1/21/2024 0 Comments Sandra model set 16I am mystified by Brown’s titles about 50% of the time. And also her Old Skool dudes have mustaches and it weirds me out. I’m just saying that I don’t buy their alleged emotional growth. I totally get why people fall for the super tough, alpha, emotionally-distant dude who falls head over heels for the heroine. I’m not saying that there’s nothing to love in Sandra Brown’s heroes. He wasn’t an outright douche, but he also never really talked much so he had less douche-opportunity. Everyone expects him to be a bumpkin, but he’s sharp. He’s quiet and intelligent, sort of a dark horse in the search for the stalker. Ski was more likeable, but we know less about him. He understands that he did douchey things, but he basically went and licked his wounds for 30 years, and by the end of the book I wasn’t convinced he’d changed much. Still, both flashback-Dodge and present-day-Dodge weren’t tripping my trigger. We see the choices Dodge made that backfired on him (career before family) and how he became a cynical P.I. We get flashbacks into Dodge and Caroline’s relationship in the 70’s. She finally grants them some depth, but not a ton. When he meets Cat he suddenly starts thinking of women as real people and writes them into his mysteries as more than just orifices.ĭodge and Ski are far less Old Skooly than Alex. He’s a slob, a womanizer (that’s a requirement of Brown heroes-they all apparently are or were pussy magnets), and he’s pretty sexist IMHO. Possibly Burt Reynolds as played by Norm MacDonald. I seriously pictured Burt Reynolds playing him. The problem is she doesn’t give them a lot of nuance to make up for their emotional constipation and poor choices.Īlex Pierce was very one dimensional. She writes the bad boys, the hardened, chain-smoking P.I., the guy you are not supposed to love. I like Sandra Brown as an author, but I’ve never liked her heroes, which is sort of weird. Clearly she knows and loves the Lonestar State, and the books have a great sense of place. I don’t know that all of Brown’s books are set here (I’m too lazy to Google), but everything I’ve read is. While the stalking/killing/OMG THE CALL IS COMING FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE is going on, Ski and Berry are making eyes at each other, causing me to give them the worst/most appropriate couple name ever: Skerry. Also looking for the stalker/killer is Ski Nyland, a Sheriff’s Deputy and Afghanistan war vet. Dodge and Caroline haven’t seen each other since Berry’s birth, and there is a whole bunch of angsty-pants going on. Her mother, real estate queen Caroline King, calls Berry’s absentee father and private investigator Dodge Hanley to help. Berry Malone is nearly killed by her stalker, a man who has now evaded police capture and gone on to kill others. Tough Customer is similarly about a woman being stalked by a killer. Cat knows she’s being stalked and fate/circumstance pairs her up with sexy mystery writer/ ex-cop Alex Pierce, and they set off to find the killer. The Very Bad Person is a relative of one of the donors, gone mad by the thought of their loved one’s heart beating in someone else. Two years after her surgery, a Very Bad Person is killing off heart transplant recipients who received their organs the same time Cat did. After getting her new heart Cat is inspired to quit her acting gig and use her fame to help others by running a show featuring foster kids looking for adoptive parents. While on vacation recently I read Charade (1994) followed immediately by Tough Customer (2010) and it showed me how much Brown has changed as a writer, and also the ways she’s stayed consistent for her readers.Ĭharade is about a soap opera star named Cat Delaney who needs a heart transplant due to a childhood illness. I still read Sandra Brown, although her books have gotten decidedly less nuts over the years. It was full-on crazysauce, and I’ve never turned back. The first romantic suspense book I ever read was Mirror Image by Sandra Brown.
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