1.5 stars
Wow she should've just named this book Tricks because that's what it was about. This was my first romantic suspense novel and I'm severely disappointed by it. Too much about Tricks, no real feel of attraction or chemistry between Bo and Morgan. The 'whodunit' was incredibly predictable and the town drama that carried most of the book was pretty lame. I did like the author's use of description though.

I ...what did I just read?

Ok, so the first 10% and the last 5% of the book were what I thought I was getting when I picked this up. Namely a romantic suspense book. You know the sort that Linda Howard is famous for.

This smallish part of the book does tell the story of a wounded black ops agent, Morgan who is trying to lure the people who shot him to a sleepy small town and spring a trap. Bo, the heroine of the story, is the police chief of this small town and is the step-sister of Morgan's superior. Bo's place is determined to be a good tactical place for Morgan to hide out and to put their plan in place. Morgan is all tough as steel ops, who can kill or maim a bad guy in 20 different ways. He is super tough and super soldier-y and stuff. See this sounds interesting, right? Right?

The problem is with the 85% in the middle. it was a boring, sloggy grind. Morgan sleeps on Bo's couch. Morgan does her laundry. They figure out what to eat. The townsfolk know everyone's business. There is a lady who brings them cupcakes. Morgan slowly recuperates from his gun shot. Morgan exercises. They have sex. They figure out they love each other.

And then there is the dog. Bo has a dog named Tricks who has to be the most goddamned special dog you've ever read about. If a book could Mary Sue a dog, this book would be it. Everybody in this book went ape-shit every time they saw this dog. She was petted and loved and called a princess. Not a single other pet is mentioned in this entire town. Not a single other dog! I can only imagine, given how wonderful everyone in the whole town thinks this dog is, that there must've been some disease that wiped out every other animal in this book's universe.

There would be conversations where it finally seems like we're getting some forward momentum on the suspense plot and they'd pause to look lovingly at the dog to see what she was doing. I shit you not! This book lovingly detailed every tail wag, every food sniff, every adoring woof! This dog was made out to be such a damn special snowflake.

I did a word count, and the name Tricks appeared 100 more times than the name Bo (the heroine) and 200 more times than the name Morgan (the hero).

Truly I should have put this book down before I even got halfway through, but I read on in what I can only describe as some weird fascination to see if the dog manages to be the one to unmask the killer.

I wouldn't qualify this as romantic suspense, but it is a fantastic read and a great story. I'll definitely recommend it, but with the caveat that it is less romantic suspense and more contemporary romance.

I'm always on the hunt for good romantic suspense novels and this one started out strong. But it moved really slow in the middle and left several holes in the ending. I liked the characters alright. They were pretty solid, but also a little boring. Tricks (the dog) was delightful! Not a bad story, but not a very memorable one either

Last November I read my first Linda Howard book, the second novel in the GO-Team series called ‘The Woman Left Behind’. I absolutely loved that book. So when I saw a great deal on Amazon for ‘Troublemaker’ the first book in the series. I just had to get it and started reading as fast as I could. ‘Troublemaker’ can be read as a standalone.

In ‘Troublemaker’ we meet Morgan Yancy. Morgan is a team leader of a GO team and has just arrived home after being away on a job for months. Shortly after arriving home he gets ambushed and almost dies when some stranger tries to kill him. To get his strength back and lay low for a little while, Morgan stays with the stepsister of one of his colleagues Bo Maran. Bo doesn’t really trust people easily. And Morgan is stubborn as hell, and seems to be having a lot of secrets. Bad news if you ask Bo. But soon Morgan and Bo get to know each other better. Unfortunately that’s when Morgan’s life starts catching up with him.

I had some high hopes for ‘Troublemaker’, and I must say I really enjoyed reading this book. This book starts really exciting and before I knew what was going on I was totally pulled into the world of Bo and Morgan and I couldn’t stop reading. Both main characters Bo and Morgan are really fun to get to know. Especially because they aren’t like your average main characters. For one they both aren’t very good in being social, and secondly they both have some baggage.

The romance between Morgan and Bo starts with a simmer, and ends all hot and heavy. And I loved that about this read. You really get excited reading about these two and I couldn’t get enough of them.

The suspense in this book wasn’t as exciting as I would have liked, but I definitely enjoyed it. It just started pretty good, and near the end I found the suspense ending a little to abrupt. It felt rushed and I really wanted to know what was going on.

Overall ‘Troublemaker’ was a fun read I’d definitely enjoyed.

3.5 stars for being a better than average romance with likeable leads who develop feelings for each other after enforced time together - you know feeling based on actual conversations and getting to know one another as well as attraction. And while I also enjoyed the quirky townfolk I rounded up because Tricks was awesome and reminded me of 2 of my dogs. The current one for her happy personality and attitude that everything is a wonderful new game/experience and all people are there because they want to visit with and pet her and my previous dog who was pretty much that freakishly smart and understood all sorts of things you said to him. I also really liked how as soon as they were in a relationship Morgan told her everything.

One thing I don't get was the name of the book. None of them are troublemakers, nor do they have any discussions pertaining to such. It seemed to have absolutely noting whatsoever to do with the story. Very strange choice.

Linda Howard was an auto-buy author for years, but I stopped picking her books up around the time Shadow Woman was released. While the technical aspects of her writing were the same, the spark was missing. I'm happy to report the spark has returned with this book.

I started Troublemaker with caution. The beginning was a bit slow, but by the halfway mark I was fully invested in the characters and story. I saw a lot of the Howard of old here. Quirky humor, scorching chemistry and just enough rivalry between the hero and heroine to keep things interesting.