Silhouette Intimate Moments, $4.50, ISBN 0-373-27157-3
Romantic Suspense, 2001
A funny thing about Suzanne Brockmann’s Navy SEAL category romances as opposed to full-length novels: anyone noticed how the full-length Navy SEAL novels so far are full of passive, always-in-distress nitwit heroines, while it’s the opposite in the category romances, where the heroines can be strong, and ballsy? (Note that I didn’t say “intelligent”.) Although the heroine in Taylor’s Temptation comes close to being outright loony in her independence, it’s still a welcome change from the non-stop “Oh, help me, my daughter is being taken hostage by terrorists!” sob fest.
In essence, Taylor’s Temptation is one of the Silhouette editors’ favorite four getting-off fantasies: the “my brother’s best friend is my boyfriend” plot. Okay, I do admit I had a mad crush on my brother’s best friend once, when I was fourteen, but come on, this fantasy is hokey and overused already. If the editors insist on making their authors write the same plot again and again, at least get some new plots, people.
I won’t be ranting like this if the plot of Taylor’s Temptation is at least a little different, but it’s not. The same old stuff, performing right on schedule. Bobby Taylor has the hots for his friend Wes’s little sister despite seeing her grow up, that pervert. What, shore leave too short? Colleen, however, wants Bobby, and she wants him bad… ooh, so bad, so bad, oh, oh, oh. (Go buy a vibrator, Ms C.) So she will have him. She will wear skimpy shorts and bend over in front of him. He will drool but oh, he is a Navy SEAL, what can he offer her (apart from the obvious)? But Miss C here, she is Independent. She is Strong. In romance novels, “independent” and “strong” tend to be euphemisms for “outright insane”. In this case, alas, the terms are euphemisms for “outright insane”.
It’s a long story, but I’ll keep it short: Miss C knows that a big city is filled with dangerous men, but she sleeps under an open window by the fire escape. Surrounded by thugs, alone, she gives them the stupid “Don’t mess with me!” act instead of fleeing like a sane woman would. And oh yes, no Mace spray, nothing in her purse. And did I mention her mad plan to go to war-torn countries to save orphans or something, unarmed and unprepared? And she has the nerve to go “Ha! You’re not the boss of me!” at Bobby’s advice. What does a Navy SEAL know about safety, anyway?
Bobby is cute, sexy, and the sexual tension between he and Miss C is thick enough to fog up the hottest windowpanes. But Miss C is this close to airhead city that most of the time I am too busy cheering for her to fall flat on her heavily buxom front. At the end of the day, I can’t help but to wonder if the author’s grand empire is crumbling away from over-expansion and inadequate natural resources to keep up with the expansion.
