Some Kind of Hero

By: Suzanne Brockmann

Narrated by: Bahni Turpin, Patrick Lawlor

Length: 13 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

The Troubleshooters return in the latest thriller from New York Times best-selling author Suzanne Brockmann! Some Kind of Hero showcases Brockmann's signature white-knuckle suspense, romantic twists, and sexy Navy SEALs.

Navy men don't come tougher than Lieutenant Peter Greene. Every day he whips hotshot SEAL wannabes into elite fighters. So why can't he handle one 15-year-old girl? His ex's death left him a single dad overnight and very unprepared. Though he can't relate to an angsty teen, he can at least keep Maddie safe - until the day she disappears. Though Pete's lacking in fatherly intuition, his instinct for detecting danger is razor sharp. Maddie's in trouble. Now he needs the Troubleshooters team at his back, along with an unconventional ally.

Romance writer Shayla Whitman never expected to be drawn into a real-world thriller - or to meet a hero who makes her pulse pound. Action on the page is one thing. Actually living it is another story. Shay's not as bold as her heroines, but she's a mother. She sees the panic in her new neighbor's usually fearless blue eyes - and knows there's no greater terror for a parent than having a child at risk. It's an ordeal Shay won't let Pete face alone. She's no highly trained operative, but she's smart and resourceful and knows what makes teenagers tick.

Still, working alongside Pete has its own perils - like letting the heat between them rise out of control. Intimate emotions could mean dangerous, even deadly consequences for their mission. No matter what, they must be on top of their game and playing for keeps...or else Pete's daughter may be gone for good.

©2017 Suzanne Brockmann (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Old Brockmann still not back yet

Brockmann's two Navy Seal series were the gold standard in romantic suspense for a long time. They still remain my favorite books in a vast audio library. But not this one which I will be returning.
Brockmann took a few years off to pursue other projects including helping her daughter's writing career in YA. She turned out a few aborted series starters in the interim--the futuristic Born to Darkness and the Troubleshooters offshoot Do or Die. Both these seemed still born and weren't continued as they fell a little flat with fans, altho I did like Born to Darkness somewhat and was waiting in vain for book 2. Having re-listened to the two SEAL series several times in the intervening years, I have been waiting for this book for a long time. Several years in fact.
But 3.5 hours in, I was done.
The action starts out fairly solid--a lukewarm chase with a lot of casual chitchat when things should have been a little more intense and not in character with a supposed SEAL. But its distracted by self-consciousness of a writer whose only frame of reference remaining creatively is her author-side. So the heroine, who is a romantic suspense author is talking with her characters in her head and this oddity continues.
This book doesn't have the focused impact of her previous suspense works altho it really had potential with the daughters framing for a theft by what appears a sociopathic high school peer. But unfortunately the deliver is choppy and disjointed. We are suddenly in his house full of old characters from the previous books in a scene that seemed suddenly there without preamble. If you haven't read the previous books its awash in a dozen new characters with idle banter and a lot of "family" stuff. I say that because it just becomes all about kids, the inner lives of tertiary character kids not involved in the plot, but kids of previous characters.
The oddest part was happening upon a scene where the old troubleshooters gang of mostly spouses are casually talking about romantic tropes of "mystery baby" that romance writers use--you know the one: girl has fling, disappears pregnant, guy finds out 1-20 years later, has to save baby/grown child... Most romance authors use it at some point. And here these characters are apropos of nothing discussing it while waiting for Peter to come home from looking for daughter. It was weird.
I love and am grateful for Suzanne Brockmann and hope she gets her mojo back. This wasn't it.

Are you kidding me?

I've waited forever for this book, and it was so worth the wait! I loved the characters, plot, and narration. Bhani Turpin voiced Shayla to perfection. It was also refreshing to have a black actress voice a black character. May not seem important to some, but frankly I'm tired of listening to white actresses voice black characters. Depending on the narrator it comes across as a caricature and downright offensive. I've never felt this way with any of Brockmann's books, though, but the narrator can make or break a book, so excellent choice! Thanks for such a wonderful distraction from the travails of my life.

Okay

Will not be one of my favorites by this author. Enjoyed hearing about the Trouble shooters characters again \ the best part of the story for me. Narration was terrific as expected, worth a listen for SB fans.

Brockmann Delivers - Again

Signature Brockmann: wit, wisdom, humor, suspense, romance, engagingly imperfect characters, believable storylines, consistency in world-building from book to book... How about I just say Brockmann delivers it all? Workable as a stand-alone book, but so much richer if you've read the connected books, starting with The Unsung Hero. Lucky me when I picked up that first paperback years ago- they just keep getting better. Lawlor is THE male voice for Brockmann's novels and, while I miss Melanie Ewbank, Turpin is the voice of Shayla. You can totally visualize her. Highly recommend all Brockmann, even the early romances being rereleased. One caveat: if you have anything against military men or Navy Seals, then her books are not for you.

Worst Male Narrator EVER! ! !

I really wanted to listen the 3 books in series, but couldn't listen to Narrator.

FINALLY a REAL Californian SEAL!

I am a long-time huge fan of the author. I gave both this story and the narration 1 more star than my general good rating of the author's stories here because:

1. this is the author's first story with a real California born SEAL hero with great California background history, as opposed to her prior California SEAL heros who never had any real background facts to make a Southern Californian believe that the hero really went to high school /college in So Cal;

2. the story has a great superficial feel for So Cal history and ethnic feel. It brought me back a lot to what growing up as a 2nd (me) or 3rd (my children) generation Southern Californian was like. There are a few glaring facts that threw me out of my reminiscences as part of a dying breed....native born So Cal baby boomers and their children through the 60s, 70s, and 80s. (More than half of my old friends left in the 80s and 90s)

3. special kudos, Ms. Brockmann, for the superficial but accurate feel for California's "dirty little secret"....the internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII, and the UNCONSTITUTIONAL imprisonment and CONFISCATION of all property without compensation (who got rich here?), and the subsequent IMPROVISVICHMENT and hate mongering the govt. perpetrated on Japanese CITIZENS. The U.S. only gave these citizens a token acknowledgment and compensation 40 years later, in the 1980s, after years of political fighting.

4. Finally, narration got a 5 star because of the new African-American female narrator, who was excellent. I heard the accent from the first chapter but the author didn't really confirm it in my mind until the 11th Chapter. Native Californians who love their history have a special respect for Hate Crimes.
This interracial relationship gave me a local California hero (our own Sam but I like Pete better because he feels local - ty). I grew up in South Central L.A. in the 60s-early 70s with the Vietnam War, WWII parents, a political father who was wrote the CA1959 Civil Rights Act, in a school district that was ordered to integrate in my freshman year of high school (I was in the 65% black school), with an L.A.P.D. sargeant racist white grandfather who brought my liberal mother to L.A. at age 6 in 1928, and grew up in an ethnically mixed black, and Japanese/Chinese Asian, white mixed beach boy suburb. This was pretty much a good factual feeling of our life here. with our love/hate of a small military town that grew because of its Naval history and pride....especially in for "our" Coronado BUD/S program AND Camp Pendleton's Marines (even during Vietnam's conflicting feelings).
I've been reading Ms. Brockmann's SEAL stories since I found my first original print of Get Lucky, long before 9/11 but about 10 years after the birth of my oldest brothers son in 1981. I've been a huge fan since. I stopped reading romance about halfway through the Troubleshooters series and just this week started reading the genre again. Shayla is 40, so born in the late 70s, and Peter was born in the early 80s. This is my favorite of all her books because it's my history. Thank you Ms. Brockmann for this book. I can forgive a Massachusetts native getting the earthquake west coast POV wrong, they're not a big deal unless you're unlucky enough to be at the epicenter, the superficial WWII internment facts, and the missing issue of how CA deals with the Hate Crimes. Great job!

Enjoyable listen

I've read or listened to just about all of Suzanne Brockmann's books (multiple times), and I've been looking forward to this one for a long time. While I missed Melanie Ewbank's narration, Bahni Turpin did a great job. Patrick Lawlor was fabulous, as usual. I actually listened to the entire thing today, not getting much else done. This book has everything I love about SB's books. The new characters are a solid addition to the 'family'. I'm ready for the next book! :-)

Suzanne Brockmann Delivers again.

In a story of adventure and romance. Brockmann take us thru the lives of a Navy seal his runaway daughter, the talented and sexy neighbor and a ruthless drug dealer.
The story is riveting,. A father who doesn't know his daughter. A daughter who dosent want to be known. Her supposed friend who frames her with a dealer, and a boy trying to help her. Enjoy!

Not the Brockmann of Yesterday

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

I was expecting the suspense, flow, and depth of previous Troublshooters' books. This latest addition to the series does not hold up to the high standard fans have come to expect from Suzanne. And the Grunge we glimpsed in the previous novella did not have the same intensity in this book. His daughter is missing and in danger -- he should have been insanely out of his mind, moving heaven and earth to find her, not bantering back and forth for hours on end, getting seemingly nowhere fast.

What could Suzanne Brockmann have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

The majority of the action scenes that ware portrayed in the book (with the exception of the last scene where Pete rescues his daughter) didn't have the urgency and danger/risk that normally flow throughout previous books.

Did Bahni Turpin and Patrick Lawlor do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

In the beginning of the book, it was hard to follow when Patrick was portraying Henry, speaking inside Shayla's head. There was an inconsistency of how Bahni portrayed Maddie; one scene, a strong, responsible 15 yr. old mature beyond her years, and in the next, a whiney, priveledged brat that was immature beyond reason. This also may have been the result of how Maddie's character was written, but it is hard to tell from listening to the book. Bahni also gave Izzy an almost accent or slur when speaking from Shayla's point of view. Very strange.

What character would you cut from Some Kind of Hero?

No major one to cut -- they all play an important role in the story. But I would recommend cutting the step-whatever of Shayla's boys. She was absolutely not needed, and didn't add any dimension to the book. Just an annoyance.

Any additional comments?

I was hoping to see more of the Troubleshooter's characters help out, not just Izzy. He was a wonderful breath of air in a stifling listen. Lindsey was a nice add too, as was the members of boat crew John. I feel there are so many characters in her previous books that need their HEA, it would be nice to work them into the next book(s) in a side plot.

Two thumbs up

Ok so I will listen to anything Suzanne B writes and this one didn’t disappoint. Peter and Shay were wonderful together. The secondary characters were just as fascinating. Love how they developed and matured throughout. Going straight to find the next in the series.

A very poor read

I was so disappointed in the story I do like the narration but the plot a very thin relationships unbelievable and the Harry character was very annoying '