Finished Hard to Hold by Stephanie Tyler. This is the first book in her romantic suspense trilogy about three foster brothers.

In this one, Navy SEAL Jake Hansen rescues Dr. Isabelle Markham, after she’s kidnapped, raped, and beaten while working for Doctors Without Borders in Africa. What Jake doesn’t count on is being appointed Isabelle’s unofficial protector when she returns to the United States — or the intense attraction he feels for her. For her part, Isabelle is trying to put her life back together and thinks that Jake is the man to help her do it. But the man who kidnapped Isabelle in Africa isn’t through with her just yet …

I’ve been looking for some new romantic suspense authors to try, and I’d heard a lot of good buzz about Tyler’s Hard to Hold trilogy, so I thought I would try her books.

I’m not sure what I was expecting, but there’s a lot going on in this book — lots of characters, lots of flashbacks, lots of different plot threads, and lots of angst. I’m not the world’s biggest fan of angsty characters, and this book is full of them. Isabelle is dealing with what happened to her in Africa, while Jake is haunted by memories of his abusive stepfather. Jake’s two adopted brothers, Jake’s father, Isabelle’s mom and her adopted uncle … I don’t think there’s a single happy character in the book. Every one of them has some sort of past trauma, guilt, or grief to deal with. It got kind of depressing after a while.

My main problem with the book was the fact that there were just too many characters. I’d say at least 10 people get their own point of view passage at some point in the book. In that respect, the book reads more like an epic fantasy than a romantic suspense. Plus, there’s an entire subplot set in Africa about the angsty romance between a photographer and a black-ops mercenary, while the rest of the action is back in the U.S. It didn’t mesh that well for me, and that particular romance ends on a cliffhanger, which I’m assuming is addressed in the other two books. Also, right from the beginning, two of the characters are said to have pyshic abilities, which seemed a little out of place in this book, since no other paranormal stuff is going on.

There were some nice action scenes, and Jake does something really clever toward the end of the book to protect Isabelle. I thought that the contrast between the bad guy and Jake — who aren’t too different from each other in some respects — was interesting, and I also enjoyed the relationships between the three brothers.

But I just can’t get over all the different characters with all their different points of view. That’s just something that doesn’t always work for me as a reader, especially in this case when all of the characters were so angsty and wounded. I’m sure some folks will really enjoy this book, but from me, it’s getting a thumbs down.

Up next: McKettricks of Texas: Tate by Linda Lael Miller.

Books in my TBR pile: About 20.