Book Review ~ Do or Die by Suzanne Brockmann

Finished ~ Do or Die (Reluctant Heroes 01) by Suzanne Brockmann
Completed 7/18/14
3.5 of 5 stars
577 page eBook

I received this book from NetGalley for my honest review.


Ian Dunn is sitting in prison when he's asked to help rescue children who are being held captive in an embassy in Florida. As a former SEAL and known jewel thief, he's the perfect man for the job, but he refuses to do it. Instead of being left alone, he's brought out of jail and forced to take on the job. His new lawyer Phoebe, who knows nothing about Ian or why he's in jail, is all for Ian helping out and doesn't understand why he doesn't want to.

What happens after he gets out of jail is a crazy wild mess of action.

I wanted to read this book because I read the blurb. Figured it would be some kind of cool rescue mission where they'd take a third of the book setting it up, half of the book in them embassy with guns blazing, then a nice and short little wrap up like most books.

That's not what I got. Instead, this book is NOT about going to the embassy to rescue the kids, it's about the mishmash of stuff that happens BEFORE that. The info blurb does mention that they would be dodging people along the way, including a mob boss and a crazy killer, but the book was all about THOSE things, rather than the rescue. The actual rescue, the one they go him out of prison for? It doesn't even factor in (with making plans for it) until the last 25% of this nearly 600 page book. THEN it happens all different than what it would originally look like it would, and though it ends well, it's very much a let down. I was looking for mission impossible type stuff when it came to the rescue, and it wasn't anywhere near close, then they actually didn't do all that much.

While the overall story was not what I expected at all, the characters were still enjoyable. Ian is extremely loyal, which makes him very appealing. Phoebe goes from timid to kick-ass and the other characters have their good and bad moments. Overall, it was good, but not what was advertised at all. I found it very disappointing that the rescue played very little into the book except for a motivation to keep everything rolling. If I'd known going in that the book was about all the other stuff, I might have viewed it better. It wasn't awful, just good.

Setting = A
Plot = C-
Conflict = C
Characters = B+
Theme = B