Thoughts: Forever Blue

Forever Blue

by Suzanne Brockmann
Book 2 of Tall, Dark & Dangerous

~ Goodreads ~

Rating:  3.5 Stars

Blue McCoy was once the hero of Lucy Tait's teenaged dreams--quiet, dark and dangerous.  After high school he left Hatboro Creek, South Carolina, to join the military.  Years later, now a Navy SEAL, Blue was a man who embodied all of Lucy's fantasies.

Now Blue is back in town, and Lucy is not the person he remembered.  She's a no-nonsense police officer--and a woman Blue can't take his eyes off.  But then Blue is accused of murder.  And Lucy is assigned his case.  Now their brief affair has become part of an extensive investigation, where what's at stake is critical--Blue's future... and maybe Lucy's heart.

Is her hero still the man she remembered?

This is a pleasant surprise.

I suppose there’s something to be said about second chances--just because one book by an author didn't work out doesn’t mean that no books from the same author will ever work out. Even if the two books happen to be in the same series, or even the same two-book volume, with the same theme, and a specific set of characters.

Except that Forever Blue only had one roll-over character from Prince Joe, and the rest were just in the background..

Forever Blue, despite some small quibbles and eye-roll-worthy moments, was immensely more enjoyable than Prince Joe had been. No one is more surprised than I am about how much more I enjoyed reading the second book in Suzanne Brockmann’s Tall, Dark & Dangerous series. I was simply expecting a mediocre read, something to get by on, if not a bad one, so that I could finish my Reading Assignment Challenge properly.

I was expecting a lot of romance to overshadow the suspense parts--I was not wrong. I was expecting a so-so conflict to fulfill the suspense and crime thriller quota--I was not wrong. I was expecting another unbalanced story--I was not wrong.

I was expecting another frustrating, trope-filled romance where I'd end up throwing the book across the room again when I started getting irritated with the couple. This is where I was off-base, although there HAD BEEN one little instance where I DID get that itch to toss the book--but it came and went and I got over it.

I hadn’t expected to genuinely, really, really like it Forever Blue spite of everything I should have disliked it for. And maybe that's why the enjoyment is so much higher.

To be honest, though, I’d probably lay at least half of the star rating on the heroine of the book, Lucy Tait. She is definitely my kind of heroine and she might be the biggest reason I really liked this book. Well, that and the clichéd romantic tropes were a bit toned down--I’m not sure if I even saw many of them.

Lucy’s a straight arrow who doesn’t beat around the bushes. She says what she wants to say and does what she wants to do, and doesn’t hide behind a coy exterior. She’s a little Miss Perfect with a side of cynicism, which would normally make me wary of her. But at the same time, she’s very confident of herself on other levels, being smart and resourceful enough to be a rookie cop with lots of potential if she chose to continue that line of career.

Her no-nonsense attitude is probably what makes me love her so much, anyway.

On the other hand, Blue McCoy was a great guy. But he didn’t really do much for me, to be honest. And he was a bit frustrating at times, but whaddya gonna do? He’s the standard alpha, broody male with commitment issues. There are no surprises there.

But Lucy? Lucy is just GOLD!


The story in Forever Blue, much like Prince Joe, was still a bit unbalanced. The romance was still heavy-handed and got sappy and a bit illogical at times. I feel like we spent a lot more time lazing around and developing a love story than we did investigating a murder--sometimes we didn’t ask the right questions, and sometimes we spent more time than not on less significant details.

But I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I actually, very much loved the way the romance was developed. With Lucy and Blue having a vague childhood history, even if it only consisted of three short conversations during high school, I found the development from that point kind of sweet. Reuniting after so many years and having each of their images of the other dashed only to be rebuilt in a new light, from friendship to lovers was very well thought out.

I especially loved the late night conversations Blue and Lucy had with each other on their front porch, sharing details about their lives as friends and getting to know each other. If this book could have been a little bit longer, we’d be able to fulfill both the crime thriller aspect AND the lovely slow burn of a developing relationship.

But as it is, we’ll have to go without a more well-thought-out crime thriller in favor of a well-developed romance, I suppose.


Some Final Thoughts:
The ending was very abrupt and I would have liked something a bit more wrapped-up. I would have also liked to see more of Blue’s Alpha Squad in action, but I’m fine with their absence. The main culprit of the murder was quite predictable once the story got going, and at the same time, the details were quite vague.

The ending didn’t quite wrap up as well as I’d have liked. There were a lot of loose ends that needed explaining and that I’m still asking questions about. There were certain suspects who acted very strange throughout, but that we didn’t get an explanation for in the end as to why they were so adamant about keeping the investigation stone-walled.

And then one of the culprit’s identities came directly out of left-field and we don’t even really get a background on why these guys did what they did.

Again, there were a LOT of loose ends left over. If I didn’t like Lucy so much, I might have brought the rating down a half star or something (I thought about it). But my logic makes no kind of sense to anyone, sometimes not even me.


Forever Blue is a romance and love story, first and foremost, with the crime thriller and suspense being a sweet background distraction. I would have liked for the story to be a bit more balanced, but since I’ve kind of developed a girl crush on Lucy, I think I’ll make myself content with what I can get.


***

2016 Reading Challenges:
• Goodreads Reading Challenge
• BookLikes Reading Challenge
• Reading Assignment Challenge
• Bookish Resolutions Challenge -- Bout of Books 16
• Mount TBR Challenge

Ranting Thoughts: Prince Joe

Prince Joe

by Suzanne Brockmann
Book 1 of Tall, Dark & Dangerous

~ Goodreads ~

Actual Rating: 1.5 Stars

Veronica St. John is facing the challenge of a lifetime. The media consultant has two days to teach a rugged Navy SEAL to impersonate a European prince who has been targeted by terrorists. It's a tough assignment, but Veronica is sure she's up to the task -- until she actually meets Joe.

Despite his physical resemblance to the handsome prince, Lieutenant Joe Catalanotto is nothing like the stuffy aristocrat. Everything about the combat-hardened Navy SEAL -- from the arrogant gleam in his eyes and streetwise attitude to the New York accent -- says regular guy, not royalty. One conversation and Veronica knows nothing could turn this military man into nobility. Joe, on the other hand, is confident he's got what it takes to complete his duty.

But neither of them expects their assignment to include falling in love . . .

This is truly a disappointing reading experience, and the honest truth is that it could have been a really great romantic suspense. There were a lot of moments that came close to making up for all the things I didn't like about this book, but not quite enough to satisfy me.

Prince Joe is what I would call a potentially promising premise ruined by an entirely too one-tracked, unerring focus on a frustratingly clichéd romance. I had already done a good amount of ranting earlier in a reading update post, so I don't want to rehash all my same grievances. But it's hard for me not to feel a little let down when I'd been so looking forward to reading this series.

When I first picked up this book, I'd skim-read the first chapter and found the writing serviceable. In fact, despite doing into this book knowing that it would be more romance than suspense, based on the book's official summary blurb, I hadn't really expected to get what I ended up getting from this book. The first two or three chapters of set-up and the last few chapters of concluding the main suspense conflict were the best chapters in the book--they managed to focus less on the absurdly clichéd love story and it made things easier to bear.

So even going into the book, I'd been expecting more.

Instead, as I'd stated in my reading update post, I got bombarded with tacky monologues from both sides of our romantic coupling, ruminating about love and lust and how Veronica and Joe make each other feel and see things differently than they've ever felt before about other lust or love interests in the past. And this entire time, very little is focused on the actual suspense aspects of the book: the fact that Joe needs to learn how to become Prince Tedric and Veronica is the consultant hired to help him.

But after a hundred pages into the book, I was already able to name several stereotypical category romance devices that are used WAY too generously in books of this genre. They make my eyes practically roll out of my head.

• Veronica trips on a hallway rug, thus requiring Joe to catch her fall and hold her close. This fulfills the "clumsy heroine" device that is supposed to serve as an endearing trait for most.
• Veronica lets her hair down and dances sexily to relieve stress when she thinks no one's watching. Except that Joe is watching (creepy...). This fulfills the "there's a sexy vixen hiding underneath that strong, no-nonsense exterior" device to make the heroine a bit more desirable to men.
• Veronica falls asleep on a couch and Joe is unable to awaken her. This fulfills the "tired and exhausted heroine needs to be princess carried to bed" device. It speaks for itself.

I can name several other devices carelessly thrown into this book for the sake of building a "special, meant to be romance" for our couple. Veronica is apparently more innocent that she lets on, being almost virginal--in fact, she might as well be virginal because there is no mention of any other romantic relationships in her past or sexual experiences.

And Joe is Mr. Perfect who is apparently able to do anything and everything, and he is right at least 99% of the time. With his perfect perfectness, there's not even any need for Veronica to play consultant because apparently he's a good mimic and doesn't need to do any preparation to become Prince Tedric. And he's better at security matters than the law enforcement agency responsible for security matters.

Let's just do everything Joe's way. He's never wrong.

The only other 1% of the time that Joe is wrong is when he's being his reverse snob self and jumping to conclusions and assumptions. As I'd mentioned in my reading update, Veronica and Joe are two of THE most frustrating protagonists if only because they're stubbornly stuck on what they believe to be true of other people. Rather than learning about others and getting to know other people by asking questions and getting to know them, they just go right ahead and make up their own opinions without facts.

Anyway, if I have to go on, I might upset myself all over again.

If we focus a little less on the romance and more on the action and suspense, the book might be a decent, average read; much more balanced and less aggravating. What little I read of the SEAL operations and the rescue missions and even the pre-planning phases of Operation Make Joe into Prince Tedric--the stuff that came before Veronica and Joe met--were actually not so bad.

It's just a shame that everything seemed to just start rolling downhill as soon as the "Meet Cute" happens and the book becomes so obsessed with the romance that we forget that there are more pressing matters at hand.


Again, for a look at some previous thoughts while I was reading the book, see my reading progress update | Ani's Book Abyss.

***

2016 Reading Challenges:
• Goodreads Reading Challenge
• BookLikes Reading Challenge
• Reading Assignment Challenge
• Bookish Resolutions Challenge
• Mount TBR Challenge

Reading Progress Update: Prince Joe - 40% of frustrating non-story

Prince Joe
by Suzanne Brockmann
Book 1 of Tall, Dark & Dangerous


*First of all, this is a warning of the long rant ahead.
**Second of all:  This is not a review, just a reading update.  But it sure looks like it could be a review, right?


I am becoming increasingly irritated with our main couple.  To the point where I contemplated throwing the book across the room several times.

And then I finally did.

If there ever was a couple who spent more time than anyone else jumping to conclusions, making pre-judged assumptions about one another...

I'm highly disappointed because I'd been looking forward to reading Prince Joe and Suzanne Brockmann's romantic suspense series.  They sounded interesting and had received a lot of really good reviews.

But all I'm getting is a potentially promising premise that sounded like it would be a lot of fun (a sort of gender-reversed "My Fair Lady" with a twist and added suspense), that is essentially ruined by the irritatingly, one-tracked, and frustratingly standard, predictable, cliched romance.  And while I'm not one to completely dismiss a romance for being just that, it's getting very hard not to thoroughly dislike both Veronica and Joe for the fact that neither of them are remotely likable people.

Veronica is exhibiting all forms of typical category romance damsel and cliched virginal heroine traits.  And she's also irrational and she's also wishy-washy about her principles.  I mean, it takes only one flash of "Oh, I might have said something to make Joe sad" for her to lose all sight of why she was rightfully angry at him in the first place.  Or all he has to do is touch her.

Joe is just plain patronizing, condescending, and arrogant.  He might be a nice guy, but that doesn't take away from the fact that he has yet to show that he's actually taking his mission seriously, or that he's taking Veronica seriously.  Why bother letting her hang around to "help transform him" into the perfect Prince Tedric body-and-persona double if he thinks he can do it all by himself just by reading some notes and watching some videos.  And if he really DOES believe he can get all of that done, then maybe he should just prove it and show her!

But neither of these two seem to have ANY intention of working together with each other because they're so caught up in their lust for each other or that "super special feeling that no other person has ever made them feel before", and their own stubborn righteousness about going about their jobs in their own ways.

How about just learning to work together and talking about the operation like civil teammates?  Which is pretty hard to do with Veronica thinks that Joe is a stubborn, uneducated commoner, and Joe believes Veronica to be a spoiled rich brat with a stick up her ass.  And neither of them are willing to just communicate in a professional manner.  On top of that, I'm also getting increasingly incensed with Joe's "Just let me do this my way, Little Lady.  You just sit tight and let the big boys handle the job."


This book is bite sized.  The first half has been nothing but dragged out monologues about how Joe and Veronica are lusting after each other.  And don't even get me started on how Joe is so convinced that the two of them are going to end up having sex no matter how many times Veronica tells him it's not going to happen.

The sad thing is, I know how this book is going to end.  I'm predicting that no matter that Joe's arrogant claims to being able to handle everything without really working with Veronica (or the rest of Prince Tedric's staff and security detail) sound like arrogant claims; in the end, it's all going to work out in Joe's favor because he's created as the typical Perfect Hero who knows everything and is right about everything 99% of the time.

That, right there, just makes me angry.

Am I going to finish this book?  Probably.  Am I going to read the next book?  I don't know.  Both are on my 2016 Reading Assignment list, but I suppose I could always swap one out at the mid-year mark.  Or I could just get a lower score on my Reading Assignment grade this quarter.