So I have finally finished this book. I guess it took me awhile because of my crazy busy schedule but alot had to do with the first half of the book. I was already tired of hearing how Max screwed up things between him and Gina and how he believed that pushing her away was the right thing to do. I wanted someone to kick some sense into his stubborn head. For a real smart FBI negotiator, he really sucked when it came to his personal life. As for Gina, I liked her. She is far more mature than the other women her age and maybe because she survived a terrible hijacking. During this hijacking, Gina witnessed people being killed and things were even done to Gina that could've destroyed her and make her lose all hope. But she survived and found love in a man who just couldn't accept being in love and ultimately having the 'happily-ever-after' ending. These two finally came around towards the end of the book and I'm glad for them. I'm also happy about the fact that Gina didn't just run into Max with open arms when they first saw each other. She had enough restraint hold back-at least for a little bit. With Max finally opening up (slowly but surely) to Gina, I was very ectastic about their reunion and Max's transformation.Jones & Molly's story was my favorite of the two couples. In some ways, Jones was just as much a butthead as Max. He may have left Molly a few years back but his reasons were very valid and had he not showed up and revealed himself to Molly, they wouldn't be in the situation they were in-trapped in a house with armed men surrounding them awaiting for the release of Grady Morrant aka Jones aka Leslie Polland aka Molly's husband. Jones knew there were dangerous men out searching for him and it would be selfish of him to seek out Molly knowing these men were out to kill him. So he waited for the right opportuniy and created another alias before searching out Molly. I had not expected the turn of events in Molly's character...undercover crusader helping young girls escapre their fate to be circumsized, cancer scare and pregnant. Thats alot! It was very sweet to see the interaction between Jones & Molly. I loved how Jones had no problem showing his love to Molly. I loved him even more when he had a talk with Max at Emilio's house about hurting Gina, "You do love her, right?" Johes asked from his seat beneath the window. He threw Max the pillow, so he could sit, too. "Mssage from Molly: if you're just fu**ing around with Gina, you better stop right now. It you hur her, I'll f**king make you sorry you were born," Message from Molly, huh? "I'm paraphrasing", Jones told him." pg 307Once the actions started to pick up (halfway thru) the book. I thought this was going to be my last book for this series but I need to find out what happens to Jules. At one point, Max really lost it and resigned himself from his posisiton which made Jules the new team leader. Jules pulled rank on Max a few times and that was very impressive. I love Jules too! He's like the best friend you can confide in and know he'll listen and give you his honest opinion with your interest at heart. At one point, I was about to cry when I thoust he died, but he didn't!!!
I got this audiobook and got through the first CD before I realized there was a back story (by checking out Amazon). I then went back and read books 2-6 in this series. If you don't at least read books 3 and 4, you'll be missing out on Max and Gina's (book 3) and Jones and Molly's (book 4) story. You'll also get some background on Jules, who shows up a lot in this series. As a bonus you'll see the Sam and Alyssa story in books 2 - 6. (which is AMAZING)This was a great audio listen and I found the character Max intriguing right from the prologue where they describe a scenario that he was involved with almost 20 years prior as a young FBI negotiator. While I liked the story with Max and Gina, I think the friendship with Max and Jules was even better than the romance. Max a very guarded, top FBI negotiator and Jules, and openly gay FBI agent who is absolutely charming. I think it's Jules that makes more of a difference in Max's life than Gina and I loved seeing the dialogue between the two characters, the trust and respect and the friendship forming. A nice story of friendship. Gina is a great character and I could believe the connection between her and Max (particularly because of their backstory), but it just didn't seem like one of the better romantic matches that I have seen before. Still, it was a nice story.The story of Molly and Jones is a great one as well. You can still see a strong connection between the two even after being apart for years. (from a previously brief but intense relationship). Lots going on with this story as Jones has quite a confusing, traumatic and sorted past that put both Jones and Molly at huge risk. It's a great series as a whole, while some characters are more memorable than others. Max, Jules and Jones and Moly are certainly some of the best characters in this series, which is why I really enjoyed this installment. I believe books 7 and 8 and 10-13 bring in new characters, so I haven't gotten through those as of yet, but looking forward to it. (though I believe we still will hear more from Jules). If you like series books like I do, where the characters connect from book to book, you should try this one.
Do You like book Breaking Point (2006)?
I really suffered through the whole book. I hate, hate, hate when the hero and the heroine are separated and in this book, both my heroines were far, far like the other side of the world far, from their men (and rescuers!).But on the other hand, seeing Max and Jules work together was wonderful! The book begins with Max and Jules flying to Germany, because they had to recognize Gina corpse, dead in an explosion, before sending her back to her family. Only that Gina corpse is not where it's expected to be and everything becomes very different!This book contains all my favourite heroes of the series, Max, Jules and Jones at the same time and for that I'm really happy.Not to mention, the fact that finally I can see Max doing the right thing with Gina and begging for forgiveness! Yeah, Gina, make him suffer for a while! 5 STARS yes!!!!
—Mareli
I expected better from this book which disappointed me for several things.First, it's awfully slow to start, with like 4 different story lines in parallel, 3 of whom flashback to different periods - and those last until almost half of the book. Regarding Max and Gina's past, I felt there was not much new that I did not already remember from previous books, so that also contributed to my feeling of boredom.Then, what deeply irritated me was several misconceptions about Indonesia and the totally twisted presentation of East Timor predicament and history. The book was printed in 2005 and supposedly took place in 2005. That's 3 full years after the formal independence and full recognition of East Timor as a sovereign state by the UN. And calling the independence fights from Indonesian occupation a civil war is simply an insult to East Timorese - East Timor was a Portuguese colony until 1975 when it declared its independence before 9 days later being invaded and annexed by the Indonesian army. I'll stop my rant there, but I consider such a twisted presentation of history not acceptable from someone claiming to defend civil and human rights.Regarding Indonesia, Ms. Brockmann also do not understand anything about the language(s), as I had already noticed in the previous book taking place there. Indeed there are plenty of different ethnic groups all along the archipelago who all speak their own dialect. However those local dialects are oral and limited to a family / neighborly use. At school, whatever school in whatever remote village, the classes are given in Bahasa Indonesia. That's the language the people speak when they meet people coming from different regions or from the village next door with a different dialect and everyone speaks it, even if in a rather basic form for some. Anyway most of the local dialects are not intelligible, even from what could appear as very close ethnic group, so there's just no way a dialect from around Java could resemble that of Nusa Tenggara (>2000 km - 1250 miles away). Obviously Indonesians would never need to use English to talk with one another (as it was totally incorrectly hinted in Out of Control). And Indonesian is the one acceptable language for anything related to politics (so there would never be any political tracts written in dialects). Orders in the army would only be given in Bahasa. And there was a third WTF moment, when it was explained why Gina took a pregnancy test in Hambourg (view spoiler)[ she wanted to check that she was not pregnant in order to know whether she could be a surrogate for Molly, and allow her to get cured of cancer - except for doing that that would have meant transferring the baby Molly was already 4 months pregnant with to Gina's womb. And yes, she did the pregnancy test, without wondering whether it was possible to take a fetus from one pregnant womb and just put it in another not pregnant one right in the middle of the pregnancy. (hide spoiler)]
—LaFleurBleue
I've been out of commission for the last week. While being very sick in the hospital, my husband saw I had checked out a couple audio books and brought them so I could have something to do. I'm ashamed to say I picked this book up. The fundamentals of the story are very good, and discuss the freedoms our country enjoy, but what warfare and the effects of it are very interesting. On the flip side, there was some very serious romance, and tons of sex scenes, that I certainly didn't need. Overall ok, just could have done without WAY too much sex.
—Carol
