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A review by paulabrandon
Troublemaker by Linda Howard
1.0
For reasons too stupid to articulate here, Morgan Yancy is sent to the home of police chief Isabeau "Bo" Maran to recuperate after being shot. While his boss tries to find the person who hired the hitman who tried to kill Morgan, Morgan works on getting better. A romance starts to develop between Morgan and Bo, and it might as well, because there's fuck all else happening inside these pages!
My first book of 2018 was a stinker of the highest order! Why do I keep reading Linda Howard? This has no plot. None. It might as well have been called "Tricks the Troublemaking Magic Wonderdog", because that was the real focus of the plot. Now, I love, love, love, LOVE golden retrievers and golden labradors, but that's not what I picked this book up expecting to read about. The issue of who wants Morgan dead is a distant third in this book, falling way behind the issue of an acrimonious divorce between two townsfolk, and especially the day-to-day life of Morgan, Bo and Tricks (the golden retriever) as they eat, chat, and mingle with the townspeople. It was so DULL.
I think the only reason the stuff with Morgan's stalker exists is so that the book can include a brief climax with some danger that wouldn't otherwise exist, and the publishers can then con us with what they call a "romantic suspense" novel. Don't buy it! It's bullshit! Remove the graphic sex, and you're basically left with a freaking Hallmark movie! This is so awful. I couldn't believe what I was reading. It's so devoid of anything! And to think it took Howard 4 years to write it. I wonder if she was as bored writing it as I was reading it.
I mentioned in my comments while reading about Morgan's tendency to totally freak out whenever he's woken up - if you shake him, he'll try to choke you. Yell out for him, and he'll point a gun at you. He says he needs to be alert because of his job, but this sort of behaviour is not being alert. It's being dangerous, and the book finished with me wondering how long it would take for Morgan to physically injure Bo because she wanted to wake him up for some breakfast in bed. It was just simply non-sensical.
Then we have the occasions where Morgan thinks certain things are "sissy", because they're not masculine enough for him. This includes drinking wine and eating cupcakes. Yes, really. I've had some of the most macho guys tell me they don't drink wine because it knocks them flat on their ass worse than beer does! But certainly never because they think it's sissy. It's an utterly horrid term, and Howard should be utterly ashamed of herself for using it in this context.
I'm glad Howard loves golden retrievers, because they are wonderful animals, and Tricks was indeed a delight, but it wasn't what I wanted to read about, and she was stuck in a book where everything single other thing around her was was stupid, boring or offensive. The pits! And what relevance does the title even have? Who's making the trouble? The only trouble you'll find here is learning you've wasted six hours of your life on an inane pile of crap!
My first book of 2018 was a stinker of the highest order! Why do I keep reading Linda Howard? This has no plot. None. It might as well have been called "Tricks the Troublemaking Magic Wonderdog", because that was the real focus of the plot. Now, I love, love, love, LOVE golden retrievers and golden labradors, but that's not what I picked this book up expecting to read about. The issue of who wants Morgan dead is a distant third in this book, falling way behind the issue of an acrimonious divorce between two townsfolk, and especially the day-to-day life of Morgan, Bo and Tricks (the golden retriever) as they eat, chat, and mingle with the townspeople. It was so DULL.
I think the only reason the stuff with Morgan's stalker exists is so that the book can include a brief climax with some danger that wouldn't otherwise exist, and the publishers can then con us with what they call a "romantic suspense" novel. Don't buy it! It's bullshit! Remove the graphic sex, and you're basically left with a freaking Hallmark movie! This is so awful. I couldn't believe what I was reading. It's so devoid of anything! And to think it took Howard 4 years to write it. I wonder if she was as bored writing it as I was reading it.
I mentioned in my comments while reading about Morgan's tendency to totally freak out whenever he's woken up - if you shake him, he'll try to choke you. Yell out for him, and he'll point a gun at you. He says he needs to be alert because of his job, but this sort of behaviour is not being alert. It's being dangerous, and the book finished with me wondering how long it would take for Morgan to physically injure Bo because she wanted to wake him up for some breakfast in bed. It was just simply non-sensical.
Then we have the occasions where Morgan thinks certain things are "sissy", because they're not masculine enough for him. This includes drinking wine and eating cupcakes. Yes, really. I've had some of the most macho guys tell me they don't drink wine because it knocks them flat on their ass worse than beer does! But certainly never because they think it's sissy. It's an utterly horrid term, and Howard should be utterly ashamed of herself for using it in this context.
I'm glad Howard loves golden retrievers, because they are wonderful animals, and Tricks was indeed a delight, but it wasn't what I wanted to read about, and she was stuck in a book where everything single other thing around her was was stupid, boring or offensive. The pits! And what relevance does the title even have? Who's making the trouble? The only trouble you'll find here is learning you've wasted six hours of your life on an inane pile of crap!