Some Kind of Hero : Reluctant Heroes

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.

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.