Another good read from SB. I actually liked it better the second time around. I guess because I knew what was going to happen, I wasn't so disappointed in some of the things that kind of torqued me the first time around. It was great to see more of Izzy, my favorite character. I have been looking forward for Dan Gilman's story for a while. It started here and I was glad that he wasn't turned into an instant good guy. I like when the stories take place over several books and you can see them change and grow. So this was really no one's love story. It did have a beginning middle and end in the story of the serial killer. So I liked it but it was more along the lines of checking in on the guys lives and loves rather than any sort of a HEA. ( )

Hot Pursuit
Troubleshooters series #15

Dan Gillman & Jennilyn "Jenn" LeMay; Sam & Alyssa Starrett are main characters in this one as well

Alyssa & Sam Starrett bring their Troubleshooters team to NYC to bump up security procedures for a new assemblywoman, Maria Bonavita, who has been receiving some disturbing hate mail, etc. While they are in town, dead bodies (and body parts) start showing up in the area and it eventually becomes clear that the serial killer whom Alyssa has been trying to track down for years is involved. "The Dentist" was introduced as a heinous and sadistic killer in a short story about Sam & Alyssa featured at the end of a previous book in this series. This part of the story provides a lot of (made for TV cop show) drama and gives Sam and Alyssa another chance to show us how awesome they are.

The new romance, however, was definitely "meh". Part of the team, Dan Gillman, meets Miss Bonavita's good friend and chief of staff, Jennilyn LeMay, but initially writes her off because she is plain, overweight, etc. This fact is mentioned a lot, to the point of excess. I'm thinking that may have been done to have us get inside Dan's oversized superficial head. In another Brockmann book (not sure if it's in the same series but the characters are connected in some way), there was a similar match-up between an uber-handsome SEAL and a woman a little bit older who was self conscious about carrying a little extra weight. That one was handled so differently because the male character saw her as beautiful right away and helped her feel confident even if she wasn't as thin as she'd like to be.

Dan is a different story. He doesn't become interested in her until he is assigned the job of protecting her in her apartment. He finds himself alone with her and she is convenient. He's a complete manipulative jerk and I finally see why he was constantly called derogatory names and looked down on by some of his teammates in prior books. This relationship was complete nonsense. I have no idea why Jenn allowed herself to become involved with him, especially after she overhears him being disrespectful to her while talking to a friend. He is a complete asshat. He does improve a bit in the next book, but his behavior is really atrocious in this one. ( )

Dan's an ass. Jenn should be too smart and confident for him. Alyssa gets some serious page time. At this point in the series, you have to have read a chunk of series to get the interplay between characters. ( )

I'd forgotten how much I enjoy the Troubleshooters series. This one has Sam & Alyssa, introduces Jenn to Dan (Gillman), and some Robin & Jules, plus there's a suspense plot about the serial killer known as the Dentist - first introduced in some of the free shorts Brockmann wrote for fans of Sam & Alyssa.I really enjoyed it - the only thing which bothered me was that I really started to notice the author's habit of saying "And, yeah, okay" variations on those 3 words - after so many books, it's getting a little old for me. But really, if that's the only thing I can think of, that's saying to me that this is a pretty great book. ( )

While I do love the Troubleshooters series, the bad guy (a serial killer obsessed with Alyssa Locke, a security consultant for Troubleshooters) is campy and ridiculous.

However, I did love that Izzy was in the story - still pining over Eden, his estranged young wife - and the scenes between Dan Gillman and Jenny were VERY sexy. Not sexy was the repeated mentions of her being 'thick," "solid," and "chunky," and very plain. While yes, I hate those stories where every woman is beautiful and the men are not handsome but rugged and manly, but this was headed into somewhat insulting territory. Dan does get scolded a *bit*, but it's still annoying.

Kind of wish I'd skipped this one... ( )