Review - Out of Control

Title: Out of Control
Author: Suzanne Brockmann
Publishing Date: March 2002
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Rating: B+
Sensuality: Hot

Out of Control is book four of Brockmann’s Team Sixteen Navy SEAL series. Let me tell you what a wonderful series this is. The first three books in this series are very hard to top, but this book, I am happy to say, lives up to my expectations. Savannah von Hopf, a lawyer back east, who is a bit of a control freak, has to deliver a ransom for her Uncle Alex. Alex is being held hostage in Jakarta. She gets the name Ken “WildCard” Karmody from Adele, with whom she knew back in college, in the hopes that he will come with her to drop off the ransom. This is a road romance with opposites attracting.

Out of Control is actually not just Ken and Savannah’s story, but three other stories as well. First, there is the continuation of Alyssa Locke and Roger “Sam” Starrett’s story. Then there is Savannah’s grandmother’s double spy story. Finally, there are the two new characters: Molly and Jones. The previous SEAL books in this series were written the same way; stories within a story. Brockmann’s ability to tell a story and grab the reader by pulling them deeply into the story is phenomenal. Normally during a book if I am pulled away from the main story line I get irritated and immediately want to skip the boring parts and get back to the good stuff. I don’t know how she does it, but this doesn’t happen when reading a Brockmann novel (out of the 4 that I have read). Reading her book is sort of like watching a soap opera with all the different storylines. As soon as you are engrossed in so-n-so’s story they up and flip over to someone else. Brockmann’s books are the same way. The beauty of Brockmann’s book is that I am equally engrossed in all of the aspects. I can’t seem to turn the pages fast enough.

There was one small part of the book toward the end that made me want to throw the book at the wall. This is why I rated the book a B+ instead of an A (which is what I rated the three previous books in this series). One of the characters (I’ll not be naming names) really just had one of those special bonehead moments. They did something that I felt the author would really be hard pressed to resolve. She did resolve it, but I felt it was more or less quickly skimmed over and so it was a let down for me in the end.