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Breaking the Rules A Novel Troubleshooters Suzanne Brockmann 9780345521224 Books

Download As PDF : Breaking the Rules A Novel Troubleshooters Suzanne Brockmann 9780345521224 Books

Breaking the Rules A Novel Troubleshooters Suzanne Brockmann 9780345521224 Books

I just don't think I have it in me to give a Suzanne Brockmann book 2 stars, so I went with 3. This book is regrettably lacklustre when compared against her own body of work; it's too bad she's set the bar so high! I've been reading Brockmann for years (since high school!), back when she was doing Harlequin, and my favorite book in the series is probably Terri and Stan's book, with Gina and Max and Decker and Tracy coming in a close second. I also liked Cosmo and Jane. I just wandered into my study and realized I have most of her books in hardcover! So, yeah...a fan. That being said, I didn't have a lot of interest in Zanella or the Gillmans so I put off reading the last two books of the series for a few years and am just now finishing up.

I think whether you like this latest (and last?) book in the Troubleshooters series will depend on how you feel about the Gillman siblings, Danny and Eden. For whatever reason, Danny never really bothered me. Obviously, he was a cocky jerk but it always seemed like he was written that way to be a foil for Izzy. And I felt like he would eventually meet a woman who would basically give him his comeuppance. I mean, Mr. Darcy was a cocky jerk too, right? I loved how the last book in the series ended with Jenn sending poor Danny off to Afghanistan with nothing but a kiss and a "call me when you get back if you feel like it". After he had played her the entire book, she played him right back and I was so happy for her. In Breaking the Rules, their relationship advances well, and Danny shows the most emotional development of anyone in the book. Jenn and Danny won't be the most memorable couple from the Troubleshooters series, but they were well written and articulated. And I liked that Jenn wasn't gorgeous like many, many, many of the other heroines we've seen. At this point, I'm pretty sure Troubleshooters is just a cover for some kind of Project Runway reality series since all the women are perfect. Although, I felt sorry for Jenn that her weight kept being brought up by the author - it was bordering on bullying, lol. Look, she's six feet tall and a size 14. Is that fat? Danny described her as "statuesque". As we all know, he's more critical than anyone and if he says statuesque, I believe him.

Now, Eden...she's probably a pretty good rendering of an 18 year old. Which is to say, dramatic, teary-eyed, obnoxious...the problem is, I just lost a lot of respect for Izzy's character when he hooked up with her. My husband employs a few 18-19 year olds and they are adorbs! But the idea of a 30 year old finding an 18 year old (and lets not forget she was under 18 when they initially got together) sexually attractive and then ACTING on it? Creepy. Maybe, MAYBE, I could have overlooked it if she were poised and confident, a little worldly. But the only way in which she was worldly was that she was sexually experienced, which is not really experience at all considering the way she was victimized. The bottom line is this...Zanella couldn't possibly have anything in common with her and I don't believe he was in love with her. Which means he's in lust with a kid who's had a hard life and his age and experience means he took advantage of that. I mean, you can tell yourself you read Playboy for the articles all day long, but we all know why you got the subscription in the first place, lol. Eden was definitely a survivor, but her emotional maturity was low...really low. So if he actually was in love with her? That also doesn't speak well of him. The age difference between Max and Gina felt different to me as Gina was college educated (ie, she had options in life), well-traveled, accomplished, with a great family supporting her. And there is a massive difference in maturity between 18 and 23. There just is. So this part of the book didn't work for me.

The good points are these: like all Brockmann books, there was a good, quick flow to events. Everything clips along at a good pace. I appreciated the change of pace in that the events were more domestic and family oriented, rather than a serial killer/terrorist situation. It gave more insight into the day to day life. For example, money was mentioned often, like...Gillman realizing it was going to be tough to afford an apartment in San Diego, plus visits to New York to see Jenn, etc. It lent a certain realism to the book. I'll miss all of the characters I've met along the way...I'm just a bit sad the series didn't end on a high note.


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Breaking the Rules A Novel Troubleshooters Suzanne Brockmann 9780345521224 Books Reviews

I read this book years ago, out of order and really enjoyed it, but reading in order with all the background of the other characters that make a small appearance really clears up a lot of those, "Huh, what's that about," moments. I have always liked Izzy, with his odd sense of humor, and I have never really liked Dan, but I came to realize that Izzy can be serious when he needs to be and I think like Dan a little more. Although I don't think I could ever be with a man that is that manipulative and I don't understand why Jenn married him, I think there may be hope for him. I would like to visit with them in about 10 years to see the changes.

Bottom line, I enjoyed this book. It kept my interest, the plot moved quickly and I like the characters. I'm a little sad to know that this is the end of Troubleshooters.
Brockmann's books are usually a slam-dunk for me, but I have to say, this one was very disappointing. The plotting was poor. This book was really just a dysfunctional family round-up...I had a hard time believing that anyone would fall in love with a single person in the Gillman family. What a shame--Izzy is one of my favorite characters, and I was really looking forward to his book. Also, I know Brockmann is an advocate of gay rights, as am I, but this book was so danged preachy about the issue that it became a real turn-off. Brockmann is doing gays more harm than good with such an attitude, in my opinion. Overall, she got her stars for still being a danged good writer. I may give another of her books a try, but if it turns out Brockmann has lost her edge, I'm out.
CONTAINS SOME SPOILERS
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First of all I love Suzanne Brockmann and I have all of her books from this series, but after waiting so long for this next installment of the series to come out and reading it, I was very disappointed. It lacked the passion that a romance should have, the characters didn't have has much growth as I was expecting them to have considering this is the last book for a while. I know a lot of people were/are against Izzy and Eden, but I really liked the idea of them when reading past books. However, in Breaking the Rules they just got to be so tiresome. Izzy really loved Eden that I believed, but he spent a lot of their time together saying that she should stop lying and just be honest with him when in fact he should have done the same and forgo all of the internal debate that he had with himself and just flat out said how he felt. Eden left because she couldn't deal, fine, but then she jumps in his lap the first chance she gets as what? A thank you? They skimmed over their issues that drove them apart to begin with and instead just said they loved each other and then everything was fine in the end, which was not believable. And Eden, I was very sad to find out that she did not have much character growth that you would expect after all that she has been through. She was still lying and manipulative. I would have liked to have seen her more grown up and have learned from the past instead of still using sex to get what she wanted instead of talking things out. I liked that we learned more about her past but then it became too much I thought with everyone wanting to sexually assault her. There was her friends boyfriend when she was 14 her sisters husband, Greg trying to touch her, Richie and the camera guy, the men that work at Burger King always touching her rear when she tried to work there, enough already. And speaking of her sisters husband, that seemed to come out of nowhere, I think if the author was going to have her be violated by another person than she should have just stuck with Greg, her sister's husband was barely mentioned in past books and in this one it was like he was used as a throw in predator to show that she is even more of a victim than she was before. The plot of the story was pretty much them constantly looking for Ben. I wish she did more with the human trafficking story line and less with people wanting to turn Ben straight. Eden and Dan's relationship was mended too fast. He was too mean to her for too long to believe the truth so fast when he didn't want to listen before. But I do like his character he grew the most out of everyone I thought and I really did believe that he loved Jenni. I wish the author dedicated a few pages to give us a glimpse of what things are like for them into the future especially since she isn't writing the next book in the series for a long time.

Over all I give the book 3.5 stars. It could've been really great but it just wasn't.
I just don't think I have it in me to give a Suzanne Brockmann book 2 stars, so I went with 3. This book is regrettably lacklustre when compared against her own body of work; it's too bad she's set the bar so high! I've been reading Brockmann for years (since high school!), back when she was doing Harlequin, and my favorite book in the series is probably Terri and Stan's book, with Gina and Max and Decker and Tracy coming in a close second. I also liked Cosmo and Jane. I just wandered into my study and realized I have most of her books in hardcover! So, yeah...a fan. That being said, I didn't have a lot of interest in Zanella or the Gillmans so I put off reading the last two books of the series for a few years and am just now finishing up.

I think whether you like this latest (and last?) book in the Troubleshooters series will depend on how you feel about the Gillman siblings, Danny and Eden. For whatever reason, Danny never really bothered me. Obviously, he was a cocky jerk but it always seemed like he was written that way to be a foil for Izzy. And I felt like he would eventually meet a woman who would basically give him his comeuppance. I mean, Mr. Darcy was a cocky jerk too, right? I loved how the last book in the series ended with Jenn sending poor Danny off to Afghanistan with nothing but a kiss and a "call me when you get back if you feel like it". After he had played her the entire book, she played him right back and I was so happy for her. In Breaking the Rules, their relationship advances well, and Danny shows the most emotional development of anyone in the book. Jenn and Danny won't be the most memorable couple from the Troubleshooters series, but they were well written and articulated. And I liked that Jenn wasn't gorgeous like many, many, many of the other heroines we've seen. At this point, I'm pretty sure Troubleshooters is just a cover for some kind of Project Runway reality series since all the women are perfect. Although, I felt sorry for Jenn that her weight kept being brought up by the author - it was bordering on bullying, lol. Look, she's six feet tall and a size 14. Is that fat? Danny described her as "statuesque". As we all know, he's more critical than anyone and if he says statuesque, I believe him.

Now, Eden...she's probably a pretty good rendering of an 18 year old. Which is to say, dramatic, teary-eyed, obnoxious...the problem is, I just lost a lot of respect for Izzy's character when he hooked up with her. My husband employs a few 18-19 year olds and they are adorbs! But the idea of a 30 year old finding an 18 year old (and lets not forget she was under 18 when they initially got together) sexually attractive and then ACTING on it? Creepy. Maybe, MAYBE, I could have overlooked it if she were poised and confident, a little worldly. But the only way in which she was worldly was that she was sexually experienced, which is not really experience at all considering the way she was victimized. The bottom line is this...Zanella couldn't possibly have anything in common with her and I don't believe he was in love with her. Which means he's in lust with a kid who's had a hard life and his age and experience means he took advantage of that. I mean, you can tell yourself you read Playboy for the articles all day long, but we all know why you got the subscription in the first place, lol. Eden was definitely a survivor, but her emotional maturity was low...really low. So if he actually was in love with her? That also doesn't speak well of him. The age difference between Max and Gina felt different to me as Gina was college educated (ie, she had options in life), well-traveled, accomplished, with a great family supporting her. And there is a massive difference in maturity between 18 and 23. There just is. So this part of the book didn't work for me.

The good points are these like all Brockmann books, there was a good, quick flow to events. Everything clips along at a good pace. I appreciated the change of pace in that the events were more domestic and family oriented, rather than a serial killer/terrorist situation. It gave more insight into the day to day life. For example, money was mentioned often, like...Gillman realizing it was going to be tough to afford an apartment in San Diego, plus visits to New York to see Jenn, etc. It lent a certain realism to the book. I'll miss all of the characters I've met along the way...I'm just a bit sad the series didn't end on a high note.