Customer Reviews

The Crush

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

When a colleague is killed, Dr. Rennie Newton is shocked to find out it was a deliberate precision killing. Gossip starts to fly when it is disclosed that she and the deceased doctor were in line for the same job and fought often. Rennie's situation gets a lot worse when she finds out the man suspected of the recent death is none other than Ricky Lozada. She recently served on the jury at his trial.

Wick Threadgill is on leave from the Fort Worth police force. He has been accused of losing perspective after the death of his brother Joe. It is assumed that Ricky also committed this murder. His partner Oren has asked him to come and discretely watch Rennie because Oren is convinced she is the key to finding Ricky.

Wick determines early on that Rennie is innocent. As he gets closer to her, they find themselves unable to deny the attraction between them. When Wick realizes that Ricky has an attachment to Rennie, he will do anything to protect her.

This is one of my favorite books by SB. Ricky is one of the creepiest killers I have ever read. He has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. I also liked Rennie and Wick. They had chemistry overload!

This is the first time I have read Sandra Brown's books, and I really enjoyed this one.

In The Crush, Dr. Rennie Newton, was an exacting, and impersonal surgeon. When she was summoned to jury duty, she brings to the courtroom the same level of competence and composure that she always does with her patients. It is this commitment to precision that compels her to deliver a not guilty verdict in the murder case against the notorious contract killer, Lozada.

It will be the most regrettable decision of her life. Rennie's trial with Lozada doesn't exactly end there with his acquittal.

Her carefully structured world begins to fall apart when a colleague of Rennie's is brutally slain. Lozada's menacing shadow looms over the murder, but it's Rennie the detectives suspect. The privacy she has culitvated and protected at all costs is violated by the police as wellas Lozada. And when he begins an earnest courtship, insinuating himself into every corner of her life, it becomes terrifingly real that he is obsessed with having her.

Wick Threadgill is a detective on indefinite leave from the Fort Worth PD, who has his own personal agenda for the contract killer. Temperamental, bitter, and driven by loyalty and love, Wick is determined to destroy Lozada. And as determined is Lozada is to possess Rennie Newton.

A very absorbing book all the way through.

Sandra Brown delivers once again with this compelling tale of revenge and obsession. Career criminal, Ricky Lozada, is stalking Dr. Rennie Newton, a brilliant and beautiful surgeon at a Fort Worth, Texas hospital. A professional hit man, Lozada was acquitted of murder by a jury where Rennie was the foreman. Though Rennie voted to acquit based upon the evidence, she was constantly aware of Lozada's incessant stare, which lead to his sociopathic conclusion that he and Rennie had some type of bond.

When Dr. Lee Howell, a colleague of Rennie's, receives the promotion she wanted and then is subsequently murdered, Rennie becomes Detective Oren Wesley's prime suspect, especially when the Detective discovers that Rennie has been receiving roses and phone calls from Lozada. Oren decides to bring in Wick Threadgill, a former Fort Worth police officer on indefinite leave. Wick's desire to see Lozada pay for the murder of his brother has the potential to help Oren nail Lozada, as long as Wick keeps his temper in check.

But with a classic Brown twist, Wick becomes enamored of Rennie, though she fights her attraction for him, alluding to secrets behind her sanitary life free of attachments of any kind. And when Lozada discovers that Wick is interested in Rennie, the hit man's obsession becomes even greater, leaving a terrified Rennie wondering what his next "gift" will be.

Ms. Brown has succeeded in masterfully crafting characters whose depth is slowly revealed as she sheds light on their destructive pasts, i.e. Rennie's change from promiscuous teen to a solitary adult, Wick's derailment of the investigation into his brother's murder, and Lozada's resentment over his ill brother's preferential treatment. The gritty reality of one woman caught between two enemies adds to the suspense of the novel taking the reader on a wild ride that you won't want to miss. A true page-turner, this is romantic suspense at its very best.

Contract killer Ricky Lozada, who'd been on trial for murder, develops a fixation on Rennie Newton, the medical doctor who served as jury forewoman and got him off. He starts stalking her. Enter Wick Threadgill, the troubled, brooding, mentally unstable police officer (are there any other kind?), who hopes to protect her -- and score with her, and not necessarily in that order. The relationship between the cracked-up cop and the troubled trauma surgeon, never too realistic to start off with, just gets stupider and stupider as the book goes on. SPOILER ALERT. When you get to "the evil man just killed my beloved horses so why don't I make love for the first time in twenty years," you've touched bottom in dumb-ness. I just hope my I.Q. can eventually recover from having read the book.

In this book virtually all three of the main characters, the villain, professional hit man Lozada, the protagonist, Wick, a hot-headed and suspended police officer, and the object of Lozada's obsession, lady doctor Rennie, are all victims, mas o menos. Each has had a major traumatic experience of one sort or another than seriously affects their lifestyles, but Brown has managed to bring them together artfully. She also avoids the pitfall of so many authors who use superflous characters as walk-ons that only cloud the machinations of the plot. By using very few supporting players, such as Wick's best friend Oren, a cop who seems to have the only normal psyche and familial relationship in the bunch, she keeps the story line "clean." The concept, like most of Brown's books, is elegantly simple: Bad guy stalks woman, hero falls for woman, they both suffer a bit as he becomes her protector, both struggle to outwit the bad guy. It would seem almost trite except for the introspection and delving into each personality just enough to give them some depth and a consequent sense of reality. One begins to care about their fates because, as in all good writing, the author makes them come alive off the pages with bits of homily, such as Rennie's barrel racing expertise, or the reaction to her mean-spirited and ruthless father whom she adored as a girl. At a pivotal point in her life when she is at her most impressionable age, she discovers the truth about him, i.e., he's a real bastard. She then becomes the small Texas town's reigning punchboard, her slutty behavior her only weapon to show her disdain and anger, hoping to hurt her father with the only weapons at her disposal. How she changed and altered her life into an adulthood of self-denial toward love and sex, turning instead to her beloved horses, made her story and ultimate fate much more interesting to this reader.
Wick, a man who lost a brother through what he interprets as his own fault, an inability to control his temper, is equally marred, but in his case by guilt and sullen resentment at his own faults and the world in general. His character seemed more two-dimensional to me, a little too predictable as the (what else?) lanky, boot-wearing Texas hardbody who fights at the drop of a Stetson, but that is to be expected when female authors attempt to write from a man's perspective, just as the opposite is true. How these two get together to combat the insidious and crafty artifices of Lozada, whose main problem aside from being a complete psychopath, is his rabid rationalization in thinking Rennie returns his feelings. Brown is good at letting the reader know that self-delusion is almost always a factor with stalkers. Lozada cannot really love anyone else but himself, yet he rationalizes his need to control and take what he wants as honest caring. By throwing a little extra effort into such insights, Brown makes her characters more intriguing, and thus the relatively straightforward, by the numbers plot becomes a richer backdrop for the antics therein. My main criticism is that the sex scenes, (I hesitate to call them "love" scenes) seem too contrived and raunchy in places, almost as if the author felt she had to throw them in for prurient titillation to fulfill the publisher's quota of "sex sells" criteria. I notice this trend among other top female authors, seemingly wanting to get it out of the way as quickly as possible so they can go back to writing the more important scenes. Being a romantic, I would enjoy it more with a slower buildup, little signs of caring that grow at a normal pace, more innuendo and less graphic description of the act. But that aside, the overall plot, pacing and action sequences were excellent and there is a modicum of violent confrontations that are welcome, especially to male readers who often decry "chick" books as being too weepy and boring. Not this one. I enjoyed it and recommend it to fans of this genre.
- Barker Reviews

This was one of those reads that you cannot put down, and I didn't! For those used to the old style Sandra Brown, this is not a book for you. Her current writings have been leaning more and more towards the suspense genre and this is no exception.

Dr Rennie Newton and Wick Threadgill individually are a mess, neither is a poster child for perfection. But compared to Ricky Lozada they are uber-people. Lozada has to be one of the creepiest baddies I have come across in ages.

I enjoyed the flaws found in both main characters, interesting background for Rennie that is not usually seen. As for the suspense, it is the driving force to this story. All in all, I think Sandra Brown hit is quite well with this one.

This is another hit of Brown's. Her suspense novels are excellent. I've read a few of her romances, but her suspense romances are much better reads. I love how Brown doesn't just write from the hero and heroine's point of view.

In The Crush she took us into the mind of a physcopath (Lozada)who developed a 'crush' on the forewoman of the jury who aquitted him of murder. He is obssesed with Rennie. He shows his "love" for her by murdering a collegue of hers due to the fact that he got picked for a promotion over her.

Bring in Wick, ex-cop and heartthrob. (They always are) Lozada murdered Wick's brother and then ruined the investigation that would have put him in jail. He finally gets his chance to put Lozada away for good if he helps his ex-partner.

At first he thinks that Rennie is in a league w/ Lozada. Then he comes to find out that she is being stalked and vows that he will do anything to protect her. They fall in love, blah, blah, blah. It really is worth the read and I rarely find a hardback that I will buy since they are so much more expensive!

My three year old grandson dropped The crush in the bathtub ad there was no way I was going to leave the second half of this page turner unfinished.

Ricky Roy Lozada is a serial killer who enjoys his work after a lifetime of hating his parents, his only brother, his classmates, etc. Dr. Rennie Newton is a good surgeon who endured jury duty out of a sense of responsiblity and ended up on the jury of a trial that acquited Lozada of murder. Wick is a burned out ex-cop trying to come to grips with the death of his brother and trying to find a way to eventually "stop" Lozada.
Oren Wesley is the cop who is trying to tie the current case together.

When Dr. Newton's colleague is killed, Lozada contacts her and initiates what he thinks will become an intimate relationship. The Crush is a story of a stalker, a woman with a lot of baggage in her past, and a couple of good cops who are trying hard to work together. The characters are well developed and the writing keeps the suspense going to the surprise ending. Wick and Rennie Newton are an unlikely couple, but of course they get together. It would be great to see them back in another book.

Dr. Rennie Newton is a dedicated surgeon, and it should come as no surprise that she is as organized and committed to her life outside of the hospital as she is inside it.

After attending a party given by a colleague, Rennie is shocked to find her colleague is murdered. This was no random killing, the murder was planned and precise, and there are no witnesses or clues. The police feel Rennie may be involved since word around the hospital is that Rennie and the fellow doctor fought often. Rennie knows the police are grasping at straws, but when something from her past surfaces she realizes she is in far more danger than she thought.

Wick Threadgill is on leave from the Fort Worth Police Department, but when word of the doctor's murder hits, Wick can't help but think he knows who the killer is.

Working outside of the department, Wick begins looking into the murder of the doctor and finds connections to Rennie. The further he looks he finds out that she served jury duty on the case for contract killer Ricky Lozada, a killer Wick will stop at nothing to send to death row, a killer who was acquitted because of a weak case.

While trying to continue her job at the hospital, Rennie will have to deal with the police's endless questions, and Ricky Lozada's menacing phone calls. As the phone calls turn aggressive, Rennie knows Lozada has become obsessed with her.

With nowhere to turn, Rennie looks to wick to help her stop a madman's obsession, but if the two are not careful they could end up dead because a killer is tracking their every move waiting to strike.

`The Crush' is another BLOCKBUSTER PAGE-TURNER that will keep readers riveted from the first page to the last. Well written, carefully plotted, shocking plot twists and razor sharp suspense sets this novel apart from others in the genre. Wick and Rennie are characters readers will enjoy, and while there is some romance thrown in, it never gets in the way of fleshing out the two as they try to stop a killer and battle their own personal demons.

Sandra Brown has VERY successfully crossed over from the romance genre to writing thrilling suspense novels, and as usual she does not disappoint. `The Crush' may be her best yet, and will undoubtedly shoot up to the top of all the bestseller list's.

A MUST read!

Sandra Brown is one of a few authors whose romantic suspense I usually enjoy. Yes, her books have turned more towards suspense and away from romance. But, I think I enjoy my romantic suspense more suspense-minded anyway. The romance in her books can be a nice bonus.

Rennie is a surgeon who happened to foreman a jury. The jury released a probable killer, Lozada. During the trial, Lozada develops a "crush" on her. Whip is a burned-out cop who is after Lozada for the murder of his brother. Rennie and Whip come together, after the police focus on Rennie as a suspect of the murder of one of her colleagues. They never consider her the primary killer, more the motivator of the likely killer, Lozada. Whip realizes her innocence, quickly. As he begins to believe her, he protects her, learns to care for her.

I found the storyline not particularly original. Nor did the suspense grab me, nor did any sense of fear of the "bad" Lozada. However, I found the book very readable, well-written, and it did capture my interest. And Rennie's past makes for an interesting and unique heroine. Whip's characterization, however, seemed very familiar.

Also, the impetus that brings Rennie and Whip together, physically, for the first time, I found very shocking and unbelievable. I just didn't think Rennie's reaction to her tragedy was normal or likely. It certainly hurt the romance in THE CRUSH, for me.

With the lack of an unique storyline and a mediocre romance, I was disappointed in Sandra Brown's THE CRUSH.