DO OR DIE by Suzanne Brockmann

Publisher:  Ballantine
Published:   February 4, 2014
ISBN:  978-0345543790
Genre:   Romantic Suspense, M/M, Interracial
Book format:  Hardback
Obtained via:  Publisher
Reviewed by name and email address:  Gina Gina@loveromancesandmorereviews.com

Two -1/2

Former Navy SEAL Ian Dunn didn’t just leave the SEALs when his tour of duty was up—he went rogue, but in a Robin Hood kind of way.  He studies a bad guy and then, along with his team, goes after them.  Or he did until he got mixed up with the wrong kind of people.  Or did he?

Now, in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, one Martell Griffin appears at the prison with a mission for Ian.  But there is a bit of a fly in Martell’s ointment in the form of Phoebe Kruger. Phoebe insists she has been sent by Ian’s firm to essentially protect his rights in the mission Martell has in mind for him.  But Ian isn’t buying it.  He has his reasons for remaining in prison for another year or so, even at the risk of two young children.  But Martell and Phoebe aren’t going to take no for an answer and before Ian knows it he is pulled out of prison and on his way to see their job through.

That is until Ian decides if he’s in, he’s doing it his way.  He ditches Martell and takes off with Phoebe, heading toward a safe house but first he has some family business to take care of.  Until he knows his family is safe two children he’s never met and who he’s not all that sure are really in trouble, he’s doing things his way.   

I had such high hopes for Suzanne Brockmann’s latest book, DO OR DIE, the first in her new Reluctant Heroes series.  I was looking forward to a non-stop thriller with a lot of romance, heavy on the suspense.  It didn’t quite deliver.  In a world that is becoming ever more PC at times I feel that authors who write contemporary series have a check list of elements they have to follow:

Gay couple:  check
Interracial couple:  check
Cute baby:  check

While Brockmann doesn’t have what often amounts to the gratuitous gay couples I’ve seen a number of authors include in their books, I didn’t quite expect the story to take the turn it did.  While it was billed as a rescue of two kidnapped children, the story focused more on how the father of one of the gay spouses hated his son and would have rather seen him dead than married to another man.  While this is a story that needs to be told, I would not have picked up the book for review had I know this was going to be the main focus of this book.  

Martell was another disappointment.  He’s portrayed as rather clueless with his tongue hanging out over every woman, generally white, he lays his eyes on.  He could have been done as a dashing, hot, and totally together characters.

For the most part the story was pretty pedestrian and if it hadn’t been for review I would have put it on the “do not finish” pile. 

Brockmann fans will love it because it IS a Brockmann.  Me, not so much.

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.