TBR Day: To the Brink

TO THE BRINK by Cindy Gerard. This book is the third in the Bodyguard series published by St. Martin's in January 2006. It is also my TBR Day read for this month.

Over the last few years I've heard a lot about this series. Frankly I got it mixed up with Tara Janzen's books. Since their names aren't similar or anything I don't know why. I have no rhyme, reason or excuse. It's a conundrum.

Consequently I have a couple of Janzen books in my TBR along with a couple of Gerard books. When looking for something to read from the TBR this time, I was in the mood for a more contemporary book. For once a blurb captured my attention and I picked up TO THE BRINK to read.

Darcy Prescott works in the diplomatic corps. All of her assignments have been in the far flung corners of the world. She's worked hard for her success and loves her job. Ethan Garrett is a Special Forces soldier when he meets Darcy at an Embassy function. Ethan and Darcy fall fast and hard for each other. Despite almost constant separation and disagreements over their careers, they marry. Unfortunately their marriage cannot withstand the pressure of the constant discord. When the book begins Darcy and Ethan are divorced. We actually get the story of their courtship and marriage in flashbacks.

Darcy is on assignment overseas and Ethan is out of the military and working for a private security company with his family. Darcy finds herself in a precarious situation when a co-worker dies under mysterious "accidental" circumstances. The recently deceased shared some incriminating and volatile information with Darcy just prior to her death. Not trusting her life to fate or coincidence Darcy decides to contact the one person she knows she can count on to help her...Ethan.

Since we, as the reader, know about half way through the book who the bad guy is the background story seems almost inconsequential. It was for me anyway. All I was interested in was knowing why the marriage failed, and why, when they loved each other they let it go. The answer is not particularly complex, but Ms. Gerard does an able job making the reasons believable.

As I noted at the beginning this is actually the third book in the series. I didn't feel at all hampered or bothered by not having read any of the others. I was curious about a couple of secondary characters in this book. Fortunately their story is told in the next book, INTO THE DARK, which I have in my TBR as well.

Overall this was a satisfactory read. It reminded of the mercenary soldier stories I read in the old Silhouette Intimate Moment line. I loved those books. Any way I originally gave this a B-, but while doing this review realized I liked it a bit more than that and would call this a good solid B read.