• The next hot thing appears to be the straight contemporary patterned after the Virgin River series by Robyn Carr.   Several houses are trying to capitalize on this through marketing and repackaging.   Mariah Stewart of Ballantine and Toni Blake from Avon are examples of this.   The Toni Blake cover changes are striking.   Here are her past covers and this is the cover for the upcoming “Sugar Creek” novel.    Robyn Carr’s books remind me of the trope that Suzanne Brockmann perfected and that is the slow build of a number of interconnected relationships over a period of books. In some sense, Carr’s band of alpha men (almost all are former military which is kind of ironic because military man does not equal alpha, but whatever) are different incarnations of the SEAL Team, Brotherhood stories that made Brockmann and Ward so popular.   This will give me a good excuse to read Blake. I have heard good things about her last book.
• Speaking of Ward, her next Black Dagger Brotherhood book featuring Xhex and John is put to bed and ready for publication.   I have no spoilers.
• Suzanne Brockmann is publishing a straight contemporary (with maybe some suspense) in mass market form this summer. It will NOT be tied to her existing SEAL series.   I was told that this was more like her early books like Hearthrob and Bodyguard.
• Some publishers were taken aback by RWA’s extensive questionnaire that forms the basis of who is determined to be a “qualifying market.”   Some of the publishers who have responded have done so with vague answers and some have not responded at all.
• Obviously this was done because of Harlequin’s foray into the vanity publishing/publishing services market with Dell Arte Press.   One thing I was told was that there was never any referral link in the rejection letter.   Maybe it was considered at one time but it was never implemented.   It is in the Thomas Nelson rejection letters, I believe, so that might have been how it became “fact”.   Harlequin could have done a better job of explaining that, though.
• Harlequin was very pleased with its giveaway last year and continues to see success in its digital programs. In 2010, Harlequin has a goal of digitizing 2010 backlist titles.   They will need suggestions.   I’m going to open a thread next week for this.

Are these works protected?

Absolutely – by copyright laws.

However, we are offering these works without electronic passwords or encryption or DRM (Digital Rights Management) because of the difficulties they impose on readers. We are hopeful that, in turn, readers will honor our rights. If we find that trust is abused, we will need to revisit this decision.

I love this idea and hope it succeeds.   I’ve bookmarked it, but I wonder how I will remember to return month after month?

• 3/1/2010 to 3/14/2010: Operation Sheba: Super Agent Series, Book 1 by Misty Evans
• 3/15/2010 to 3/28/2010: Male Call: Hot Zone Book 1 by Denise A. Agnew

Audio Realms is now producing paranormal romance audio versions of novels by New York Times bestselling authors C. L. Wilson, Nina Bangs and Katie MacAlister, as well as some of the more groundbreaking names in horror and paranormal romance. In addition to listings onwww.Dorchesterpub.com, readers will now be able to visit  www.AudioRealms.com for classic sci-fi, fantasy and horror,  www.DarkRealmsAudio.com for urban horror and  www.DarkDesires.com for paranormal and other romance. To purchase audio books in downloadable MP3 format, readers can visitwww.theaudiobookshop.com.

There is no press release from EC but you can see the audio titles here. H/t to Anne Douglas.

The Ivory Bangle Lady remains were found in August 1901 in a stone coffin unearthed in Bootham, where a group of graves were found. The grave has been dated to the latter half of the fourth century. Items buried with the Lady included expensive luxury items such African elephant ivory bracelets, beads, pendants and other jewelry, a blue glass jug, a glass mirror, and Yorkshire jet. A rectangular bone mount, possibly for a wooden coffin, was also found in the grave. An inscription on the bone, "Hail sister, may you live in God," suggests the woman held religious beliefs and may have been Christian. She is believed to have been one of the richest inhabitants of the city.

Will research like this allow for more diverse historical romances?

• Bookseller pays publisher half ($13)
• Print, storage, and shipment is approximately $3.25
• Cover design, typesetting, copyediting: $.80
• Marketing: $1
• Author royalty: $3.90

Costs decline on a per unit basis the more copies sold except for the print/storage and shipment, I presume.    Unearned advances can actually result in a much higher royalty for an author.

A consultant to the publishing industry argues that high ebook prices can slow ebook adoption. This is probably true if BISG data is correct in that affordability is one of the driving factors behind readers moving digital.

I've watched this conference evolve from a curiosity to a conversation. The "tools" of "change" are not always apparent. Sometimes the tool is as simple as attending something outside your wheelhouse; sometimes it's hearing how someone else does something and realizing parts will work for you. It's the "tools, not rules" thing. If anything, this year's TOC highlighted the need for even more nuts-and-bolts discussions -’ and there were quite a few of those mixed in with equally important long-term vision sessions.

Related posts:

1. Monday Midday Links: It Looks Rosy for Romance
2. Monday Midday Links: The Macmillan Amazon Fight Post Mortem Continues
3. Monday Midday Links: More RaceFail in Media

Courtesan’s Wager by Claudia Dain. I’m a big fan of this series because it’s a very female centric, female empowering. The latest showcases Lady Amelia Caversham, daughter of a duke, who would seemingly be a good prize except she’s made her desire to marry a duke obvious to the point of embarrassment.    At her wit’s end, Amelia begs the favor of Lady Sophia Dalby, a former courtesan, to assist her in catching a duke.   Amelia and Sophia concoct a fairly scandalous scheme.   Be even more obvious about your desire to marry and let’s reel in the right one.   Amelia’s plans to “interview” men of the ton incite their competitive spirit and they all begin vying for her hand, much to the chagrin of Lord Cranleigh.   Not only will he not participate in this nonsense, but neither does he want his brother to make a fool of himself.   Once caught in Sophia’s web, however, a man cannot escape, not even one such as Lord Cranleigh. B Recommended by Jane. (review to come)

This book can be purchased in trade paperback from Amazon or ebook format from the Sony Store and other etailers.

  
Super in the City by Daphne Uviller. It was the back blurb of this book that caught my attention. The mob thinks the heroine is with the FBI. The FBI thinks she’s with the mob. And she’s dating an exterminator? After reading that I just knew I had to try this one.

Zephyr Zuckerman has a vivid imagination, four best friends from high school, a former asshole boyfriend she’s still not over and at age twenty-seven, still hasn’t made up her mind what she wants to do when she grows up. In the meantime, her parents have hit on something to occupy her time and save them some money. After the long time super of the small apartment building they own is arrested on charges of taking kickbacks from an oil company – and honestly how could that be a lot of money since there are so few tenants there? – they suggest that Zephyr take over his job.

Zephyr shares a lot with other Chick Lit heroines – mid twenties and drifting through life, sucky job, repugnant ex-boyfriend, close gal pals and a hero who baffles her before they finally work out their HEA – but she – and the book- are also genuinely funny unlike a lot of the pratfall filled Chick Lit books I’ve struggled through in an attempt to recapture the joy of the first ones I read years ago. This is a book I’m glad I got in my bimonthly care package from Jane and one I know I’ll probably read again. B+ Recommended by Jayne.

This book can be purchased in trade format from Amazon or ebook format from the Sony Store and other etailers.

Scandal by Carolyn Jewel. The Earl of Banallt and the young widow Sophie Evans encounter each other when Sophie’s brother John brings Banallt home. John is unaware that the notorious earl and his sister have a history. Several years before, Sophie had first met Banallt when her philandering husband, Tommy, brought him home unexpectedly late one night. Both men were drunk, and they were accompanied by a woman of dubious reputation. From this inauspicious beginning, Sophie and Banallt formed an unlikely friendship. Banallt found himself strongly desiring Sophie, in spite of the fact that she’s no beauty. Sophie was unhappy, scarred by Tommy’s constant infidelity and the knowledge that he only married her (over the anvil in Scotland) for her inheritance – a circumstance that estranged her from her family for a time. She was drawn to Banallt but even more than any attraction she felt for him, she desperately needed a friend and confidante. Unfortunately, in a moment of anguish, Banallt destroyed the friendship. Sophie tells him she doesn’t want to see him again, and indeed they do not meet again for some time. A- Recommended by Jennie F and Jane.

This book can be purchased in mass market from Amazon or ebook format from the Sony Store and other etailers.

Dark of Night by Suzanne Brockmann. The long-awaited culmination of the Sophia and Decker story arc. The controversy, of course, is that although they both get their HEA in this book, they get it with other people. Controversy aside, however, this book is Brockmann at her best. The plotting is satisfyingly tight, the suspense suitably suspenseful, and the romances (yes, multiple!) form the absolute heart and soul of the book. With Brockmann’s trademark humor and with appropriate-to-the-plot cameos from favorite characters, the book is funny, charming, and sexy. And at the end of the book, it is certainly possible to firmly believe that Sophia and Decker are 100% happy and 100% with the right person. A- Recommended by Joan/Dr. F

This book can be purchased in hardcover from Amazon or ebook format from the Sony Store and other etailers.

Bone Crossed by Patricia Briggs. Bone Crossed begins almost immediately where Iron Kissed left off. Mercy Thompson, the narrator, is bruised, both in body and in spirit, by a rape. She must face up to survival which means coming to grips with her abuse, her love for Adam, her feelings regarding the Adam’s pack, and her own vulnerability.

The problem for Mercy is that she is so used to surviving on her own and that the people in her life that have professed to love her: her mother; Bran, a father figure; Samuel, her first love – have only loved her under certain conditions. To become part of the Pack means to necessarily rely on others for support, both emotional and physical. To allow herself to be fully embraced by Adam makes her vulnerable again. B+ Recommended by Jane.

This book can be purchased in hardcover from Amazon or ebook format from the Sony Store and other etailers.

North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley.
From behind, Terra is a stunningly beautiful: tall and blond with a knockout body. Unfortunately she has one minor “flaw:”

While my face couldn’t launch a thousand ships, it has the power to make any stranger whip around for a second look. Trust me, this mixture of curiosity and revulsion is nothing Helen of Troy would ever have encountered.

Terra has a port wine stain that covers her entire right cheek. In her small Washington town, it’s branded her a freak since she was little. And it’s not just the people in town who treat her as “flawed.” Terra also gets it from her family. The youngest of three children, Terra is the only one still living at home. Her oldest brother works halfway around the world in China, and the second oldest attends college but never comes home. The reason for their avoidance stems from their father whose determination to control everyone manifests itself via cruel, sniping criticisms.

If Girl Overboard was a novel with multiple intersecting external events, North of Beautiful is a novel with multiple intersecting internal (emotional) currents. The obvious one is that Terra’s been chasing after the Land of Beauty for her entire life, but it’s always been beauty as defined by other people — a father’s never-satisfied standards, a mother’s hopes that fixing Terra’s face will fix their home, a best friend who defends Terra but never really lets her shine either, and a boyfriend who loves her body but is ashamed to be seen with her in public. Everyone’s put her in a box and in one way or another, she’s trying to escape, to become the person she wants to be. A- Recommended by Jia.

This book can be purchased in hardcover from Amazon or ebook format from the Sony Store and other etailers.

Mexican Heat by Laura Baumbach and Josh Lanyon tells the story of two gay cops, both separately undercover in the West Coast drug world, on two different sides of a drug deal, neither of whom realize the other is one of the good guys. They establish a relationship of sorts, but after the bust goes bad, they have to renegotiate who they are and how they fit together. Wonderfully drawn characters who come alive, a compelling plot, and hot hot action. Recommended by Joan/Dr. F. (review to come)

This book can be purchased in ebook format from BooksonBoard and other retailers.

We would love it if you would share with us what you would recommend for the month of February.

Related posts:

1. June Recommended Reads
2. May Recommended Reads
3. Dear Author Recommended Reads for October

Dear Ms. Brockmann:

Despite your best efforts, the only way one would not know spoilers for this book is if one (a). didn’t care, or (b). lived in a dark, dank, cold, internet-less cave in the middle of a spooky forest surrounded an impenetrable   and very smelly swamp.   So while I’m going to try to review this wonderful book without too many spoilers, I’ll be employing the spoiler font with a very liberal hand.

You are famous (infamous?) for your innovative story arcs in which future primary couples not only meet in books previous to their own, but they actually start the relationship.   Gone Too Far (Book 6 of your Troubleshooter series) finished the overwhelmingly popular story arc of Sam and Alyssa (that starts in earnest in TS#2).   Flashpoint (TS#7), Tess Bailey and Jimmy Nash’s book, starts the arc of Sophia Ghaffari, Lawrence Decker, and Dave Malkoff.   Well, actually, it looked like it started the story arc of Sophia and Decker, while Dave was just a secondary character.   Dark of Night is TS#14, so this has been a long damn arc and Dark of Night provides quite the culmination.

The story so far: in Flashpoint, Sophia is the forced bride of a brutal warlord in Kazbhekistan, the fictional country that combines the worst of the post-war chaos of Iraq and the repressions of Taliban-led Afghanistan. She resourcefully escapes during the earthquake that the TS squad (Tess, Nash, Dave, Decker, and a few others) use as an excuse to enter the country, under the guise of humanitarian aide workers. Sophia, hunted and desperate, basically forces a blowjob on Decker, using it as a tool to try to distract him, at the culmination of which she tries to shoot him. Decker finally realizes Sophia is one of the good guys and manages to get her out of the country and set her up in an apartment and gets her a job with TS Inc., but he never forgives himself for not saying no forcefully enough and for, in his mind, adding to the overwhelming abuse she had already suffered. She hero-worships Deck over the next…five? years and bemoans her crush to her best buddy, Dave, who is completely and utterly in love forever and ever with her. It’s the kind of crush that everyone in TS Inc. knows about, and, in fact, they both almost lose their jobs when Decker refuses to be in the same city with Sophia.

The controversy, of course, lies in that despite the fact that both Sophia and Decker get their HEAs in this book, they don’t get them with each other.   Sophia, in fact, ends up with Dave. And Decker, well, Decker, super-SEAL that he is, Decker ends up with the ditzy secretary.   And this controversy is OMG!HUGE.   The online wank, it runneth over. Readers, we have been Betrayed! You, Ms. Brockmann, are performing character-ectomies! You’ve led us on for six, no, seven, no, wait! eight books! You’ve lied to us! Deliberately misled us! How dare you, you evil evil woman?!   Don’t you know we’ve got expectations, dammit!

I think this outrage gets at a core issue in the romance community, an issue similar to the condom-conundrum. Do we read romance for “reality” or for “fantasy”? Do we mind if our “fantasies” are interrupted with safe-sex? Do we mind if the romantic reliance on One Twu Wuv is derailed because, you know, sometimes someone will crush on the wrong person? Or does one fraught sexual encounter and some subsequent emotionally-charged, one-sided pining mean that these two people are destined for each other, no matter what?

Don’t get me wrong, I understand the outrage, even if I’m far from participating. I get how (intentionally?) misleading clues, both internal to the series and external in the meta-discussion (pairing Sophia and Decker in reader polls and your Extras Booklets), can lead to readers feeling betrayed. But, as a complete, utter, and unabashed FanGrrl (although, I like to think, not in the creepy or crazy-ass sense), and, full disclosure here, as someone with a professional relationship with you, I was willing to trust you to convince me that Sophia and Decker were better off without each other.

And, getting back to the review, you managed that 110%. As the author who made me like Mary Lou, Sam’s racist ex-wife, and made me believe in her love for and HEA with a non-white Muslim immigrant (Into the Night, TS#5), I trusted that you’d convince me that Sophia and Dave loved each other with a full, passionate, consuming love, and that Decker and Tracy, TS Inc.’s apparently ditzy secretary, could build a full, passionate, equal relationship.   And you did.   Boy howdy, did you.

You make us believe by not denying the very things that are causing the reader controversy in the first place.   Yes, Sophia absolutely goes into her relationship with Dave thinking that he is her second choice, behind Decker, and you don’t hide that. So readers who say “But how can we ever believe that Dave isn’t just a second choice?” are shown precisely how, because he IS initially Sophia’s second choice. Dave knows that Sophia thinks this and he’s (mostly) content with this. He’s just happy to be with her, even if he also KNOWS that he’s her second choice. You don’t hide that and you therefore manage to convince us when Sophia realizes that Dave is, and always will be, her first and only choice. Decker can’t see himself with Tracy anymore than any of us can, and you don’t hide that. So when we see him bemusedly fall for her, and her with him, we can believe it fully.   You don’t flinch, you don’t falter–in fact, you REVEL in the relationship expectations you’ve nurtured for seven books. And then you show us, without a shadow of a doubt, that Sophia and Dave, and Decker and Tracy, belong together, that there’s no way that they could be happily, passionately, fully in love with anyone else.   And therein lies your genius and why I keep coming back to your books, even when disappointed with some of them.

Another reader concern: this book is absolutely a romance. While some of your previous books in the Troubleshooter series seemed to be edging away from full-on romance into military suspense with some vaguely romantic themes, this one is 100% romance extraordinaire. There’s a suspense plot that’s seamlessly woven into the romance in that the characters would not be able to come to the emotional realizations they do in order to be able to grow and mature and deserve their happy ending without the suspense plot, but the romances drive the book and keep you reading. Or at least, they kept me reading.

As a super-extra bonus for your readers: multiple Happy Endings.   Generally, because your character arcs span four, five, seven books, this means that, although the main couple get their HEA, the secondary couple(s) are usually torn apart (Sam’s marriage to Mary Lou, for example), punished for not having their shit together enough to deserve their happy ending. No double or triple weddings at the end of your books, a la Susan Elizabeth Phillips, or, say, Shakespeare’s comedies. Your readers get one happy ending and one doom and gloom ending and you’ve said explicitly that you do this on purpose, not only to make the happy ending that much more precious and rare, but also precisely to elicit emotion from your readers. So to have two (or even, depending on how one counts, three! because Tess and Nash are finally fully happy) full-on happy endings is almost unheard of from you (well, except for Ric and Annie AND Jules and Robin in Force of Nature TS#11)   and so satisfying.

One last point, because this is my self-proclaimed area of DA expertise. Thank you for showing a safe and Oh so sexy D/s relationship. Thank you for showing a strong alpha male as a submissive. Thank you for showing that BDSM is an integral part of a person’s sexual identity and that acknowledging it, learning not to be ashamed of it, and exercising it will make a person healthier, happier, and, paradoxically, more normal.

I wish I had some niggles with this book, so that I could prove that I’m not a total, unthinking fangrrl.   I guess, if I were thinking hard, my niggles would all have to do with the bad guys: their apparent omniscience seemed a little over the top. And the figuring out of the WHY of the suspense plot — that is, who exactly is hunting the good guys and why — is a little bit of an info-dump, even if done in dialogue. But I like the reason. Its very mundane-ness makes a larger point than if it were a huge Plot of Terror. And why the final villain didn’t just cut his losses and run, I’ll never know. For what it’s worth, there are books of yours, especially TS Inc. books, that I would grade with a B or even lower, books that seem to be filler that gets us to the point of being able to complete the other, more important, story arcs.   But this one isn’t like that, of course, because it IS the end of a story arc. But I also think it does a MUCH better job than the other story arc endings: Gone Too Far (TS#6: Sam and Alyssa’s book) or Breaking Point (TS#9: Max and Gina’s book). Maybe that’s because Decker’s romance both starts and is rewarded solely in this book? I’m not sure. I just know that this book ranks, for me, with The Unsung Hero (TS#1) and Heart Throb (non-TS stand alone) as your most perfectly plotted, most brilliantly written books.

I have always admired (WARNING: long PDF biography of Brockmann) the innovation you bring to the romance genre. Its authors like you who keep romance alive and interesting.   I think the sheer volume and vitriol of reader outrage whenever you do something new is a testament to how well you manage to do this.

Grade: A-

Sincerely,

-Joan/Sarah F.

This book can be purchased in hardcover from Amazon or ebook format from the Sony Store and other etailers.

Related posts:

1. Questions for Suzanne Brockmann? I Need Them
2. Reader Expectation Poll – Suzanne Brockmann Edition
3. If You Like Suzanne Brockmann . . . Hosted by Dr. Sarah Frantz

eBooks:

• ROUGH, RAW, AND READY by Lorelei James (Samhain)
• UNEVEN by Anah Crow (Torquere)
• COLLISION COURSE by K.A. Mitchell (Samhain)
• LOVE AHEAD by Madeleine Urban and Abigail Roux (Dreamspinner)
• IN THIS LAND: The Purple Book by Matthew Haldeman-Time (Volume 1 of 5 that combine the ongoing weekly subscription service on author’s website, $4.99/month)

Print books:

• DARK NEEDS AT NIGHT’S EDGE by Kresley Cole
• DARK DESIRES AFTER DUSK by Kresley Cole
• INTO THE FIRE by Suzanne Brockmann

Related posts:

1. Best of 2008 List: Reviewer Jia
2. Best of 2008 List: Reviewer Jayne
3. Best of 2008 List: Reviewer Jennie F

The controversy of the week appears to be the upcoming Suzanne Brockmann book. I believe the book is due out the end of January but early readers have leaked that the coupling of the two main protagonists is not what was expected. This has lead to a firestorm of posts at All About Romance and around the web with readers feeling misled and betrayed and the author herself saying that expectations were wrong by the readers (I think this is the wrong way to address readers’ concerns). So, the poll question is what were your expectations of this next book but the discussion can be about expectations and readers and authors. Clearly there is a big divide here. I’m in the camp with blogger from romancenovels

:

I do believe it is important that there not be any confusion over who the hero and heroine of the story actually are. To me, the hero/heroine relationship is the cornerstone of the romance novel.

I think that there is some increasing desire by some authors to keep the next book couple a secret. I guess that would be a poll for another day but I do wonder what it adds.

Related posts:

1. Reader Expectation, The Suzanne Brockmann Edition
2. If You Like Suzanne Brockmann . . . Hosted by Dr. Sarah Frantz
3. All About Romance Reader’s Top 100 Poll

If you would like to host an “If You Like” post, please email me at Jane at dearauthor.com

***

Suzanne Brockmann

Once upon a time, I was browsing in a Waldenbooks and saw a two-for-one deal: Suzanne Brockmann’s The Unsung Hero came free with a re-issue of her one and only time travel, Time Enough for Love. TEFL looked intriguing, so I bought the other book so I could get it. It was intriguing, but TUH, one of the most exquisitely plotted books I’ve ever read, truly rocked my world and I’ve been a rabid Brockmann Fan Grrl ever since.

Brockmann started out in 1993 writing tightly plotted Silhouette Intimate Moments and light, frothy Loveswepts (that are all slowly being reissued). But she really hit her stride in 1996 when she began her “Tall, Dark and Dangerous” SEAL Team Ten books from Silhouette Intimate Moments. In 2000, she created another SEAL team for her mainstream Troubleshooter series (Into the Fire [TS#13] released last week). In a post-9/11 world, her Troubleshooter books are topical, thoughtful, and exceptionally well-written. For a bleeding-heart liberal, she gets the military mindset-’the details of military life might not be 100% perfect, but the mindset, the way we think and the way we feel about our fellow service members and our commitment and loyalty to our country, is spot on. Additionally, her forty-six novels tangle with, stretch, and sometimes break romance genre conventions in innovative and fascinating ways. And finally, she’s just a genuinely nice person and understands the importance of a personal relationship with her readers. (As a bonus, she’s the host of the RITA Awards ceremony at RWA this year, so say Hi! to her for me if you’re going to San Francisco!)

So, without further ado:

Setting (era): Contemporary

Brockmann only writes novels set in the present day (even her one time travel novel only jumps back a few years). And by present day, they’re usually set the date the book comes out, or a little later. There are flashbacks to important points in the characters’ lives, but the action is relentlessly present to the extent that you’re convinced as you read it that you should be able to watch it instead on CNN. In fact, a large part of what she does is put a human face, with characters you care about deeply, on what we do watch on the evening news.

The exception to this, of course, is her World War Two subplots in her Troubleshooter books. There were seven such plots-’in the earlier books in the series-’and they all tell the stories of everyday heroism in WWII (French resistance, Danish Jews, Dunkirk, double agents, the genesis of the SEAL teams and of psychological warfare, the Tuskegee airmen and the Women Airforce Service Pilots [WASPs]) that eventually intertwine with the modern-day plot in intricate, essential ways.

Setting (geographic): USA and various hotbeds of terrorism

Most of Brockmann’s characters are relentlessly American with very few exceptions-’including her villains, as she deals with domestic terrorism as well as foreign-’and despite her focus on terrorism, she manages to set most of her novels on US soil. Two of her Troubleshooter novels are set in the fictional country of Kazbekistan, two are set in Indonesia, and her WWII subplots are obviously set mostly in Europe. More specifically, her Troubleshooter world is now anchored by Troubleshooters Inc., a private security firm founded by the hero of The Unsung Hero after the fifth installment of the series, but she still includes characters who work variously for the FBI, for police departments, for an unnamed “Black Ops” governmental organization, and of course, for SEAL Team 16.

Heroine Type: Competent professionals

Her most recent heroines have been, variously, a pediatrician, a linguist, a helicopter pilot, an appellate attorney, a member of the White House staff, an FBI agent, a computer specialist, a missionary, a movie producer and script-writer, and two former police officers. Sometimes their job is integral to the plot, sometimes its incidental, but they’re never Too Stupid To Live, they’re never incompetent, and they’re never unaware of their own issues. Savannah, in Out of Control, for instance, is a rich heiress whose never been so much as camping and she finds herself in an Indonesian jungle. While she does a few boneheaded things, she never whines, she never complains, and she usually does what her SEAL hero tells her to do, to the extent that her ability to be smart in the face of sheer ignorance is one of the things about her that he falls in love with. While you might violently disagree with their choices, they’re always true to character. Meg, in The Defiant Hero, is the queen of this particular point. Her daughter is kidnapped and she will do anything to save her, including ignoring and outright avoiding the help of her SEAL hero and his FBI buddies. While most people found this behavior TSTL, I think it’s perfectly within character and makes sense in the context of the story. Most of all, Brockmann’s heroines get their heroes; there is a true connection between them, usually symbolized by a shared sense of humor. The heroines understand what makes their men tick, and that understanding is what makes them fall in love. Above all, Brockmann’s genius is in writing individuals. You could give me a paragraph of a character thinking or speaking and I’d probably be able to tell you who it was, without any plot clues, just because the voices of her characters are so distinct.

Hero type: Competent, self-aware, Alpha males.

Brockmann’s heroes are all Alpha, all the time-’they’re SEALs and FBI agents and cops, after all-’but they’re also very aware of their feelings, of their reasons for reactions to situations and people. So, while they might fight falling in love, they know what they’re doing and why.

My personal favorite Brockmann hero is not a SEAL. Jed Beaumont from Heart Throb, Brockmann’s only stand-alone mainstream, is a recovering alcoholic, former A-list actor who is trying to get back into the movie business after burning all his bridges. His story, with nary an explosion in sight, is the tale of a man finding his way back to feeling and understanding his own emotions, and it’s one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever read.

A game I like to play in all of Brockmann’s books is finding the tears. Because Brockmann’s heroes like to cry. The entire of personality of her most famous character, Sam Starrett, and his love affair with Alyssa is built around his relationship to his own tears, and they’re pretty powerful stuff:

But she was stuck there. Hypnotized by the sight of those eyes filled with tears, by the very idea that this tough, unbreakable man was capable of crying over anything. (Over the Edge 286)

Plot: (action-oriented / character-driven): Both

Brockmann not only writes, but also certainly popularized, if not outright pioneered, the genre of romantic military suspense, so her plots are all about action. Most take place over a week, or even a couple of days-’although if it’s only a couple of days, there are almost always flashbacks to the characters’ previous history. Because although you keep turning the pages because you have to know if the bomb is going to go off and the hero and heroine will save the world, you also turn the pages because you’re genuinely connected to these characters and need to see how they’re going to get their HEA. So although it’s all about the action, you also know that things would have turned out differently if the characters were different people, because they would not have made the same decisions.

Plot (slow/medium/fast): Fast

Even the construction of the plots heightens the suspense, with point of view breaks coming fast and furious (and sometimes confusing) at the denouement of the novel. They’re the type of book that you put down after finally finishing it in one long rush, and realize that it’s 3:30 am and you have to get up in two and a half hours to go to work, and you’re too jazzed by the good guys winning and the HEA to care.

Writing style (simple v. ornate): Simple

Brockmann has very few passages of description, whether long or short. And even the description you do have is told from deep point of view, so it reveals as much about the character whose head you’re in as it does about what they’re describing. Joan describes Mike in Into the Night:

It really was remarkable. The guy was right out of central casting. Hello, Gertrude? Yeah, we need a Navy SEAL hero type over on lot twenty-four this afternoon. Make sure he stands well over six feet tall, is built like a Greek god, has neon blue eyes, golden brown hair, and a face more handsome than Brad Pitt’s, will ya?

“Ma’am.”

And he should definitely be ridiculously young, so as to make me feel as old as possible by actually addressing me as ma’am. (21-22)

Dialogue (lots/little/balanced): Lots

Brockmann’s books are heavily and increasingly dialogue driven. This only works, of course, because her characters are so distinct, but it also supports the suspense plots by keeping the pace fast and furious.

Even when dialogue is not front-and-center, Brockmann writes in (one might even say, again, pioneered and popularized) deep point of view, so even if a character is not actually talking with another character, their internal thoughts read like dialogue anyway.

But her characters actually talk to each other. No Big Mis for Brockmann. Or if there is, it gets worked out and the real problems raise their ugly heads to be dealt with. The hero and heroine MUST talk to each other to, as Brockmann puts it, “deserve” their HEA. They’re constantly talking around and through and to and finally with each other and that’s what makes these books so great:

Sam closed his mouth, biting back everything equally nasty that otherwise might’ve escaped. He was not going to do this again. He was not going to fight with Alyssa until one or both of them lay bleeding on the floor. Not, not, not.

Instead, he had to figure out what to say before he said it. Come on, Starrett. You’ve got a fairly large brain. Use it.

He also had to remember what he knew about this woman. She’d let him get close, and now she was probably pretty fricking scared. (Gone Too Far 354)

Humor (Yes/No-serious/some): Yes

The humor is, as everything with Brockmann’s books, very character-based, which means I am completely unable to find a short example of the humor that doesn’t need a long explanation. However:

“This is Max Bhagat. Connect me to the President.”

“I’m sorry, sir-’”

“Wrong answer.” . . .

“He’s in a meeting with the-’”

“Do you know who I am?

“I’m sorry, I’m new. This is my first day, sir. I’m trying-’”

“Connect me to someone who is not new, right now,” Max said, “or this will be your last day.” On earth.

Someone else picked up. “Peterson.”

“This is Max Bhagat-’”

“I’ll connect you to the President right away, sir.”

If certain characters are on the stage (Ken, Jules, Izzy), you know you’ll get some good one-liners. If certain pairs are on the stage (most of them, TBH), you know that they’ll have great and funny interaction with each other. Because while her books always deal with serious subjects, they deal with them in funny and heart-warming ways that make you think and don’t make you want to slit your wrists when you finish the book.

Emotional Angst (high/medium/low): Medium

The emotional angst is mostly on the reader’s side, to be honest. Brockmann’s innovative story arcs not only introduce future heroes and heroines in books way before their own, but actually start their relationships. Most series books, Nora Roberts most famously, will introduce future main characters in books before their own, and might even hint at their future partner, but very rarely actually start the romantic relationship before their own book. Sam and Alyssa, Brockmann’s first extended arc couple, sleep together in Books #2 and #3 before their own story in Book #6 of the Troubleshooter, Inc. series. Other authors, for example Susan Elizabeth Phillips, will often have two or three couples receive their HEA at the end of a single book. Brockmann, however, once said in an interview: “I have a contract with my readers: ‘Dear Reader: I promise I will give you a happy ending for the two main characters in this book. But I’m going to have subplots that may end unhappily or even in death. In ways you don’t expect, I will create different emotional responses in you.’” She’s a firm believer that the requisite happily-ever-after ending of romances denies readers “a lot of cathartic emotions” that take them out of their “comfort zone,” so her secondary characters almost never receive an HEA until their own book (with one exception). This creates lots of angst for her readers (see the end of her current novel, Into the Fire, which hints at an unexpected pairing for the main characters of her next book), and for the characters left hanging, but not necessarily for the main couples of the novel.

Conflict (externally driven/internally driven/both): Both

Again, Brockmann writes character-driven military suspense, so the characters must deserve their HEA by actually talking with each other, but they are also driven by the exigencies of their suspense plot. They might never have met or talked if it weren’t for the suspense plot. Brockmann does a brilliant job, IMO, of making the internal and external plots depend on each other fully, both of them unresolvable without resolution in the other. She does this better than almost anyone else I’ve read.

Heat level: (kisses/warm/hot/scorching): Hot

She’s not erotica-level scorching, but her sex scenes are nothing to be sneezed at, either.

Except for the closed-door nature of the scenes between gay FBI agent Jules and his partner Robin-’much to the disgust of some readers. She has explained that she felt like she was pushing enough boundaries to give Jules and Robin their HEA and, indeed, their own book, without pushing open the door of their bedroom, but many readers who have adored Jules since he first showed up were very unhappy.

She’s an expert at building sexual tension. Jones brings Molly (a missionary in a remote village in Indonesia) a book:

. . . “It’s a good one, huh?”

“They’re all good,” Molly told him from atop her bed. “If it’s got pages and a spine and I haven’t read it before, it’s fabulous. Even if it’s a how-to guide for building an igloo. But [Robert] Parker-For a new Parker, okay, yes, I’d have sex with you”

“Well, all right,” Jones said. “Let’s get naked.”

She got down off the bed. “I was kidding.”

“So was I.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “No, you weren’t.”

“Okay, I wasn’t,” he agreed.

He didn’t reach for her. He didn’t move closer. He just stood there, still by the door, smiling into her eyes.

“I love it when you smile,” she whispered. “You should do it more often.”

“Make love to me. I’ll smile the whole time, I promise.”

Neither of them was smiling now. Now there was only heat between them. (Out of Control 132-133)

And I think that quote sums up everything I’m trying to say about how freaking great Brockmann’s books are: humor, dialogue, character-driven, fast-paced, sexy, down-right addictive books. Go get one now! If you’re intimidated by the SEAL series (13 and counting), start with Heart Throb. You won’t be disappointed, I promise. If the SEALs intrigue you, start from the beginning: The Unsung Hero is still one of the most perfect books of all time. (As is Heart Throb, for that matter!)

If You Like Suzanne Brockmann, You’ll Like . . .:

Good question. I’ve never really found anyone to compare, but let’s try.

Linda Howard’s mid-career books remind me of Brockmann’s. After the Night, Dream Man, Mr. Perfect, and Open Season have similar dialogue, h/h interaction, tight plotting, and competent characters. I’ve never really liked her CIA/assassin books, but other Brockmann fans think that they compare.

Other military romance authors: Catherine Mann, who writes about the Air Force and is herself the wife of an Air Force pilot; Lindsay McKenna’s website claims that she “created the sub-genre of military adventure/romance” and I’ve often heard her compared with Brockmann.

Authors with similar “Bands of Brothers”: J.R. Ward immediately springs to mind. Although her Black Dagger Brotherhood is a lot more campy and unrealistic than Brockmann’s SEALs, their loyalty to each other and the rabidness of their readers are similar (with complete awareness that I am one of those rabid fans for both of them!). Ward herself claims a great debt to Brockmann-’she’s certainly emulated Brockmann’s expanded story arcs by starting the romances of some of her couples before their own books-’and she is herself a Brockmann Fan Grrl.

Brockmann’s humor and dialogue often reminds me of both Nora Roberts and Susan Elizabeth Phillips, although she’s obviously further from SEP in tone and plotting. Going much further afield, I’m also reminded of Julia Quinn’s historical characters and the way they interact.

For competent heroines, check out Amanda Quick (Jayne Ann Krentz)’s historicals (well, her earlier single word titles-’I haven’t read her recent stuff). For self-aware males, check out Susan Johnson’s American-Indian Braddock-Black historicals (nothing like Cassie Edwards, I promise!).

For Alpha Males-well, where does one start? For the emotionally connected part, I’m going to throw out a shout-out to Joey Hill, especially Natural Law, but very little else about the books are similar, except their quality.

And for fabulously marvelous, character-driven, dialogue-heavy, steaming-but-not-erotica (although definitely open door), funny gay romance, go check out Matthew Haldeman-Time. His book, Off the Record might be a POD, but it’s one of the best romances I’ve ever read, right up there in my personal pantheon with Heart Throb. If you don’t want to risk it, read his short stories-’you won’t be disappointed, I promise.

But really, when you come right down to is, no one compares to Suz Brockmann. I’d love to find someone who does, so who would you recommend?

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This actually sounds interesting although I’m a bit worried about the name Vinh. Are all characters going to be having extra “h’s” in their names? I am digressing here. What I need is help with questions. Interesting questions. Not questions like “where do you get your ideas” because I know that it has been asked and answered before.

Maybe questions like – what do you think of John Edwards and the fact he was caught in the Beverly Hills Hotel visiting his secret mistress and hiding in the bathroom to avoid reporters while his cancer ridden wife is fighting for better healthcare coverage”. Okay, maybe not questions like that, but I think you get my point, right?

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