Customer Reviews

Breaking Point (Troubleshooters, Book 9)

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

When FBI hostage negotiator Max Bhagat discovers that his long-time love, Gina has been killed in a car bomb in Germany, he races to Berlin with FBI agent Jules Cassidy to identify the body and bring her home. When he discovers that it is not her, he sets a chain of events in motion to find out where she is and to finally profess his love. Max was finally successful in driving her away 17 moths earlier with his fears about their age difference, and Gina left him to join relief workers in Africa with her friend Molly (who was introduced in "Out of Control"). It appears that Gina was in Berlin to acquire a passport for Molly's husband, Grady Morant, who is an Army deserter turned former Asian drug lord's lackey.

When Jules, Grady, and Max reluctantly join forces to find the women, they are taken on a whirlwind trip all the way to Asia. But what appears to be a simple case of kidnapping leaves more questions than answers, particularly the motivations of the man who spirited the ladies away from Germany.

Missing from the story is the passion between the two couples. In previous stories, both couples burned up the pages; in this one, the romance is lukewarm at best. Also suspiciously absent from the story are members of SEAL Team 16 and the Troubleshooters, which have always been the reason to read Brockmann novels. As always, the saving grace was Jules to provide the comic relief. Unfortunately, he is absent for most of the book.

I wanted to love this book, particularly to find out how Max and Gina's love story progresses. Unfortunately, the writing was a bit clunky, mostly due to the constant jumping around in time. The plot was somewhat boring (or at least not well executed), and could have been tightened. I would have preferred a story told in chronological order, rather than the constant skipping. Once Brockmann chose the present to write about, the clunkiness subsided. As disappointing as the story was, it still held my attention, and with the time invested in the relationships already, I wanted to see them through to the end.

I had such high hopes for Max and Gina and waited with baited breath for "Breaking Point's" release. I actually drove to the nearest book store...30 miles from my home (and paid full hard cover price)...just to get the book on the day it was released. Does that tell you what a huge Brockmann fan I am??? Well, I have to say that I am so diappointed. While it had it's moments, the kidnapping plot was unbelieveable and never seemed to get off the ground. I know this book is supposed to center around two story lines...Max/Gina and Jones/Molly, but where are the SEALS and Troubleshooters we've come to know and love? We buy the troubleshooter books to spend a little time with our old friends and meet some new ones too. In "Breaking Point" we get a few old names thrown in the story here and there and we get Alyssa and George for two pages at the end of the book. No plotting and planning by our beloved characters like in my all time favorite "Out of Control." Where's Stan, Wildcard, and Sam for heavens sake. What, they get their book and they can't even be involved anymore??

There is no sensuality between the couples and the sex is wham, bam, thank-you mam. The story was choppy and some scenes seemed forced and could have been wrapped up by page 200 without all the useless and mundane stuff. Max seemed to become an alien...going from one extreme to another. I couldn't believe some of his lines and how he seemed to desolve into this putz by the second half of the book.

While I absolutely adore Jules, I feel that his character has become so defined by his sexual orientation that he's lost his depth. Yes, being gay is a huge part of who a person is, but gay men aren't on the make 24/7 and they don't eye every good looking male that comes along. Jules is a multi-faceted man and a great FBI Agent and his sexual orientation has been shoved in our face for the last two books. I feel Jules was so much better in the earlier books where he actually had a life and his being gay was just a part of the facinating and wonderful man he is. I hope when/if he finally gets a story all his own, it's more complex than just about his sex life!!

I was disappointed in "Hard Target" too, but I have loved Suz's books for so long that I'd hoped it was just a fluke. I guess not, because "Breaking Point" was even harder to stay focused on and the switching back and forth of the story at the beginning was mind boggling. I expected to get the book and read it until I finished...without putting it down all night long. Instead it's taken me three long days to finish, putting the book down and wondering why I was picking it back up again. For these reasons, I will probably get the next book from the library.

Suz...please don't lose the magic!

I admit to sitting on the fence here for Ms. Brockmann's latest effort. I was greatly looking forward to Max and Gina's story like many of her other fans. Sadly, this story was just not as satisfying as her previous titles. I love how Ms. Brockmann manages to introduce new characters over the period of several titles while at the same time building the storyline. Max and Gina's storyline to date was compelling and not unlike a dangleing carrot for readers. Unfortunatly this read seemed rushed and not well developed. Another sad point seemed to be the editorial comments peppered through out the read.

Max has finally managed to push Gina away. Although he loves her he just can't get his mind to wrap around the age difference, nor her open way of doing things. She wants to talk, he would rather crease the sheets. So when he finally gets his wish, that she move on and get over her hero worship of him, his heart cracks when he is told that she has been killed in a bombing. Well, she hasn't been killed, but she has been kidnapped. Max along with Jules (another well-known character in these books...who is gay and sadly this time around "type casted) try to save Gina before the terroist make good their threat. Will Max be able to save Gina and admit that she it the one for him?

This story had so much potential but sadly the characters really never seemed to develope and at times seemed one-dimensional. A perfect example of this is Jules. His characterization at times was jarring. For long time fans of Ms. Brockmann I suggest coming to this story with an open mind. Everything was present here but it fell a little flat on many counts. Ms. Brockmann is still an author I would highly recommend and look forward to reading in the future. Perhaps we will get back what we didn't get this time around with Max and Gina in her next effort.

Official Reviewer for Romance Designs

Being one of Ms. Brockman's most avid fans, I could hardly wait for the ink to dry before buying this book. I was so disappointed. It started out very good, very well written but got more and more outlandish by the minute. I kept waiting for the other characters to come in and help save the day as usual but there was no sign of them. The complete reversal in Max's character was a little contrived and I think the worst character portrayal was that of Jules. He went from an applaudable FBI agent who just happened to be gay to a stereotypical gay man fumbling around trying to be a FBI agent; I always liked Jules and this portrayal was most disappointing. I recommend buying it used because I know Suzanne Brockmann fans will not be able to resist it.

I loved 'Hot Target' and enjoyed this one but was initially confused with the significant number of timeline jumps throughout the novel. I finally got my mind into the right groove with that & they didn't seem so disorienting but...

The politically correct topic addressed in this book regarding age differences - he's 20 yrs older than her, she's 12 yrs older than him - was interesting but too much time was spent on it. I mean 'get over it already'. It certainly began to feel like page-filler rhetoric to meet some magic number for the publisher.

I enjoyed and have thought about the interesting choices the characters made at the end of the story to escape the bad guys. I enjoyed the love scenes & their fall-out too. I also agree with other reviewers comments that less angst, more editing of repetitive filler even if it meant a shorter length book would have been better.

I do not regret my hardback purchase. I will reread this one whereas its unlikely I will reread some of the earlier works like 'Gone Too Far' & 'Into the Night'.

There isn't a single Suzanne Brockmann book that I have not enjoyed. Some I like more than others. She is in a class by herself with her ability to create characters that you care about and that you will come back to again and again. This recent book is part of her trouble shooters series. I think it reads better if you work your way through the series, but will also hold up on it's own. It offers the story of Max and Gina. They first appeared in my favorite Suzanne Brockmann book "Over the Edge". You get a great deal more information about their relationship in "Gone too far". As is typical with Brockmann, she holds other story lines effortlessly in her books. This book also offers a continuation of the story of Jones and Molly Anderson from "Out of Control".
The thing I love the most about Brockmann is her ability to create a fierce, proud, amazing, manly character with all of the foibles and insecurities and messy screw ups that all human beings suffer with. Max is no different. He is the super uber professional negotiator for the FBI. He is always in control and utterly capable. Inside he is a mess, learning to deal with his out of control feelings for Gina - a woman who bravely suffered a terrorist kidnapping plot and gang rape. This book shows her ability to be Max Beghat's hero. She, once again, is in danger and Max must face his fear and find his heart and the girl. I recommend the entire series... this book being a very satisfying answer to characters you come to care about.

I started reading Brockmann's books for the dialogue between the characters. However, this is one I'm glad I borrowed & didn't buy. Max & Gina have no reason to be drawn to each other and his angst over being the older man got boring a book or so ago. Jules is too sweet-sweet and "sensitive" to be human; I almost got a cavity. Past the first couple of chapters, the only reason I skimmed through the book was to see how the story would go for Molly & Jones. I hope the next book is better because when she writes well, it's very good.

I have to agree with many of the other reviewers out there...this book was just not up to Suz's regular quality of stories! The Max/Gina story had been developed over a long period of time, but I felt like the meaningful interactions between them all happened in previous books, not in this one. It was like this book was the last chapter, but all of the exciting interactions leading up to the happy ending had happened in other books. Jules is the best part, but he gets injured 2/3 of the way through and drops out of the story for a while. I would have liked a bit more on him and his feelings about Robin, especially as I assume they will both reappear in Suz's books at some point.

That said, it's a fun read. Just don't expect to be hooked into the story and unable to put the book down.

But in the end it was a disappointment. I feel like the best of Max and Gina's romance happened in the previous books and BP was the aftermath (and I won't even call it an afterglow). They have always been such fab characters and their issues and romance were huge to me. I've been waiting for this book for forever. But in PB they felt mundane. Instead of internal strength, Max has insecurities rather identical, I thought, to those of the heroes in the other books.

Jones and Molly never really caught my attention either. I almost wished they could have stayed in Africa and resolved their story there as at least the setting was wonderful and all kinds of fun things could have been done with the problems with the natives.

Of course I loved Jules, but even I got sick of "Sweetie."

The last quarter or so of the book I skimmed just to see how it ended. I was so sick of the characters and the repetitive thoughts on their issues, I just wanted it over already.

The other thing that really bugged me about this book was the editing. Every couple of pages I seemed to find a missing parentheses or a misspelled word. Considering this was a hardback and I paid a fortune for it, it should be at least well edited. The mistakes make the writer and publisher look foolish.

My guess though, is that both Ms. Brockmann and her publisher are rushing these books. They sell well and let's face it, we readers are eager for them. But I for one would be willing to wait another four to five months for a better developed, better written, better edited story. The kind I keep hoping Ms. Brockmann will produce again.

As it is, I would not recommend buying this in hardcover.

For those of you who have read Brockman's books, this is the book that reunites Gina Vitagliano with Max Baghat, and Molly Anderson with Grady Morant. And as usual, where there is Max, there is Jules. For the prospective reader who is not familiar with the author's books in this particular series, you will be able to follow the story despite major character events having occured in previous books. Following is a 'brief' summary of the major story lines in the book.

Jules and Max Baghat are FBI agents, but their job is put to the side when they must journey abroad to retrieve the body of Max's long time love Gina. Max and Gina have individual personal problems resulting from their past imvolvement with a terrorist hijacking, as well as the obstacle of a large age difference, that has put their romance in chaos. When Gina fears she will never get Max to let it all go and embrace the relationship, she flys off to Kenya to join a group giving medical and spiritual aid to the natives. But news of her body being found in the ruble of a suicide bomber's wake in Germany sends Max and Jules off to identify her body...only it's not Gina. So, the mystery and race to find Gina ensues.
Back in Kenya (at the time before the suicide bombing) Gina has found a friend in an slightly older woman, Molly. They work hard together to combat disease, sickness, and the tough issue of female genital mutilation. Molly is an old hand at foreign aid and work, and has been waiting for the love of her life Grady(a man who is hunted by foreign drug lords/psychopaths who she met in a preivious book) to find and return to her. Lo and behold, Grady comes to her in Kenya...in disguise. The three of them join together to save girls from an impending FGM and end up the victims of a horrid scheme to capture Grady. Gina and Molly become hostages after sepaerating form Grady, and so he must join forces with Max and Jules to save the two women, who mean more to them than their lives.

Weaved into the book are the past events of Gina and Max while at a rehabilitiation center (Max was shot in the last book). All of their issues are dragged out into the open, and though we allready know that the conflict will be too much and Gina will leave Max for Kenya, these "flash-backs" are an integral part of the big picture.

So this book is broken down into these revisted past events of Max and Gina, the present-past of Gina and Molly and eventually the addition of Grady, Molly and Gina's kidnapping, Max and Jule's search for Gina with the addition of Grady, and then the eventual culmination of it all when all these characters finally come together to overcome those evil men who seek to capture and kill them all.
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Some other reviewers have not given this book the credit it deserves, in my opinion.

In regards to the lack of Seal Team 16 or Troubleshooters, that one reviewer was dissapointed in, it must be said that the book does not imply that it would involve those groups. This book is not of a lesser quality or off course among those of Brockmann's book's that do invlove TS or the seals. And while the main characters were introduced in books that did involve those special teams, they are not directly linked to them so it would have been a bit of stretch to bring them all together again, so soon. The settings, foes, and allies of this book work perfectly and would not have been quite as good if the Seals and TS teams had been more than mentioned as being possibly involved.

As for the oppinion that there is a lack of passion between the characters, and that they are one sided, Well, I have to strongly disagree. Brockmann does an excellent job of exposing the character, flaws, wants, and needs of our protaganists.
The book manages to flow wonderfully as it bounces back and forth between the relationship struggles of Max and Ginaa (fter max's injury at the end of 'Gone Too Far'), Gina's trials in Kenya (where we also get Molly and Grady's story), the suspense of Max and Jules's frantic search for Gina and Molly, and the reunion and climax of the plot.
As for those prospective readers who are worried about the suposed "lack of passion" mentioned by other reviewers, you will only be dissapointed if the only reason you read Brockman's books are for the sex scenes, which she is very good at writing. While the book does not have as many intense -sex- scenes, that are in some of her other books, there is in no way a lack of passion. The emotions of the couples are pulsing with passion as it struggles in the face of life and death events.

This is an excellent book, which I first read and have just finished listening to (produced by brillianceaudio). If you love a novel that has realistic characters and problems thrown into intense events of drama, action and suspense than this is a book that you will love.