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.

Not a creature was stirring...

Apparently I'm not the only one who decided to take a break on Monday. I was surprised to come home Monday evening and only have 25 posts to read. Is everybody tired now that school, soccer, football and the new TV season are in full swing?

It looks like TRUE BLOOD is going to be a viewing staple on Sunday night in our household. Shmoo and GG both like it. I like it enough to try and track down a Sookie book because I'm curious how the characters play in the books. Inquiring minds and all that.

I have to get my TBR Challenge Review written or polished for Wednesday. Yep, it's that time of the month again. I think I started the review last month and was too pooped to finish it, even though I did finish the book. It was a Cindy Gerard book and I think I may read the next one in the series for my review next month. I dragged it out anyway.

Let's see what else... Work has been sort of weird. The pace has slowed somewhat, or I'm feeling so much better it doesn't seem as exhausting or overwhelming. Any way, it's better so that's good.

I have been wondering and fretting about some things. Like how people in Texas and the Gulf Coast are doing after the disastrous storms that have been through there. We are having just excellent weather right now in my neck of the woods. It is so hard to look at crystal blue skies and no wind (for once) and think about the devastation down south. They are certainly in my thoughts and prayers.

As are the folks who lost loved ones in the horrible Metrolink crash last Friday. It's like the Exxon Valdez tanker spill. I wonder if we are ever really going to know what happened. Was it the engineer's fault for running a red light or is he going to be a scape goat?

Did you see the Tina Fey and Amy Poehler spoof on SNL? I didn't watch the show but thanks to Jane and her heads up on Twitter I caught the full skit here. It really is good. GG really got a kick out of it. Of course the pre-requisite is a sense of humor about politics. If you don't have one it's probably not your cuppa.

I'm counting the days to Friday. Sees-teers coming to town from Santa Barbara county and Atlanta, Georgia. The aunties will be here to attend our niece's (and my god daughter) bridal shower. Italian aunties on both sides. This should be fun AND interesting especially since her mother calls the bride "a prude". There are no secrets, discretion, or much modesty with Italian aunts particularly when it comes to handing out unsolicited advice...about any thing and every thing. I'm sure I'll have more on that after the shower on Saturday.

Since I started off talking about breaks I'll leave you with a snippet from one of my all time favorite TV shows...