Customer Reviews

Damage Control

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I've always enjoyed this author, but not this time. So much of the writing is pointless and the action drags through the middle of the book. The plot is completely implausible. A waste of time and I struggled to finish it, hoping it would get better.

Spoilers??? I am a big fan of her previous books and was eagerly awaiting Sebastian's story. However, this book lost me in the first few chapters and I never found any way to tie it together. There are several characters in the first few chapters who appear to be integral to the story, but then are dropped. Viva calls her "Uncle Vlad" but there really isn't any point to it that I can find other than she just made a phone call. There are so many players, it is impossible to tell the "good" from the "bad". This is so disappointing on so many levels, it was just a waste. I really cannot even tell what the ending of the book was supposed to achieve.

Even the relationship between Sebastian and Olivia is just too contrived and actually a bit ridiculous. She stumbles (literally) on him after divorcing him some time ago because...well, that isn't exactly clear why she divorced him..she apparently just up and left because he was gone a lot.. and suddenly realizes that she shouldn't have divorced him and gosh, everything is just great now so let's get married again???

I have read and enjoyed several Amy Fetzer novels previously. This novels parallel/connecting plots were extremely implausible almost incomprehensible. Most unfortunately this book was spectacularly un-romantic & un-sexy. There was almost no character or relationship development it was sacrificed to a lot of detail supporting the implausible plot. This book is attempting to be a cross of James Bond, the Da Vinci Code, Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Abyss it fails on every front.

Amy J. Fetzer weaves an intricate plot, full of imagery, meticulous technical details, varied settings, underground operatives, military intrigues and action.

The novel starts more like a military thriller than a suspense romance, which usually focuses on the main couple. In Damage Control, nearly all the characters, including subordinate ones, share their point of view and are developed. As Olivia Corrigan and Sebastian Fontenot race for their lives, it becomes a fast-paced suspenseful adventure. I enjoyed this tale of lovers reuniting amid top-secret military covert operations, and rekindling their passion as they team up to rescue a kidnapped mutual friend.

Archeologist Olivia Corrigan investigates an ancient Celtic legend. Her research tracks the routes of twelfth century Viking and Chinese traders that lead to the Arctic Circle polar cap where she believes an ancient ship is under the ice.

However, her efforts turn ugly when people associated with her project begin dying. Apparently, Russian agents want to know the secret of the Celtic legends and are willing to kill to succeed. Dragon One mercenary team assigns her former husband explosives expert Sebastian Fontenot to safeguard the woman he still loves while also trying to rescue from kidnappers a colleague of hers who knows much about legend snatched in his hotel room. As they team up to save the life of the abducted English bookworm scholar from adversaries who cold-bloodedly murdered innocent bystanders in the hotel, Olivia still wonders if she would be safer with the Russians than with her former spouse who she still loves.

The latest Dragon One (see Fight Fire With Fire and Come as You Are) is an action-packed romantic suspense that circles the globe as Olivia hops seemingly everywhere. The second chance romance starts towards the middle of the story line and enhances the dangerous adventures the lead couple and his cohorts confront. That is the key to this entertaining thriller that never stops for a respite.

Harriet Klausner

I am a huge fan and have eagerly been awaiting the newest installment in the series. It was a bit of a let down however.

Let me preface this by saying if you are a big fan, then it is worth buying if for no other reason than to have every book in the series, but, if you are a new fan don't judge her entire body of work on this one book. We all have authors we love who have books that just don't quite work. This is one of them.

I thought the plot was actually interesting overall, but I lived overseas in an archeological rich country and there were artifacts found from cultures that had no business being there so to me, it was absolutely realistic and made sense.

My issue with the book was it was short on romance and character development and longer on the background story, but none of it seemed to be as well explained as I thought it should be.

SPOILER ALERT!

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She never really explained how Sebastien and Olivia met. The backstory was non existent and I kept wondering how they met, was there one specific last straw on the camel's back that broke their marriage up?

It was too short on romance compared to her other books. It was almost non existent.

There were some holes to my mind on the story behind the bad girl's father. It didn't make any sense to me. Why was her father's sub abandoned exactly?

Now, these might be things that *I* misread or missed and not anything having to do with the actual writing, but maybe that is the point. I can tell you almost every detail of every plot of her previous romantic suspense books but I can't remember many details at all of this book and I just finished it last week.

To me, this is one of those beach reads. Fun, but something you can read if you will be distracted by the kids or the doctor's office calling you back for your appt, etc w/o it driving you crazy because you are so totally engrossed in the story and don't want to be pulled back to reality ;).

PLEASE, if you are a newbie fan, do NOT judge her writing ability based on this book! Pick up any of the other suspense(and historical if you like that genre) and lose yourself in the story. She is a fantastic writer and everybody has one off book.

This plot was so involved I couldn't get through it. Even with adding in Sebastian's teammates this book didn't pick up speed or get any better. It was the most confusing plot I have read in many years. I was so disappointed because I have enjoyed some of her previous books.

If you gave this book one star..you're right on the money and what a waste of money it was. Love the author, yet this book was all over the place. Characters,sentences, paragraphs, pages did not make sense. Nothing flowed. Did the author and/or publisher do a spell check before publication? If you are someone who collects Amy's books, think about buying this book for less than a dollar at a thrift store.

I just finished page 108 (of 390). I haven't figured out who, what or why... Who the characters are. What they're doing (or how they're paying for it). Why I'm reading it. It might help to have read one of her previous Dragon One books so I'd know who the characters were. (Several times I've thought "Wait! Where'd HE come from? How many guys is Sebastian running around with, anyway?") But, truthfully? I don't think so.

This story feels like a draft, not a final version. It needs some good editing to tighten up the prose and the story arc. Until that happens, the action is too random to qualify for a "good read".

For this reader at least, one of the most important aspects of a book is its plausibility. No matter if you're reading about vampires and werewolves, you can still believe in the story if it's well written. There weren't any vampires or werewolves in 'Damage Control', although there were some slightly unusual elements to the story, but I found myself unable to believe in what was taking place as the story moved forward. Coincidence piled upon coincidence, there were some downright weird aspects to the story as people were out on the ice pack but ships appeared able to drive right up to the ice camp, it all just got odder and odder.

Hero Sebastian Fontenot seemed an OK kind of guy, if rather one-dimensional. Heroine Olivia Corrigan seemed larger than life at the beginning of the story although this calmed down a bit as it continued through. There was some history between these two and in this story they meet again as they seek to discover what's happened to the strangely-named Noble, a man important to them both.

Unfortunately the weird plot events such as a missing submarine, mad Russian woman, weird chinese artefact and more just became too much for this reader and I put the book down for good three quarters of the way through. By this point I'd lost belief in the whole thing and wasn't interested enough in Sebastian or Olivia to see it through. There were some interesting action sequences in this book, particularly at the beginning, but for this reader its initial promise was never fulfilled.

Originally published for Curled Up With A Good Book © Helen Hancox 2011