Enjoyable action romance

I’ve not read any books by Suzanne Brockmann before, and I realized before starting this one that it was part of a series. Fortunately, it didn’t matter that I hadn’t read the previous books. Breaking the Rules works well as a stand-alone novel, with just a few references to events which I imagine were featured in a previous book.

Breaking the Rules follows two couples and their ups and downs as they find themselves drawn into a complex situation--trying to remove an adolescent boy from his awful parents, and trying to rescue a shy and terrified victim of trafficking for prostitution. The two men, Izzy and Dan, are Navy SEALS who have come back to the US after injury in Afghanistan. Izzy was married a year before, but his marriage barely lasted a week. He plans to go and see his wife, Eden, one last time before divorcing her. Dan is trying to decide whether his relationship with Jennilyn has a future, as well as worrying about his younger brother, Ben, and his sister, Eden. But when Ben stumbles upon Neesha, who has escaped from imprisonment in a prostitution ring, he finds himself as a witness in the middle of a lot of trouble.

Breaking the Rules is always exciting, with a fast-moving plot (no one seems to ever get more than a couple of hours’ sleep before the next disaster), and it's never predictable (apart from perhaps the romance aspect). I liked all four lead characters, although I wasn’t always sure that I worked out what was going on in Eden’s head. I struggled with Izzy’s name--“Izzy” for me is short for Isabel and so a woman’s name, and I kept getting confused when the name was applied to a muscular, confident SEAL.

I like that our heroes aren’t always on the right track when following leads, and things didn’t always work out well. Ben’s parents are a bit unrealistic, but it serves the story. All in all, I enjoyed Breaking the Rules very much and I look forward to reading more by this author.