Customer Reviews

No Regrets

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In No Regrets, Shannon K. Butcher's terrific debut novel, the author deftly combines an exciting suspense plot with a spark-filled romance. Noelle Blanche is a genius--the kind of genius who teaches math at the university level and plays at cryptology as a hobby. Her life takes a drastic change for the worse when The Swarm, a terrorist faction, becomes aware of a grant being offered to Noelle by the U.S. government to decrypt a code that locates some misplaced nuclear weapons. Noelle, who was taught by her parents that her talents can easily be exploited by those in power, declines the grant, but soon finds herself the target of the terrorists anyway.

David Wolfe is a disenchanted former Delta Force member. He's tortured by his guilt about his wife's death at the hands of The Swarm, and soon finds himself enlisted by a former commander to protect Noelle and keep her from harm's way. David, compelled by his desire for revenge, agrees to the assignment. He rescues Noelle from a botched kidnapping at her home, and whisks her away from danger. He soon finds himself drawn to Noelle not only physically, but to her intelligence and survival instinct. But will one man be able to protect Noelle from an organized, well-funded terrorist faction?

No Regrets might be a freshman effort, but Butcher writes like a veteran. As the danger builds for the couple, she ratchets up the sexual tension between them to a fever pitch. The final scenes of the book are well paced and exciting and the happily-ever-after for the couple is well worth the journey.

Armchair Interviews says if you're looking for excitement and suspense with your romance, No Regrets is an easy choice.

In the dedication of this terrific debut novel, Shannon K. Butcher gives her husband credit for teaching her how to write. If this book were her "senior thesis," Butcher should get an A+ from the teacher.

I started reading the book last night when I got home from work. The only reason I didn't finish last night is that it got so late (or early this morning) that I just couldn't keep my eyes open. Needless to say, I finished the book before breakfast.

I thought everything about the book was very well done down to the fact that I didn't find any typos! The plot is scarily plausible, the characters are people you will feel great interest in and the bad guys are really creepy.

This book doesn't read like a debut novel. Perhaps that's because Butcher has been helping her husband Jim with his terrific novels for years. You can tell it's a partnership that works.

I just have to say it, you'll have no regrets at adding this book to your keepers shelf. The only bad news is that it will be 2008 before we get the next installment. Ms. Butcher, can you write faster?

I had high hopes for this book. I love Jim Butcher's work, and he was credited with teaching Ms. Butcher how to write. I also really like that Ms. Butcher is an engineer-turned-author, and hoped that would lead to a strong, intelligent female protagonist. No such luck. If you're a fan of the "big macho secret military type" falling for "tiny feminine smells like strawberries wimp" type, you'll like this book. Yeah, there might have been a couple of scenes where Noelle stood up for herself, but they were few and far between. Even if you're a fan of the genre, the book had a major fatal flaw--it was boring. It was WAAAAY too long for what it did. I generally read every word in every book, but I ended up skimming the last half of this one because it was just too slow and dull.

Don't know if I'll read another by this author.

About purchasing this book and its follow up (No Control - which I cant bring myself to read). The concept of this book sounded intruiging. David loses his wife to crazy terrorist, now these terrorist are after Noelle and he has to protect her at all costs. I love Suzanne Brockmann. But now I realize that its not the area of writing that SB writes that gets me, its the tight, strong writing.

This author tends to explain every action or thought over and over again. I felt like beating my head against the wall. I dont care why she didnt want to answer the phone. I dont care where she got her notebook from. Readers are smart enough to figure out that she is supposed to a smart heroine. Plus it can be dealt with in dialogue a lot quicker than racing through all of her thought processes.

There are also major inconsistencies in the thoughts and dialogue. She says she needs a distraction, he says no you dont lets go for a walk. Isnt that a distraction? And as a side note, if you create a baby with a woman, its your baby. An adoption is really not necessary. I would think a guy whose smart enough to be in special forces would know that. And another thing, do I need to read 3 pages about women's feminine products between seemingly adult males?

Seriously, dont waste your time or money on this one.

I don't read romance, and freely admit that I decided to give this book a try because I enjoy the author's husband, Jim Butcher's work so much. He comes across as a very real and down-to-earth person in interviews and I have a bit of a thing about where my hard earned dollars go and who they support.
So I figured what the heck - it's the price of a paper back and if it is an excruciatingly awful first outing what have I really lost? I wasn't expecting much, and opened the book prepared to say "Ouch" as I tossed it toward the discard pile.

Let me scrape the egg off my face and offer an apology. This book is good. The premise is interesting, the plot moves at a good pace, and the characters are well crafted and easy to care about. It's hard to go wrong with smart, passionate, caring, sexy characters that continue to evolve and develop as the story moves forward.
I know a story has me snagged when I get so caught up that I forget I'm reading a book. I finally got tired of being yanked back to reality and turned the ringer off on my phone so I could finish this one in peace.

I'm looking forward to the next book and will be a return customer.

Noelle Blanche may be too smart for her own good. Her amazing skills at cryptology have brought her to the attention of some very bad people. When she is rescued by the US military, she is forced to make a terrible decision. She can use her brain to help the US military and know her work for them will indirectly leave her with blood on her hands. Or she can die.

With this terrible decision before her, Noelle finds herself turning to one man. Her rescuer. The dangerous, deadly and desirable David Wolfe.

David walked away from his military career when his wife was murdered. When he learns that the men that killed his wife are after the brilliant Noelle, he cannot let her fall into their hands. David will do whatever it takes to protect her. Even at the cost of his heart.

You know that feeling you get when you discover an awesome new book? You want to tell everyone you know all about it. You want to write an email to the author begging for more. When you see a shopper pick up the book, you can't not recommend it and gush like crazy. Well, thats how I feel about No Regrets.

I have told everyone that will listen how much I love this book. It has awesome suspense. Total heart pounding and nail biting suspense. The romance is HOT. Really, really hot! Even if you took out the superb sexual heat and the lip biting suspense, the romance between Noelle and David would carry the story. Heart melting!

Shannon K Butcher, waiting a year for your next book is too tortuous for words. I can only console myself by rereading the delectable No Regrets!

Annmarie
Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

This book was decent. The first half dragged quite a bit and I kept putting it down for 2 or 3 days. It picked up during the second half and I finished it in about an hour. If you're looking for a nice middle of the road read and you're not too picky, it should suit. The plot made sense even if it wasn't one of my favorite types (more on that below). The romance element was nicely done. Especially in the second half of the book. Still, it had a few problems that may matter more to me than to others.

SPOILERS BELOW


First the bad guys, the Swarm. Hokey name and worse than that we are never told what kind of a terrorist group this is. Is it Al Quaeda? Home grown terrorists? Russian mafia? Canandian School Teachers? :-) I don't like it when things are vague. Second they called the hero, David, back to the military after he had been out 2 years because he was the only one who could protect this girl. Once you're out of the military, you're out. They've got plenty of other guys in Delta Force who I hope are just as good. Or should I be scared for the safety of everyone they're tasked with aiding/protecting? Third, I found it a bit ludicrous that a Colonel in the US Army felt it would be okay to kill a civilian who wouldn't help out the military. And he's a good guy? I'm kind of scared of that idea too. Fourth I had a problem with the heroine's idea that the military would use her code breaking for evil. I would have thought she'd think, 'If it's unbreakable think of all the US soldiers whose lives could be saved.' Fifth, I'm kind of tired of plots where the guy has to save the girl so she can save the world. Not everyone is the princess who, though born in a mud hut, is destined to save the world and become a goddess/queen. Sixth the book was overly wordy. A lot more telling than showing. Seventh how good of an operator is he if he is followed and doesn't even know it? If he's so good they had to call him back, shouldn't he have realized Owen was watching the whole time? If you're going to write an alpha hero, make him be good at what he does. Eighth he didn't seem very manly to me. By that I mean I was very aware that I was reading about a man written by a woman.

All that being said, I will probably try the next in the series.

Noelle is a cryptologist, a genius in a very specialized field. But she may soon be an unemployed genius because she's turned down a grant from the military, refusing to allow her work to be used for violence.

David is an ex-elite special forces military officer who's just trying to get on with his life after a terrorist organization called the Swarm killed his wife. He thought he'd taken them all out, but the Swarm is back, and they're after the codes to nuclear weapons, and David's old boss convinces him to come back for one more mission.

Unfortunately for Noelle, the Swarm doesn't care about her principles and invades her house. David rescues her, and the rest of the story is one page-turning situation after the next.

This is Shannon's debut novel, but you'd never know it. The action is flawlessly interspersed with the developing romance between David and Noelle and with both characters facing and dealing with their personal demons. The characters are clear and well-developed. I enjoyed the balance between military officer David and pacifist Noelle, both of whom were portrayed as reasonable people, even though they held opposite opinions.

What grabbed me most was Noelle's intelligence. So many times in fiction, super-intelligent characters are portrayed as functional idiots. They're depicted as being "book-smart" but lacking in common sense, the stereotypical "absent-minded professors." Or the story will say they're smart, but you never see any evidence of it at all. Noelle is brilliant, and she acts like it. We see her both in her element (working on the codes) and out of it (fighting for her life), and her brain's always working. She doesn't become some superwoman martial artist or weapons expert (a romantic suspense cliche Shannon avoids here), but neither is she TSTL--there's none of that "proving her independence" by running into the line of fire crap that always makes me wish the so-called heroine would get shot. In short (yeah, too late--I know), she's a realistic smart person. Not only that, the other characters aren't dumbed down to make Noelle look smarter. Just a really nice, all-too-rare characterization.

STORY BRIEF:
Information about hidden nuclear weapons has been encoded in a document. No cryptologist has been able to decode it. The Swarm is a group of bad guys who plan to kidnap Noelle and force her to decode it for them. Noelle is an Assistant Professor of Applied Mathematical Linguistics. She does cryptology as a hobby. The US military has repeatedly asked Noelle to work for them, but she refuses because she hates violence. David is a former Special Forces agent who left the military after the Swarm tortured and killed his wife. Because David was able to kill a number of Swarm members in the past, the military has asked him to protect Noelle.

REVIEWER'S OPINION:
What a talent! Excellent concepts, ideas and writing style. I'm impressed! The characters and plot were similar to those in typical romance novels, but what makes this book special is the writing style and many of the phrases. I was surprised and chuckling many times throughout the book. These weren't profound ideas, but gently unexpected and enjoyable thoughts. One example is in Spoilers below. The love scenes were well done, heated and strongly sensual. I liked Noelle's open honesty when she was physically attracted to David, when others might have been too shy to say what she said. Warning for sensitive readers: the story includes some unsettling torture scenes.

CAUTION SPOILERS:
Below is an excerpt as an example of the interesting writing style.

Page 64: Noelle is at a safe house with US military people. Col. Monroe wants information from her and she has her own questions. He asks her a question, she says "No. First you tell me where I am." "Monroe looked over his shoulder to where David was lounging against the wall, looking bored. The older man's expression was written clearly with a this-is-all-your-fault look. As he turned back to Noelle, a faint, indulgent smile tugged at Monroe's mouth. "Okay. You're in southern Colorado at a CIA safe house." Noelle felt a surge of victory, but tried to keep it from showing on her face. "Who were those men who broke into my house?" Monroe shook his head. "First you answer my question. How far had you gotten in your development?" "More than halfway." It seemed like a vague enough answer. Truthful, but holding no real information. Oh yeah, she could play this game. "How long would it take you to complete the work?" Monroe asked. "Who were those men?" she countered. "They were members of a terrorist group called the Swarm," he answered with a knowing grin, matching her vagueness and raising her an ounce of frustration."

I did have one complaint about the story. I wanted to know how Owen was able to follow David and Noelle to the cabin. The author did not explain. My best guess is some sort of tracking device, but I doubt it was on David's car because Owen didn't know beforehand that David would be rescuing Noelle. If a tracking device was with Noelle, it could have been in her laptop, because she didn't take her purse or phone. I suppose someone could have put it in her laptop while she was teaching a class - I don't know. I wish I did.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
The back of the book has a paragraph about Shannon learning to write from her husband who is a bestselling author. She lives "with her husband and son, where conversations at the dinner table are more often about things someone made up than about anything that's actually happened." I'd love to be at the dinner table with them hearing them brainstorm and discuss book ideas. There were a lot of good ideas in this book, which I can easily imagine coming from that dinner table.

DATA:
Story length: 332 pages. Sexual language: moderate/strong. Number of sex scenes: 4. Length of sex scenes: 1/2, 4, 10,and 10 pages. Setting: current day Kansas, Colorado and other US locations plus Russia. Copyright; 2007. Genre: romantic suspense.

OTHER BOOKS:
I've reviewed the following Shannon K. Butcher books.
5 stars. No Regrets. Copyrt 2007. Review Date 10/13/08.
3 stars. No Control. Copyrt 2008. Review Date 10/16/08.
3.5 stars. No Escape. Copyrt 2008. Review Date 10/23/08.
2 stars. Love You To Death. Copyrt 2009. Review Date 3-5-10.

Cryptology is just a hobby for Dr. Noelle Blanchard until the day it turns her world upside down. She thinks the worst has passed when she's told to either accept a military grant or lose her beloved job. Noelle just can't work for the military; her scientist parents taught her at an early age to analyze the ramifications of research and hers is much too deadly in the wrong hands. Unfortunately the worst hasn't passed as she suddenly finds herself the target of a terrorist organization known as the Swarm with her very life in jeopardy. David Wolfe left the Delta Force after the torture and murder of his wife, thinking he'd destroyed Swarm. With the Swarm now back in action, David is the only one who can save Noelle. Will both be able to trust each other enough to survive?

What a thrill ride! Shannon K. Butcher grabs the reader by the throat from the very first sentence and never lets go until the exhilarating conclusion! NO REGRETS is a phenomenal romantic suspense story with the expert combination of action, romance, and adventure all packed together in this superb thrill ride. Quite frankly, this reviewer finds it hard to believe that this is the first published work by Ms. Butcher as NO REGRETS is without a doubt one of the top romantic suspense books published today! Boy, am I ever glad she decided to write this one although waiting till 2008 for Caleb's story is not going to be easy.

NO REGRETS is a very clever tale. Shannon K. Butcher has crafted an extremely realistic tale in which Noelle's knowledge of mathematics and cryptology is paramount. Readers will enjoy the tantalizing bits of information about both fields without being overwhelmed by the complexity of the information. The romance between Noelle and David softens the book a bit, and helps ease the harsher edges of the elements of terrorism that are necessary for the book. Shannon K. Butcher clearly knows her main characters as she has created two individuals who are perfect for one another despite their outside differences.

NO REGRETS is certainly what readers will be saying after purchasing this gem! Shannon K. Butcher has proven herself to be a true talent in the genre. The action elements of this tale are tempered by the sensuality that steams the pages. NO REGRETS is definitely going on my keeper shelf. Thank you, Shannon K. Butcher, for such a wonderful read!

COURTESY OF CK2S KWIPS AND KRITIQUES