Book Review - The Admiral's Bride

Book review of a book I couldn't discuss at GR.  People at GR liked the book.  So I don't want to offend them.  But I thought the book was terrible.
When I picked up the book at LittleFreeLibrary, I knew I was taking a chance.  I read some (or maybe all) of the prolog, which was set in Viet Nam.  Jake, through luck and ability got his teammates through a bad situation.  I thought the writing was OK, although I didn't see how this related to the blurb about the book. 
I soon found out.  In chapter 1 we find that Jake is now an admiral.  But first we get to meet Zoey.  She's some kind of chemical weapons expert, and she has been told that there's a new assignment for her.  So she dresses in jeans and a shirt with "little blue flowers" on it.  The driver picks her up, and when she arrives at the pentagon, she decides she is underdressed.  She should have put on her femme fatale costume - short and slinky black dress and spike heels. 
At this point I had to wonder if her wardrobe had any business clothes.  A suit that a scientist might wear to work.  Even a pants suit. 
Well, the meeting got underway and the writing turned into utterly stereotypical romance lingo.  Everything was superficial - clothes, complexion, eye-color.  Although the author seemed to think the story was more realistic than Get Smart (which was referenced a time or two) I didn't see any indication that the author knew anything about the military, nor about intelligence work.
The meeting was full of generals and admirals, which made for lots of braid and bright-work.  And Zoey kept thinking about the impression she was making with her little blue flowers.  She was called upon to explain the terrible chemical warfare compound that she just learned had been stolen.  So there are two kinds of harmless powder that could be combined with water to make a horrible poison gas that paralyzes people's lungs and they die.  To emphasize the destructive power of the poison, there was a discussion of how much of it would be needed to wipe out Washington DC.
But not discussion of how long the dangerous gas would linger, nor about it drifting elsewhere on the wind.  I'm not really into mass destruction, but I could certainly have dreamed up a much more horrible way to kill enemies.  Actual WWII stuff was ghastlier than that.




I tried to read some more.  At least two chapters, right, to give the author a chance.  But I couldn't get past that beginning.  In another review, I complained that the action/adventure aspect of the story got in the way of the romance.  Here, the romance was obviously going to overpower the danger/adventure side of the story.  Well, actually the romance was so obvious that I didn't need to read anymore.  That cover blurb had given it away.


The book: The Admiral's Bride by Suzanne Brockman.
I wish nothing but the best to the people who liked this.  I just don't agree.