REVIEW: Into the Storm by Suzanne Brockmann

I really don’t know what I was smok­ing to have bought this book when the buzz sur­round­ing it’s release was not good. How­ever, I like to read things for myself and make up my own mind. Yes, read­ers can think for them­selves. I thought: how bad can this book be, I wonder? 

Into the Storm by Suzanne Brock­mann is aptly titled. Brock­mann made my read­ing expe­ri­ence some­thing of a mem­o­rable event that included a lot of frown­ing and con­fu­sion. The plot for this book seems to be all over the damn place.  Here is a descrip­tion of it:

In a remote, frozen cor­ner of New Hamp­shire, a Navy SEAL team and the élite secu­rity experts of Trou­bleshoot­ers, Incor­po­rated are going head-to-head as fierce but friendly rivals in a raid-and-rescue train­ing exer­cise. Despite the frigid win­ter tem­per­a­tures, ten­sion smol­ders between vet­eran SEAL Petty Offi­cer Mark “Jenk” Jenk­ins and for­mer cop turned Trou­bleshooter Lind­sey Fontaine after an impul­sive night goes awry. And then, sud­denly, Tracy Shapiro, the Trou­bleshoot­ers’ new recep­tion­ist, van­ishes while play­ing the role of hostage dur­ing a mock res­cue oper­a­tion.
Team­ing up with the FBI to launch a man­hunt in the treach­er­ous wilder­ness, Jenk and Lind­sey must put aside their feel­ings as a record snow­storm approaches, dra­mat­i­cally reduc­ing any hope of find­ing Tracy alive. The trail is colder than the bit­ing New Eng­land cli­mate until a lucky break leads to a hor­ri­fy­ing discovery–a bru­tally mur­dered young woman wear­ing the jacket Tracy wore when she dis­ap­peared. Sud­denly there is a chill­ing cer­tainty that Tracy has fallen prey to a ser­ial killer–one who knows the back­woods ter­rain and who doesn’t play by the rules of engage­ment.
In a race against time, a rag­ing bliz­zard, and a cun­ning oppo­nent, Jenk and Lind­sey are put to the ulti­mate test. Ris­ing every­thing, they must finally come together in a des­per­ate attempt to save Tracy–and each other.

Brockmann’s sto­ries are usu­ally enter­tain­ing despite the flaws. However, I am a tiny bit curi­ous at the valid­ity of her plots. Is it just me or do  all her sto­ries seem com­pletely implau­si­ble and way out there? I find myself pon­der­ing stuff that I prob­a­bly shouldn’t like: How strong is the research? Does she even do research? Are any of these char­ac­ters based on real peo­ple? I hope not. Another point for my lack of enjoy­ment might lie in the fact that I had to admit that I found noth­ing inter­est­ing  in a romance devel­oped dur­ing a train­ing ops that goes absolutely nowhere. A fruit­less exer­cise and subterfuge. Another rea­son for my lack of engage­ment may lie in the fact that I am finally tired of all the Trou­bleshoot­ers, Inc and their very tal­ented, élite staff mem­bers. There are so many of them and everyone’s…happy, con­tent and a heroic. B-o-r-i-n-g.

Brock­mann, while enter­tain­ing, her sto­ries are full of: does that hap­pen for real? No, I can’t always sus­pend disbelief. I had no clue that a civil­ian in a Third World coun­try could email a Navy SEAL and in return, receive help from them, in the Mid­dle East. I had no idea that you could out­run explo­sives or fool the insur­gents while you make good, your dar­ing escape. The hero, Jenk or is it Jenks? I saw his name spelled both ways in the first two or three chap­ters before I gave up. Editor issue or does he go by both names? Also, there are so many staff mem­bers in this Trou­bleshoot­ers, Inc, that I know each and every one of them will have their own book one day. Maybe all of them will get a book before Sofia and Deck ever will? Sorry. I’m just bit­ter that a half-way inter­est­ing, decent romance that has more chem­istry than all her pre­vi­ous leads has been rel­e­gated to the back­seat. I some­what antic­i­pate and dread the telling of their story. Be afraid. Be very afraid. Remem­ber Max and Gina’s story? Hee­hee. I didn’t read it.

Any­way, Into the Storm should be reti­tled, Into the Mess because it was a dis­as­ter area. The dia­logue is still surfer dude, high school, silli­ness. Sopho­moric in tone. It’s even worse in this book. I can’t stand Tracy, the office sec­re­tary that flirts with all the mar­ried and unmar­ried Navy SEALs. What’s even more amaz­ing is that the author has us believe that Jenk’s had a crush on Tracy since high school. High school, peo­ple! Who has a crush that long? His slated love interest, Lindsey, is described as Asian and seems to like Jenk a lot but she comes off as being way too judge­men­tal when we first meet her. I didn’t care for her, hon­estly. How­ever, a brownie point for Brockmann’s diversity. Her lead, Jenk, comes off like a clue­less twit, still in high school, not the Navy. This romance was doomed from the start, when they met. Story over.

Take away from this review what you will but note that I didn’t fin­ish it, didn’t care to fin­ish it and will prob­a­bly steer clear of the next book in the series. My grade, DNF.

For Fur­ther Reading

• “Hard to Hold,” Stephanie Tyler
• Per­fect Tim­ing by Olga Bicos
• Scan­dal­iz­ing the Ton, Diane Gas­ton {Guest Review}
• Ain’t Mis­be­hav­ing, Jeanne Grant
• The Wrong Man For Her, Kathryn Shay [Guest Review]
• Wednesday’s Child, Gayle Wil­son [Guest Review]
• Ōoku: The Inner Cham­bers, Fumi Yoshinaga
• Vam­pire Knight Story & Art by Mat­suri Hino
• REVIEW: Rain­wa­ter by San­dra Brown
• “When Love Isn’t Enough” by Kath­leen Gilles Seidel

Tagged as: Navy SEALs, Romance, Romantic suspense, Suspense, Suzanne Brockmann, terrorists, Troubleshooters