Customer Reviews

Out Of Control (The McCloud Brothers, Book 3)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I just love the little "club" of friends and family that Shannon McKenna has created with the Mackey/McCloud/FBI crowd. But you better really love rough, tough, alpha males with occasional jerk tendencies or you'll likely not enjoy her books. This one is about eldest McCloud brother Davy, stoic, cool and deadly, former military, martial arts expert and private investigator.

Davy had to grow up quick when his mother died when he was only ten and his already unstable Vietnam vet, survivalist father then declined into full-out paranoid mental illness by the time he was 14. Add to that three younger brothers to raise and you get a man who needs to be in control and is reluctant to show weakness or emotion - to anyone. But ever since he spotted Margo Vetter teaching aerobics in the gym next door to his dojo, he has been practically obsessed with her. She's gorgeous, sexy and not what she's pretending to be. Being a PI, his first instinct was to do a background check on her and what he found made him more than suspicious. Why is she using a fake name and dying her hair? Though he tries to avoid and forget about her, he can't stop noticing her. And his brother Sean is no help when he intentionally sends Margo to Davy for advice on how to deal with a stalker. Davy can't not help her - it's just not in him to leave a woman in trouble hanging no matter how many questions he has about her.

Margot Vetter's life has taken a major slide downhill in the past 8 months. Framed for a murder she did not commit, she's now forced to assume a fake identity, dye her hair and leave her comfortable California home, webdesign business and life behind. She's barely scraping by, working three jobs, living in a dump. The last thing she needs is a stalker! First her porch is covered in rose petals, then a dead dog, then splattered with blood - not to mention the burglary. When she approaches the "scarily gorgeous" Davy, he initially makes it clear he wants nothing to do with her. But the more they talk the more his inherent rescuing tendencies come to the surface and he decides to help her.

But given all she's gone through, Margo is willing to trust Davy only so far and with only so much of her story. Add to that Davy's cool, quiet and stoic nature and you've got two people who are a bit communication challenged. This leads to lots of heated arguments that tend to lead to really steamy sex. Margo is comfortable sharing and showing her emotions and can't stand that he isn't. She pushes and goads him into showing emotions; but he'd rather bury them with meditiation, Kung Fu and the like. While this emotional melodrama plays out when they're alone, they work to discover who is stalking her and why. And they more they learn, the more danger they are both in!

Shannon McKenna does a great job with really creepy psycho villains and this time, she may have gone a bit over the top. Creepy, scary, psychotic - I would never want to fall into their hands! And the body count of hapless, unsuspecting bystanders can be troubling. Her emotionally angst-filled sex can also get a little bit old but it's always steamy! Once again we meet up with younger, lighthearted brother Sean, old friend and security expert Seth Mackey, their protege Miles as well as appearances from Nick Ward, middle brother Connor's FBI associate and the mysterious and dangerous Tamara who once again provides a crucial assist. I hope Ms McKenna can figure out a way to make her a heroine some day, but she's done some seriously bad stuff in her life! My only issues were a predicatably TSTL moment on Margo's part and, given Davy's emotional paralysis, I didn't "feel the love" from him like I have from past McKenna heroes like Seth and Connor. But even with those flaws, still a fast paced, page-turner that kept me glued and up way too late into the wee hours reading!

Ms. McKenna has created one of my favorite sets of brothers. The McCloud brothers are sensitive, sexy, and talented in saving their lady in danger. This is Davy's story and it's red hot and fast paced!

Margot has a problem. A big problem her ex-boyfriend has been murdered and she has been set to take the fall. On top of that she's on the run from a stalker (boyfriends killer) and has no idea what the yahoo looks like or more importantly what he wants. Desperate and running out of options she seeks Davy McCloud's help. She has been watching this sexy ex-P.I. for several days he is more yummy up close. Their attraction is instant and out of control. But will he realize that he cares more for the sassy Margot than he thinks or will a killer get to her before he has a chance to come to terms with his feelings?

Davy McCloud is the oldest of the McCloud brothers and he takes his job of watching out for his brothers seriously. When sexy Margot comes to him with a request for help he can't turn his back on her. She speaks to him in a way that no woman ever has. When snakey the sicko stalker ups the ante he is there watching out for Margot and falling a little harder. Will he be able to protecter her and his heart or will he loose one or the other?

Davy and Margot are both strong characters and this shows in their growing attraction and relationship. Neither is going to back down. Ms. McKenna has created another wonderfully diabolical evil guy and readers will be glued to the pages in order to see what this guy will do next, and what Davy will do in order to keep Margot out of his clutches. This is a fast paced read, and several of old friends from her previous books make a come back so to speak. This is one read that I feel more than comfortable recommending you add to your summer reading list.

Davy McCloud and Margo Vetter are a wonderful pair. Both have alot of baggage to sort through in order to be together. The erotic scenes are frequent and sometimes rough, but it only adds to the story. Another well done thriller in the series.

This novel is a crime story loaded with sexual content. The author seems to include all of her personal fantasies. Mixed in with that is a large amount of violence, including some kung fu, and some gruesome murders. At best it is an R rated novel.

Along the way there is a plot. Mag Callahan discovers her boyfriend has been cheating on her, and was careless in covering his tracks, a bad mistake. Don't cheat on a hot tempered redhead. After trashing his belongings, she seeks him out, only to find him strung up like a side of beef. She is knocked out and wakes up naked in a motel. Then the flight begins.

She hides out under an assumed name in Seattle, and reluctantly accepts the help of Davy McCloud. She is being stalked by an unknown person she refers to as Snakeman. He is obsessed with her body, and has a tendency to kill anyone who he thinks may have offended her. Bodies are left strewn about the landscape (one stuffed into a freezer), sometimes just to cover his tracks. The stalker is a psycho serial killer, who sometimes kills just to satisfy an inner craving.

An evil group of people want something that they think Mag has, but she doesn't have a clue what it is. They think she was involved in stealing it. Events lead Mag and Davy back towards the scene of the crime, and a confrontation. As usual with this type novel, the cavalry arrive in the nick of time, and more bodies are left strewn about.

The novel is undoubtedly of more interest to women than men, as men will probably find it overly mushy, although men might like the kung fu and such (a little something for every reader). The novel is generally well written, but I found myself skimming in places to get past yet another panting sexual encounter. Mag and Davy seem to have a hard time keeping their pants on, even in the face of extreme danger.

I thought her previous two books were better both in plot and characters. I liked Davy, but it took me awhile to like Margot and I'm not quite sure she was up to being the one for Davy. Some of the things that bothered me were the names she called him, her aggressiveness and at times, her attitude. Davy, on the other hand, was what I expected in one of McKenna's heros. It was also great to have Seth and Sean in the mix as well.

I won't go into the plot details as others have done a much better job than I would, but I wanted to mention that the story takes place pretty rapidly. They only know each other for several days before the end when it's happily ever after. I can't make myself buy that one, but that's just me.

Also, I did notice a lot of spelling errors and kept wondering how anyone could spell it wrong on one page and then correctly on the next. I figured it was either you knew how to spell the word or you didn't. Anyway, it was distracting from the story.

For me, Davy and his brother, Sean, with the help of Seth saved the story for me. The sex scenes were what you would expect from McKenna, but it did make up most of Davy and Margot's time together.

I wanted to like this one. I really did. I've been wanting to read Davy's story since he came out of the inky darkness dressed all in black outside that strip club, in Connor's story. I couldn't wait to tear into him but when I read it, Davy became a mean, bad tempered, angst ridden, clueless male who is unfortunately saddled with an annoying heroine who brought out all his flaws.

Davy is completely clueless when it comes to figuring out women. Weird, huh, for someone who is able to read women during sex and give them screaming orgasms. He really thinks he can just set up an arrangement with Margot, trading sex for protection. He doesn't understand why she gets upset and tells him to just get a call girl. It's the same thing, but he doesn't see it that way. He wants Margot, just without all the complications of a relationship. He's got kind of a temper problem, which could be misconstrued as a self control problem. He's always grabbing Margot, yelling at her or telling her to shut up. I did a complete 180 on liking him. I went from really wanting to jump in the sack with him to kind of, eh.

Margot is not much better. She's running from this insane stalker and just trying to get her life back. She should be a sympathetic character but instead, eh. Davy comes on waaay too strong in the beginning and while I understood her reticence, after awhile I just wanted her to capitulate so the story would move on and be over. She's really stressed out, so I want to forgive her, but she has the unfortunate tendency to pick and pick and pick and pick and pick........ She never lets anything go. She and Davy would be having an argument and then she would just have to rub things in his face to get things started again. Annoying. She's got sexual hangups too and it irritated me to no end. Both Davy and I thought her tendency to fixate on where their relationship was headed to be extremely annoying. They would be running from the bad guys, finally taking a breather that involved, well, sex, and she would ask, "where is this going?" Ugh. Not now, sweetheart. The sex in this was also kind of boring. It was nowhere near as steamy as Behind Closed Doors or Standing In Shadows.

Miles and Sean were on a pretty good pity party in this book. Cindy turned from the girl I was rooting for in Connor and Erin's story, to the girl I most wished would get killed by the stalker. She needed killing in this one, and I for one was very disappointed when she was saved, yet again.

The best parts for me was seeing Seth, Raine and Tamara again. I love Seth. Love him. I love his tendency to slip trackers into all his presents. Too cute for words. Tamara seems like a slightly crazy, wounded female who needs a good strong man to help her feel good and make the world a little better for her. I can't wait for her story.

I wanted to like this one but I was so disappointed at the end of it. True, all of Shannon McKenna's guys have this obsessive tendency and are extremely aggressive but I think Davy took the aggressiveness too far, plus I never felt he was head over heels in love with Margot, even at the end. That all consuming love was what got me past Connor and Seth's stalker like tendencies and after knowing how desperate they were, those tendencies made them cute. Davy just comes across as mean, harsh and cold. :(

Having read and enjoyed the two books that preceded this one (Behind Closed Doors and Standing in the Shadows) I was eagerly expecting this one. However, it seems that Ms. McKenna needed more time to come up with a book that equaled the other two in quality. Let me provide a list reasons why I didn't like this book:

1. The villains where one dimensional caricatures. Why were they so evil? What drove them to such extreme malevolence and incredible violence? We never find out because apparently their sole purpose is to provide suspense as wallpaper for the story.

2. While the heroines of the previous books were not virgins, they were not very experienced either. To my taste, Margot was too experienced (the hero comments how she proved to him that she is very good in oral sex. Ugh. In this aspect, I'm afraid that I would prefer the heroine to have something to learn with the hero. Their first sexual encounter occurs when she gives him oral pleasure (big gulp) in a truck after knowing him for only one day and then she is upset because he'll think she's a whore.

3. The hero is intense, which I liked, and the heroine is extremely argumentative, which I didn't like. The author has them either having sex or arguing for most of the novel, which was tiresome and seemed childish.

4. I also had a problem with the time frame in which the story develops. The h/h become intimate right away, and fall in love within days of meeting each other in circumstances that are extreme. It would be more realistic to have them at least know a little about each other before they have sex and things get crazy. An epilogue would also give the reader a better sense of how things worked out when the circumstances got back to normal and they started living a normal life together.

5. The book is so full of missprints, spelling and grammatical errors that it was distracting. This happened in almost every page, and many times several times within the same page. This took me out of the story every time since I kept remembering that I paid $14.00 for the novel and wondering if Brava employs editors and/or uses the spelling and grammar check in their computers. This is disrespectful to readers that pay good money for a paperback.

6. Would I buy a future book from Ms. McKenna? I think I'll give her another chance as long as the heroine is not Tamara or Cindy. They can have romances as secondary characters, but they're not main heroine material in view of their icky past actions. To use just one word: EEEWWWW!

I love Shannon Mckenna however I was very disappointed in this follow up to the McCloud brothers. I absolute could not stand Margot I found her annoying and trashy and that left me questioning Davy's judgement in women. I envisioned a much more evolved woman with class for Davy much more than the hey dude nympho, fighting, no home training sleaze like Margot. The fighting was not sexy just annoying and no way to highlight love. The dress up at the final show down made no since what so ever to me and having a quickly in a hotel room that Margot was tied up in and almost died in with the mantic psycho still running around outside made no since either. I hope Sean's story will make up for this let down.

I loved this book. While I agree there was a lot of arguing and sex (did I say great sex?), I also thought the story line was terrific. I could not put this down and was not disappointed. Margot and Davy were made for each other, both strong and tough, but never lacking in emotion. I can't wait for Sean's story. It would be nice to read the first two books before this one, but it is not necessary. This book stands on its own. I would, however, read them all because they are full of drama, love, sex, mystery, character - the things that make a great story. Keep them coming Ms. McKenna and I'll keep reading them.

If you've read any of Shannon McKenna's other work and was satisfied, you'll be satisfied with Out of Control. Familiar characters, dangerous villains, some action, and sex and more sex. If you're new to McKenna's work, you won't be dissappointed in this light and tantalizing read.