A SEAL and boredom ... no perfect match!
353202
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This is another thrilling book by B.B. Hamel. The blurb is exactly promissing what you' ll get by reading this book. It is full of emotions, tension and a heartbreaking love. I have never been disappointed by one of B.B. Hamels books and I loved reading this one, too!
1249176
I hadn't ever heard of Thomas F Monteleone before I bought this book from Cemetery Dance (a small publisher, mostly known for horror, that puts out some beautiful signed editions, which is why I bought it in the first place.)

The story was described as a thriller in the tradition of Ken Follett and Robert Ludlum. And while aid story definitely lived up that description, I wasn't able to fully enjoy it as much as I was wanting to.

I try not to let bad proofreading detract from my reading enjoyment, but there were far too many instances of plural words including apostrophes (a huge pet peeve of mine in fact.) And then there was the SCUBA diving part . . .

I'm unsure if the author is a diver, but I'm leaning towards the fact that he's not, and everything he learned about diving was through a poorly worded Google search.

The author liked to use a lot of words and terminology that you'd find in the SCUBA diving community, but the information wasn't used properly. First, there is no timer that says how much air you have - air is measured by pressure, and the deeper you go, the less air you have because you're using it up faster.

Second, 60 feet is not a realistic death for a German submarine to remain undiscovered in the Chesapeake Bay for nearly 70 years. He also treats 60 feet being some extreme depth that the only the most experienced of divers should ever attempt. While the characters are diving at this depth, the author introduces the concept of nitrogen narcosis and the bends, which while related, are definitely not the same thing.

During all of this, I kept thinking that the divers should be using nitrox instead of regular air, which is about the time the author states the divers are using tri-mix. Sixty feet would be a strange depth to be using tri-mix on, and then he never once mentions the fact that if the divers were breathing this mixture (tri-mix is oxygen, nitrogen and helium) the divers should have been speaking in a helium squeaky voice.

Oh and let's not forget that these divers never once used a line and reel while exploring a submarine! I think they all had death wishes.

It might seem petty to not enjoy a book as much because of technical inaccuracies, but those first dozen chapters bothered me so much, I kept hoping they'd all be eaten by a Giant Pacific Octopus. (A species of Octopus most definitely not found in the Atlantic . . .)
3572966
Please understand, I have nothing against boating ... great pastime! However, I find this book assumes I know a good bit about boats and spending time on them - which I do not. For me, that made the book begin on a sour note.

Here you have Jane Bunker, a former member of the police force in Miami (Florida) who is now transplanted to Maine where she is the assistant deputy for the county as well as an insurance investigator. To my mind, that sounds like an interesting character! Big city cop goes small town and all the challenges that follow. Sadly, it does not turn out that way.

Her attitude when meeting a handsome new man was absolutely pitiful and quite embarrassing for all women! Good lord, she sees the captain and wonders if he might want her to be his new love interest! This continues ad nauseum. She needs to get a life, but then, she might have to spend some money to do so. Her angst over spending money is driven home to the reader ... over, and over, and over!

There are many characters in this book who could have been further developed which might have saved Fishermen's Bend from a one star rating (I liked the Old Maids, Cal, and Audrey). Unfortunately, only Cal was developed a bit, the others remained too far in the background to be rescued.

To me, the best part of the book was the period at the end of the last sentence of the book - the time I could close it and write a review.
195492
I really enjoy the NCIS TV series (minus the copius sexual innuendos) and thought this would be a good, wholesome addition.

Plot:
An NCIS agent is killed when checking in on a coworker's stepson.  Will Coburn and his team begin to investigate.  As they wrap up the NCIS agent's murder, they realize that something worse is going on: military weapons are being smuggled.  What follows is a fast-paced ride through the US, Korea, and Okinawa to find the culprits and stop the ultimate plan: to start World War III.

Good:
At first, I was rather bored.  Not realizing where Odom was going, I thought that he was using the NCIS agent's death to show his readers how good his NCIS team is and then would segue into the real mystery.  So I kep reading and going, "Okay, when is the mystery going to start?"
That's when I realized that the NCIS death led to the mystery.  Odom wraps up the NCIS agent's murder (which is indirectly related to the main story) so that he can focus on the true mystery--the nuclear war that someone is trying to plan out.  As the mystery unravels and the team finally discovers the identity of the one trying to start World War III, the pace gets faster and faster and ends in an explosive conclusion.
The author beautifully wove the main story--a possible nuclear war between the superpowers--into the death of the NCIS agent.  Further, I was so amazed at the twists and turns in this novel!  They were odd (inserting terrorists into the U.S. Navy), but not so odd that you think, "Am I reading science fiction?"
The characters are real and personal.  Each person's role in the team makes sense (the author isn't making up some stupid task just so he can put a character in it) and is unique.  I just wish they didn't all have supremely depressing personal stories (minus, of course, the late, great Frank Billings).  On the other hand, life is tough.

Bad:
I really don't have a lot of problems with this book.  Mostly, it was a little gory, so if you don't like hearing autopsies or going over how someone died or reading about lots and lots of blood, don't read this.  The characters are kinda grim--Will is going through a painful divorce, Maggie's father is a control freak, Estrella's husband committed suicide, Shel and his dad don't get along, and Nita doesn't want to be a wife and mom.  I would have liked to have seen more character growth and coming to grips with their problems, but if this is going to be a series, that's okay if the author takes his time.
Last problem is that the investigation of the NCIS agent in the beginning is too fast.  In less than a day, they have processed the crime scene, interrogated neighbors, found the chop shop, brought down the criminals, and gotten a statement/confession.  I know Odom was closing this up so he could focus on the real story (good move) but worth  noting.

Dialogue/Sexual Situations/Violence:
No language.  Sexual situations consist mostly of brief mentions of scantily dressed women in bars.  Several people are shot at or die in the novel.  Grisly descriptions of autopsies.

Overall:
If you like crime scene and mystery mixed with great characters and a military setting, you will like this novel.  Can't wait to read his next book!
104273
There were some well-written underwater action scenes, especially at the beginning, however the plot soon devolved into a hackneyed story about an alcoholic sailor lusting after a very talkative marine biologist who is a walking encyclopedia of Humboldt squid facts.  And did I mention that she won't stop talking about them? Ever? Then, the sailor disappears for several chapters, leading to confusion about who is the main protagonist. Enter the singing Quint-like captain and you have a rollicking, groan-worthy finale.
1586990
Where You Least Expect is a divisive book. The FMC seems to have split personality, meek in public but with a wild side waiting to be unleashed... with the right person, yet has a fragile ego. The MMC was the prototypical gruff navy SEAL. The pair's romance was sweet, but the personality clash just didn't feel right, and worked more as a fantasy fulfillment, i.e. a go-nowhere-girl caught attention of gorgeous SEAL.

Navy SEAL Joe MacDermid settled down in Thornehill Springs, NC hoping for a break from his hectic life. He's getting old, and he's seriously thinking about transitioning into training instead of active duty. But his next door neighbor Verna always needles him when he went to the family cafe for breakfast... where Verna helps out his father. Verna can't help it but get under Joe's skin. It's just so much fun, even though she's a thoroughly nice person elsewhere. But she's feeling really a loser in life because she didn't graduate college, she's still a virgin with no BF in sight, and she was always helping out at the family cafe that went nowhere, not with her dad yelling at her for something or another despite she gave great service. When her substitution of flour for a better brand resulting in her dad firing her from the family store, Verna realized she really has to stop taking CRAP even from her family, and decided to launch her custom clothing boutique as she already got a client... and Joe was there to listen to her lament. When a snowstorm stranded her miles from her house, Joe rescued her. They fell in love, but when Joe didn't quite react properly in front of his own group of friends, Verna saw it as a rejection of her and broke things off. How can Joe set things right?

Fortunately, there is no SEAL abuse (as in having SEALs do stuff like bodyguard, law enforcement, and so on), but the SEAL background was not used effectively except as deep background (should he retire and muster out... or give it another go?)  As mentioned before, Verna's personality seems to be just... weird.  She constantly takes crap from everybody, esp. her family. I mean, getting fired from the family cafe for making a decision that is mostly inconsequential... So why pick on Joe for her "flirting"? Nobody else to talk to? She was working in a cafe, where she meets dozens or more people per day, perhaps hundreds! The part about where they get a bit of forced proximity and fell for each other is okay, but that's really late in the book. There is a character arc, and it's supposed to be one of self-discovery, but if she's daring enough to start her own clothing boutique, can her ego be that fragile with Joe didn't say the right thing at the right time is enough to shatter her ego?

The whole thing just feels a bit of fantasy fulfillment, i.e. the spinster virgin landed gorgeous SEAL with her sarcastic wit.  If you like this sort of Cinderella fairy tale, I guess it'd be average, but the more I think about it, the lower I'll have to rate this book. Overall, 2/5, with some serious flaws.
4246096
A poorly written book. This story of a SEAL at war is boring - the "action" repeats itself again and again. No real insight into the life of a SEAL. Save your money.
1764856
Sorry to all the folks who liked this one, but it fails with me...
A few reasons:

1)  As one reviewer pointed out, the author seems to have limited knowledge of weapons (as any ex-military spec-ops type guy will confirm). For example, at one point (in Cairo, I beleive) McNeil and his remaining SEAL partner are armed with "GLock A-17's" and McNeil at one point  "flips the safety off" or some such. Well, the Glock family of pistols have what Glock calls a Safe Action, in the trigger assembly. There is no 'safety lever' or button to switch off per se, as in a Beretta 92F or a 1911 .45...I've heard there IS a safety that can be special-ordered from Glock in Austria, but from what I've heard, it's a key type safety, not a lever, button or switch on the gun...
Also, 5.56mm weapons are NOT optimal jungle weapons, as has been demonstrated many times. It IS a highly accurate round (in a well-designed rifle), but it's designed for medium range to long range combat, not close-in work...A much better choice - and one well known to the SEALs of Team Six - would be the H&K family of submachine guns in 9mm...

2)  On entry into Rwanda or the Congo (I can't recall which right off), the team and Dr. Samantha Carlson pass thru customs and passport control, and one of the SEALs seems not to understand why he has to give up one of his nice shirts from his overnight bag to the passport guy, despite the thinly veiled hint from that official, and Samantha 'rescues' him. Well, anyone who's been to those places (and an anti-terrorist expert from SEAL Team 6 would know this) understands the "tax" you pay in those situations. A bit of money, some cigarettes or a pornographic magazine perhaps, a nice bit of clothing...SOMETHING to grease the palms of 'bureacracy' is what gets you though in the Third World...that part of the story was just plain silly. That SEAL operator would have known that from past experience (as the book indicated he had plenty of).

3) The last fight scene between SEAL McNeil and Delta Force man Garret-whatever was so short as to be almost anti-climatical in my opinion. Almost as though the author just wanted to get the book done and over with (and in truth, any discerning reader knows from the beginning who would win. There's this beautiful, accomplished, independently-wealthy PhD lady, the tough SEAL leader, the bad guy billionaire with alll the resources the CIA would envy, etc etc etc)...it's just too pat.

4)  The book appears to be loosely based in plot (at the least the overarching idea) on Frederick Forsyth's novel "The Dogs of War", and related to the 1970's film "The Wild Geese". Author Buick clearly borrowed that theme !

Don't waste money on this. If you want to read it, fine - get it at the library or secondhand.
2781926
Deep in the Artic Ocean researchers have found an ice station carved out of an inverted glacier that floats under sea level.  It is further discovered that it is an abandoned Russian research station that once experimented on living subjects in an effort to perfect cryogenetics or preserving humans in a frozen state.  But the Russians aren't the only ones interested in protecting this horrifying secret.  The US is also espeically interested in the facility.  But if their interest in protecting it is as deadly as the Russians, then what does the US believe it stands to lose?  Or have exposed?

Matt is a fish and game ranger in Alaska and his ex-wife Jenny is a Sheriff.  They find themselves thrown uncomfortably back together as they ferry a reporter out to the ice station and attempt to warn officials that someone is out to get them.  But they quickly find out that they can trust no one and must rely on each other despite constant painful reminders of exactly what forced them apart in the first place.

Ice Hunt is action packed in a way that is typical of James Rollins' other novels.  But the plot is not nearly as interesting as some of the others.  The plot twists are fairly predictable and disappointing.  The "scientific secret" is somewhat underwhelming and not enough of a shocker to support the urgency of the characters.  Overall, Ice Hunt entertains, but does not hold up to the author's other novels and ends in a predictable disappointment.
4840396
Lots of potential; but falls way short.  The opening sequence really grabbed me! I loved it. The old, dusty bookshop, the creepy bookstore clerk & an adventurous antiquities collector. For a few chapters the suspense began to build & the reader wants to know, "What's in the book? What powers does it have? Who is the anonymous client that hired Jack? Who kidnapped his girlfriend?" Sadly after that, it fizzled. I was hoping for more of an Indiana Jones-esque type adventure; but what action there was, just kept repeating itself.

The characters weren't all that interesting & were predictable & one dimensional. Unfortunately, the main protagonist wasn't that exciting. The ending gave me a "Huh?" kind of feeling & the book that was so important to find in the beginning had very little significance once it was found.

I really wanted to like this book & was excited when I started reading; but in the end was disappointed.
1640130
This could be a very good book with a little research, I agree with other reviews, Luke must be a seal trainer from the San Diego Zoo and NOT a REAL SEAL from the US Navy. He has very limited skills and must have been the worst SEAL ever!!!! At one point, after having been attacked several times by both people and animals, is  caught off guard with his pistol in his backpack and not in his pocket or holster ???? If he walks into another trap .............. He must have been out sick for about 99% of his SEAL training !!! I did pay for this 2nd book after getting the first book free and wanted to see what happened, now as others have said the last line of the book is extremely confusing and STUPID,  but not to the point that I want to buy book 3. Also, I think Liz was the SEAL, I think she shoots her gun 5 times with 4 kill shots :-) , I don't find the kids as being real good characters or they are the dumbest kids in this new world. I also feel the book does not flow, at one point Luke steals a police car with a trunk full of weapons and then he is back to just 1 pistol and about 15 rounds, again, the WORST SEAL of all time, I would love to read a SEAL's review of Luke. I feel that the book was rushed to publish and no one reviewed it or if they did, they did not read it or knew nothing about guns, SEALs, nuke weapons, human psychology, war ....... could be a very good book with a little work!!!
70022
I really struggled with this book because I couldn't get a feel for who the main character was for a while-was it Brett or Sam or both-due to the severe lack of character development and zero set-up for the book which is so disappointing because I thought the book started out with such an exciting chase sequence. After Brett is able to evade her pursuers the next chapter goes into her visiting an expert on the Drachen treasure. I wasn't sure about the timeline here at first because I expected a more in-depth explanation for why she was being chased. The explanation was glossed over and then she's suddenly pursuing clues with this expert who doesn't stay in the picture for long. In other words there is no set-up for the book.

A more in-depth sequence that described Bret's journey to finding the ship and then having it taken from her would have been great, especially if we were getting it as the action unfolded because it would have helped me to have a feel for her personality, goals and motivations. Who is Bretta as a person? Who is Sam as a person? We don't even find out he has a wife until half-way through the book with a comment that felt like more of an afterthought. The obvious goal is the treasure, but what is everyone's compelling motivation here besides getting rich quick which isn't enough internal conflict to carry the plot through to the end.

I just couldn't connect to anyone, and there were so many characters with lots of scenes where the author told me what they were doing, but failed to add much characterization. Everything just felt very linear from the plot, the characters and even the dialogue. I love thrillers so I was disappointed that this didn't live up to my expectations.

I will say the clues that they discovered and the way the treasure was hidden was very clever. I just wish the information could have been delivered in a more compelling and engaging way.

The history and locations on the other hand were absolutely spectacular. This was rich in detail and highlighted the author's knowledge of the various areas his characters flew through on their journey to finding treasure. The story behind the treasure was fascinating, and the tension during chase scenes and shoot-outs was enthralling. There were some great one-liners that had me chuckling, and that snarky sarcasm from some of the characters-Ramon-kept me turning pages.

I think in the end I stuck with the book for the beautifully described locations, history and brief bursts of humor. I think this author is extremely talented, however, and with a little more attention to set-up, character development and execution this book could really shine. Debut novels can be like this. An author gets their feet wet and grows from the first book to the next. I think this author is just going to continue to get better and better due to the fact that he started out with so much raw talent in the first place. Even though I was a bit disappointed with the book, I intend to follow this author and enjoy his journey of growth from book to book.
3626068
I enjoyed the first book in this series but really had a hard time finishing this one. The diving scenes and interaction with the Dolphins which is at the beginning of the book were interesting and good but that was it. The mystery of the deaths of two people on the boat was handled very badly by police and also by Cinnamon not passing evidence on to them. The reasoning of the death of one of them was absolutely ridiculous IMO. The personal aspect takes up quite a bit of the story and did not make for a good relationship.  I had really liked Danny before but came to dislike him quite a bit in this book by the selfish self-centered way he treated Cinnamon. He was mad at her for her belief in the murders & her job as a forensic photographer. He pretty much ignored & avoided her for days with no communication on what was bothering him and she still sleeps with him without getting any answers!  Cinnamon pretty much let her ex husband walk all over her (that was the only draw back to the first book) and she's letting Danny do the same. I don't know if I'll read the next.
4427753
This story was almost too barbaric and sad to read, but it is a rather quick 1.5-2hr. The sex scenes were juicy; the abuse horrific. I also took issue with the so-called SEAL's behavior. He was really messed up mentally with PTSD, but he also didn't seem any brighter than Rose, who was a classic example of an abused woman with little self-worth or self-preservation. Calling attention to Step son and SEAL is very misleading because neither had any impact on the story. He was just a regular guy with an awesome body.
2770381
Don't waste your money!  The plot(s) are simplistic and lack imagination.  The characters are one dimensional.  The dialog is childish.  To portray a SEAL professional toying with an opponent in hand-to-hand combat is ludicrous!  I tried but I couldn't bear
to finish this.  Try H. Jay Riker's  Seals: The Warrior Breed series.
3796204
I love reading anything about the Titanic, and I was excited when I came across this book. It was a bit disappointing. Not much time at all is spent aboard the ship itself, and everything that ensues afterwards is tedious at best. It took me 4 weeks to read this book, as I kept having to put it down and read something else in between because I got so bored with it. The heroine is a bit unbelievable, nothing special, and I found it so unrealistic that these two men who were her love interests would fall in love with her so quickly. And fall in love with what? Like I said, she was not a very interesting character. I did make it through the book finally, because I like to always finish what I start. I think this book had great potential but fell sorely below the mark. I would not recommend it.
2200499
I absolutely love the Seal of Protection series, but this story just wasn't quite up to par compared to those. It felt a bit clunkier, a bit less polished with a few more plot holes, and just overall fell a little flat. I did enjoy it. I even enjoyed it quite a bit. I just didn't love it. I will say that some of my lack of enthusiasm may stem from the fact that I've been Texas DPS family all my life and have more knowledge than most on law enforcement in Texas. While I understand artistic/literary license and normally have no problem ignoring unrealistic procedures and interagency relationships, I wish there was a little more care taken getting the most basic details right. Take TJ, for example, the friend from the Highway Patrol. He's a trooper, not an officer.  I don't know of any state that doesn't call highway patrolmen troopers. Sure, lots of people get it wrong and call them 'officer' all the time, but the tight knit group of various law enforcement buddies the book describes would know the difference, especially since in Texas you don't become a Ranger without being a trooper first. It's like calling a Navy man 'soldier' when they're actually sailors. I don't know, maybe I really am being too picky, but I did like Mack and Dax and very much enjoyed their story. I was just hoping for 'Wow'.