Dark Summer | Iris Johansen | fun romantic suspense thriller

Dark Summer | Iris Johansen | I finally gave up

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Dark Summer

	Dark Summer Iris Johansen St. Martin's Press, 2008 - 384 pages average customer review:based on 38 reviews view larger image
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fun romantic suspense thriller

Six days ago the 7.5 earthquake devastated several villages on Santa Marina Island in the Caribbean. Former Navy SEAL Jude Marrok and his dog Ned are part of the Red Cross rescue effort hoping to find survivors. However, whereas Jude has given up in this small hamlet, Ned keeps searching when someone starts shooting at them; Ned is hit. Jude vows to find the sniper and rip out his or her heart after he takes his canine buddy to the rescue effort veterinarian Dr. Devon Brady.

Kingston reports to his superior Raymond Danner informing him he shot the dog, but Jude is unharmed. Raymond warns him to kill both or else; Kingston knows hunting the SEAL is safer

Jude brings Ned to Devon ordering her to fix his dog before vanishing like a magician. The note he left her says he will come for Ned as soon as he can. Devon and Ned return to her home in Colorado where his Caribbean caper follows Ned there. Jude arrives to protect his buddy, one of the "Dogs of Summer" while Danner and his business associates use her as a target to get to him.

Although over the top of the Pike's Peak and overloaded with too many angles, fans of Iris Johanson will enjoy her latest romantic suspense thriller due to the gender war between the battling buddies of Ned. The story line is fast-paced and loaded with non-stop action even as the various prime support cast groups at times seem overwhelming for the reader and Marrok to handle. Still, with Ned matchmaking and refereeing, DARK SUMMER is a fun read.

Harriet Klausner

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I finally gave up

Although it's not my nature to give up on a book less than half way through, I simply could not get into the plot or identify with the characters....except for Ned, the dog....
Characters were killed.....for no fault of their own....and after about 10 minutes of grieving or even thinking about them, those friends were forgotten.
I was anxious to begin since I've read other books by Johansen and really enjoyed them.
I don't like to give a negative report but I believe 3 stars is actually more than it deserves.

A good story of action and suspense with a few annoyances

Caring veterinarian and rescue worker Devon Brady becomes embroiled in a dark and dangerous situation when she agrees to care for a wounded rescue dog belonging to Marrok, a tense, controlling man with many mysteries. Devon soon finds herself (and everyone she cares about) in great danger and must trust Marrok--against her best judgment--to keep her safe.

This story of mystery and suspense is complex and, at times, bordering on unbelievable, but it kept my interest all the way through. I enjoyed the story and found the characters, even those who only serve as satellites to the main characters, well drawn and mostly likeable (the only character I disliked was Janet, whose diamond-in-the-rough nature I felt was so overdone that it rendered her obnoxious and unlikeable).

My disappointments in the story, which brought it down to 3 stars, were that:
1) In the midst of the action, the story devolves into a romance novel. If I was a person who enjoyed reading romance novels, that would be fine, but I'm not. There was quite a lot of hot sex in the story as well and, while that was well written, it got to be a bit much considering that everyone was in constant danger ("we're about to die; let's have sex!").
2) I found the final confrontation between Marrok and the "bad guy" hugely anti-climactic, especially given all the energy expended throughout the story to paint Danner as pure evil and to explain why there is such antagonism between the two of them.

If you don't like your suspense novels mixed with romance or are offended by graphic depictions of sexual encounters, this may not be the book for you. Otherwise, I recommend it as a fun diversion, especially if you are an animal lover (dogs figure prominently in the story).

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, page 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

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