I've been a Suzanne Brockmann fan for several years now and I've read most of her books. Somehow I managed to miss a few from the Tall, Dark & Dangerous series so I'm trying to catch up.
Bobby Taylor and Wes Skully are best friends and SEAL teammates. They're so close it sometimes seems that they can read each other's minds. The one secret that Taylor has kept is that for years he has been attracted to Wes's younger sister Coleen. Wes doesn't want any SEAL putting the moves on his baby sister and Tayler doesn't want to make Wes mad or put their friendship at risk.
Bobby is able to hide his feelings until Wes begs him to go to Boston and stop Coleen from going on a dangerous humanitarian trip to a country in the midst of a civil war. Wes would go himself, but he's been called out on a SEAL mission and is afraid he won't make it back before Coleen leaves the country. Taylor is on leave recovering from an injury, so he's available to go.
Bobby would normally avoid being alone with Coleen at all costs, but he knows her plan is dangerous and he's as anxious as Wes to stop her from going. He figures that Coleen sees him as an older brother, so as long as he can stop himself from making any really overt moves everything will be fine.
Unbeknownst to Bobby, Collen has been in love with him for years. She resents the fact that he and Wes are trying to dictate how she lives her life, but she still wants to be with him. She figures that she has no shot at a real relationship with him, but decides that she's willing to settle for good sex. Her previous sexual relationship was lousy and she doesn't want to miss the chance to get something better from a man she knows well and cares about. She propositions Bobby, he turns her down and explains why, she keeps pushing until he gives in and they sleep together. Once Coleen and Bobby have sex they also have the Big Misunderstanding, with each of them desperately in love but thinking that the other only wants a short term affair. Naturally Wes finds out they're sleeping together and pitches a fit. That creates tension when the SEALS end up accompanying the humanitarian mission to provide security and as an excuse to get into a country that would normally keep them out.
I really liked most of the books in this series, but unfortunately not this one. It may have been partially my mood at the time, but all 3 main characters totally rubbed me the wrong way. If it had been written by almost anyone other than Suzanne Brockmann I would have given up half way through. Because it was her I kept reading, expecting something to happen that would make me like at least one of the characters, but nothing did. The writing was fine, but the story wasn't enjoyable for me.
I think Coleen is supposed to come across as a strong, independent woman who knows what she wants and goes after it. I normally find that admirable but in this case she just seemed really pushy and disrespectful of Bobby's feelings. Yes, he wants her but he has his reasons for not wanting to act on that desire. Part of caring about someone is respecting their feelings even when you think they're being ridiculous. You can try to change someone's mind while still respecting their feelings. There was something about the way that Coleen handled things that just felt wrong to me. I kept thinking that if the positions were reversed and Bobby was pushing Coleen so hard after she had turned him down I'd stop reading the book. I have an aversion to double standards so I didn't like the fact that I was supposed to applaud Coleen for behavior that I would find distasteful coming from a man. (Yes, I know that there are plenty of romance novels where the hero acts like this, or worse. Those books tend to be DNFs for me.)
For his part, I think Bobby was supposed to seem like a nice guy in a difficult spot. To me he just seemed like a wishy washy mess. And Wes seemed like a total ass. My reaction may have something to do with the fact that I don't really understand this aspect of the Guy Code. If your friend is such a jerk that you're horrified at the thought of him dating your sister then why are you his friend? Conversely, if your friend thinks you're not good enough for his sister you might want to ask yourself why you're hanging around with him. I just don't get it.
It's been quite a while since I read most of the other books in this series so I can't remember if Wes was always written as sort of an ass. If not, readers who remembered the earlier books more clearly might have had a reserve of goodwill that softened things a bit. Since I didn't by the end I was half wishing that Wes would get killed by the revolutionaries.
It's hard for me to grade this one. The writing is a solid B, the characters are an F and the plot was pretty irrelevant. I guess that works out to about a C-/D+.
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