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Tall, Dark & Dangerous #4
Everyday, Average Jones
When Melody needed someone to rescue her, she knew that navy SEAL Harlan "Cowboy" Jones was just the man for the job. But afterward, when things got more intimate, she had to write it off to an adrenaline rush. After all, she was looking for an ordinary guy---and Cowboy was anything but. Too bad their encounter left Melody with more than just memories...
Then Cowboy paid Melody a surprise visit and saw her burgeoning belly. That did it---he had to convince her that they were meant to be together! That he could be as ordinary as the next guy. And he'd do it, too---even if it meant twenty-four-hour-a-day, hands-on contact...
256 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1998
123 people are currently reading
1068 people want to read
About the author
Suzanne Brockmann
253 books3,570 followersAfter childhood plans to become the captain of a starship didn’t pan out, Suzanne Brockmann took her fascination with military history, her respect for the men and women who serve, her reverence for diversity, and her love of storytelling, and explored brave new worlds as a bestselling romance author.
Over the past thirty years she has written sixty-three novels, including her award-winning Troubleshooters series about Navy SEAL heroes and the women—and sometimes men—who win their hearts. Her personal favorite is the one where her most popular character, gay FBI agent Jules Cassidy, wins his happily-ever-after and marries the man of his dreams. Called All Through the Night, this mainstream romance novel with a hero and a hero hit the New York Times hardcover fiction bestseller list. In 2007, Suz donated all of her earnings from this book, in perpetuity, to MassEquality, to help win and preserve equal marriage rights in Massachusetts.
In addition to writing books, Suz writes and produces indie movies and TV including the award-winning romantic comedy The Perfect Wedding. Her recent feature, Out of Body, is streaming on Amazon Prime.
In 2018, Suz was given the Nora Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award from the Romance Writers of America. Her latest projects are Blame It on Rio (Tall, Dark & Dangerous # 14), available in print and e-book from Suzanne Brockmann Books, and Marriage of Inconvenience, a six-episode LBGTQ rom-com TV series, streaming on Dekkoo in April 2023.
Over the past thirty years she has written sixty-three novels, including her award-winning Troubleshooters series about Navy SEAL heroes and the women—and sometimes men—who win their hearts. Her personal favorite is the one where her most popular character, gay FBI agent Jules Cassidy, wins his happily-ever-after and marries the man of his dreams. Called All Through the Night, this mainstream romance novel with a hero and a hero hit the New York Times hardcover fiction bestseller list. In 2007, Suz donated all of her earnings from this book, in perpetuity, to MassEquality, to help win and preserve equal marriage rights in Massachusetts.
In addition to writing books, Suz writes and produces indie movies and TV including the award-winning romantic comedy The Perfect Wedding. Her recent feature, Out of Body, is streaming on Amazon Prime.
In 2018, Suz was given the Nora Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award from the Romance Writers of America. Her latest projects are Blame It on Rio (Tall, Dark & Dangerous # 14), available in print and e-book from Suzanne Brockmann Books, and Marriage of Inconvenience, a six-episode LBGTQ rom-com TV series, streaming on Dekkoo in April 2023.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 172 reviews
November 15, 2019
Una historia que se lee bien y entretiene, pero no es más que un cliché sobre lo que hay que hacer cuando el fruto de no haber usado preservativo viene en camino. Él considera que lo "correcto" es casarse; ella no lo tiene tan claro y considera que seis días de pasión desenfrenada siete meses atrás (de los que se profundiza poco y nada) no son suficientes para fundar un matrimonio. En consecuencia, toda la novela se transforma en una lucha de voluntades respecto de quien tiene la razón. Lamentablemente, es una lucha con cero chispa entre sus personajes.
Creo que el único mérito del libro es que al menos la autora no nos vende un romance idílico en estas circunstancias, ya que durante más de la mitad de la lectura, nuestro SEAL tiene muy claro que insiste en el matrimonio sólo porque es lo "correcto".
Reto Rita 3.0 (noviembre)
Creo que el único mérito del libro es que al menos la autora no nos vende un romance idílico en estas circunstancias, ya que durante más de la mitad de la lectura, nuestro SEAL tiene muy claro que insiste en el matrimonio sólo porque es lo "correcto".
Reto Rita 3.0 (noviembre)
November 25, 2019
A pesar de leerse rápido y bien, esta cuarta entrega de la serie Altos, oscuros y peligrosos puede que sea la que menos me ha convencido hasta ahora. Y eso que empieza genial, pero a medida que pasaban las páginas se me hacía cuesta arriba. Puedo entender las decisiones que toma Melody, la protagonista, y sus objeciones a lo que le propone el protagonista masculino, por ser “lo correcto”, cuando se vuelven a encontrar. Pero, precisamente por eso, me cuesta conciliar ese final con todos sus peros anteriores. Aunque a ver quién es la guapa que se resiste a un tipo al que todos llaman Cowboy, tiene un aire a un Kevin Costner musculado y, a pesar de ser un SEAL, es capaz de emocionarse hasta las lágrimas.
#RetoSusi #RetoRita3
#RetoSusi #RetoRita3
October 15, 2013
Opening Line: "It was extremely likely that she was going to die"
Harlan "Cowboy" Jones is the 4th SEAL to get his story told in Suzanne Brockmann's Tall Dark and Dangerous series. And while as a whole I am loving these well written, addictive stories and their delicious alpha male heroes this one was a letdown. It starts out with a ton of potential; exciting action, suspense, a decent heroine and a larger then life Navy SEAL hero coming to her rescue. Unfortunately Brockmann then pulls out the secret baby card and for the last 3/4's of the book I couldn't stand the heroine, lack of storyline or the ongoing (and going) conflict between them. Luckily we get some great supporting characters and lots of interaction with the rest of Alpha Team 10 to carry us through.
When the American embassy Melody Evans is working in is overtaken by terrorists it doesn't take long for the Navy SEALs to come to their rescue however it does take them 2 days to reach the Middle Eastern border and a flight to freedom. During those tense few days Melody comes to trust her daring and charismatic rescuer with her life. Blaming the extreme circumstances on the ensuing week of passion they share together in Paris. However Melody doesn't want a relationship with a hero who risks his life on a daily basis and is never home, she plans on settling down with an everyday, average man. So when Jones gets called back to duty she thanks him for the laughs and breaks things off.
And this is when things fell apart; 7 months later Jones gets reassigned to the east coast and because he hasn't been able to forget about Melody he looks her up. Shocked to discover that she's pregnant but being an honourable guy Cowboy Jones dons his dress whites and asks her to marry him. The only thing is she doesn't want him, in fact she's got everything worked out so that she doesn't need him either and no amount of coercion on his part will change her mind. This storyline goes on and on with Melody not giving an inch and Jones setting up a tent in her backyard then doing normal suburban type things in the hopes that she will at least put his name on the birth certificate. He's kind of like a dog waiting to be thrown a bone and this got old, fast.
One interesting thing about this story is that (except for one) all of the love scenes are spoken of or thought about in past tense. Now I usually like to be in on the action but this really worked here and I found the memories and sexual tension to be just as sexy as if it were taking place. I just don't know what happened to our heroine because she became very unlikable. Even at the very end I didn't ever and get the feeling that this couple loved each other, I just felt that Jones was going to be in for a lifetime of supplication, diaper changing and begging for sexual favours.
So, my least favourite from the series so far, but still a worthwhile quickie romance and I should mention that the entire TD&D series has been re-released (with fancy new covers) and this one can be found in Tall, Dark and Fearless: along with the excellent tortured hero in Frisco's Kid (Tall, Dark and Dangerous #3).
Harlan "Cowboy" Jones is the 4th SEAL to get his story told in Suzanne Brockmann's Tall Dark and Dangerous series. And while as a whole I am loving these well written, addictive stories and their delicious alpha male heroes this one was a letdown. It starts out with a ton of potential; exciting action, suspense, a decent heroine and a larger then life Navy SEAL hero coming to her rescue. Unfortunately Brockmann then pulls out the secret baby card and for the last 3/4's of the book I couldn't stand the heroine, lack of storyline or the ongoing (and going) conflict between them. Luckily we get some great supporting characters and lots of interaction with the rest of Alpha Team 10 to carry us through.
When the American embassy Melody Evans is working in is overtaken by terrorists it doesn't take long for the Navy SEALs to come to their rescue however it does take them 2 days to reach the Middle Eastern border and a flight to freedom. During those tense few days Melody comes to trust her daring and charismatic rescuer with her life. Blaming the extreme circumstances on the ensuing week of passion they share together in Paris. However Melody doesn't want a relationship with a hero who risks his life on a daily basis and is never home, she plans on settling down with an everyday, average man. So when Jones gets called back to duty she thanks him for the laughs and breaks things off.
And this is when things fell apart; 7 months later Jones gets reassigned to the east coast and because he hasn't been able to forget about Melody he looks her up. Shocked to discover that she's pregnant but being an honourable guy Cowboy Jones dons his dress whites and asks her to marry him. The only thing is she doesn't want him, in fact she's got everything worked out so that she doesn't need him either and no amount of coercion on his part will change her mind. This storyline goes on and on with Melody not giving an inch and Jones setting up a tent in her backyard then doing normal suburban type things in the hopes that she will at least put his name on the birth certificate. He's kind of like a dog waiting to be thrown a bone and this got old, fast.
One interesting thing about this story is that (except for one) all of the love scenes are spoken of or thought about in past tense. Now I usually like to be in on the action but this really worked here and I found the memories and sexual tension to be just as sexy as if it were taking place. I just don't know what happened to our heroine because she became very unlikable. Even at the very end I didn't ever and get the feeling that this couple loved each other, I just felt that Jones was going to be in for a lifetime of supplication, diaper changing and begging for sexual favours.
So, my least favourite from the series so far, but still a worthwhile quickie romance and I should mention that the entire TD&D series has been re-released (with fancy new covers) and this one can be found in Tall, Dark and Fearless: along with the excellent tortured hero in Frisco's Kid (Tall, Dark and Dangerous #3).
May 13, 2011
Started off great. I really Loved Harlan "Cowboy" Jones. I thought he was a fantastic Hero. However, I really hate the secret baby plot device, and after the initial rescue at the Embassy, the story just up and died. I really disliked the heroine immensely. I thought she was just stupid. I can't think of another word besides stupid. The way she treats Cowboy. Geez. She made him jump through so many hoops, and he just patiently waited her out. Sleeping in a tent in her backyard for WEEKS. God, I agree with her sister Brittany. I'll take him!
I did like the storyline involoving twelve year old Andy.
I did like the storyline involoving twelve year old Andy.
April 15, 2010
Jones is a Navy SEAL and Melody is one of the hostages he rescues. They have a short, intense affair and part. Predictably (because this is romancelandia) she turns out to be pregnant and doesn't tell him. Melody lives with her nurse sister in a lovely old house in a small, pleasant town; she wants to stay there at her job with a local politician and find a normal guy who'll be home every night. But when Jones finds out he fathered a child, he's determined to marry the mother.
This is a pretty standard romance plot conflict. Brockmann does a good job developing the characters -- too good, in fact. Melody's objections to marrying Jones are completely valid: he'll spend 11 months out of year away from her, providing little company or help raising the child, she'll be constantly worried that he's in danger, she doesn't want to quit her meaningful, interesting job helping a candidate she believes in get elected governor, she loves her house and doesn't want to move to a navy base where she knows no one, and she knows Jones isn't happy about the idea of marrying her, either. These are objective problems, not misunderstandings. Of course in the end she loves him, so she does marry him, quit her job, and move to be near him, but to me that's not a convincingly happy ending. Given the things that Melody says she wants and cares about, what are the chances she's going to be happy living in crappy military housing waiting around for a guy who will be around maybe 30 days a year? And why is it always the woman who sacrifices everything to be with the man? I'm pretty tired of that message.
This is a pretty standard romance plot conflict. Brockmann does a good job developing the characters -- too good, in fact. Melody's objections to marrying Jones are completely valid: he'll spend 11 months out of year away from her, providing little company or help raising the child, she'll be constantly worried that he's in danger, she doesn't want to quit her meaningful, interesting job helping a candidate she believes in get elected governor, she loves her house and doesn't want to move to a navy base where she knows no one, and she knows Jones isn't happy about the idea of marrying her, either. These are objective problems, not misunderstandings. Of course in the end she loves him, so she does marry him, quit her job, and move to be near him, but to me that's not a convincingly happy ending. Given the things that Melody says she wants and cares about, what are the chances she's going to be happy living in crappy military housing waiting around for a guy who will be around maybe 30 days a year? And why is it always the woman who sacrifices everything to be with the man? I'm pretty tired of that message.
May 27, 2010
This book started out strongly and actually finished okay, but in the middle it failed! Melody, the heroine, started out as such a great character, and then deteriorated into such a selfish, whiny, pig-headed b*tch that I never recovered any respect for her.
*******Spoiler Alert*******
I liked Cowboy, and I respected that he didn't instantly fall in love with Melody, but was willing to do what was right. I dislike the "hidden pregnancy/baby" storyline. There are circumstances where it makes sense, but this one didn't. Her repeated refusal to even consider allowing Cowboy to have anything to do with his own son just galled me.
There was some poignancy at the end, but not enough to redeem the heroine or the book in my eyes.
*******Spoiler Alert*******
I liked Cowboy, and I respected that he didn't instantly fall in love with Melody, but was willing to do what was right. I dislike the "hidden pregnancy/baby" storyline. There are circumstances where it makes sense, but this one didn't. Her repeated refusal to even consider allowing Cowboy to have anything to do with his own son just galled me.
There was some poignancy at the end, but not enough to redeem the heroine or the book in my eyes.
December 9, 2019
Una historia bonita, aunque, quizás, sin la misma profundidad que las anteriores.
En esta ocasión, volvemos a salirnos del radio de acción de los Seals (la lucha contra el terrorismo) para sumergirnos en un pequeño pueblo del área de Boston. Nos encontramos con personajes típicos de ese escenario: las cotillas del pueblo, el sheriff, un niño problemático... y las casas con porche y jardín.
La trama se desarrolla en torno al tira y afloja de los protagonistas mientras descubren, o redescubren, sus sentimientos, y quizás ha sido esto lo que ha hecho que la novela me pareciese un poco floja, al menos la primera parte. En la segunda parte hay algo más de acción y más sentimientos profundos.
Cowboy salvó la vida de Melody y luego tuvo un romance con ella. Melody regresó a su casa con algo más que un recuerdo de aquel atractivo vaquero de los Seals. Cuando Cowboy descubre ella está embarazada, todo su mundo parece venirse abajo, aunque está dispuesto a hacer lo correcto. Y es que, para un Seal, su mundo está ahí, en la acción, en la posibilidad de arriesgar la propia vida para salvar otras, en la incertidumbre y el peligro. Es impresionante la devoción que tienen por ese cuerpo de operaciones especiales (aunque, sé de primera mano, que es así en la vida real). Esa es su vida, y no la conciben de otra forma.
Al inicio, Cowboy parece algo inmaduro -a pesar de que tener un gran sentido del honor que le impulsa a querer casarse con Melody para hacer lo correcto- porque solo piensa en el placer y la satisfacción física, en el deseo que le provoca aquella mujer. Sus conversaciones son algo superficiales, y no da la sensación de que tenga un carácter muy desarrollado como personaje. La autora no nos deja ver ningún rasgo especial de él, aparte de su buen humor, de su trato dulce y de que consigue siempre lo que quiere. Después, conforme avanza la historia y, especialmente, casi al final de la misma, muestra un poco más de sentimientos.
Melody tampoco me ha parecido un gran personaje (me ha gustado más Brittany, su hermana). Decidida, eso sí, y muy terca. Hace todo lo posible por no rendirse ante Cowboy, pero algunas veces me preguntaba si tenía sentido esa lucha de voluntades (o de cabezonería, más bien). Quizás sea porque esperaba un poco más de ellos tras haber leído el prólogo, pero bueno, la historia es bonita, y me ha gustado poder ver al resto del equipo Seal y cómo son algo más que simples compañeros de trabajo.
Algo que me ha llamado la atención es que, en las cuatro novelas leídas hasta ahora, todos los protagonistas masculinos provienen de familias sino desestructuradas, sí fragmentadas, donde ha habido una falta notoria de cariño que, de alguna forma, ha quedado suplida por el orgullo de haber conseguido convertirse en Seal. Quizás por eso están también más predispuestos a formar familias unidas.
Esta es una historia para disfrutar con tranquilidad, sin esperar grandes emociones, pero que no desmerece al resto de la serie, ya sea por el buen estilo de la autora o por la aparición de secundarios que atraen la atención.
En esta ocasión, volvemos a salirnos del radio de acción de los Seals (la lucha contra el terrorismo) para sumergirnos en un pequeño pueblo del área de Boston. Nos encontramos con personajes típicos de ese escenario: las cotillas del pueblo, el sheriff, un niño problemático... y las casas con porche y jardín.
La trama se desarrolla en torno al tira y afloja de los protagonistas mientras descubren, o redescubren, sus sentimientos, y quizás ha sido esto lo que ha hecho que la novela me pareciese un poco floja, al menos la primera parte. En la segunda parte hay algo más de acción y más sentimientos profundos.
Cowboy salvó la vida de Melody y luego tuvo un romance con ella. Melody regresó a su casa con algo más que un recuerdo de aquel atractivo vaquero de los Seals. Cuando Cowboy descubre ella está embarazada, todo su mundo parece venirse abajo, aunque está dispuesto a hacer lo correcto. Y es que, para un Seal, su mundo está ahí, en la acción, en la posibilidad de arriesgar la propia vida para salvar otras, en la incertidumbre y el peligro. Es impresionante la devoción que tienen por ese cuerpo de operaciones especiales (aunque, sé de primera mano, que es así en la vida real). Esa es su vida, y no la conciben de otra forma.
Al inicio, Cowboy parece algo inmaduro -a pesar de que tener un gran sentido del honor que le impulsa a querer casarse con Melody para hacer lo correcto- porque solo piensa en el placer y la satisfacción física, en el deseo que le provoca aquella mujer. Sus conversaciones son algo superficiales, y no da la sensación de que tenga un carácter muy desarrollado como personaje. La autora no nos deja ver ningún rasgo especial de él, aparte de su buen humor, de su trato dulce y de que consigue siempre lo que quiere. Después, conforme avanza la historia y, especialmente, casi al final de la misma, muestra un poco más de sentimientos.
Melody tampoco me ha parecido un gran personaje (me ha gustado más Brittany, su hermana). Decidida, eso sí, y muy terca. Hace todo lo posible por no rendirse ante Cowboy, pero algunas veces me preguntaba si tenía sentido esa lucha de voluntades (o de cabezonería, más bien). Quizás sea porque esperaba un poco más de ellos tras haber leído el prólogo, pero bueno, la historia es bonita, y me ha gustado poder ver al resto del equipo Seal y cómo son algo más que simples compañeros de trabajo.
Algo que me ha llamado la atención es que, en las cuatro novelas leídas hasta ahora, todos los protagonistas masculinos provienen de familias sino desestructuradas, sí fragmentadas, donde ha habido una falta notoria de cariño que, de alguna forma, ha quedado suplida por el orgullo de haber conseguido convertirse en Seal. Quizás por eso están también más predispuestos a formar familias unidas.
Esta es una historia para disfrutar con tranquilidad, sin esperar grandes emociones, pero que no desmerece al resto de la serie, ya sea por el buen estilo de la autora o por la aparición de secundarios que atraen la atención.
January 13, 2014
This was really good, but Melody (the lead female) was kinda getting on my nerves.
Harlan (Cowboy) Jones was wonderful.
I did however, really enjoy reading the H/h's journey of getting to know one another (outside of a hostile situation) and learning about themselves.
Now onto book 5
Harlan (Cowboy) Jones was wonderful.
I did however, really enjoy reading the H/h's journey of getting to know one another (outside of a hostile situation) and learning about themselves.
Now onto book 5
November 18, 2019
No me ha gustado, la verdad.
March 27, 2014
It started well, with a first chapter or prologue, action-packed and showing lots of potential for great interactions between Melody and Harlan. However it all went to the drain from the second chapter onwards.
This second chapter started 7 months later when he tried to get in touch with her, got rebuffed, went there to see her and realize she's pregnant.
Of course, what did he do? He immediately offered to do his duty, that was getting married so that the baby would not be illegitimate - that particular trope in contemporary romance irritates me to no end and from an author whom I know to be modern and open-minded as Suzanne Brockmann, this was even more disappointing. On the other hand, Melody (sorry, I can't call her the heroine, as I ended up blowing, puffing and getting angry every time she appeared on a page) decided that she wanted only an everyday guy as her husband, so she refused the marriage offer. And also she felt like a beached whale and he could not possibly really want her because she had unwillingly trapped him by getting pregnant. She refused ALL discussions until the very end, way way too late. And even when she should be delivering her baby, she ended up behaving like a stubborn spoiled child willing to have all her tantrums realized.
There's only a few scenes that I liked in this book, which related to the Fincom training program and to Andy, the 12 yo just arrived in the foster home. The one that showed Cowboy's reaction to the child's trying to buy cigarettes and beer really made me smile.
Last thing, except for this first chapter/prologue, there was NO action, no suspense, no nothing, but bad romance between a not-too-bright but nice guy and a stupid idiot.
Honestly that was one of the only 2 TDD books I had not read before and I really could have done without.
This second chapter started 7 months later when he tried to get in touch with her, got rebuffed, went there to see her and realize she's pregnant.
Of course, what did he do? He immediately offered to do his duty, that was getting married so that the baby would not be illegitimate - that particular trope in contemporary romance irritates me to no end and from an author whom I know to be modern and open-minded as Suzanne Brockmann, this was even more disappointing. On the other hand, Melody (sorry, I can't call her the heroine, as I ended up blowing, puffing and getting angry every time she appeared on a page) decided that she wanted only an everyday guy as her husband, so she refused the marriage offer. And also she felt like a beached whale and he could not possibly really want her because she had unwillingly trapped him by getting pregnant. She refused ALL discussions until the very end, way way too late. And even when she should be delivering her baby, she ended up behaving like a stubborn spoiled child willing to have all her tantrums realized.
There's only a few scenes that I liked in this book, which related to the Fincom training program and to Andy, the 12 yo just arrived in the foster home. The one that showed Cowboy's reaction to the child's trying to buy cigarettes and beer really made me smile.
Last thing, except for this first chapter/prologue, there was NO action, no suspense, no nothing, but bad romance between a not-too-bright but nice guy and a stupid idiot.
Honestly that was one of the only 2 TDD books I had not read before and I really could have done without.
April 12, 2013
I almost put this book down half-read because I disliked Melody so much. She was fine in the beginning, but her deciding she knew more about Harlan's feelings than Harlan got to be really, really annoying and repetitive. The only reason I kept going was because because it's part of a series.
October 8, 2011
Harlan "Cowboy" Jones was on the SEAL team assigned to rescue three embassy workers from a country taken over by terrorists. Melody Evans was one of the three and from the moment Cowboy showed up, she had absolute trust that he would save her life. Following the rescue, they were inseparable for days until it was time for her to return to her life in Appleton, Massachusetts and she ended it, knowing what they had wouldn't last.
Seven months later, Cowboy shows up in Appleton, not having been able to forget Melody. To his surprise, he discovers she's pregnant with his child and committed to raising this child alone. He begins his mission to prove that they need to marry for the sake of this child.
There are two stories here, the first and last halves of the book. The first was fantastic, with an exciting operation surrounding the rescue of Melody and her co-workers. It’s always great to see the SEAL teams in action. The chemistry between Melody and Cowboy was powerful and the pages sizzled with that connection. However, I don’t understand why Brockmann omitted Cowboy and Melody's post rescue interlude, granted it was revisited in some detail. The second half was laborious as we waited for Melody to meet Cowboy at least halfway. He made extreme sacrifices and she made him prove himself over and over again. On one hand, I understood Melody's reluctance to succumb to Cowboy since they really hadn't had an opportunity to "know" each other. On the other hand, you reach a point where you commit to try if you say you want the best for your child. Her stubbornness was maddening, to the extent where I almost wanted him to walk away.
Bottom line, though, I enjoyed the book even if the second half made it weaker. Cowboy is so appealing and sexy and handsome and…well I digress. I liked Melody but she drove me nuts. Maybe it was the hormones. My rating is based on the strength of the first half.
Seven months later, Cowboy shows up in Appleton, not having been able to forget Melody. To his surprise, he discovers she's pregnant with his child and committed to raising this child alone. He begins his mission to prove that they need to marry for the sake of this child.
There are two stories here, the first and last halves of the book. The first was fantastic, with an exciting operation surrounding the rescue of Melody and her co-workers. It’s always great to see the SEAL teams in action. The chemistry between Melody and Cowboy was powerful and the pages sizzled with that connection. However, I don’t understand why Brockmann omitted Cowboy and Melody's post rescue interlude, granted it was revisited in some detail. The second half was laborious as we waited for Melody to meet Cowboy at least halfway. He made extreme sacrifices and she made him prove himself over and over again. On one hand, I understood Melody's reluctance to succumb to Cowboy since they really hadn't had an opportunity to "know" each other. On the other hand, you reach a point where you commit to try if you say you want the best for your child. Her stubbornness was maddening, to the extent where I almost wanted him to walk away.
Bottom line, though, I enjoyed the book even if the second half made it weaker. Cowboy is so appealing and sexy and handsome and…well I digress. I liked Melody but she drove me nuts. Maybe it was the hormones. My rating is based on the strength of the first half.
March 12, 2018
UN BENDITO CINCO.
Se conocen cuando él la salva en el medio oriente de ser una rehén americana. Después de 48 horas intensas de acción y peligro, descargan toda esa tensión entre ellos en los cuartos de un hotel durante SEIS días. Siete meses después, un mensaje inesperado en el buzón del teléfono la pone en alerta y le trae nuevamente los recuerdos de esos días ardientes. Y aunque lo rechaza, él igual se presenta a su puerta, para darse cuenta de que los meses no habían pasado en vano, al menos no en cuerpo, abultado que aloja un bebé. A su bebé.
Es una mezcla de emociones desde el inicio, porque empieza con mucha acción y en todo momento sabes que ellos se acostaran. Pero aún cuando pasa, es como, ¿y ahora? Pero lo que jamás me esperaba era que ella lo rechazara de forma tan cortante, incluso me desesperabas. ¡¡TIENES A ESE DIOS GRIEGO AHÍ A TUS PIES Y LO RECHAZAS POR MERO ORGULLO, POR ESTUPIDEZ!! Pero creo que me enamoré aún más cuando lo vi con su carpa en el patio... sentí que el corazón se me aceleraba. Y es que pese a ser militar, a matar personas a sangre fría, Harlan puede tocarla con cuidado, puede ser atento y considerado, puede ser dulce.
LLORÉ con lo de Andy. Lloré por él. Por su culpa, lloré porque al fin algo que estaba saliendo bien se desmoronó. Lloré porque sólo era un niño que necesitaba amor. Pero sobre todo, lloré en el final, cuando le aprueban la petición a Britt.
Es un libro precioso. Nada de meloseadera extrema, todo se da como se tiene que dar.
Se conocen cuando él la salva en el medio oriente de ser una rehén americana. Después de 48 horas intensas de acción y peligro, descargan toda esa tensión entre ellos en los cuartos de un hotel durante SEIS días. Siete meses después, un mensaje inesperado en el buzón del teléfono la pone en alerta y le trae nuevamente los recuerdos de esos días ardientes. Y aunque lo rechaza, él igual se presenta a su puerta, para darse cuenta de que los meses no habían pasado en vano, al menos no en cuerpo, abultado que aloja un bebé. A su bebé.
Es una mezcla de emociones desde el inicio, porque empieza con mucha acción y en todo momento sabes que ellos se acostaran. Pero aún cuando pasa, es como, ¿y ahora? Pero lo que jamás me esperaba era que ella lo rechazara de forma tan cortante, incluso me desesperabas. ¡¡TIENES A ESE DIOS GRIEGO AHÍ A TUS PIES Y LO RECHAZAS POR MERO ORGULLO, POR ESTUPIDEZ!! Pero creo que me enamoré aún más cuando lo vi con su carpa en el patio... sentí que el corazón se me aceleraba. Y es que pese a ser militar, a matar personas a sangre fría, Harlan puede tocarla con cuidado, puede ser atento y considerado, puede ser dulce.
LLORÉ con lo de Andy. Lloré por él. Por su culpa, lloré porque al fin algo que estaba saliendo bien se desmoronó. Lloré porque sólo era un niño que necesitaba amor. Pero sobre todo, lloré en el final, cuando le aprueban la petición a Britt.
Es un libro precioso. Nada de meloseadera extrema, todo se da como se tiene que dar.
November 28, 2021
I’m going to have to agree with all of the other negative reviews of this book. The beginning was great. The rest of it? Not so much. And the problem was the heroine.
All in all, it just wasn’t a very satisfying read. Mel treated Jones like dirt throughout the whole book and only changed her mind at the very, very end when the magical ILYs were exchanged. Jones took so much abuse from her and just kept coming back for more. And none of their legitimate issues ever got resolved, they just magically became okay with them now. Lame
All in all, it just wasn’t a very satisfying read. Mel treated Jones like dirt throughout the whole book and only changed her mind at the very, very end when the magical ILYs were exchanged. Jones took so much abuse from her and just kept coming back for more. And none of their legitimate issues ever got resolved, they just magically became okay with them now. Lame
August 7, 2014
The beginning and the ending are 5 star. The middle... lacked a lot for me. Overall it was a good book, not as good as the previous books, but still a good book. I especially liked that in this book SB wrote about the actual SEAL mission.
Melody is an Administrative Assistant for an Ambassador in some armpit middle eastern country whose government has been overthrown. She and two others are being held hostage and SEAL Team 10 Alpha Squad is sent to the rescue. Cowboy Harlen Jones is tasked with the convincing the hostages to go. Melody instantly trusts Jones, the other two have their doubts. Melody and Jones really, really hit it off and end up spending the next 6 days in bed. After that Melody says had a great time, so-long to Jones. Fast forward 7 months and Jones decides that he still has a thing for Melody, contacts her, she rebuffs him, he shows up in her hometown and she is...very pregnant. Jones does the math and decides it is his baby. The rest of the book Jones is trying to get Melody to marry him.
Melody is an Administrative Assistant for an Ambassador in some armpit middle eastern country whose government has been overthrown. She and two others are being held hostage and SEAL Team 10 Alpha Squad is sent to the rescue. Cowboy Harlen Jones is tasked with the convincing the hostages to go. Melody instantly trusts Jones, the other two have their doubts. Melody and Jones really, really hit it off and end up spending the next 6 days in bed. After that Melody says had a great time, so-long to Jones. Fast forward 7 months and Jones decides that he still has a thing for Melody, contacts her, she rebuffs him, he shows up in her hometown and she is...very pregnant. Jones does the math and decides it is his baby. The rest of the book Jones is trying to get Melody to marry him.
March 8, 2009
I finished this in one sitting. I picked the book up just before bedtime and ending up staying until early morning.
It's typical, feel-good fluff that I expect from Brockmann's writing style. I like the SEAL hero in this book, and the heroine started out strong for me. However, the reason, I give it only three stars, is that somewhere in the middle I got tired of the conflict. I think the reasons the female was given for not accepting the hero's marriage proposal got weaker and weaker, and although that is probably meant to be, I think it got "squeezed" out far too long.
Still, it was a good read, and I did not regret staying up for it.
It's typical, feel-good fluff that I expect from Brockmann's writing style. I like the SEAL hero in this book, and the heroine started out strong for me. However, the reason, I give it only three stars, is that somewhere in the middle I got tired of the conflict. I think the reasons the female was given for not accepting the hero's marriage proposal got weaker and weaker, and although that is probably meant to be, I think it got "squeezed" out far too long.
Still, it was a good read, and I did not regret staying up for it.
May 30, 2013
Cute little romance novel. Leaves you wondering though...Do Navy SEALS take their dress whites EVERYWHERE with them? "Gee, I'm going to an unnamed country to rescue hostages, better take my dress whites!" or "Going to go see a girl I had relations with and want to get lucky, better take dress whites!" (I figure there must be a top secret government laundry bag in their somewhere to keep those uniforms white and unwrinkled!)
December 13, 2017
Me gustan historias como esta en donde los hombres no temen llorar.
November 19, 2022
1998, Harlequin, secret-baby, small-town romance with a slam-bang beginning
For the past six months, 25-year-old Melody (“Mel”) Evans has worked as the administrative assistant to the American ambassador in a Middle Eastern country. Until the government is suddenly overthrown by a violent, terrorist coup. Trapped in the embassy as a prisoner of the terrorists, she is convinced that she will be dead within hours, when Navy SEAL Team Ten's Alpha Squad rescues her and the two other American captives.
From the first moment that Harlan ("Cowboy") Jones encounters Melody, he feels a lightning-bolt of emotional connection to her that he has never felt toward any other woman before—especially not a woman he has helped to rescue. Upping the intensity even more is the fact that Melody obviously feels the same way about him. She also trusts him utterly, and her trust is clearly well placed. Cowboy plays a major role in getting her safely out of the war-torn country.
Immediately after the rescue operation ends, Melody and Cowboy spend six sex-drenched days together, only leaving their hotel room for dinner every night. During all of their passionate encounters, they are careful to use a condom, except for one wild, mile-high-club encounter on a flight to Paris. At the end of their torrid six days, Cowboy is summoned from his temporary leave for a new high-risk assignment. He has no intention writing off Mel as just another meaningless fling, but before he can ask her to stay in close touch with him, she solemnly informs him that, from her perspective, a fling is all that it has been between them, merely the predictable result of an overload of hormones and adrenaline. Cowboy is crushed when she declares she has no desire to ever see him again.
Seven months later, back in Mel’s hometown, the fictional small burg, Appleton, Massachusetts, Melody is in the third trimester of a difficult pregnancy. From the very first month, she has been enduring thrice-daily nausea, overwhelming exhaustion, and such severe dizziness that she occasionally collapses in a dead faint. She has been living in the huge, Victorian house that she grew up in with her older, divorced sister, Brittany, and working part-time on the election campaign of a local politician. She never expected to hear from Cowboy again until, out of the blue, she receives a call from him. He wants to come see her, but she firmly lets him know that her decision about their potential for a committed relationship has not changed, and she does not tell him that she is pregnant.
Cowboy has not forgotten Mel all these months apart. In fact, his sense of attachment to her is so strong, his fellow SEALs have teased him about taking vows of celibacy, because he has not so much as looked at another woman since Melody. After Mel shuts him down on the phone, he is determined to talk to her in person, because he is convinced if they are physically near each other, the sparks will reignite between them, and she will want to resume their affair. He manages to get an extended leave and shows up on her doorstep, much to Mel’s dismay. But faced with Mel’s burgeoning belly, poor Cowboy is in far shock more than she. When he learns she is seven months along, there is no doubt in his mind that the baby is his, and that it was conceived on that risqué plane ride to Paris. Determined to do right by Mel and his unborn child, he proposes marriage, even though the very idea of becoming a husband and father terrifies him more than any SEAL mission he has ever been on.
Unlike the first two books in this series, all of the SEAL-team action-adventure occurs at the beginning of this novel rather than at the end. For me, personally, that section of the story is, hands down, the best part of this book. During that terrifying escape, Mel displays enormous bravery, adaptability and endurance, which makes it clear that she is a worthy partner for the highly skilled, courageous and honorable Cowboy. They have a great deal of mutual respect for each other, and the emotional connection between the two of them is explosively intense. Unfortunately, once we arrive at the small-town portion of this story, Mel stubbornly persists in rejecting Cowboy while insisting that her ideal man is “everyday and average.” This plotting choice morphs Mel from a highly sympathetic, fascinating, active protagonist into a frustratingly passive, risk-averse one. This is an inexplicable attitude, because it flies in the face of the reasonably expected function of action-adventure in a romantic-suspense plot.
In virtually every romance novel in which the protagonists are strangers who are embroiled in perilous adventures together, in the process they become the equivalent of “foxhole buddies,” an unbreakable, lifetime bond, which is created when people face and overcome terrible danger together. In the process, the deepest and most heroic layers of their personalities are revealed, which is definitely true for both Mel and Cowboy. When you add on top of that, the fact that they have an enormous amount of sexual compatibility, either of them rejecting each other would need to be massively well motivated such that the one doing the rejecting does not look like a complete jerk—something that is sadly lacking in this story. After the beyond-amazing connection Mel has experienced with Cowboy, for her to insist that he is no good for her, or her for him, is analogous in this romance novel to the protagonist of a paranormal novel insisting, right up until the end of the story, that magic doesn’t exist.
There are several additional subplots which occur in Appleton which allow Cowboy to display some of his manifold, superhero, SEAL abilities, even though this small town is not filled with murderous villains and impossible odds stacked against him, as is the case with the treacherously evil, backwater, southern town that is the setting of Forever Blue, Book 2 of this series.
If judged as an ordinary, non-action-adventure, small-town romance, there are some cute subplots in the Appleton portion of this novel which involve some likeable subcharacters. In particular, there is a two-hankie plot involving Andy Marshall, a feisty, 12-year-old foster child who lives next door to Mel and her older, divorced sister, Brittany, who is a nurse who works at the local hospital. And Brittany, herself, provides a crucial, matchmaker function as a means to push Mel from her stubborn rejection of Cowboy, as well as being a major factor in the HEA ending of the Andy subplot.
The few, brief scenes in which fellow members of the Alpha Squad have cameo appearances are also entertaining. These SEALs include: Captain Joe "Cat" Catalanotto, Lieutenant Carter "Blue" McCoy, Senior Chief Daryl "Harvard" Becker, Luke “Lucky” O'Donlon, Wesley "Wes" Skelly, and Bobby Taylor.
Mel and Cowboy’s HEA, which is an essential part of every romance novel, is well motivated and quite lovely. There is also a brief epilogue that shows them living out their HEA, which is always desirable in a romance novel.
It's not essential to read the (as of 2022) 13 books in Brockmann's Tall, Dark and Dangerous series in order, but it greatly adds to one's enjoyment to do so. Each book sets up the book that immediately follows it, introducing the SEAL who will be the hero of the next book, along with pertinent backstory, for the first 11 books, which were originally published under Silhouette Intimate Moments, the Harlequin romantic-suspense imprint. In the case of this book, Harvard is frequently present in significant ways, and he is the protagonist of the next book in this series, Harvard’s Education. The last two books in this series, written many years after #11, are slightly different in that regard. In particular, the hero of #13 King’s Ransom is an important subcharacter in #3 Frisco’s Kid. This is the order in which this series was originally released:
1) Prince Joe, June 1996
2) Forever Blue, October 1996
3) Frisco's Kid, January 1997
4) Everyday, Average Jones, August 1998
5) Harvard's Education, October 1998
6) It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, December 1998 (Note: the 2010 audiobook is titled Hawken's Heart)
7) The Admiral's Bride, November 1999
8) Identity: Unknown, January 2000
9) Get Lucky, March 2000
10) Taylor's Temptation, July 2001
11) Night Watch, September 2003
12) SEAL Camp, May, 2018
13) King’s Ransom, December, 2020
I rate this book as follows:
Heroine: 5 stars beginning, 2 stars middle, 4 stars end of the book
Hero: 5 stars
Romance Plot: 5 stars beginning, 2 stars middle, 4 stars end of the book
Action-Adventure Plot: 5 stars
Subplot Orphan Andy: 5 stars
Subplot Cowboy and Harvard: 5 stars
Overall: 4 stars
For the past six months, 25-year-old Melody (“Mel”) Evans has worked as the administrative assistant to the American ambassador in a Middle Eastern country. Until the government is suddenly overthrown by a violent, terrorist coup. Trapped in the embassy as a prisoner of the terrorists, she is convinced that she will be dead within hours, when Navy SEAL Team Ten's Alpha Squad rescues her and the two other American captives.
From the first moment that Harlan ("Cowboy") Jones encounters Melody, he feels a lightning-bolt of emotional connection to her that he has never felt toward any other woman before—especially not a woman he has helped to rescue. Upping the intensity even more is the fact that Melody obviously feels the same way about him. She also trusts him utterly, and her trust is clearly well placed. Cowboy plays a major role in getting her safely out of the war-torn country.
Immediately after the rescue operation ends, Melody and Cowboy spend six sex-drenched days together, only leaving their hotel room for dinner every night. During all of their passionate encounters, they are careful to use a condom, except for one wild, mile-high-club encounter on a flight to Paris. At the end of their torrid six days, Cowboy is summoned from his temporary leave for a new high-risk assignment. He has no intention writing off Mel as just another meaningless fling, but before he can ask her to stay in close touch with him, she solemnly informs him that, from her perspective, a fling is all that it has been between them, merely the predictable result of an overload of hormones and adrenaline. Cowboy is crushed when she declares she has no desire to ever see him again.
Seven months later, back in Mel’s hometown, the fictional small burg, Appleton, Massachusetts, Melody is in the third trimester of a difficult pregnancy. From the very first month, she has been enduring thrice-daily nausea, overwhelming exhaustion, and such severe dizziness that she occasionally collapses in a dead faint. She has been living in the huge, Victorian house that she grew up in with her older, divorced sister, Brittany, and working part-time on the election campaign of a local politician. She never expected to hear from Cowboy again until, out of the blue, she receives a call from him. He wants to come see her, but she firmly lets him know that her decision about their potential for a committed relationship has not changed, and she does not tell him that she is pregnant.
Cowboy has not forgotten Mel all these months apart. In fact, his sense of attachment to her is so strong, his fellow SEALs have teased him about taking vows of celibacy, because he has not so much as looked at another woman since Melody. After Mel shuts him down on the phone, he is determined to talk to her in person, because he is convinced if they are physically near each other, the sparks will reignite between them, and she will want to resume their affair. He manages to get an extended leave and shows up on her doorstep, much to Mel’s dismay. But faced with Mel’s burgeoning belly, poor Cowboy is in far shock more than she. When he learns she is seven months along, there is no doubt in his mind that the baby is his, and that it was conceived on that risqué plane ride to Paris. Determined to do right by Mel and his unborn child, he proposes marriage, even though the very idea of becoming a husband and father terrifies him more than any SEAL mission he has ever been on.
Unlike the first two books in this series, all of the SEAL-team action-adventure occurs at the beginning of this novel rather than at the end. For me, personally, that section of the story is, hands down, the best part of this book. During that terrifying escape, Mel displays enormous bravery, adaptability and endurance, which makes it clear that she is a worthy partner for the highly skilled, courageous and honorable Cowboy. They have a great deal of mutual respect for each other, and the emotional connection between the two of them is explosively intense. Unfortunately, once we arrive at the small-town portion of this story, Mel stubbornly persists in rejecting Cowboy while insisting that her ideal man is “everyday and average.” This plotting choice morphs Mel from a highly sympathetic, fascinating, active protagonist into a frustratingly passive, risk-averse one. This is an inexplicable attitude, because it flies in the face of the reasonably expected function of action-adventure in a romantic-suspense plot.
In virtually every romance novel in which the protagonists are strangers who are embroiled in perilous adventures together, in the process they become the equivalent of “foxhole buddies,” an unbreakable, lifetime bond, which is created when people face and overcome terrible danger together. In the process, the deepest and most heroic layers of their personalities are revealed, which is definitely true for both Mel and Cowboy. When you add on top of that, the fact that they have an enormous amount of sexual compatibility, either of them rejecting each other would need to be massively well motivated such that the one doing the rejecting does not look like a complete jerk—something that is sadly lacking in this story. After the beyond-amazing connection Mel has experienced with Cowboy, for her to insist that he is no good for her, or her for him, is analogous in this romance novel to the protagonist of a paranormal novel insisting, right up until the end of the story, that magic doesn’t exist.
There are several additional subplots which occur in Appleton which allow Cowboy to display some of his manifold, superhero, SEAL abilities, even though this small town is not filled with murderous villains and impossible odds stacked against him, as is the case with the treacherously evil, backwater, southern town that is the setting of Forever Blue, Book 2 of this series.
If judged as an ordinary, non-action-adventure, small-town romance, there are some cute subplots in the Appleton portion of this novel which involve some likeable subcharacters. In particular, there is a two-hankie plot involving Andy Marshall, a feisty, 12-year-old foster child who lives next door to Mel and her older, divorced sister, Brittany, who is a nurse who works at the local hospital. And Brittany, herself, provides a crucial, matchmaker function as a means to push Mel from her stubborn rejection of Cowboy, as well as being a major factor in the HEA ending of the Andy subplot.
The few, brief scenes in which fellow members of the Alpha Squad have cameo appearances are also entertaining. These SEALs include: Captain Joe "Cat" Catalanotto, Lieutenant Carter "Blue" McCoy, Senior Chief Daryl "Harvard" Becker, Luke “Lucky” O'Donlon, Wesley "Wes" Skelly, and Bobby Taylor.
Mel and Cowboy’s HEA, which is an essential part of every romance novel, is well motivated and quite lovely. There is also a brief epilogue that shows them living out their HEA, which is always desirable in a romance novel.
It's not essential to read the (as of 2022) 13 books in Brockmann's Tall, Dark and Dangerous series in order, but it greatly adds to one's enjoyment to do so. Each book sets up the book that immediately follows it, introducing the SEAL who will be the hero of the next book, along with pertinent backstory, for the first 11 books, which were originally published under Silhouette Intimate Moments, the Harlequin romantic-suspense imprint. In the case of this book, Harvard is frequently present in significant ways, and he is the protagonist of the next book in this series, Harvard’s Education. The last two books in this series, written many years after #11, are slightly different in that regard. In particular, the hero of #13 King’s Ransom is an important subcharacter in #3 Frisco’s Kid. This is the order in which this series was originally released:
1) Prince Joe, June 1996
2) Forever Blue, October 1996
3) Frisco's Kid, January 1997
4) Everyday, Average Jones, August 1998
5) Harvard's Education, October 1998
6) It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, December 1998 (Note: the 2010 audiobook is titled Hawken's Heart)
7) The Admiral's Bride, November 1999
8) Identity: Unknown, January 2000
9) Get Lucky, March 2000
10) Taylor's Temptation, July 2001
11) Night Watch, September 2003
12) SEAL Camp, May, 2018
13) King’s Ransom, December, 2020
I rate this book as follows:
Heroine: 5 stars beginning, 2 stars middle, 4 stars end of the book
Hero: 5 stars
Romance Plot: 5 stars beginning, 2 stars middle, 4 stars end of the book
Action-Adventure Plot: 5 stars
Subplot Orphan Andy: 5 stars
Subplot Cowboy and Harvard: 5 stars
Overall: 4 stars
December 24, 2018
Truly liked this one!
Different from the rest of the series.
Different from the rest of the series.
December 31, 2015
This book was such a disappointment. It started out great and exciting. The hero is a Navy SEAL. The heroine seemed smart and strong, up to the task of being equal partners with a Navy Seal built like a Greek god. That's how it started...
It deteriorated to not only a secret baby plot, but also a paranormal book apparently as Melody (the heroine) was apparently able to read the heroes thoughts, feelings, and true motivations, no matter what he said (yeah, major eye roll). I didn't mind the secret baby plot device so much, as I've seen it done well in other books before. However in this book it grew to hair pulling out, banging your head against the wall, throwing the book across the room proportions. So let's hash it out....
So Melody is pregnant with Cowboy's baby after he recuses her from the Middle East. Melody goes to the local gossip meal meeting and announces it to them, but doesn't even bother to give the father a heads up? Really?? She had built it up in her mind that he wouldn't want the baby. Wouldn't want her (even though he wanted to have a relationship with her and she broke it off). She had it built up in her mind that he only wanted to do the right thing by her out of some unmentioned code, and not out of a desire to get to know their child and be in that child's life. No matter what HE said, she was sure she knew his mind better than him. I cannot tell you how aggravating that merry-go-round of illogic became. I honestly didn't mind so much that she didn't want to marry him the minute he showed up. I would have been annoyed if she had caved so easily, but for her NOT to be willing to come up with some kind of compromise with him really was just selfish (and illegal, father's have parental rights too!)
Really the last straw for me was during a life or death situation mid-way through the book, during which Cowboy ordered Melody to safety, twice!!! While she just stood there. Now, ok, I will make room for the possibility that she was frozen by fear although that is not what we saw of her when they were in the Middle East. So afterwards he yells at her for not doing what she was told, and rightly so, clearly he was afraid for her. She instead has the nerve to lash out at him for ordering her around! Really?? He told her to go to safety but he's the bad guy?! And HE apologizes!! ugh!! After that point in the book, I flipped quickly through the rest of the book just to get to see how things would end with Andy (the kid in the book).
I have to say this one wasn't worth the read. Cowboy was practically a dream come true. Melody was a complete nightmare.
It deteriorated to not only a secret baby plot, but also a paranormal book apparently as Melody (the heroine) was apparently able to read the heroes thoughts, feelings, and true motivations, no matter what he said (yeah, major eye roll). I didn't mind the secret baby plot device so much, as I've seen it done well in other books before. However in this book it grew to hair pulling out, banging your head against the wall, throwing the book across the room proportions. So let's hash it out....
So Melody is pregnant with Cowboy's baby after he recuses her from the Middle East. Melody goes to the local gossip meal meeting and announces it to them, but doesn't even bother to give the father a heads up? Really?? She had built it up in her mind that he wouldn't want the baby. Wouldn't want her (even though he wanted to have a relationship with her and she broke it off). She had it built up in her mind that he only wanted to do the right thing by her out of some unmentioned code, and not out of a desire to get to know their child and be in that child's life. No matter what HE said, she was sure she knew his mind better than him. I cannot tell you how aggravating that merry-go-round of illogic became. I honestly didn't mind so much that she didn't want to marry him the minute he showed up. I would have been annoyed if she had caved so easily, but for her NOT to be willing to come up with some kind of compromise with him really was just selfish (and illegal, father's have parental rights too!)
Really the last straw for me was during a life or death situation mid-way through the book, during which Cowboy ordered Melody to safety, twice!!! While she just stood there. Now, ok, I will make room for the possibility that she was frozen by fear although that is not what we saw of her when they were in the Middle East. So afterwards he yells at her for not doing what she was told, and rightly so, clearly he was afraid for her. She instead has the nerve to lash out at him for ordering her around! Really?? He told her to go to safety but he's the bad guy?! And HE apologizes!! ugh!! After that point in the book, I flipped quickly through the rest of the book just to get to see how things would end with Andy (the kid in the book).
I have to say this one wasn't worth the read. Cowboy was practically a dream come true. Melody was a complete nightmare.
February 22, 2014
I usually love Brockman's navy seal boys. I like to think of the tall, dark, and handsome series as "troubleshooter lite". But this book just annoyed me... No wait melody annoyed me. I also didn't think Jones reaction upon learning she was pregnant was realistic. I would have been pissed if I was him. And she never apologized for trying to completely cut him out of his child's life. She was rude, mean, and heartless. She had no reason to be so against him or his desire to be in his child's life.
I still enjoy the series... Something I can read for a quick navy man fix. I'll probably read the the rest of the series but in honest this series will never match up to Troubleshooter!
I still enjoy the series... Something I can read for a quick navy man fix. I'll probably read the the rest of the series but in honest this series will never match up to Troubleshooter!
August 4, 2015
2.5 stars. Almost stopped at 70%, but pushed through.
Yes to Harlan Jones! No to Melody! Stupid, stubborn, defensive heroine. In one part, she gets mad?! at the SEAL for shouting orders at her while he tries to take down armed burglars: "Melody had just stood there, staring at him. She hadn’t even ducked for cover. She just stood there, a target, ready to be knocked over or shot full of lead if that bastard had gotten hold of his revolver."
Get me out of this book please. 2 stars up to 80%. Bonus star for a strong finish and the Andy and Harvard supporting characters.
Yes to Harlan Jones! No to Melody! Stupid, stubborn, defensive heroine. In one part, she gets mad?! at the SEAL for shouting orders at her while he tries to take down armed burglars: "Melody had just stood there, staring at him. She hadn’t even ducked for cover. She just stood there, a target, ready to be knocked over or shot full of lead if that bastard had gotten hold of his revolver."
Get me out of this book please. 2 stars up to 80%. Bonus star for a strong finish and the Andy and Harvard supporting characters.
August 29, 2014
This is just personal preference, but I don't like accidental pregnancy stories. I loved how Jones was written, but I did not like Melody at all!! She was immature and selfish. Jones questioned his ability to be a father, but she should have questioned her ability to be a mother. She wasn't likeable. I did like the side story about Andy and Jones teaching him and bonding with him.
December 17, 2014
Una historia bonita, romántica y apasionada.
La trama tiene toques muy originales y los personajes son muy atrayentes.
La trama tiene toques muy originales y los personajes son muy atrayentes.
July 14, 2020
Me suele gustar esta autora y esta novela no ha sido menos. El principio es trepidante, con ese rescate de los rehenes en una embajada que te mantiene pegado a sus páginas. Esa parte de la trama está muy bien descrita y llena de tensión. Tras esa primera parte se centra en la relación entre los protagonistas y consigue crear una historia muy bonita de dos personas que, en un principio, sólo sentían atracción física mezclada con la adrenalina de la huida, pero que poco a poco, y gracias al tesón de Jones, Melody empieza a desear algo más. Claro que el descubrimiento que se lleva al Seal tras varios meses sin verle pone a prueba todo su entrenamiento.
May 1, 2012
When parrot breeders have a pair that won’t mate, they take them out of their warm comfortable cages, put them together inside a dog carrier, and drive them around in a car for about a half hour. When the birds go back inside their familiar cage, they will immediately dive into the nesting boxes, and furiously begin making babies.
Same thing for people. Put two people who are attracted to each other in a scary, “I’m gonna die!” situation, have them rescued, then their first inclination is to imitate the parrots. Some might say it’s ‘embracing their 2nd chance at life’, or finding a way to ‘alleviate the adrenalin overload’, but the fact is, near death experiences bring out the lust in people.
The heroine and the hero experience this phenomena, when he as a Navy Seal rescues the heroine who was a hostage in an embassy that had been taken over by terrorists. They experienced it for six days to be exact, and enjoyed it throughly. Problem is, the heroine discovered after saying her ‘good bye and good luck’ speech that she had a baby on the way from the ‘life celebration’.
The hero missed her, and went to visit the heroine in her hometown, and discovered to his shock her condition about 7 months later. He, being a real HERO and a decent man, immediately got on his dress whites, visited the town jeweler to buy a ring, and proposed marriage. Then he got the shock of his life.
Heroine didn’t want to marry just for the child. She had some IMO convoluted thinking that she needed normalcy in her life and didn’t want to spend her life worrying about whether her man would come home from a mission or if it’d be in a body bag. She was also correctly worried that all the feelings she had about the hero were only based on sex. She thought they wouldn’t have a relationship or relate to each other, since they’re only experiences together were a) in utter terror- convinced they were about to die, or b) in the sack. This is where the novel veers into standard romance territory, and they grow slowly to trust and love each other.
The first third of the book reads like a suspense book, with daring escapes, knife fights, and danger everywhere. The last 2/3rd of the book, have the feel of a Harlequin.
Admittedly, the hero flubbed up his initial marriage proposals:
1) “It’s just that, well, let me put it this way. I can think of far worse things that spending the rest of my life married to you.”
2) “I’m not going to marry you,” she interrupted. “I don’t want to marry you!”
His voice rose despite his intentions to stay calm. “Yeah, well, honey, I’m not that excited abou tit myself.” He took a deep breath and when he spoke again his voice was softer. “But it’s the right thing to do.”
3) “Mel, you gotta marry me. This isn’t just about you and me anymore.”
Finally, he came up with:
QUOTE:
(Hero explaining his feelings)
“I found out today that wanting and needing aren’t the same thing. Need’s a lot about sex, isn’t it? Not really. Because today I needed you more than I’ve ever needed anyone, and you were there for me.” He forced a smile. “And what do you know? We had our clothes on the entire time.”
I enjoyed this book. It’s sleek and has just the right amount of action and romance, so I can see why it’s one of the author’s most popular books.
Same thing for people. Put two people who are attracted to each other in a scary, “I’m gonna die!” situation, have them rescued, then their first inclination is to imitate the parrots. Some might say it’s ‘embracing their 2nd chance at life’, or finding a way to ‘alleviate the adrenalin overload’, but the fact is, near death experiences bring out the lust in people.
The heroine and the hero experience this phenomena, when he as a Navy Seal rescues the heroine who was a hostage in an embassy that had been taken over by terrorists. They experienced it for six days to be exact, and enjoyed it throughly. Problem is, the heroine discovered after saying her ‘good bye and good luck’ speech that she had a baby on the way from the ‘life celebration’.
The hero missed her, and went to visit the heroine in her hometown, and discovered to his shock her condition about 7 months later. He, being a real HERO and a decent man, immediately got on his dress whites, visited the town jeweler to buy a ring, and proposed marriage. Then he got the shock of his life.
Heroine didn’t want to marry just for the child. She had some IMO convoluted thinking that she needed normalcy in her life and didn’t want to spend her life worrying about whether her man would come home from a mission or if it’d be in a body bag. She was also correctly worried that all the feelings she had about the hero were only based on sex. She thought they wouldn’t have a relationship or relate to each other, since they’re only experiences together were a) in utter terror- convinced they were about to die, or b) in the sack. This is where the novel veers into standard romance territory, and they grow slowly to trust and love each other.
The first third of the book reads like a suspense book, with daring escapes, knife fights, and danger everywhere. The last 2/3rd of the book, have the feel of a Harlequin.
Admittedly, the hero flubbed up his initial marriage proposals:
1) “It’s just that, well, let me put it this way. I can think of far worse things that spending the rest of my life married to you.”
2) “I’m not going to marry you,” she interrupted. “I don’t want to marry you!”
His voice rose despite his intentions to stay calm. “Yeah, well, honey, I’m not that excited abou tit myself.” He took a deep breath and when he spoke again his voice was softer. “But it’s the right thing to do.”
3) “Mel, you gotta marry me. This isn’t just about you and me anymore.”
Finally, he came up with:
QUOTE:
(Hero explaining his feelings)
“I found out today that wanting and needing aren’t the same thing. Need’s a lot about sex, isn’t it? Not really. Because today I needed you more than I’ve ever needed anyone, and you were there for me.” He forced a smile. “And what do you know? We had our clothes on the entire time.”
I enjoyed this book. It’s sleek and has just the right amount of action and romance, so I can see why it’s one of the author’s most popular books.
December 23, 2013
Pada penugasannya kali ini anggota US Navy SEALs Harlan "Cowboy" Jones harus membebaskan sandera warga Amerika Serikat yang diculik teroris.Pembebasan itu berhasil gemilang dengan menyisakan kedekatan Cowboy degan sang sandera, Melody Evans. Satu-satunya sandera perempuan dari tiga orang sandera yang diculik.
Kedekatan itu berlanjut hingga Melody diantar pulang ke Amerika Serikat. Cowboy pun kembali ke penugasannya ke suatu tempat misterius. Kedekatan di masa pembebasan itu membawa cerita baru bagi Melody. Ia hamil. Ketika Cowboy mengetahui hal tersebut ia bertanggung jawab atas perilakunya.
Tapi Melody menolak mentah-mentah tanggung jawab Cowboy. Menurutnya ia mencari suami yang tidak membuatnya khawatir setiap pergi tugas. Yang tidak membuatnya selalu bertanya-tanya apakah suaminya akan pulang dalam keadaan selamat atau malah terbujur kaku dalam peti mati. Melody ingin suami yang biasa saja. Yang pekerjan kantoran. Dengan bahaya yang dihadapi hanya luka tergores pinggiran kertas.
Setiap kunjungan Cowboy ditolak mentah-mentah oleh Melody. Dengan tindakan tersebut ia berharap Cowboy akan jera dan mundur. Tapi Melody lupa. Cowboy seorang anggota Navy SEALs. Tangguh dan pantang menyerah sudah menjadi prosedur standar baginya. Meski ditolak oleh Melody, Cowboy tetap keukeuh. Bahkan hingga berkemah di halaman belakang rumah Melody.
***
Oke... bukunya memang tak sesuai dengan adat ketimuran masyarakat Indonesia. Marriage by accident. Dan menolak pertanggung jawaban dari yang berbuat. Tapi di titik inilah (menurut saya) kedewasaan dan toleransi pembaca diuji. Ada yang menolak bahkan menganggap menjijikan perilaku Melody. Ada yang bersikap biasa saja. Tak dipungkiri juga ada yang setuju dengan tindakan Melody. Well... apa pun itu yang tak boleh dilakukan adalah penghakiman sepihak terhadap orang yang memilih untuk setuju/tidak setuju tindakan yang dilakukan Melody. Toh, menerima tindakan Melody bukan berarti setuju dengan tindakannya. Ingat saja prinsip, elu ya elu, gue ya gue. Ok?
Balik ke soal ceritanya. Saya sih gak suka banget dengan insta-love yang terjadi di buku ini. Bisa saja sih insta-love itu terjadi dengan memakai sindrom sandera-hero. Si sandera yang jatuh cinta pada penyelamatnya, vice versa. Tapi saya sendiri kurang bisa menerima konsep insta-love tersebut. Belum lagi Melody dengan gaya "jual mahal tapi ngarep" yang bikin sebel. Dibandingkan dengan cerita Ronnie, Lucy, dan Mia, Melody tak cukup pantas untuk disejajarkan dengan mereka. Mengingat ketiga perempuan itu tipe perempuan tegar dan pantang menyerah.
Tapi saya suka pada kegigihan Cowboy mengejar Melody dan caranya menghadapi Andy, keponakan Melody, anak kakaknya. Aksi Navy SEALs kurang terasa dibuku ini. Karena disini Cowboy lebih banyak mengambil cuti darat daripada turun ke lapangan demi mendekati Melody.
@ Halmahera
21082013
Kedekatan itu berlanjut hingga Melody diantar pulang ke Amerika Serikat. Cowboy pun kembali ke penugasannya ke suatu tempat misterius. Kedekatan di masa pembebasan itu membawa cerita baru bagi Melody. Ia hamil. Ketika Cowboy mengetahui hal tersebut ia bertanggung jawab atas perilakunya.
Tapi Melody menolak mentah-mentah tanggung jawab Cowboy. Menurutnya ia mencari suami yang tidak membuatnya khawatir setiap pergi tugas. Yang tidak membuatnya selalu bertanya-tanya apakah suaminya akan pulang dalam keadaan selamat atau malah terbujur kaku dalam peti mati. Melody ingin suami yang biasa saja. Yang pekerjan kantoran. Dengan bahaya yang dihadapi hanya luka tergores pinggiran kertas.
Setiap kunjungan Cowboy ditolak mentah-mentah oleh Melody. Dengan tindakan tersebut ia berharap Cowboy akan jera dan mundur. Tapi Melody lupa. Cowboy seorang anggota Navy SEALs. Tangguh dan pantang menyerah sudah menjadi prosedur standar baginya. Meski ditolak oleh Melody, Cowboy tetap keukeuh. Bahkan hingga berkemah di halaman belakang rumah Melody.
***
Oke... bukunya memang tak sesuai dengan adat ketimuran masyarakat Indonesia. Marriage by accident. Dan menolak pertanggung jawaban dari yang berbuat. Tapi di titik inilah (menurut saya) kedewasaan dan toleransi pembaca diuji. Ada yang menolak bahkan menganggap menjijikan perilaku Melody. Ada yang bersikap biasa saja. Tak dipungkiri juga ada yang setuju dengan tindakan Melody. Well... apa pun itu yang tak boleh dilakukan adalah penghakiman sepihak terhadap orang yang memilih untuk setuju/tidak setuju tindakan yang dilakukan Melody. Toh, menerima tindakan Melody bukan berarti setuju dengan tindakannya. Ingat saja prinsip, elu ya elu, gue ya gue. Ok?
Balik ke soal ceritanya. Saya sih gak suka banget dengan insta-love yang terjadi di buku ini. Bisa saja sih insta-love itu terjadi dengan memakai sindrom sandera-hero. Si sandera yang jatuh cinta pada penyelamatnya, vice versa. Tapi saya sendiri kurang bisa menerima konsep insta-love tersebut. Belum lagi Melody dengan gaya "jual mahal tapi ngarep" yang bikin sebel. Dibandingkan dengan cerita Ronnie, Lucy, dan Mia, Melody tak cukup pantas untuk disejajarkan dengan mereka. Mengingat ketiga perempuan itu tipe perempuan tegar dan pantang menyerah.
Tapi saya suka pada kegigihan Cowboy mengejar Melody dan caranya menghadapi Andy, keponakan Melody, anak kakaknya. Aksi Navy SEALs kurang terasa dibuku ini. Karena disini Cowboy lebih banyak mengambil cuti darat daripada turun ke lapangan demi mendekati Melody.
@ Halmahera
21082013
December 2, 2011
This was different. The book before Frisco's Kid was already different, but this one was different from the different, which doesn't mean it's necessarily bad. I really liked Frisco's Kid and this one started good too, but I have too admit forced some annoying things on me through the course of the story.
Well, you got thrown into the story right away and I thought we gonna experience the whole rescue mission, throughtout the story Jones and Melody would get together. BUT instead we got the get together in the beginning and through the rest of the book we got the back together. Which - again - wasn't bad at all, but at some point it got a bit repetive and the whole "Marry me." and "I can do this alone." thing got annoying.
This book was published in 2004, it's the 20th century, there's no reason to marry someone just because there's a baby is on the way. It's not the right thing to do as Jones and every other SEAL claimed it to be. The baby can have a name and father without a piece of paper. But even if I can understand Melody that she didn't wanna marry a SEAL, but forcing Jones out of the responsibilty was stupid too. Yes, you can raise a kid alone, but this guy wanna be father so take it.
Besides that nothing really happened in the book, besides the long journey of them getting back together. In the end Melody obeyed to the SEAL living they lived happily ever after being married with a kid.
Well, you got thrown into the story right away and I thought we gonna experience the whole rescue mission, throughtout the story Jones and Melody would get together. BUT instead we got the get together in the beginning and through the rest of the book we got the back together. Which - again - wasn't bad at all, but at some point it got a bit repetive and the whole "Marry me." and "I can do this alone." thing got annoying.
This book was published in 2004, it's the 20th century, there's no reason to marry someone just because there's a baby is on the way. It's not the right thing to do as Jones and every other SEAL claimed it to be. The baby can have a name and father without a piece of paper. But even if I can understand Melody that she didn't wanna marry a SEAL, but forcing Jones out of the responsibilty was stupid too. Yes, you can raise a kid alone, but this guy wanna be father so take it.
Besides that nothing really happened in the book, besides the long journey of them getting back together. In the end Melody obeyed to the SEAL living they lived happily ever after being married with a kid.
December 7, 2014
This is a fast read (1 afternoon) and so far my favorite out of the four books in this series i've read. Miss Brockman sure knows how to write good heroes.
I really loved the beginning in the ambassy. And I also really liked that in this story there wasn't a proposal after the couple having known each other only one week during stressful time, like the first books in this series.
I don't really apreciate the secret baby card, but I do like it that they got to know eachother for an extended period of time. It felt more real than the other books in this series i've read. Reading the reviews for this book, I realized that the realistic aspect I liked, was just what seemed to put some other people off. It may not be typical romance stuff that Melody didn't want Jones because he wasn't a regular guy. But let's be real, it's no fun to be married to someone who is away most of the time and no fun for kids to be moving around all the time. So it's entirely understandable that she resisted him as long as she possibly could. She wasn't whining, she was being strong like she would have to be to be married to a guy that could die at any time.
With respect to the baby. I can forgive het for not tracking him down in the beginning. But when he did call her, it was wrong to not tell him then. And it wasn't necessary for the story. But as i've discovered, miss brockmann's heroines aren't as well developped as her heroes and therefore I rarely care for them like I do for the heroes.
I really loved the beginning in the ambassy. And I also really liked that in this story there wasn't a proposal after the couple having known each other only one week during stressful time, like the first books in this series.
I don't really apreciate the secret baby card, but I do like it that they got to know eachother for an extended period of time. It felt more real than the other books in this series i've read. Reading the reviews for this book, I realized that the realistic aspect I liked, was just what seemed to put some other people off. It may not be typical romance stuff that Melody didn't want Jones because he wasn't a regular guy. But let's be real, it's no fun to be married to someone who is away most of the time and no fun for kids to be moving around all the time. So it's entirely understandable that she resisted him as long as she possibly could. She wasn't whining, she was being strong like she would have to be to be married to a guy that could die at any time.
With respect to the baby. I can forgive het for not tracking him down in the beginning. But when he did call her, it was wrong to not tell him then. And it wasn't necessary for the story. But as i've discovered, miss brockmann's heroines aren't as well developped as her heroes and therefore I rarely care for them like I do for the heroes.
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