Into the Fire: A Novel (Troubleshooters) Review

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(More customer reviews)I have accepted that the Brockmann who gave us such classics as "Over the Edge" and "Out of Control" is gone, and this trend continues in her latest Troubleshooters book. Once again it's non-stop action, lots of injuries, and thinly drawn romance. It was, however, a very riveting book.
This review contains spoilers.
I've never been a fan of the "secretly in love with this guy but lets him marry her best friend, and wow, he's been in love with her too" story-line, so Hannah and Murphy interested me less than the secondary characters. For me those characters stole the book. Decker, Dave, Sophia, Nash, and Tess finally get a little more screen time. But let me break it to you - Sophia does not end up with Decker. Maybe Brockmann was going to go there several books ago, but she's not going there now. Which is very disappointing.
There is an explanation as to why Nash has always been such a secretive mess, and it satisfied me.
Now on to Izzy Zanella. I fell in love with Izzy in "Into the Storm", because the guy is such a freak and has such great one-liners. Kind of like the Wildcard of old. (Not the Wildcard of his own book.) But then Brockmann decided to pair him with a just-turned 18 year old who is pregnant with another man's child. Did I mention that Eden is Gillman's sister, Gillman, who hates Izzy? Oh, and Eden has the requisite awful childhood baggage, too. In one of Brockmann's favorite plot devices, they have a marriage of convenience which ends about as well as Sam's and Mary Lou's did. This storyline is not concluded in this book, since we are supposed to care about these star-crossed loves and follow their saga to the next few books.
Not for me. Not gonna happen. These two squick me out, for starters. She's 18, he's 29. They saw each other, got attracted, and that was the extent of their great connection. I don't WANT them together, I don't want to read about them so much as brushing elbows. I don't know if she thinks they are the next Gina and Max, but wow, they so are not. Eden is spunky and fiery, sure, but she's 18. And much as I love Izzy, he is not Max. I hate that she took Izzy there, just hate it. It's gross. It wouldn't work.
I'm sure in the next Troubleshooters book - or the one after that - since she loves to drag these things out - Izzy will be at the Ladybug Lounge, moping around, still wearing his wedding ring, waiting for his teeny-bopper wife to grow up. Then she'll get kidnapped by terrorists and they will rush in to save her, where they will argue while bullets fly around their heads, then hook up against a wall and decide they're in love. See, to me, this isn't romance. There's no build-up, no explaining WHY this person, just 1) Attraction 2) Hook up 3) Marriage and HEA. And in this case, I agree with Lopez; it's wrong and it won't work.
So why did Gina and Max work, but not Izzy and Eden? It's not just the age, although just-past 17 is TOO young, for me, but the situation. Max didn't take responsibility for Gina right after meeting her, he didn't marry her instantly and expect it to work. He tried to push her away, and while it got annoying, it made sense. But mostly I got a sense of the inside of their heads, and why they felt the way they did. With Izzy and Eden, I saw no reason why they liked each other beyond physical attraction. None at all. And it all happened SO fast.
It was an entertaining book, it kept my interest, but Brockmann is no longer an auto-buy for me. I loved seeing glimpses of my old favorites, and hope that she gives Lopez his own book. But I really miss the romance.

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