphs later can't even say "I want to fuck you" out loud. She deliberately writes around the four letter word. It could be a restriction of the genre - though Tom has no trouble with it - but it was unintentionally hilarious, considering Kelly was just ranting about wanting to shuck her "good girl" reputation.
Both of them became progressively dumber as the book moved forward. Tom went off to pout whenever Kelly didn't follow his Magical Silent Love Clues, and Kelly was clueless in the last few chapters. Knocking on the window of the Super Secret Van Headquarters, standing there with her thumb up her ass, waiting to be let in? Way to blow the covert operation there, Doctor Ashton. You know, the one your dream-boat's career is dependent upon, the one you knew was in progress? And the stupidity continued with Kelly declaring her love - and blabbing about their sex life - over radio communications. She rambled on for a paragraph or more, without even considering there might be other people on the line during the (I keep feeling the need to point this out) covert military operation! I mean ...
She should not be this stupid. She’s an intelligent, capable doctor, but you'd hardly know it from her actions. Both Tom and Kelly are fairly oblivious to normal human behavior, but together? They're simply to stupid to live - or carry a book. Which explains The Unsung Hero has, not one, not two, but three different subplots.
Lastly, I'd like to take a
[In fact, vanilla is an incredibly complex flavor originating from freakin' orchids and cultivated by the Aztecs, it's also the second most expensive spice (other than saffron) in the world. Stop using this descriptor, it's lazy and scientifically false. End of lecture, thank you and good night.]
In a book with a passable heroine, written by a woman, for women, it doesn't seem to give a flying shit about female pleasure. The sex was pedestrian - a word Brockmann uses with horror in the book - not because it was bland (which it was), but because I didn't actually care. These books are supposed to fluffy fantasy filler, so I ask you, where in the hell was the quality sex for Kelly? Or - frankly - THE READER?
The sexual encounters are mainly written from a male perspective - in all three "romances" - and they aren't even that good! (David appeared to have some skill, more on that later.) Tom and Kelly were paint-by-body part, at best. He's written as this absolute God of Pleasure, but no one else really confirms this outside Tom himself. I’m not counting Kelly, she's the heroine, it's clearly her job to accept that he is the Lurver of Her Dreams. Yet we never see his skill in his actions or his (monotonous) internal dialogue.
Where is the romance, where is the sensuality? Not here. And calling everything a "soul kiss" or a "soul touch" does not fucking count. For the first half of the book, I honestly wondered if Kelly's "soul" was outside her body, it was referenced so damn much.
I especially hate-loved how, with the most least amount of stimulus, she's always wet and ready. All the time. Without the tiniest hint of needing lube - after, presumably eight years of no sex, and mad amounts of stress in her life - or a little extra time, before he goes right for gold. Because, apparently, her vagina turns into a slip-n-slide whenever he’s within 100 feet of her. She's always slick and "sweet" - how he makes this judgement without ever tasting her, I will never know. All the women are repeatedly referred to as “sweet”. So much, that I think they might be sugar-loaves masquerading as human women. Or, they're all stuck in 1987 with Def Leppard.
The sex wasn't "making love", they were masterbating with one another's bodies. There's very little build-up to the actual sex. It's all instant horniness and ripping each other's clothes off, while racing blindly towards penetration that always ended (of course) in mutual life-altering orgasms. I'm not saying this doesn't or can't happen, but Brockmann points out, at least twice, that Tom is older and losing his hair (which can be a sign of diminishing male libido) and grappling with a major head injury. Meanwhile, Kelly is struggling at work and at home, facing death on all sides and hasn't (presumedly) had much sex since her divorce. (Brockmann also points out "neither one of them is 16 any more", despite the fact that they act like just that through 95% of the book.)
Yet in spite of all this, in spite of of the lack of time, attention and sensual build-up, they go from eye contact to orgasm in a matter of minutes. When you add the way that Tom treats Kelly (and her sexuality) on top of this - constantly making decisions about what he thinks she needs / wants/ deserves, while treating her like a precious little unsullied teenybopper (instead of, you know, asking the grown damn woman what SHE wants), the sex scenes plummet into patronizing machoism. It should have been about two people reconnecting AS ADULTS, rekindling a love from the past and allowing it to deepen in the present. But it failed, spectacularly.
Now, I ask you, how is this not exactly like everything people bitch about with porn? With the insta!orgasm and auto-lubing? Portraying false ideas about female (and to a lesser degree, male) sexuality. Oh, that's right ... IT'S THE EXACT SAME THING, EXCEPT WRITTEN BY A WOMAN! Is it somehow more acceptable, because books aren’t visual media? Justify it for me, dear reader, because I do not fucking get it.
If this were a 1980s bodice ripper, I'd be able to let much of this go. Hell, it if were a 1990s novel, I'd roll my eyes and just keep skimming. But in this day and age? Fourteen year old Divergent readers would mock the shit out of this, with good reason. Or, I would have forgiven a lot more if this were her debut novel, but it's not. I can understand a rocky start with new characters and such, but this is her 21st book, set in (practically) her home town! There is no excuse for this.
The Love Triangle: Where the Best Man Loses, Twice
Now, we move onto Charles, Cybele and Joe. I discovered Suzanne Brockmann through the charming, slightly cheesy (in a good way), M/M romantic comedy The Perfect Wedding. It's on Netflix and she co-produced (and possibly wrote?) it; while nowhere near as "gritty" as shows like the L Word or Queer as Folk, I considered that a major selling point. It treated same-sex romance like normal, showing kindness and character growth, rather than burnt out cliches. When I found out she was an author, who also included M/M romance in this very series, I jumped on her books.
Hence, as soon as Joe and Charles came on the scene, I thought were going to be lovers. I thought that was going to be the big "secret", and my expectations (and excitement) shot sky high. Only to be shot back down when Cybele arrived. Oh yay, another boring love triangle. Just what this already boring book needed. I wish Joe and Charles had been lovers, it would have made so much more sense than the awful triangle of doom and heartache.
All the flashbacks were depressing and over-wrought for the sake of drama. It's as though Brockmann knew the main plot was bullshit, so she wedged in a "historical" romance and a scoop of (charming, actually) young love in to strengthen the plot. It's the literary equivalent of shoving a playing card under the leaning tower of Pisa, and screaming, "I fixed it!"
The best part of the WW2 flashbacks (as tedious and annoying as they were) was when Cybele had her second child taken away by the Nazis. It was awful, but it made her seem like a real human being for once. Rather than this magical rebel dream woman that both Charles and Joe were in love with. My biggest bitch, however, with the flashbacks was: not ALL Germans were Nazis, and not all Nazis were German. The author frequently uses the words interchangeably, and as someone of German-Irish heritage, it pisses me off. Use the proper term and stick to it.
Next, can we talk about Cybele and Joe for a hot fucking second? I am so damned tried of the "good woman falls in love with bad man" cliche. This book was published in 2000 for Gods' sake. Enough of that bullshit already. Joe spends the entire fucking book being this amazing, stalwart, compassionate, brave, selfless man, and what does he have at the end?
Nothing.
Because Cybele [the Nazi fighter, keep that in mind] falls in love with Charles. The bastard with a heart secretly filled with rainbows and mewling kittens, with his - not at all Aryanesque - good looks, and [I kid you not] a magical golden aura. Really, I mean ... fucking really, woman? That is absolute bullshit. I call bullshit on both Cybele and the author. Throughout the entire book Charles has perhaps three acts of human decency. 1) Saving the kids WWII. 2) Telling Kelly he loves her. 3) Turning himself into a human fireball to save the town, but two out three were only because he's at Death's door! Do you think he would have done it if he were healthy? I doubt it, unless it was an act of suicide to be with precious Cybele.
Somehow, someway after twenty or so chapters of Charles being (essentially) an unrepentant, abusive, unfaithful bastard these three acts are supposed to make us forgive at least thirty years of destroying his daughter's self-esteem and worth. Not to mention devastating his "best friend" - twice - and cheating on, as well as potentially abusing, various ex-wives.
No. Abso-fucking-lutely, unequivocally no.
Just because the old man is dying, does not mean you can pull a rabbit out of a hat in the last five chapters, so he can die a hero. He showed barely any remorse, whinging on and on about the saintly love of his life, whom he missed more than anyone else. Including the daughter sitting there, patiently listen to him bitch about things that were predominately his own. damn. fault.
The grand redemption of Charles was incredibly shit. I mean sure the old man gets to be a hero, woo! But Kelly is forced to watch her father explode and is left with almost no closure. No funeral, no last look, just a send-off where Charles monologues and they exchange tearful dialogue. After all that time together and that's how they say goodbye. But it's heroic and triumphant!, you say. Fuck that. It's Charles running away, again. Forcing everyone else (especially Joe) to deal with being abandoned, again. I honestly expected there to be an epilogue with Mr-Golden-Aura was reunited with his beloved Cybele in the hereafter. We were spared that, thankfully.
Mallory and David: They Were Too Good for This Book, Seriously
I wish this entire book had been about Mallory and David - despite some flaws - they were the best part. Their romance grew over time and was actually [gasp!] based on friendship and respect. Yes, David was initially attracted to her for her looks, he consistently proved that he wanted to know her as a person. He cared about her emotions, her opinions and her desires. He was thoughtful without trying to make decisions for her, as Tom is so fond of doing. While he does warn her about Brandon, he does it without patronizing her or telling her what to do. It was a wonderful change after the other two "relationships".
I do have some minor to moderate gripes, though.
I think it was lazy (and stereotypical) to make David both Asian, adopted and initially unattractive. There are some seriously sexy Asian men out there (Won Bin, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Daniel Henney - to name a few), and it would've been great to see a caucasian women / asian man pairing who found one another attractive from the start. (We sure have no problem with caucasian men with asian women ...)
I liked that he was an artist and wore glasses, but there were super sexy nerd glasses in 2000. The whole excuse for the broken Harry Potter glasses felt too "She's All That" (take off the glasses, fix the hair and I'm secretly a male model underneath [cue smolder]) for me. I appreciate that once she got him out of clothes, Mallory could see his physique better, but a little nod to him actually being a runner or swimmer - rather than just "looking" like one, would have added nicely to his sexuality. It might have foretold that, like Mallory, there was more to David's sexuality than met the eye.
On a related note, Asian? Just "Asian"? I won't say I found it offensive (because I didn't), but I did find it intensely lazy, that Brockmann couldn't be bothered to figure out whether David was Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Filipino or any one of the 47 countries that encompass "Asia". That's cardboard characterization at its finest.
As another review pointed out ... the whole hymen diabolical during their first time. [sigh] Not everyone has an unbroken hymen, not everyone bleeds during sex, not everyone experiences serious discomfort, and everyone's experience is unique. Barring being very tense or having a medical issue, with how patiently and carefully they both approached sex, there's a strong chance Mallory would've been pretty damn comfortable. The whole "having to push through the barrier" was rage-inducing, because - again - it puts an important moment (for a female character, aimed at a female audience) in the man's perspective. Which is sad, considering there are many aspects of this scene that are so well done.
"... but the idea that he was the first—ever, only, because there was only one first time— […] And he wanted her, now, more than ever."
- Kindle Locations 5348-5350
Emphasis up there is mine. Thank you for dragging out the old "first time" baggage, along with ideas of "purity" and vague mentions of "ownership" in the middle of an otherwise intelligent, touching sex scene. BECAUSE WE SO NEEDED THAT. I couldn't help wondering if Mallory actually had experience, would David still have loved her? If she wasn't a virgin, and had her fair share of partners, would he have felt the same about that moment? I'm not sure I want the answer.
Mallory doesn't judge David for his past - though it does make her feel insecure - but David acts like their sex is so much purer because she's a virgin. It's a particularly sad bit of bad female sexual politics, especially after everything Kelly has suffered through with the whole good girl / bad girl monotony, and the town rumors Mallory has been stuck with. Without those bits (and Brandon giving off gross rapey vibes the morning after) that would've been a perfect sex scene. It still beats all the other ones in the book - combined - but to see it fall short in such away is disappointing.
Next, I honestly expected the whole issue of whether he loved Mal or Nightshade to come way earlier. I noticed it right away, and once they started falling in love, I found the whole thing quite uncomfortable. Having that issue come up, only to be swiftly resolved in five chapters or less, was far too easy. What could have been a beautiful arc that dovetailed with Kelly and Tom, about loving the actual person verses who you want them to be, was tossed out and dealt with far too swiftly to have much impact.
Lastly, they have been dating for month and they're already talking about marriage? That seemed incredibly hasty, as though everyone is absolutely desperate to have the perfect happy ending. I would have much rather seen Mallory go into the Navy - she seemed to handle that hostage situation, and the gun, quite well given her absolute lack of training - or art school. Marriage would have been a lovely little nod, to see two or three books down the line. Not at the end of a month-long relationship.
Other Things
Did anyone else notice that the characters - Mal, Kelly, Cybele - have no female relationships? Kelly instantly views Locke as a threat, without bothering to get to know her. Mallory only has her horrid mother. Cybele only has the pregnant woman who's name I can't even recall. Again for a book written for women, by a woman, and (somewhat) about women ... none of them have any fellow women in their support systems (except for a fleeting moment of Kelly/Mal). Not a single crucial scene happened between two women without a man (or three) present. I'm not going to break out the Bechdel test (which I dislike), but considering the author and the audience? That strikes me as incredibly bad form.
Lastly, I greatly resent that the “action” portion of the romantic suspense book was wedged into the last two chapters. Locke and Jazz should have had starring roles from the beginning, not supporting roles in the last two chapters. For a book about romance and suspense there was no balance between the two. The former vastly outweighed the latter. I've had more than my fill of this series and this author.
The Verdict
You might think I hated this book, and you would be absolutely right. Two stars for Joe, Mallory, David and Locke. That is all. There was practically an embarrassment of plot riches between Tom/Kelly and David/Mallory that deserved to be fleshed out, along with a good espionage plot, and it was mostly wasted on filler. The book was too busy juggling too many slapdash love affairs, meaning none of the quality stuff was allowed to hit the ground and take root.