Customer Reviews

No Control

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In the followup to her debut novel, No Regrets, Shannon K. Butcher gives us another exciting romantic suspense novel in No Control.

Lana Hancock's life has been out of control since a mission trip in Armenia went south eighteen months before. Her group was captured by terrorists and beaten and tortured to death. Lana was the only survivor but was beaten emotionally and physically until she was rescued.

The 18 months since have been for Lana to take control of her life again. She had to learn how to walk again, get through the nightmares that plague her sleep every night, and to move on with her life. She has her foundation to get off the ground and that is the only thing that gets her up in the morning.

The past comes back to haunt in the form of Caleb Stone, who Lana had met 18 months before and had rescued her from the terrorists. He feels guilty because he was an undercover agent within the group and had watched her getting beaten and couldn't do anything. He is the last person she wants to see but those who hurt her want her dead and he has been sent to protect her and get the information that they think she is hiding. What exactly happened during her three days of hell in Armenia? What is she hiding that people will kill her for? Caleb is looking for a second chance and will not let anything stop him from protecting Lana this time and ending her nightmare.

Caleb is an alpha male with a guilty conscience but a good heart. He tries to remedy the past and regain the trust of Lana. Along the way, he falls in love with her. It takes her more time to realize that she has come to love him as well. She doesn't trust easily and also doesn't want her secrets to get anybody she loves hurt including Caleb. They can't ignore the chemistry between them and their love scenes are steamy. This is a couple that you want to overcome the obstacles and take control of their lives together. He is the only one who can comfort her and end her nightmares. She has learned to trust again and doesn't have to be alone anymore.

Will Lana's secrets hurt the ones she loves or will the truth finally give her the control of her life and her future? You will have to read this exciting novel to find out.

My review is for the reader that wants something a bit edgier than a simple love story with a bit of violence. I thought I was going to get a more gottcha storyline. So the other reviews are correct with their thoughts of the story.

For me, the story was a woman that was tortured 18 months ago and was constantly warring with herself not to tell anyone about who was involved in the torture. She had friends murdered next to her and yet she kept a secret who the bad guys were. She put her family in danger, her lover, friends and still held back information that was needed to get the bad guys. I got very tired of the author writing over and over, "I have to keep my family safe and the kids I work with." So boring. I rolled my eyes how many times that line was used.

I was bored with her wanting to save Calab by lying to him that she doesn't love him. She wanted to keep him safe. Then she should tell the truth and let the good guys take care of the bad guys.

I did like Caleb and his buddies. I liked how he wasn't always so sure how to handle his love situation. Kent was a good character for Caleb to have around.

I didn't like the alpha guys getting together to put on a carnival fund-raiser. It was suppose to show the softer side of the guys it just didn't fit in the story.

I think another editing cycle could have remedied the dumb-line fillers and knocked the story up a notch.

NO CONTROL is author Shannon K. Butcher's second novel. She writes boiling hot romance intertwined with huge dollops of intrigue and a generous backstory. Romance readers don't always get those, so someone who provides a good mix of terrific hero and heroine, as well as the above elements, is going to get noticed. Butcher has. And if you think her last name is familiar, you may be thinking of her husband, Jim Butcher, the author of the Harry Dresden fantasy series.

I enjoyed Butcher's take on her characters. You could almost have picked them out of stock players (take one emotionally damaged heroine who no longer trusts herself, and take one Special Forces guy with a Savior complex that gets totally ensnared in the damaged female's life). Yet Butcher makes both of these characters jump from the pages larger than life but as people readers will learn to love.

Eighteen months ago, Lana Hancock was the lone survivor of a terrorist attack. A group that called themselves the Swarm took a group of young American's hostage, tortured them, and killed them. Lana was believed dead as well. Even though she survived, she had to undergo several surgeries and torturous months of rehab to reclaim even a shadow of her life. She's since started a foundation based in art that's aimed at helping kids.

The last thing she needed was for special forces soldier Caleb Stone to come striding back into her life. But he did. As it turns out, there's some question about the Swarm and whether that organization was razed to the ground in the bitter firefight that followed the capture of the hostages. Caleb gets assigned to protect Lana, but he's also been ordered to find out everything she knows. Caleb's superiors don't think Lana told them everything she knows.

Unfortunately, Caleb is probably the last guy that should have been sent. He was undercover at the time of Lana's abduction. He was onhand and some of the worst torture she went through - and he did nothing. She didn't ever want to see him again.

I loved the instant antagonism that Butcher placed between her characters. It's always best to believe in the forces that try to keep two lovers apart. Stupidity and selfishness are big reasons to keep the characters apart in romance novels that I read, yet some writers continue to use them. I totally bought into Butcher's scenario, and she builds up the reasons for Caleb's presence there - because of that history - instead of letting it just sit there.

The romance elements of the story are incredibly hot. Butcher takes her time to build those up as well. Nothing happens too quickly in the novel, and readers aren't kept waiting too long.

In addition, Butcher is a fine action writer as well. In the action scenes, she proves herself time and time again. The choreography is great, and her military thinking and jargon is dead-on. There isn't much in the way of action for a long time, but when she gets to it, the result is deadly earnest.

Even more, Butcher's backstory with the villains and Caleb's special forces friends is marvelous. The creepy intensity of the woman who's out for Lana's blood is awesome, as well as the head of the Swarm. And there are enough other things going on that a small puzzle of who's doing what to whom builds up as well. I loved Caleb's friend Grant, and I hope he ends up getting featured in her third book.

Butcher is an excellent romance writer. If you haven't picked her up, you should. Her first book, NO REGRETS, is still on the shelves as well.

I loved Caleb and the other Delta Force team members, but I did not like Lana. While I admire her strength and determination to rebuild her life after Armenia; I was aggravated at her inability to trust Caleb and her choices to push him and her family away in order to keep them "safe." SPOILER ALERT: And the method in doing so is to pretend she doesn't recognize Kara - one of the terrorists who ordered her torture and death. What? Okay,let me get this straight. Lana recognizes a person who completely and totally turned her world upside down with: kidnapping, pain/torture, fear, survivor's guilt, surgeries, ptsd, etc., and she chooses to pretend she doesn't recognize this person in hopes that she will eventually just go away and then to allow this same person to "volunteer" at the youth center...sorry, this was just too preposterous, given the original traumatic event.

STORY BRIEF:
Kara is a member of Swarm, a terrorist group. Kara and her crew kidnapped and tortured several Americans in Armenia. Lana was one of them. Her captors did not know that she could see them due a slit in her hood. Caleb was working undercover for the CIA and joined the terrorist group. He was present during Lana's torture, but he couldn't help her without blowing his cover. He needed to learn what school the group was planning to bomb. Later, Caleb saved Lana's life by killing one of her captors and escaping with her. Months later, Kara comes to Lana's home town. Kara wants to know if Lana can identify her or has told anyone who she is. The CIA hears "chatter" that a member of the Swarm may be after Lana. Caleb is sent to find out what Lana knows and to protect her.

REVIEWER'S OPINION:
I like this author. She is a good writer, but I did not like the method she used for conflict in this story. Lana refused to tell anyone including Caleb that Kara was in town and was one of the bad guys. Lana believed that if she acted like she didn't recognize Kara, then Kara would think Lana had never seen her and could not be a witness against her. Dangerous things were happening to Lana and people around her but she continued to keep Kara's identity a secret from Caleb. For most of the book, I was frustrated with Lana. I wanted to shake her and say "Tell Caleb. He can fix this." My frustration for most of the book is the reason for 3 stars. The emotional thread through most of the story is "Lana sees Kara, is deathly afraid, but must act like nothing is wrong."

Readers who don't mind this "secret keeping," might enjoy the book more than I did. I continue with this subject under Spoilers below. Warning for sensitive readers: the story includes some torture scenes.

CAUTION SPOILERS:
Lana knows that Kara is hanging around and is dangerous. Lana sees that Kara is working as a volunteer and playing with the kids in the community center which is run by Lana's foundation. Kara is doing other bad things to Lana and the people around her. As I mentioned earlier, I was frustrated with Lana's warped thinking that she should tell no one about Kara. Finally near the end of the book, Lana tells Caleb who Kara is. The story is great after that point. Kara is arrested, but she gets free, she continues doing bad things. I would have enjoyed the story more, if that sort of thing were going on during most of the book instead of just at the end.

DATA:
Story length: 380 pages. Sexual language: moderate. Number of sex scenes: 3. Length of sex scenes: 3, 4, and 11 pages. Setting: current day Armenia and Columbia, Missouri. Copyright: 2008. Genre: romantic suspense.

OTHER BOOKS:
For a list of my reviews of other Shannon K. Butcher books, see my 5 star review of "No Regrets" posted 10/13/08.

Caleb Stone watched as they beat her viciously with a lead pipe, over and over. Her screams will live with him forever, as well as the guilt. Though he did nothing to stop the terrorists from beating her, he saved a school of children from a bomb. Even so, the guilt ate at him.

Lana Hancock hated Caleb Stone for a long while until she learned the truth of why he did nothing to save her. She still did not like him, but she did not hate him anymore. After a year of healing and recouperating, she was finally getting the threads of her life back, until the day he walked into her office.

Just looking into his eyes brought the terror and the memories back full force. Lana wants him to leave, but Caleb assures Lana he is staying because he is sure that she saw something that could identify the terrorists. She isn't safe and he was going to stick to her like glue until the danger was over, whether she liked him or not!

Lana did see something when she was attacked. The terrorists would look for her or endangerher family if they knew she could identify them. Next time she may not make it out alive, so she says nothing. Caleb knows she is lying and hopes to gain her trust so she will confide in him.

Before long, incidents begin to happen to those close around Lana. Crimes of coincidence? Caleb and Lana think not. As the stakes get higher, Caleb and Lana get closer. She learns to trust him, to get some control back into her life. As the sparks begin to fly, so do the emotions and the roller coaster of events that lead to a very high-charged adrenaline packed climax.

Armchair Interviews says: Shannon K. Butcher is one to watch! Characters that tug on your heart-strings, and a well-formed plot make this romantic suspense a must read!

The book has been outlined before and in more detail, but in a nutshell the heroine and hero meet when he is undercover with a terroist group and she is one of their victims. She gets the living **** beat out of her and he has to standby and watch it happen (so as not to blow his cover). He hates himself for not being able to save her then and later when he gets the chance to protect her he does all he can to put himself between her and danger. The biggest obstacle for him to overcome was not the bad guys but was the heroine who was still trying to deal with the horror of what happened to her and struggle with the feelings he evoked.

I LOVED this hero. He was big and strong and confident in everything but his feelings for the heroine and later, her feelings about him. He was so YUMMY! I've seen hunky fireman and policeman get all soft and vulnerable when they do charitable work with kids so I believed the special forces friends helping out at the fundraiser.

This book was a fast read, well written and a pleasure to spend the day with. It definitely goes on my keeper shelf!

I really enjoyed this book. Lana and her secrecy may have aggravated me a little - but who am I to say what I would do in the same situation. I understand her motives, I'm just glad she finally told the truth. But I have never read any other book by this author - but have every intention of getting others by her, especially the other two in this particular "series." This book caught my attention from beginning to end.

I find this author to have a compulsive reading style, easy to digest, fast-actioned, unputdownable. I devoured this book, and have no compunctions about reading more of her works, but at the end of the day, this remains enjoyable but not outstanding for a variety of reasons.

First of all, while Lana, the heroine, works well as a victim of PTSD, her motivations for creating the conflict that stretches throughout the book are thin. She trusts Caleb early enough in the book that it makes little sense for her to continue lying to him about Kara. When that single choice is the only thing from keeping things from happening, it's very hard not to roll one's eyes.

I also had problems with the villain of the piece. Kara is the acting antagonist, but there's little done with the one behind her, except to add a slight layer of menace to the proceedings. His involvement is never adequately explained or explored, and Kara is too cliched to carry the weight all on her own.

That being said, the action is non-stop, and the chemistry between Lana and Caleb palpable. I really liked him, especially when Grant showed up on the scene and Caleb got possessive. These carry the story further along than it might otherwise get due to the shallow characterizations.

Scarred, strong & independent heroine is actively getting her life back in order after recuperating from being kidnapped & tortured in Armenia 18 months prior. Special-Ops Hero is the one who rescued her but disguised himself as one of the terrorist team. Heroine is in danger again & faces Hero again per the orders of Hero's boss to protect her as well as find out the secret she's been keeping.

My 1st Butcher book & I was surprised at how much I liked it. I was expecting something more gory & suspense-focused from some reviews I read about Butcher's books. Well, this book wasn't one of them. I loved how intense the romantic element was in this book. Although there's a lot of action-packed suspense, the central focus was on how this alpha Hero loved the tortured heroine who seemed to hate his guts while feeling attracted to him. The emotional depth, characterization, & plot kept this book a really speedy read for me. The sexual chemistry & love scenes were wonderful.

Highly recommended.