Into The Night is Suzanne Brockman’s latest entry in her on(and on and on)going SEALS saga. In this story yet another of her larger than life heroes falls prey to true love while battling a terrorist cell or two along the way. While I’ve been following this series since its beginning I do believe I may be done waiting with breathless anticipation for the next installment which promises to wrap up character Sam Starret’s love story. More on that later.This time around Lieutenant Mike Muldoon finds love. He’s a twenty-five year old sweetie-pie of a man who prefers brainy, older, unconventional looking woman and wants to be loved for more than his drop-dead gorgeous looks. Awww. When the President sends his public relations assistant, 30-ish Joan DaCosta, to scope out his team and view their maneuvers Mike is assigned as her SEAL liaison. He’s instantly smitten by the smart, funny, sexy woman and pulls out all the stops to impress her. Unfortunately, Joan insists on thinking of Mike as her “younger brother by a different mother” and refuses to enter into any sort of relationship with him because she feels he’s way too young and sexy for an older lady like herself. Instead she tries to set him up with the President’s daughter which, of course, backfires in the worst way possible.Though Joan is intelligent and has a wonderful sense of humor she doth protest too much when it comes to her relationship with Mike. And, as much as I enjoyed their love story I do wish more of the book had been committed to it. Sadly, Mike and Joan’s relationship seemed like just another subplot to the many others crowding the book and I didn’t experience the closeness to the characters that I have in the previous Brockmann SEAL books. Taking up a whole lot of space was the obligatory World War II flashbacks and the extended glimpses into Mary Lou and Sam Starret’s miserable marriage.This brings me to the ongoing tale of doomed romance between fellow SEAL Sam Starret and Alyssa. Several books back I ached for the couple who were separated just when they’d found true love. Now I’m just sick and tired of them. In this entry Sam (who married Mary Lou when he discovered she was pregnant with his child a few books back) is transformed into a miserable husband and a neglectful father. He spends the bulk of the story doing nothing but pining away for his Alyssa instead of acting like a real man and asking Mary Lou for a divorce (which would be a blessing for her). A miraculous thing does happen here though. Mary Lou, who was previously an obnoxious, drunken lush, is now a recovering alcoholic and a loving mother who becomes a sympathetic but still quite needy character. She struggles to do the right thing and longs for love with a desperation that is almost heartbreaking. Mary Lou is friendless and out of a need for comfort and help battling her addiction of alcohol she forms a tentative friendship with a kind man of Arab descent despite her initial fear of his looks. Their friendship was genuine and interesting. Too bad I can’t say the same for Sam whose appearances were tedious and unsympathetic. At this point Sam is a creep in my book and I could care less if he gets together with Alyssa in a future book.Also going on is (what seems at this point to be) the token look back in history. Joan’s grandmother Charlotte DaCosta looks back to the grief filled year she lost her husband and met a young soldier named Vince during World War II. These glimpses into the past were more of a distraction than anything and I felt jolted out of the story every time they appeared. Normally these flashbacks add richness to the current story but this time they didn’t work for me and they didn’t seem to mesh with the rest of the story at all.Finally, unlike Brockman’s previous books, “Into The Night” contains a shockingly small of amount of action (I say this because her books are usually non-stop and are impossible to put down!). As a result, it took me over four weeks to get up the ambition to finish this one despite the great characterization of Mary Lou, the humor threaded throughout and the mostly enjoyable love story between Mike and Joan. In the end this book simply didn’t live up to my high expectations for a book written by Suzanne Brockman.
Oh, man, this book SHIT me. I ended up DNF about a third of the way through. I just finished a reread of Out of Control and think it's one of the best books I've read. LOVED it, but this one is a severe let down after reading that. A severe let down period.I had read reviews that this book was a bit “difficult” and, yes, too right. The heroine was beyond annoying constantly going on about the hero being soooo young. For God’s sake, he was 25 and she was 32, and she acted like she was a grandmother of 60 trying to race off a 25 year old. That got annoying incredibly fast, and unfortunately stayed annoying until I just couldn't stand it anymore. On top of that heroine thought she was too fat even though the hero told her he thought she was hot. I'm not so secure in my looks either, but if a hot bloke's going to tell me I'm incredibly hot, too right I'll go with it, but damn it, she was just frickin' stupid and rude and nasty, and he was hot but stupid because he just kept coming back. On top of that you’ve got Sam and Mary Lou both feeling completely sorry for themselves. I’m afraid I’m not of the persuasion that just because you help someone get pregnant you give up your entire life to them, death till you part, so everyone is miserable, so I wasn’t feeling it for Sam. I almost jumped up and ran around the lounge room shouting, “Yes, yes, yes,” when Jules pointed out that exact thing to a miserable Sam. I only started reading this book and pushed on because I think this and the next book have a little bit of stuff about storylines I am keenly interested in in a future book, namely Max/Gina and Jones/Molly. Although I’m not so sure I much like Max at this point. Not sure if I like a man who has a “relationship” with someone to let down another woman “easy” who has been through hell, instead of just telling her straight out he thinks she’s too young. I'm starting to think I'll have to put these guys down as a bunch of SEALs who are supposed to be heros, but in actual fact are men I wouldn’t care to meet anytime. Not many of them display much of the “hero” stuff I normally look for. This book was a test of my patience, and unfortunately I failed, as did this book.
What do You think about Into The Night (2002)?
4 stars – Romantic SuspenseI thought Into the Night was supposed to be Mike and Joan's story? How did it end up being Mary Lou's Pity Party Diary? I recognize and can appreciate Brockmann’s attempt to make her character more than a one dimensional white trash bimbo for us Sam and Alyssa fans, but I still didn’t feel much (if any) sympathy for her. And there was definitely waaay too much of Mary Lou’s whining and self-loathing and not nearly enough of Mike and Joan’s romance. Also, the suspense element was somewhat lacking in this one, especially compared to the previous two books. Mike is a total dream...he’s drop dead gorgeous, sweet, tender, romantic, easy going, funny, humble, and he worships Joan. I thought Joan was funny and sarcastic, but her constant insecurities over their age difference and her weight got annoying. If I had a Navy SEAL resembling a young, prime Brad Pitt in my hotel bed telling me sincerely that I’m the sexiest goddess he’s ever seen...I don’t think I’d argue (or ever leave the hotel room for that matter!). He pursues her relentlessly, even though she treats him like crap most of the time, and it takes her forever to finally come around. This was more like a 3 star read for me, but I’m bumping it up to 4 because Brockmann is a skilled writer and some of the events provide key basis for Sam and Alyssa’s story next, in book six...finally!
—Shawna
I enjoyed this book very much. Mike Muldoon, who is calm & meticulous in his thought patterns, is both an officer and a gentleman. His love interest, Joan DaCosta, an older career woman with curves, was funny, smart & in particular, not looking to bed a kid. They both come with insecurities that are manageable and funny. Mike is just a polite sweetheart. You can't help but love the guy.The love story between Mike and Joan was pretty good, but the true saving grace was the story of Joan's grandparents, Charlotte & Vince. Oh my goodness, what a true gift that love had to be...just when Charlotte needed it most and yet didn't know it. I also loved Charlotte's mother-in-law giving her permission to love another and to truly talk about how her life would have possibly been if her son had lived. Of course, there is also Sam and Mary Lou's story. I could not find any sympathy for neither Mary Lou nor Sam. The marriage was doomed from the start, but wow talk about a miserable life they both led. But, Mary Lou more so because not only is she a conniving liar, she is lonely, needy and a racist. Yuck, what a combo. I did, however, like Ihbraham and his quiet fortitude. His aura of peace and serenity virtually leaped from the pages. He was what Mary Lou needed.The book also brushed over Commander Paoletti and Kelly's relationship. I haven't read their story yet, but there is true love there however, no marriage. I'm guessing she wants him out of the Seals before she says I Do. I moving on to the next book in this series...Loving It!
—Xfbc
J'ai été déçue par Into the night. En fait j'ai trouvé que Joan était très désagréable avec Mike, elle le rabaisse continuellement sous prétexte qu'il a 7 ans de moins qu'elle. Elle le traite de gamin ou de gigolo. Pauvre Mike, il est vraiment un super héros, gentil, attentionné, il mérite une femme qui le respecte plus que ça.J'ai aussi trouvé que le suspense était très léger, et l'action inexistante. Ok ça change des livres où c'est bim bam boum à chaque page, mais entre les 2 c'était possible non ? Du coup l'auteur se focalise plus sur Joan et Mike, et vous savez déjà ce que je pense de Joan.Par contre j'ai aimé voir Sam et Mary Lou réaliser qu'ils ont fait de mauvais choix, qu'ils ne peuvent pas continuer comme ça. Mary Lou surtout évolue énormément, elle dépasse ses préjugés et ses peurs (même si je ne la plains pas du tout, on ne fait pas 1 enfant dans le dos d'un mec dans l'espoir de se faire épouser)
—Rinou
