Into the Night and Gone Too Far, Suzanne Brockmann

Seriously, the titles? Mean nothing. It's kind of kooky. I have no idea which one is which by the titles. 

The nice thing about the series is lots of people are introduced and they eventually get books of their own. We met Max in book three, and he doesn't get a real plot line until Gone Too Far. He won't get his HEA for another two books. We met Mike back in the second book and he got a plot line in the third one, but he finally gets his own story here. We met Sam and Alyssa back in the first book, and it's taken them this long to even start talking honestly to each other.

Mike and his girlfriend's story is sort of "eh..." not because I didn't like either of them, but because by the end of the book I was convinced they had a decent friendship, not a burning HEA romance. I was much more interested in the background story about Mary Lou and Sam finally breaking up. See, a couple of books ago Sam knocked up his one night stand right when he was on the verge of finally getting together with his one true love. And in a plot point that annoyed the shit out of me, he "did the right thing" and married her. Only during these two books his wife, Mary Lou, who was introduced as a hateful, racist, shrill, stupid, harpy, finally realizes how miserable she and Sam are, and that the "marriage" has ruined both of their lives. Plus we finally get some backstory about why Sam thought it was his only option, only to discover that he was WRONG because he was just a kid when he heard all this crap. Mary Lou, meanwhile, gets a really decent character makeover, which made me happy. 

It's also a satisfying couple of books (it's really the same story split in half, except Mike disappears after the first one) with the same bad guy. There's a good plot line about an American Muslim falsely accused of being a terrorist, and a nice amount of Jules cameos. (Hi Jules! Hi!) Even better we get an update on my favorite totally dysfunctional couple in the series, Max and Gina. In a nice break from the standard "Oh woe we cannot be together for I have self-esteem issues and bad parents!" there are actual obstacles to Max and Gina's love. He's 20 years older than she is, for one. And when they met he was rescuing her from being gang raped. So they both have a buttload of issues to deal with. (Issues that are not totally resolved here, either; they show up again in the only book I have left to read.)

Good books, but they are perhaps not meant to be mainlined like this. I think I'd be happier if I were reading one a month. That's not going to stop me from re-reading Force of Nature because JULES AND ROBIN. Then I'll have about a month to kill before the follow-up.

Grade: B

Originally posted 2007