Customer Reviews

Standoff

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(20)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(31)

 

 

First off, I was disappointed the moment I received this book. I didn't notice there was only 224 pages when I ordered. I still don't know how they got 224, my book only has 217 not counting the blank and title pages. I was expecting a hard hitting suspense packed book like Sandra Brown has produced in the past. What I got a little story that could have been printed in paperback and saved me money. It'll be a while before I put money down on another hardback by Ms. Brown.

The plot goes something like this, Tiel McCoy is a reporter taking her first vacation in a while when her editor informs her a newsbreaking story only three hundred miles away. Can she take the story? Of course she agreeds and goes for it. Supposedly a teenage couple are on the run from the girl's powerful father. Stopping at a little store in the middle of nowhere to call her boss for directions and an update, in walks the teenage couple who precede to rob the store. The girl, who has concealed her pregnacy for 9 months, goes into active labor. This begins the standoff. The FBI show up, one of the hostage is a mysterious hunk by the name of "Doc" who helps deliver the baby. They negotiate and so on.

This could have been a great story. Instead it is cheesy. I read the book in 1 and 1/2 hours. Not only is the book short, it has large print. Trust me you could probably read it in less time if you don't put it down to do other things. It left no impact on me. Personally I don't recommend this book to anyone unless they are desperate. Wait and borrow it from some poor fool (like me) who has already bought it. I don't even know if I'll pass it around to my group of friends.

I own every one of Sandra Brown's books, but I have to say this book did not pack her usual punch. It was to short for the characters romance to develop and there was not really any resolution with the characters in the end.

Sandra Brown has a talent with character development and can master any plot bringing the reader into the fold within the first pages. However, this novel was a disappointment. I felt like I finished a short story where the characters could have been anonymous because of the lack in development. The book ended when in reality it was just getting started. Its a good, fast read but not the quality I've come to expect from this author.

Although Sandra Brown's book are occasionally a little saccharine for me, generally, they are enjoyable reads with fun plot twists. This one, however, was totally unbelievable with plot twists that were so unlikely as to make the book impossible to enjoy.

First off, I wish they had asked someone with some medical knowledge to review this book before publication. The birth scene was truly the most unrealistic birth scene I have ever read. A 17-year-old who is in an absolutely terrifying situation for her first birth manages to go through an entire labor with nothing more than an occasional grimace, and she pretty much pushes the baby out without anyone noticing it's happening. An oncologist who hasn't touched a pregnant woman in over a decade manages to tell immediately from an exam that the baby is breech. The baby turns after the water is broken while the woman is in labor. (And as an aside, what is Sandra Brown's obsession with episiotomies? Just in case anyone out there gets their medical knowledge from her novels, there is no proof that episiotomies prevent bad tears, and most studies have shown that they are more likely to cause them.)

I was annoyed enough at how poorly the birth scene was written, I should have just stopped, but Brown's writing style is engaging enough that I wanted to find out how the book ended. Unfortunately, it got no better from there. We are supposed to believe that a group of people are unable to distract and overpower a scared 17-year-old boy whose girlfriend is in labor, but are able to do so to an experienced FBI agent. We are also supposed to believe that law enforcement would be willing to bargain with this same boy who has held 7 people at gunpoint for several hours, just because his girlfriend's father is a jerk. Also, we are supposed to believe that this boy chose to hold up a store in the middle of nowhere that happened to contain a TV reporter, a famous doctor who's been discredited and a Top 10 Most Wanted criminal.

Sandra Brown has done much better than this. Pass this one by.

The story is quite ridiculous, characters wooden, and please do not get me started on the dialog. I could not contain my laughter when one of the characters actually said, "At whom are you pissed?" Grammatically correct, but has anyone ever uttered this sentence in real life? The 'love scene' is equally pitiable and completely out of place from the rest of the book - I read it out loud to a group of friends; we came to tears from laughing so hard.

Do yourself a favor and skip this one.

As a number one fan of Sandra Brown I am deeply disappointed in her last few books. Her whole style of writing has changed. She seems to be getting further and further away from writing romance novels. Being a avid fan of her previous books I just feel let down. I hope that she starts to realize her fans want romance back in her writing, which is what she does best, and not what she has been handing off to us.

This was the first Sandra Brown book I've been exposed to, so I was unaware that she generally follows the same blueprint. Since this was my first time, as it were, I didn't mind. I listened to this book while driving across the country, and it was entertaining enough to keep my mind off of some of the relentlessly dull terrain.

The main character, an implausibly lucky reporter, is assigned a hot story involving two runaway teenagers. She's headed down to speak to a family member, and decides to stop in a tiny little town for supplies - guess who happens to decide to rob the store? But of course, it's our two wayward teens. As the robbery progresses, things get a bit complex as the young girl goes into labor, forcing everyone to reassess the entire situation. Naturally, the labor isn't an easy one, and things go awry, resulting in a life-and-death situation for a number of characters.

The relationships between characters are fairly interesting, and of course the love story is a main feature - the growing attracting between the two main characters keeps a strong undercurrent of romantic tension throughout the story. Enid Graham does a wonderful job narrating - she gives each character his or her own inflections and other speech traits, making it much easier to follow the story, and making it much more entertaining overall; she's excellent.
This isn't a great novel, and it isn't a bad one - I wouldn't seek it out again, but it was an amusing way to pass a thousand or so miles on I-94.

I too had been waiting for Ms. Brown's latest book. This one left me flat. I read the short story in just a few hours & felt the "teenage" trama could have been more fully developed.

And to be honest, I missed the mix of passionate romantic scenes & suspense of her other books such as "Fat Tuesday" or "Exclusive". They always made my heart flutter and as Ms. Brown might say, "...my lower regions moisten."

I am new to reading Sandra Brown's work, but did not find it to be quite the disappointment other readers did. I felt the characters to be fairly well fleshed out. The heroine of the story was likeable, but not too much so. The plot was well thought out and the action was never lagging. My main problem was with the ending, it seemed rather contrived. The loose ends were were tied up a little too quickly and left me with a flat feeling at the end. The book warrents me taking a second look at previous books by the author. I think it is an enjoyable read, but it just needed an ending that was more thought out.

This book was too short. I found myself wanting to see what happend after the standoff in the lives of the the main characters. However, if you are looking for a quick read that isn't too involving, this could be an ok book for you.