Apr 21 2008
REVIEW: Don’t Let Go by Marliss Melton
Dear Ms. Melton:
You are a new to me author and I had heard good things about you so I was happy to try you out. While this book didn’t work for me, I am still interested in reading other books by you, either future or past works. The main reason that I struggled with this book is that there were so many characters and those characters had all suffered terribly tragedies and one book wasn’t enough to adequately address everything that was brought up.
Ostensibly the main story line is about senior Chief Soloman McGuire and teacher Jordan Bliss. Jordan Bliss was working on the adoption of a young Venezuelan boy when the town she was in was targeted by guerillas. Bliss was saved by McGuire and his team of SEALs sent in specifically to extract her and British civilians. McGuire forces Bliss to leave her nearly adopted son behind because his orders do not include any children. Bliss fights him like a mad woman and eventually she is subdued and sedated. Jordan won’t be deterred and once back in the states, she plots to return to the unstable Venezuela and obtain her son.
McGuire is not untouched by Jordan’s situation. His ex-wife kidnapped their son when McGuire was on a mission and he hasn’t seen his son in five years despite hiring private investigators to search him out. Through a series of circumstances, Silas is returned to McGuire but he is functionally illiterate and not ready to enter the school system. Solomon decides that Jordan might be able to help him and she conveniently needs to earn extra cash to fund her return trip to Venezuela.
This storyline and the shared grief and renewal that Solomon and Jordan experienced would have made a powerful impact but their romance was diluted by the inclusion of Jordan’s sister, Jillian who was struggling to open a therapy ranch while being pregnant and recently widowed. Jillian has a soft and understated romance with a FBI Special Agent Rafael Valentino who lost his entire family in a mob hit. Then there is Silas’ author, Ellie Stuart, who has three young children and a dead beat husband who sold her home out from under her. Finally, there is still another couple introduced at the end of the story, Lucy Donovan, a CIA operative, and Lt. Atwater, with the Navy.
It was difficult to concentrate on the main couple when there were so many other characters in the books raising their hands and saying “pay attention to me.” The Soloman/Jordan storyline was beset with a number of tragedies that resolved almost too neatly given the gravity of both their losses such as Soloman’s reconciliation with his son, Jordan forgiving Soloman for wrenching her near adopted son out of her arms, and
Some parts were quite emotionally moving and the suspense of whether Jordan would be able to reunite with her son was gripping, but too many tragedies, issues and people were crammed into this one book for any satisfactory resolution. C.
Best regards
Jane
This book can be purchased in mass market from Powells or ebook format.
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Apr 21, 2008 @ 09:59:38
I was absolutely frustrated with this book, which was a disappointment because I’d read the rest of the series and found them enjoyable, if not keep-forever books. But by the end? I wanted to reach through the pages and smack Jordan upside the head. While I started out with sympathy for Jordan’s sad separation from her soon-to-be adopted kid, by the end of the book I hated her. Absolutely disgusted with her self centeredness and willful disregard for anyone but herself. Based on her treatment of everyone else, I wasn’t even convinced she loved that child.
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At the end, when Lucy has to rescue Jordan because she’s in Venezula over her head (even though she’d been told there were other options) but Lucy has to make that one stop and Jordan’s waiting in the car? Jordan got all whiny and resentful about having to make a stop ’cause she was scared. Um, excuse me, Lucy rescued you and got locked out of the Embassy for her troubles and you’re gonna get all pissy because there’s something she has to take care of? Self centered twit.
Apr 21, 2008 @ 22:51:56
I have never read this author but was told her earlier books were great. I’d like to try those. I love reading Cindy Gerard’s Bodyguard series so I enjoy those romance suspense with a strong romance, one that is intense with alot on of romance. Do her books have that or is the romance on the wayside while the suspense is really the book? I’m picky with the romance suspense I read! There were authors I loved their romance suspense then the romance really just sweetened into the stories with more books written with all just suspense and I’d get burned out of that. Just wondered about her books. Thanks!
Apr 21, 2008 @ 22:57:05
Caffey~her books are definitely intense with a lot of romance. The romance is not on the wayside.
I really enjoyed this book. The things that bothered Jane (too many characters coming and going)don’t bother me.
I’ve read all of Marliss Melton’s SEAL books and they are great, so I’d take a chance on them Caffey.
Jane, I think you would like the first one in this series, Forget Me Not, better than you liked this one.
Apr 27, 2008 @ 16:06:16
Thanks Tracy, I’ll go find out the order to read these and start with the first (a bad habit of mine reading books in order unless they are a very long series). Thanks bunches!
REVIEW: Too Far Gone by Marliss Melton | Dear Author: Romance Book Reviews, Author Interviews, and Commentary
Nov 13, 2008 @ 15:00:25
[...] had read and enjoyed the voice in the first book of yours that I had read and so I was interested in reading the next in the series, Too Far Gone, which [...]