The Defiant Hero by Suzanne Brockmann

The Defiant HeroNarrated by Patrick Lawlor and Melanie Ewbank

Second in the Troubleshooters series, Suzanne Brockmann’s The Defiant Hero has been rerecorded by the awesome team of Patrick Lawlor and Melanie Ewbank.

When Navy SEAL John “Nils” Nilsson and his team are summoned to Washington, DC, to help negotiate a hostage situation, the last person he expects to see holding a foreign ambassador at gunpoint is linguist Meg Moore. Nils and Meg first met when Meg was married to the “wrong man.” Now a widowed single mom, Meg calls on Nils for help when a terrorist group kidnaps her daughter and grandmother Eve.

When I read this years ago, I had a problem with Meg’s actions that bordered on or straight launched her into TSTL territory. I thought her at first very clever and steady, when she figured out how to get Nils involved and get his help. I suppose I expected her to let him take over once he’s in the picture; dealing with terrorists is his job, after all. But she doesn’t trust him, and all throughout she acts like she knows how to handle every situation better than he does. Ultimately it made me feel like I couldn’t trust Meg and Nils’ relationship HEA.

On the other hand, it’s trademark Brockmann—flawed but real multidimensional characters. Readers should beware that Nils himself is not a perfect hero; other Troubleshooters refer to his habit of dating married women. But he is heroic, honest and honorable in a real way, and completely devoted to Meg and her daughter Amy. It’s not difficult to see why Meg falls for him. Who wouldn’t when a tall, handsome, Ben Affleck-lookalike SEAL literally puts his life and career on the line for her and her child?

The Troubleshooter series usually have more than one love story going on, one of which is set during World War II. Meg and Nils’ story is one that’s unexpectedly resurrected, Eve and Ralph’s WWII love story is one Eve recounts to stay alive, and Sam and Alyssa’s story is one that’s just bursting to get started. While Meg and Nils’ story had an unbelievable plot, I totally bought into and loved Eve and Ralph’s sweet and truly heroic story. Now Sam and Alyssa’s story—that one’s just plain hot.

I haven’t listened to the previous audio narration by Carrington MacDuffie, but have followed the duo narration of Ms. Brockmann’s books by Patrick Lawlor and Melanie Ewbank. If you enjoy listening to romantic suspense, Lawlor and Ewbank are a must-listen especially when matched with Brockmann’s active writing. She doesn’t just tell you about these characters; she shows you who they are.

Lawlor and Ewbank’s team enhance Ms. Brockmann’s stories and made The Defiant Hero an entertaining listen. Brockmann weaves multiple plot lines from multiple point-of-view characters. When Lawlor and Ewbank seamlessly transition across these, it’s like listening to a movie or radio performance. Each character is performed with nuance, clearly distinguishable from each other. This team really shines with the action, dialogue, and characters.

Patrick Lawlor’s pacing in the action and introspective scenes is just right. What stopped me from rating this an unqualified “A” was Ms. Ewbank’s pacing in the more introspective scenes. It felt unnecessarily drawn out, but then that might be my own reaction to Meg’s thoughts.

Overall, I highly recommend this listen to fans of the Troubleshooter series and romantic suspense.

Megan


Narration: A- (very nearly an A)

Book Content: B+

Steam Factor: For your burning ears only

Violence: Fighting

Genre: Romantic Suspense

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

 

The Defiant Hero was provided to AudioGals by Blackstone Audio for review.

3 thoughts on “The Defiant Hero by Suzanne Brockmann

  1. I originally read the books out of sequence (only used the library back then) so it was a bit of a surprise to read how Brockmann originally “voiced” the Troubleshooters series. I kind of agree about Meg and the TSTL but she grows on you as does Nils. Fabulous (as always) secondary characters. I look forward to the listen.

  2. You are kinder about Melanie Ewbank’s pacing than I – It. Is. Too. Slow. And. Deliberate. She’s a good narrator – I like her voice, the tone, her gender splits, her accents (usually), her character differentiation, but her pacing in every one of them so far has been head-shakingly-laborious much of the time, and it suffers in comparison to Lawlor’s intense delivery. Arg. She’s still better than many other narrators – but giddyup, wouldja??

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