Born to Darkness was a pleasant surprise. In fact, it was fantastic! One of the best science fiction books I’ve read since Ready Player One . The world building was well developed, the plot kept me guessing and the romantic interludes were steamy! Did I mention that the story was told from seven different perspectives? SEVEN! At first it was confusing, but once I learned who everyone was I had no problem following the different storylines. The transitions from one perspective to the next were fl More...

3.5 stars. Interesting start to a new series from Suzanne Brockmann. The setting is the near future and a small part of the human population, called Greater-Thans, have developed special abilities including telekinesis, super strength, and reversal of the aging process. At the same time a dangerously addictive drug called Destiny has been created, giving its users special powers that mimic the Greater-Thans' abilities.

Shane is an ex-SEAL who's been blacklisted from the Navy and is desperate for More...

*3 1/2 Stars*

This was my very first experience with Suzanne Brockmann. I have heard her name mentioned quite a lot, both because of her Troubleshooters series popularity and because of various discussions in Romancelandia about her political views and how they relate to her series, but I have never gotten around to trying her out. I saw that she was trying her hand at PNR, so I figured this was my chance. I took the plunge. :)

The setup of this world was very interesting. There are Greater-Thans, More...

I really enjoyed this book. The basic idea is in the near future, there is a drug, the street name of Destiny, that is very addictive and deadly to take, but the promise of eternal youth and powers of the mind is a great lure. Some people in this future world, have learned to harness the unused neural pathways in their brain to become Greater-Thans. They have studied and trained to integrate their brains, so they can use these special powers in the battle against jokers, people who have gone ins More...

3 stars

I was disappointed with this one. It seems like forever since Suzanne Brockmann published a book-and it definitely has the feel of Troubleshooters, with several plot lines, lots of action and bad guys defeated by SEALs. Only we're in the future and in a world where such a thing as mental integration is possible. Basically, using more than 20% of your brain is possible, and people who do, have awesome, individual powers. They're called Greater-Thans.

So, the story follows three couples, th More...

This is only my second book by Suzanne Brockmann (I've also read book one in her long established Troubleshooters series about a Navy Seal team) but I'm going to go ahead and assume that she follows the same pattern in all of her books of running three simultaneous romances in each novel. There's a main one, the one mentioned in the blurb, but there are also two others that get almost the same amount of page time. I have to confess, I don't love this approach. The laws of probability state that More...

Won from Library Thing Early Reviewers
Challenges: Men in Uniform, Mystery/Thriller
Overall Rating 5+
Story Rating 5+
Character Rating 5+

First thought when finished: This packed a punch and it's one that I won't recover from lightly!

What I Loved: Born to Darkness is like 2.5 romances in one with some kick ass action and a little paranormal ability to increase it all! I don't know if it was my mood (Moody Reader Alert) or just the shear genius of Suzanne Brockmann (my first time reading her)but this More...

3.5 to 4. Hard to choose. My first Suzanne Brockmann. I liked the pacing of the story. It was action packed and fast without being so quick that it was unbelievable. I liked that there were several relationships and dynamics happening and multiple points of views going at the same time. It lent a sense of depth to the story that is often lacking to writings that focus on only one couple and story line. It was handled well and never got confusing at all.

The world is a lot of semis. Semi-dystopia More...

When I saw the jacket cover to Born to Darkness and saw that it was a futuristic novel featuring "greater thans" that can use a greater portion of their mind, which in essence gives them super powers, I thought well that's a cool idea. Unfortunately, that was the only redeemable aspect of this novel. In a time of economic depression where corporations have taken over much of government's role, at the Obermeyer Institute, their greater thans are combatting people "Jokering", as in acting like the More...

Pros: The whole Obermeyer Institute and concept of integration (using more of the human brain simultaneously and accessing different parts of it) was a great idea. There were some interesting psychic abilities, which made for great action. The suspense of hunting down and trying to rescue a kidnapped girl was also well done, and I enjoyed the m/m romance between Elliot and Stephen.

Cons: With at least three couples being covered throughout the book (Mac and Shane, Bach and Anna, Elliot and Stephe More...

This book kept me wanting more right from the beginning. Brockmann does an excellent job in capturing her readers. ME included. I've never read a book like this one, and I enjoyed reading it very much. The action is so detailed that every paragraph read is seen clearly. The different perspectives given in this book gave such a twist in it that it almost threw me off. But When I got what was going on, I was even more infatuated with "Born To Darkness".
Mac is a very intriguing woman, in which she More...

This book could have been wrapped up in less pages/disc than was actually present. I was confused for the first half of the book, too many people, with too many names similar. Shane is a selfless ex navy seal, but only when it comes to Mac. Mac is self absorbed empath, greater than, who is running from love so she causes more problems than necessary. Elliot is a gay doctor who is completely involved in his work, and helps Diaz with his fifteen year abstinence. Diaz is another greater than, like More...

Another day, another plane read.

Born to Darkness by Suzanne Brockmann was on the deck due to one of those library displays that I both drat and keep falling for. This turned out well better than I'd hoped, an extremely active little story that lets the characters just barely get out their conversations before the next twist bang bang shoot shoot. The set up is a cross between X-Men and Wild Cards, where a very limited number of people, the Greater-Thans, have a "metal integration" much higher t More...

It is a very, very rare occurrence indeed for me to make it to page 320-something of any book before giving up. If I've made it that far, by gum I'm gonna finish. But give up I did. And in a sense I'm sorry I did. The setting was intriguing, the characters were reasonably well done, the dialogue was a tad on the hokey side, but it always is in this sort of book, and never came near being the giggle-fest that the dialogue in many of its "cousins" is.

No, I'm afraid my problem was too much sex, an More...

Let me start by saying I have read everything that Suzanne Brockmann has written to date and have love everything. That being said this book is no exception.
In the not too distance future , a new highly addictive drug name Destiny is making its rounds. It promises to reverse aging and to bring strength and vitality to users. It is extremely expensive. On Destiny it is very likely that you become violent and can loose your mind,even your life.
Shane Laughlin is a current blacklisted Navy Seal with More...

This is really awkward, because I am a die-hard Troubleshooters fan and I like and admire many things about Brockmann's writing. I also understand that she's been writing TS for a long time and she needed to get away from it, although I will confess that I hope she eventually goes back because there are still a few of Izzy's team mates who are solo, and I would really like to see how those relationships develop.

But Born to Darkness: ok. I meant to like this. I hoped to love it. Part of the probl More...

A typical Brockmann romantic suspense tale with a paranormal twist -- which is to say it's a fine thing to take along to the beach: some adrenaline, some requisite happy ending, but nothing too challenging. In fact, you may feel that you've read it all before (curious, isn't it, that her tales all have THREE intertwining romances?). I think the new twist is kind of clever: in some dreary unnamed future -- marked largely by economic troubles and lots of out-of-work folks -- good scientists resear More...

I just want to bitch slap this book around. In an affectionate way. Because I liked it and am totally exasperated by it as well. It was basically about these three couples and they ALL fall in love in TWO DAYS. Yes, people, two days. All six of them. I was researching books with romantic tension when I came across this one (please pause to enjoy the irony here) and I saw it written somewhere - I can't remember where, maybe in a review - that Suzanne Brockmann was basically the Tension Queen of R More...

I don't usually see scifi and romance blended well, but this largely did it. We've got a near-future society that has decayed somewhat (although I'm not entirely sure why). There's a bunch of superheroes called "greater thans" whose faux science involving brain integration (using more than 10% at once) does manage to be slightly more believable than the X-Men DNA explanation. Or maybe it's just the resulting powers that are slightly more believable. Not that it's saying much. You really do have More...

Too much swearing and too much sex. I wouldn't have checked out this book if the CD case had indicated it'd be anything like it was. If I could have flipped through the pages and seen what was in it I wouldn't have gotten it. I'm not familiar with the author so maybe it should've been obvious it'd be an at time raunchy romance with caricature characters and sex (no I mean love at first sight...) as power enhancer. I just skipped tracks sometimes and didn't see any harm to the actual story.

The pr More...

Science Fiction/Paranormal/Romance

There were a lot of reviews when Born to Darkness came out and they were all over the grid for rating. Some people loved it, some hated it and there was all in between. Since it had a science fictionfuturistic/paranormal theme it caught my attention so put in a hold at my local library and waited for it to come in so I could decide for myself.

So what do I think about Born to Darkness. Well for starters I can see why it got such a mix of reviews.

The story in Bo More...

Well, this is certainly a departure from Brockmann's SEAL series. I don't know that regular Brockmann readers will like the story, but I think readers new to this author (not bringing in the high expectations from her must-read Troubleshooter's series) and those with an open mind will enjoy this book.
Like all Brockmann books, this is a book with a primary romance and many secondary romances. It's set in a dystopian future where the government tracks everyone and there are bad, bad forces at work More...

Born to Darkness
Sadly, this was not that great!! I LOVE Suzanne Brockman's books usually. I love PNR. This book was a MESS! At least it was a MESS in my head. Integrate THAT! First of all, 3 romances in one book basically. NO, NO NO that's not what I WANT. I can see one other one added with no intention of another book for them as a couple. The M/M romance was so weird to me. It went from 0-100 in nothing flat. ICK. I found out you liked me yesterday lets get married. So not feeling real.
Now More...

Set in an undisclosed time in the future, the world is a very dark place. Corporate government is the elite, and there is a group of people, the Greater Thans, who have the ability to use their brains at a new level, super powers. It has also been discovered that those who find their soul mate intensify their powers into turbo.

In BORN TO DARKNESS, Mac Mackenzie believes herself to be tough. She uses her Greater Than ability to manipulate men into falling for her. When she meets ex-navy seal Shan More...

I'm torn, I tell you...TORN!!! I SO wanted to fall in love with Suz Brockmann's new "Fighting Destiny" series. She's one of my favorite authors who writes consistently great stories. (Even her fluffy, strictly romance books are good.) But I had a really hard time with this one...especially because of the depressing and paranormal future world SB has created. If BTD had been written by anyone else, I would've set it aside after the first chapter. I stuck with it, however, cuz it IS Suzanne Brockm More...

Well, this must be a five-star read for me, because I couldn't put it down while reading it, and when I finished the last page, I went back and started over on page one.

Clearly the beginning of what can (and I hope will) be a longer series, Brockmann had a lot to establish in this story. Some of it (especially the interplay of history, government, politics, business, economics, the military, etc.) clearly had relevance to the story but weren't dealt with with much depth. I could forgive that in More...

My Review:
When I first started this blog, it was because I was completely immersed with Suzanne Brockmann's Troubleshooter world and NEEDED to share that passion with someone...and so a book review blog was born. This is her first book she's released since she finished the Troubleshooter series and I wasn't sure how it would go. Why did I ever doubt this author's brilliance? I'm a little scared to say it, but I could maybe just love this world even more than I loved the Troubleshooters. OMG, thi More...

This review was originally posted at http://www.readingreality.net/2012/03...

I grabbed Born to Darkness by Suzanne Brockmann because so many people have recommended her, but her Troubleshooters series is already on book 17, and if I liked it, well, the so many books, so little time problem reared its ugly head and spat at me.

Born to Darkness is the first book in Brockmann's Fighting Destiny series. and the readers who recommended her books were right. Born to Darkness is terrific romantic suspen More...

Okay I needed a SB fix and I got one. We addicts (and addictions a big deal in this book) can never really think straight but once we have a good shot of our drug, then we do better.

A lot of this book felt too close to eventually possible, a la Handmaid's Tale. When Anna went into the police station and had to pull out her credit card to get real attention..... Ugh. jesus. Yup. And when someone mentioned that obvious fourth branch of the gov't (executive, judicial, legislative and corporate) GG More...