Everyday, Average Jones
Grade : B

One thing you can say about Suzanne Brockmann's Tall, Dark and Dangerous mini-series - they are not chick books. There's not a lot of description of clothing and accessories - unless you count the men's uniforms, and there's lots of action. Everyday, Average Jones is the kind of book you would get if you mixed Tom Clancy lite with a romance novel.

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Melody Evans is an aide to the American ambassador in an unnamed foreign country. When the embassy is taken over by terrorists, she and two male members of the staff are taken hostage. The members of SEAL team Alpha Squad sneak in to stage a rescue. Harlan "Cowboy" Jones and Daryl "Harvard" Becker are the point men on the mission. Their efforts are not appreciated by the two male hostages who figure that if they just sit there, the U.S.government will negotiate with the terrorists and free them. The men get angry and argumentative, so Cowboy and Harvard just knock them out and carry them to safety. The hostages are finally rescued after some derring-do by the SEAL team and Cowboy and Melody have a passionate six day affair in Paris.

Fast forward seven months. Cowboy can't get Melody off his mind. Since he has leave coming, he takes off to Melody's home town Appleton, Massachusetts. The first thing he does is rescue a pregnant woman who has fainted. The pregnant woman is Melody. Cowboy wants to marry her, but Melody refuses. All her life, she has wanted to marry a plain, average man who doesn't take risks. Cowboy sets out to prove that he can be as ordinary as the next man, but things keep happening that cast him as a hero. Melody slowly begins to realize that Cowboy is more than just a charming daredevil and maybe she herself is not quite the ordinary woman she thinks she is.

There is a lot of rough, masculine humor in Everyday, Average Jones. The other guys from Alpha Squad tease Cowboy about Melody (and the fact that he has been celibate since he met her) in a way that provokes fisticuffs. Melody's next door neighbors have a foster child named Andy. The byplay, insults and manly bonding that takes place between Andy and Cowboy will be familiar to anyone with brothers. Cowboy's efforts to be ordinary are pretty funny too - especially what he thinks is ordinary. Would you exercise by swimming five miles in a quarry? In Massachusetts? In the cold fall? After a ten mile run?

I really enjoyed this book except for Melody's stubborn insistence that she did not love Cowboy, long after it was clear to everybody in the town that she did. Melody was so intelligent and capable during the hostage rescue, and then changed so much that I wondered if her pregnancy had made her TSTL. However, the Tall, Dark and Dangerous mini-series remains one of my favorites. This October, the next book in the series, Harvard's Education, will be published. You can be sure I'll read it.

Reviewed by Ellen Micheletti
Grade : B

Sensuality: Subtle

Review Date : July 25, 1998

Publication Date: 2004

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Ellen Micheletti

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