The Defiant Hero

Tough yet tender Navy Seals fight extremists from the former Soviet Union in a novel filled with steadfast courage, intimate passions, and profound risks taken in the name of love. In delivering this novel, voted #2 in 2001 by the Romance Writers of America, Carrington MacDuffie maintains a pace that makes the dramatic subplots, which drive the story, totally believable. MacDuffie's presentation of Meg's 75-year-old grandmother telling Meg's 10-year-old daughter the story of her participation in the 1940 evacuation of American soldiers during the Battle of Dunkirk is riveting . . . for their captors especially, who delay an execution so they might hear the entire tale. K.A.T. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine

February 26, 2001
Against the backdrop of terrorism on U.S. soil, Brockmann (The Unsung Hero) weaves three complex romantic relationships--one fondly recalled, one unexpectedly resumed and one bursting at the seams to get started--into a tight tale that will leave readers eagerly anticipating the author's next installment. When terrorists kidnap her grandmother, Eve, and her 10-year-old daughter, Amy, widowed translator Meg takes an Eastern European official hostage to trade for her lost family members. Readers will forgive the plot's implausibility as Meg hurls herself headlong into her risky rescue attempt in spite of interference by former flame and Navy SEAL Lt. John Nilsson. While heating tension and passion to the boiling point, Brockmann firmly squashes the clich of military men with hearts of stone and imbues her SEALs with honest emotional courage. In an equally refreshing move, she then stands the romance formula on its head, making the SEALs chase the intelligent, self-confident women who've done just fine so far without them. A smart, thrilling keeper among so many disposable stories, this is one to recommend heartily to friends.