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A review by tita_noir
Troublemaker by Linda Howard
1.0
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.
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.