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SEAL of Protection #1
Protecting Caroline
Librarian Note: This is the original cover edition of ASIN: B00N9JVRUQ. The alternate cover edition is here.
**Protecting Caroline is a stand-alone love story. It’s Book 1 in the SEAL of Protection Series.**
Matthew “Wolf� Steel hated flying commercial. Luckily his job as a Navy SEAL meant he didn’t have to do it very often. He’d been unlucky enough to be assigned a middle seat on the cramped jet, but fortunately for him, the woman next to him was willing to switch seats with him. Hoping for a relaxing flight, Wolf was pleasantly surprised at the good conversation and sense of humor the woman had as they flew 36,000 feet over the countryside.
When Caroline boarded the plane to Virginia to move across the country for her new job she never expected to be seated next to the hottest guy she’d ever seen. She also never expected he’d be so easy to talk to. She knew he’d never be interested in talking to her if he hadn’t been trapped in the seat next to her, but it was a nice way to spend a long plane ride.
Neither Wolf nor Caroline were prepared for a terrorist hijacking of their plane, but if Caroline thought that would be the last time she’d see, or need, Wolf, she’d be sorely mistaken.
Start the SEAL of Protection Series with Caroline and Wolf's story
**Protecting Caroline is a stand-alone love story. It’s Book 1 in the SEAL of Protection Series.**
Matthew “Wolf� Steel hated flying commercial. Luckily his job as a Navy SEAL meant he didn’t have to do it very often. He’d been unlucky enough to be assigned a middle seat on the cramped jet, but fortunately for him, the woman next to him was willing to switch seats with him. Hoping for a relaxing flight, Wolf was pleasantly surprised at the good conversation and sense of humor the woman had as they flew 36,000 feet over the countryside.
When Caroline boarded the plane to Virginia to move across the country for her new job she never expected to be seated next to the hottest guy she’d ever seen. She also never expected he’d be so easy to talk to. She knew he’d never be interested in talking to her if he hadn’t been trapped in the seat next to her, but it was a nice way to spend a long plane ride.
Neither Wolf nor Caroline were prepared for a terrorist hijacking of their plane, but if Caroline thought that would be the last time she’d see, or need, Wolf, she’d be sorely mistaken.
Start the SEAL of Protection Series with Caroline and Wolf's story
232 pages, ebook
First published September 2, 2014
3550 people are currently reading
6125 people want to read
About the author
Susan Stoker
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New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author, Susan Stoker has a heart as big as the state of Tennessee where she lives, but this all American girl has also spent the last fourteen years living in Missouri, California, Colorado, Indiana, and Tennessee. She's married to a retired Army man who now gets to follow her around the country.
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New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author, Susan Stoker has a heart as big as the state of Tennessee where she lives, but this all American girl has also spent the last fourteen years living in Missouri, California, Colorado, Indiana, and Tennessee. She's married to a retired Army man who now gets to follow her around the country.
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For all upcoming books click here:
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,253 reviews
April 20, 2015
One of my biggest pet peeves concerning book characters is an MC combo that goes on and in about how "plain," "ordinary," or "unattractive"one character is and the f'ing spectacular gorgeousness/ handsomeness of the other character. That shit isn't believable nor romantic outside PG Disney. And, this book is one of the worst offenders I've ever seen.
These are just a few of the descriptors and thoughts of Wolf and Caroline IN THE FIRST 13% of the book:
" Wolf thought that while she wasn't conventionally pretty, she was certainly interesting looking." "Caroline had a pretty healthy self-esteem, even with her plain looks." "Caroline wasn't the type to get special favors because of her looks, and she wasn't one to draw the attention of any man." "Caroline wasn't used to men looking at her that closely. She was plain and uninteresting." "Nondescript woman..." "Caroline knew she wasn't model beautiful, but didn't think she was a troll either." "Caroline was average from top of her brown hair.." "Wolf opened his eyes to look at the woman sitting in the aisle seat next to him. She was ordinary." "If she made a move on him later in the flight he'd just have to rebuff her."
Meanwhile, even Wolf's "eyebrow lift" was described as "sexy."
Wtf? I mean, first, it's totally unbelievable that any dude is going to suddenly go googoogaga and have some kinda spectacular sex life full of rainbows and unicorns with some chick they initially feel is plain, describe as nondescript, and immediately want to rebuff any advances from. Second, believable or not, there's nothing romantic about a guy thinking you're plain! Maybe she's plain to everyone else, but he should see something unique and endearing about her IF I'm going to feel any kind of romance from the story! I'm not talking insta-love nor lust, but damn if you aren't attracted to her physically.. Well, the book is kinda over before it ever begins.
Dear authors of romance novels...Inner beauty with no physical attraction is no more believable or enjoyable than an outward beauty that's void inside. FYI
So, we are off to a horrible start, yes?!? I'm thinking it really can't get worse, but, omg does it.
After the hijacking, Caroline's behavior can only be described as insane. She refuses medical care cause she doesn't want them to think she's a "wuss" and because the EMT really wants to help the pretty girl(s). She sleeps on the airport floor verses going to a free hotel room. She refuses the SEAL'S help because there's no way they could possibly really want to help her because she's so plain and they'd surly leave anyway. Its some of the most self-effacing, depressing crap I've ever read.
Eventually, she' proves' how plain she is because they've all met her before and didn't even remember. You'd think the chick was a ghost the way this shit is written about how NO ONE sees her. Krystsakes!
Wolf is a SEAL, my ass. He doesn't seek her out after they make it off the plane, after the FBI interview, or even once they realize she's not at the hotel. He doesn't notice she's injured after getting into a FIGHT with a terrorist! He trots off like a petulant child because she dismisses him, but it was okay that he waited till the next day to even see about her. For f's sake, that's some chivalry there people!
Anyhoo... Wolf decides he wants her. She basically asks why. He says ( to our chemist female MC who's already pointed out how plain and not rememberable she is) that he wants her because she's smart and levelheaded. Be still my aching heart; ik that would so make me feel warm and tingly, special and oh so wanted. Not!
I just can't force myself to go on past 50%. My eyes were in jeopardy of getting irreversibly stuck rolled to the back of my head.
These are just a few of the descriptors and thoughts of Wolf and Caroline IN THE FIRST 13% of the book:
" Wolf thought that while she wasn't conventionally pretty, she was certainly interesting looking." "Caroline had a pretty healthy self-esteem, even with her plain looks." "Caroline wasn't the type to get special favors because of her looks, and she wasn't one to draw the attention of any man." "Caroline wasn't used to men looking at her that closely. She was plain and uninteresting." "Nondescript woman..." "Caroline knew she wasn't model beautiful, but didn't think she was a troll either." "Caroline was average from top of her brown hair.." "Wolf opened his eyes to look at the woman sitting in the aisle seat next to him. She was ordinary." "If she made a move on him later in the flight he'd just have to rebuff her."
Meanwhile, even Wolf's "eyebrow lift" was described as "sexy."
Wtf? I mean, first, it's totally unbelievable that any dude is going to suddenly go googoogaga and have some kinda spectacular sex life full of rainbows and unicorns with some chick they initially feel is plain, describe as nondescript, and immediately want to rebuff any advances from. Second, believable or not, there's nothing romantic about a guy thinking you're plain! Maybe she's plain to everyone else, but he should see something unique and endearing about her IF I'm going to feel any kind of romance from the story! I'm not talking insta-love nor lust, but damn if you aren't attracted to her physically.. Well, the book is kinda over before it ever begins.
Dear authors of romance novels...Inner beauty with no physical attraction is no more believable or enjoyable than an outward beauty that's void inside. FYI
So, we are off to a horrible start, yes?!? I'm thinking it really can't get worse, but, omg does it.
After the hijacking, Caroline's behavior can only be described as insane. She refuses medical care cause she doesn't want them to think she's a "wuss" and because the EMT really wants to help the pretty girl(s). She sleeps on the airport floor verses going to a free hotel room. She refuses the SEAL'S help because there's no way they could possibly really want to help her because she's so plain and they'd surly leave anyway. Its some of the most self-effacing, depressing crap I've ever read.
Eventually, she' proves' how plain she is because they've all met her before and didn't even remember. You'd think the chick was a ghost the way this shit is written about how NO ONE sees her. Krystsakes!
Wolf is a SEAL, my ass. He doesn't seek her out after they make it off the plane, after the FBI interview, or even once they realize she's not at the hotel. He doesn't notice she's injured after getting into a FIGHT with a terrorist! He trots off like a petulant child because she dismisses him, but it was okay that he waited till the next day to even see about her. For f's sake, that's some chivalry there people!
Anyhoo... Wolf decides he wants her. She basically asks why. He says ( to our chemist female MC who's already pointed out how plain and not rememberable she is) that he wants her because she's smart and levelheaded. Be still my aching heart; ik that would so make me feel warm and tingly, special and oh so wanted. Not!
I just can't force myself to go on past 50%. My eyes were in jeopardy of getting irreversibly stuck rolled to the back of my head.
![Profile Image for Carol [ŷ Addict].](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.gr-assets.com%2Fimages%2FS%2Fcompressed.photo.goodreads.com%2Fusers%2F1626057011i%2F10717098._UX200_CR0%2C33%2C200%2C200_.jpg&w=128&q=75)
May 11, 2022
Protecting Caroline is book one in the Seal of Protection series by Susan Stoker. I’ve owned this book for a very long time and am just now getting around to reading it. This book was definitely a crazy, wild ride pretty much from beginning to end.
Matthew “Wolf� Steel is a Navy Seal. He and a couple of team members are on leave and headed to Virginia to spend some time with a friend before they leave for their next mission. Wolf is a huge man and was unfortunately assigned the middle seat on the place. Fortunately, the pretty woman on the aisle seat offered to change with him. He was pleasantly surprised to find the woman a pleasure to talk with and even more to look at.
Caroline Martin is on her way from San Francisco to Virginia to start a new job. She’s looking forward to a fresh start in a new place. Caroline is accustomed to “blending in� wherever she goes. She tends to stand apart from others because she doesn’t feel she fits in. The one place she does feel like she belongs is at work as a chemist. She loves her work. Caroline can’t believe how lucky she was to see who her seat mate was. He was so huge, she just had to offer him her seat. She figured the only reason he was bothering to talk to her was because he was forced to sit with her but she would enjoy his company while she had it. Until everything turned upside down and she, Wolf and his two other team mates were fighting for their lives against hijackers.
As I said, the action started pretty quickly and it was one thing after another for these characters. At first, I struggled with Caroline. She had such a low opinion of herself and constantly was putting herself down. But my respect for her grew throughout this book with her bravery and quick thinking in one situation after another. When stronger people would have given up or given in, she held strong. And she went through SO MUCH! It was heart breaking what she had to endure.
These seal team members are tough but all seem to have big, squishy hearts of gold. They all fell in love with Caroline and would do whatever it took to keep her safe. The next book in the series is Abe’s book in Protecting Alabama. After watching his team mate, Wolf find love with Caroline, I know he wants the same for himself. I hope he finds it.
For more about this book and so many others, come and visit me at Carol's Crazy Bookish World.
July 12, 2020
I'm busy till the weekend, and it's much easier to read shitty books in class. It's also a lot easier to point out why a book sucks, than to point out why it doesn't. I don't know; I think books I like warrant more time to write more cohesive reviews than the crap I don't like. So sue me.
Ugh. Plain Jane meets the most devilishly handsome man she's ever met, and he saves her from a bunch of...bad things, and they live happily ever after. Well, I hadn't read that before. Just another sloppily put together romance novel about two empty shells of characters who think there's really not much to life other than looks. I kid you not, because both the MCs in this clusterfuck seem to legitimately think so.
Caroline is your average brown-haired chemist; she's just an average girl from an average family. And whatshisname is well, ripped as a motherfucker and "obviously" hot. And yet, they still have time for some over-the-top insta love BS. I'm a very frequent flier, and I've sat next to some incredibly good-looking men on the flight. I've had idle conversation with most of them, but never, during the course of such conversation felt the urge to surrender my body, soul, and undying love and loyalty to them. Then again, if my life were a romantic story in the sense of this book and its likes, I wouldn't be reviewing shitty books at midnight.
Unrealistic as the books in this genre I've read so far have been, this one takes all the cakes. Chemist and Navy Seal thwart terrorist masterminds. Now that would be something. Not. Both the MCs have a very, er, childish line of thought. Case in point, the heroine thinks that It couldn’t be good to be trapped in a plane thousands of feet above the ground with people hell-bent on causing trouble. Like, I'm so awed by her quick thinking. And it is her that the people in this book have to rely on for saving them. Also, the only point of making her a chemist was so that she cold sniff out whatever it was the terrorists were using to control their passengers. Clearly, subtlety isn't the author's strong suit.
As Navy Seals save the day and Caroline gets a mini orgasm thinking about the fact that she incapacitated a "freaking terrorist" by tripping him, I'm left wondering why I still haven't considered writing such utter shit as an alternate career option. Even as people are being rescued after the event of the terrorist attack, Caroline's first ridiculous thought is that all the other passengers are attractive, and she's ugly. Even the shallowest of persons I know wouldn't think that. She also thinks it's a good idea to lie to the authorities about the events surrounding a terrorist attack. She gets kidnapped and tortured and all that, and I still don't think she was punished enough. Getting into more details would only be painful for both you and me, reader.
If I had a penny for every time the word blush was mentioned in this, er, badly written writing assignment, I'd be seventeen pennies richer. I'm too tired to convert that to rupees, but that was never the point of this statement. And yet, even my terrible joke fares so much better than the feeble attempts at humour made by the author. Do I have to make the point about subtlety again? If I have to hear the word drug being used instead of dragged again, so help me god. I yelled at a classmate for writing "common" instead of "come on" today, so know that I take this seriously.
Ugh. Plain Jane meets the most devilishly handsome man she's ever met, and he saves her from a bunch of...bad things, and they live happily ever after. Well, I hadn't read that before. Just another sloppily put together romance novel about two empty shells of characters who think there's really not much to life other than looks. I kid you not, because both the MCs in this clusterfuck seem to legitimately think so.
Caroline is your average brown-haired chemist; she's just an average girl from an average family. And whatshisname is well, ripped as a motherfucker and "obviously" hot. And yet, they still have time for some over-the-top insta love BS. I'm a very frequent flier, and I've sat next to some incredibly good-looking men on the flight. I've had idle conversation with most of them, but never, during the course of such conversation felt the urge to surrender my body, soul, and undying love and loyalty to them. Then again, if my life were a romantic story in the sense of this book and its likes, I wouldn't be reviewing shitty books at midnight.
Unrealistic as the books in this genre I've read so far have been, this one takes all the cakes. Chemist and Navy Seal thwart terrorist masterminds. Now that would be something. Not. Both the MCs have a very, er, childish line of thought. Case in point, the heroine thinks that It couldn’t be good to be trapped in a plane thousands of feet above the ground with people hell-bent on causing trouble. Like, I'm so awed by her quick thinking. And it is her that the people in this book have to rely on for saving them. Also, the only point of making her a chemist was so that she cold sniff out whatever it was the terrorists were using to control their passengers. Clearly, subtlety isn't the author's strong suit.
As Navy Seals save the day and Caroline gets a mini orgasm thinking about the fact that she incapacitated a "freaking terrorist" by tripping him, I'm left wondering why I still haven't considered writing such utter shit as an alternate career option. Even as people are being rescued after the event of the terrorist attack, Caroline's first ridiculous thought is that all the other passengers are attractive, and she's ugly. Even the shallowest of persons I know wouldn't think that. She also thinks it's a good idea to lie to the authorities about the events surrounding a terrorist attack. She gets kidnapped and tortured and all that, and I still don't think she was punished enough. Getting into more details would only be painful for both you and me, reader.
If I had a penny for every time the word blush was mentioned in this, er, badly written writing assignment, I'd be seventeen pennies richer. I'm too tired to convert that to rupees, but that was never the point of this statement. And yet, even my terrible joke fares so much better than the feeble attempts at humour made by the author. Do I have to make the point about subtlety again? If I have to hear the word drug being used instead of dragged again, so help me god. I yelled at a classmate for writing "common" instead of "come on" today, so know that I take this seriously.
November 19, 2014
Let Emma Stone and I tell you a story.
There once was a blogger named Kristen. She was in a terrible reading slump. Every time she tried to start a new book, after a few pages she would get bored.
Then along came Houston Book Rave. After the roaring good time she had at last year's event, Kristen had been looking forward to this year's event something fierce! Back in August she'd met a lovely author by the name of Alisa Mullen, who was also at Book Rave, and it was through her that Kristen met Susan Stoker (I wish I had a picture of the 2 of us to put here but we were too preoccupied with causing a ruckus to get one). Susan writes hot, action-packed romance novels. Kristen took one look at Susan's covers and was hooked.
Kristen decided to buy Susan's first 2 books in her Seal of Protection series solely based on the covers (don't judge me). How could she resist those bare chests and washboard abs?
When Kristen got home from Book Rave she couldn't decide which one of her 30+ books she should read (again, don't judge me). On the top of the stack in her main bag was Protecting Caroline and the cover just called to me. Read me, Kristen. You know you want to. Reeeeeeeeeead meeeeeeeee. Caress my cover. Reeeeeeead meeeeeeee.
Well, if you insist.
Okay, I haven't had enough coffee to keep that 3rd person nonsense up, so just go with it.
Protecting Caroline was awesome, plain and simple. The romance between Matthew and Caroline is perfect. There are some steamy moments but I wouldn't classify it as erotica. It is definitely adult romance, but there are no explicit sexy times in this book.
The story starts off with a short prologue introducing us to all of the boys: Wolf, Abe, Mozart, Cookie, Dude, and Benny. Wow, I got those all on the first try.
Anywho, Matthew and Caroline are seated next to each other on a flight to Norfolk, VA. Caroline has the aisle seat but after seeing Matthew's broad shoulders and long legs, she offers to trade him for his dreaded middle seat. After that they strike up a casual conversation about their professions. Caroline is a chemist and I really loved how Mizz Stoker described her job.
After they are served their complimentary in-flight beverage, Caroline discovers something fishy with the ice. We're never told exactly whatis wrong with the ice, only that it smells weird and it's been tainted with some sort of drug that knocks all of the passengers on the flight out. Of course, Caroline stops Matthew from drinking his orange juice (side note: I found Matthew's choice of beverage oddly endearing) and then with Caroline's help he is able to alert Abe and Mozart, who were also flying with him to Norfolk, not to drink their drinks as well.
The action picks up from there and does not stop. Every time something happens to Caroline she brushes it off and keeps on trucking like a freaking superhero. I LOVED that! I loved that Mizz Stoker wrote Caroline to be so strong and selfless, but she was also witty and honest and humble. Half the time her internal dialogue was her second guessing herself, but she was not about to give up and let innocent people get hurt. Basically, she was amazing.
Now, onto the boys, or should I say men? We've got a team of six badass, raw, ripped, smart, tender hearted SEALs. I mean, HELL YES. They all have their nicknames and at times I would get a little confused when Mizz Stoker would jump back and forth between their nicknames and real names (Caroline insisted on calling them by their real names), but it wasn't enough to distract me from the story.
Matthew "Wolf" Steele is the leader of their team and he is delicious. He gets the job done with a swift quickness but is also so sweet and protective of Caroline.
I don't want to give away too much of the plot because I went into this book pretty much blind other than I knew there was a hot SEAL who saves a plane from being hijacked and there was a lady who was going to steal his heart...which is pretty much the norm for adult romance books, and I like it!
Before I wrap this up (because I could sit and look at Emma Stone gifs all day, seriously) I do want to touch on the rest of the SEALs (well I'd like to literally "touch on" them, but you know...there's that whole fictional character issue to contend with, le sigh). I really loved all of the guys, Cookie especially. I can see him becoming my favorite. He was so sweet and gentle with Caroline. OH and there's a part at the end.....when something happens.....and Cookie made me cry. We're not talking a tear leaking out of the corner of my eye. Oh no, we're talking blurry eyed, can't read till I blow my nose, somebody hold me, crying.
This book gets 5 stars because I stayed up late just to finish it. I couldn't put it down, and I very rarely actually sacrifice my sleep to read. I know, I'm atrocious, but you don't wanna know me when I don't get enough sleep. I've got book 2 all ready to go, but sadly I will have to wait until I have fulfilled my adult obligations before I can sit down and read.
There once was a blogger named Kristen. She was in a terrible reading slump. Every time she tried to start a new book, after a few pages she would get bored.
Then along came Houston Book Rave. After the roaring good time she had at last year's event, Kristen had been looking forward to this year's event something fierce! Back in August she'd met a lovely author by the name of Alisa Mullen, who was also at Book Rave, and it was through her that Kristen met Susan Stoker (I wish I had a picture of the 2 of us to put here but we were too preoccupied with causing a ruckus to get one). Susan writes hot, action-packed romance novels. Kristen took one look at Susan's covers and was hooked.
Kristen decided to buy Susan's first 2 books in her Seal of Protection series solely based on the covers (don't judge me). How could she resist those bare chests and washboard abs?
When Kristen got home from Book Rave she couldn't decide which one of her 30+ books she should read (again, don't judge me). On the top of the stack in her main bag was Protecting Caroline and the cover just called to me. Read me, Kristen. You know you want to. Reeeeeeeeeead meeeeeeeee. Caress my cover. Reeeeeeead meeeeeeee.
Well, if you insist.
Okay, I haven't had enough coffee to keep that 3rd person nonsense up, so just go with it.
Protecting Caroline was awesome, plain and simple. The romance between Matthew and Caroline is perfect. There are some steamy moments but I wouldn't classify it as erotica. It is definitely adult romance, but there are no explicit sexy times in this book.
The story starts off with a short prologue introducing us to all of the boys: Wolf, Abe, Mozart, Cookie, Dude, and Benny. Wow, I got those all on the first try.
Anywho, Matthew and Caroline are seated next to each other on a flight to Norfolk, VA. Caroline has the aisle seat but after seeing Matthew's broad shoulders and long legs, she offers to trade him for his dreaded middle seat. After that they strike up a casual conversation about their professions. Caroline is a chemist and I really loved how Mizz Stoker described her job.
After they are served their complimentary in-flight beverage, Caroline discovers something fishy with the ice. We're never told exactly whatis wrong with the ice, only that it smells weird and it's been tainted with some sort of drug that knocks all of the passengers on the flight out. Of course, Caroline stops Matthew from drinking his orange juice (side note: I found Matthew's choice of beverage oddly endearing) and then with Caroline's help he is able to alert Abe and Mozart, who were also flying with him to Norfolk, not to drink their drinks as well.
The action picks up from there and does not stop. Every time something happens to Caroline she brushes it off and keeps on trucking like a freaking superhero. I LOVED that! I loved that Mizz Stoker wrote Caroline to be so strong and selfless, but she was also witty and honest and humble. Half the time her internal dialogue was her second guessing herself, but she was not about to give up and let innocent people get hurt. Basically, she was amazing.
Now, onto the boys, or should I say men? We've got a team of six badass, raw, ripped, smart, tender hearted SEALs. I mean, HELL YES. They all have their nicknames and at times I would get a little confused when Mizz Stoker would jump back and forth between their nicknames and real names (Caroline insisted on calling them by their real names), but it wasn't enough to distract me from the story.
Matthew "Wolf" Steele is the leader of their team and he is delicious. He gets the job done with a swift quickness but is also so sweet and protective of Caroline.
I don't want to give away too much of the plot because I went into this book pretty much blind other than I knew there was a hot SEAL who saves a plane from being hijacked and there was a lady who was going to steal his heart...which is pretty much the norm for adult romance books, and I like it!
Before I wrap this up (because I could sit and look at Emma Stone gifs all day, seriously) I do want to touch on the rest of the SEALs (well I'd like to literally "touch on" them, but you know...there's that whole fictional character issue to contend with, le sigh). I really loved all of the guys, Cookie especially. I can see him becoming my favorite. He was so sweet and gentle with Caroline. OH and there's a part at the end.....when something happens.....and Cookie made me cry. We're not talking a tear leaking out of the corner of my eye. Oh no, we're talking blurry eyed, can't read till I blow my nose, somebody hold me, crying.
This book gets 5 stars because I stayed up late just to finish it. I couldn't put it down, and I very rarely actually sacrifice my sleep to read. I know, I'm atrocious, but you don't wanna know me when I don't get enough sleep. I've got book 2 all ready to go, but sadly I will have to wait until I have fulfilled my adult obligations before I can sit down and read.
June 17, 2019
4.5 stars. Great story filled with suspense. Caroline was an incredible heroine. I thought she was very relatable on so many levels. She's a chemist by trade and while she has a healthy sense of self-esteem about her intelligence and independence, but Caroline also knows she isn't physically beautiful to capture attention at first glance. Matthew sits next to her on a commercial flight while 2 of his other Navy SEAL buddies are on the same plane. The plot takes a turn from this plane flight into terrorist activity and Caroline is forced to think fast, alerting Matthew of the threat while he and his buddies thwart off danger. Caroline plays a very significant role in this, yet she doesn't think she does and always underplays her involvement. I was endeared to Caroline because I loved her humbleness but also her stubbornness and most of all, her courage. Even though she didn't interact that much with Matthew on the plane, she feels a sense of loyalty to him and his comrades to not expose them. Throughout the entire book, Caroline consistently demonstrates bravery and devotion like no other, putting other's well being ahead of her own. She survives several ordeals that an ordinary person would not be able to handle a fraction of. It is her inner self that shines a beauty so bright that Matthew cannot ignore his growing attachment to her. It becomes his primary focus and that of his fellow SEALs to protect Caroline because she has proven to be like a team member to them. I absolutely loved how all these guys thought of Caroline as one of them and went to great lengths to rescue her, even though Caroline tried her best to defend them by herself. The romance and sexual tension between her and Matthew built up just right but there wasn't much steam otherwise because much of the focus is on the danger and keeping each other safe, so don't read this expecting a lot of sexy times. I would've liked a little bit more of just Caroline and Matthew together away from the suspense but otherwise, Caroline and Matthew were fantastic characters.
October 9, 2018
�4.5�
Protecting Caroline is the first book in the Seal of Protection Series. Matthew “Wolf� Steel is flying commercial when he finds himself in a potentially disastrous situation. When Caroline, a woman who is flying across the country to start a new life, makes a lethal discovery on the plane they are flying, she is happy to help Wolf and his Seal brothers take down the enemies. But after the crisis has been averted, Caroline's life is now in danger. It will be up to Wolf and his brothers to keep her safe.
Told in multiple POV, Protecting Caroline has some intense action, complex characters, and light steam. Caroline is a spunky character and paired with Wolf (a damaged hero), they make a perfect match.
Overall, I highly recommend Protecting Caroline to anyone who enjoys an action-packed military romance. Susan Stoker is able to create a world with strong heroes and their journey to find love and happiness. Each book can be read as a stand-alone!
For more reviews/reveals/giveaways visit:
"I would have taken care of you."
Protecting Caroline is the first book in the Seal of Protection Series. Matthew “Wolf� Steel is flying commercial when he finds himself in a potentially disastrous situation. When Caroline, a woman who is flying across the country to start a new life, makes a lethal discovery on the plane they are flying, she is happy to help Wolf and his Seal brothers take down the enemies. But after the crisis has been averted, Caroline's life is now in danger. It will be up to Wolf and his brothers to keep her safe.
Told in multiple POV, Protecting Caroline has some intense action, complex characters, and light steam. Caroline is a spunky character and paired with Wolf (a damaged hero), they make a perfect match.
Overall, I highly recommend Protecting Caroline to anyone who enjoys an action-packed military romance. Susan Stoker is able to create a world with strong heroes and their journey to find love and happiness. Each book can be read as a stand-alone!
For more reviews/reveals/giveaways visit:
July 9, 2016
I'm really not sure what to say about this book. It was really weird... I genuinely think the heroine must have been mentally not-all-there. It was basically a story about a bunch of SEALs looking after a woman like she's their handicapped pet, and I'm not talking about some weird, kinky BDSM thing. The entire thing was just... Strange and awkward. Warning: This is a very long review and a reflection of how much this book irked me.
The heroine, Caroline...
I started off feeling sorry for her. She obviously had some massive, massive self-esteem issues. Then I thought perhaps she was just seriously, seriously mind-numbingly stupid. Then about halfway through the book she starts to say and do things that are just so... unreasonable. I've therefore come to the conclusion that she must be mentally deranged. I hated the fact she constantly described herself as 'average'... average intelligence, average body, average hair, average shoe size.. you get the picture. We get the sob story that she never went to prom and men always look through her like she doesn't exist. Apparently this is confirmed by the fact that neither Wolf, Abe nor Mozart (the 3 Navy SEALs) recognised her on the plane despite having not-very-memorably bumped into her very briefly earlier in the day. She then continues to use her perceived invisibility to justify her ridiculous self-sacrificing behaviour throughout the rest of the book (that was another thing that annoyed me - wallow in self-pity and sacrifice yourself all you want, but don't then call a bunch of Navy SEALs to alert them to what you've done - it reeks of attenion-seeking). Despite all of this, we're told she has really 'healthy' self-esteem and is actually really smart. She was just so inconsistent. She really needs to decide whether she's going to be a self-depreciating, moaning damsel-in-distress or a strong-willed, flirtatious and confident heroine. She seemed to flip from one extreme to the other with no in-between. For example - not telling the men about her injury and refusing to sit with them because she's socially inept around males to only a few pages later, warning Mozart that when he lifts up her top (while he's examining her side) he should be careful because he might 'want to jump her'. She genuinely had the most insane reasoning I've ever come across... Like she decides to sleep on the dirty airport floor despite being offered a free hotel room, or while someone is trying to break into her apartment - she runs to the window, opens it, and then returns to the bath-tub to hide, all in an attempt to fool the assailant into thinking she has escaped via the fire escape. Why not actually escape by the frigging fire escape?!?!?!?
Not a single character has any personality...
Physical appearance trumped ALL personality traits. Every single character was described only with adjectives describing their breast size/weight/general appearance and nothing else seemed to matter. I guess maybe you can get away with that if it's an erotic novel... but this isn't. For relationships to be established and be believable, there just has to be more. Literally, Caroline and Wolf's relationship is based entirely on the fact that she thinks he's really hot, and he is shocked she doesn't attempt to hit on him when they first meet. Everything was too black and white... characters were either tall, slender and beautiful or just plain ugly. There's just no depth - the writing came across as incredibly childish and immature and the characters were 2D and shallow. For example, Caroline is shell-shocked in the midst of a terrorist takeover of a passenger plane. She narrowly escapes with her life. She goes to the back of the plane and her very first thought is “the women are all gorgeous. Jesus, where are all the ugly people? Oh crap, was she the ugly person here?� Because apparently in every social situation (even when it's life or death) there will always be “an ugly person�. I felt like a 13 year girl old again.
The generalisation of women and men...
According to this book, the extent of all women's ambition is to bag themselves a man in uniform (forget personality, intelligence or interests) and to try and 'force them to settle down'. Even towards the end of the book where Caroline is pretty sure she's about to die, her last thoughts are only that she wishes she'd slept with Wolf when she had the chance. Forget family, her dead parents, friends, her childhood, etc. Nope. She just wishes she'd slept with a SEAL. Wow. There's also a scene where an EMT comes onto the plane and a woman called Brandy “grips his bicep while pushing her ample boobs� onto him to try and distract him from doing his job and looking after another woman? So he responds by slinging some antiseptic wipes at the injured woman so he can focus his attentions on the more attractive Brandy????? What the actual hell?!?! Also, the fact that from 50% onwards, Caroline seems to no longer be known by her own name, but rather by the title 'Wolf's woman' � how flattering.
The writing style...
The writing is distractingly lengthy and arduous � there was literally an entire kindle page describing a single hand shake. Sometimes as a reader, things don't need to be spelled out so blatantly. I'm not a child � I can read between the lines. Word repetition was also tedious � for example: “She got her cell phone out and walked with a purpose toward the bus stop. She only had to go three blocks, but it was dark out. Luckily the bus arrived not too much after she arrived at the bus stop, which was good because she didn't want to stand in the dark waiting for it�.
The fact that Navy SEALs are God's gift to the world...
The CONSTANT (and I mean constant) mention of the how hot/brave/fit/elite/fast/”sex-on-a-stick�/strong/sexy/muscular/desirable/”kick-butt� all SEALs are. Poor them... they can't even leave the house without women 'throwing themselves' at them. Would you believe that post-terrorist attack, women are literally clambering over each other to stand next to one of them?! Apparently all women want to sleep with a SEAL 'just so that they can say they have.' I know this is a book about Navy SEALs, I've read similar books before (most of the RS genre now seems to be centred around the heroics of Navy SEALs)... But I just felt like it was constantly being rammed down my throat on every single page, to the point that it disturbed the flow of the story - every time the word SEAL was mentioned, the author deemed it necessary to remind us (again) how awesome they are. It got very old very quickly. Example: “Wolf jerked awake. He could go from asleep to being one hundred percent awake, thanks to being a SEAL�, or “How'd you get in here? Oh, never mind, Caroline whined petulantly, He was a SEAL; a locked door wouldn't keep him out�.
The cheese factor...
I think I must have an unusually low cheese threshold but this book was almost haemorrhaging it on every page. I got repetitive strain injury from rolling my eyes and slamming my kindle down in disgust. The fact that a group of SEALs decide she is quite literally one of them (this was said so frequently it reminded me of the little toy aliens on Toy Story... 'One of Us, One of Us, One of Us') � they keep referring to the fact that a SEAL never leaves a SEAL behind, and even give her an honorary nickname, Ice, and present her with their legendary regimental pin badge. It makes me cringe just recalling it. Also, I'm not a feminist or anything but I hated the way that the book kept implying that all women are generally useless (other than for sex, obviously). According to our SEAL heroes, every other woman would have been paralysed with fear, screaming in a corner while desperately waiting for a big burly man to come and rescue them. Not Caroline though.
The story continuity and the believability factor...
Don't get me wrong.. I understand that a work of fiction is just that, and therefore some aspects of the story are going to be far-fetched. I get it, I do. But there were just lots of silly things... Infact there were just so many I gave up keeping note of all of them. These are some of the ones that stand out from memory...
1. The fact that the SEALs already had secret hand signals in place to gesture to each other that they shouldn't consume the drink on the plane. So I'm thinking, yeah OK... maybe they learned sign language in their training.... but no, we're then told that the reason they can communicate like this is because someone previously tried to poison the team on a mission... so they invented a hand signal for it. Wow, how convenient.
2. Wolf and his colleagues have been taught how to fly all aircraft types as part of their training... A basic google search tells me they're not trained to fly. But OK, you know, creative license and all that - I can understand (maybe) this applying to helicopters and jets, but commercial airliners?! Alas, yes. It does include commercial airliners according to this story.
3. Caroline's shirt is absolutely drenched in blood (some guy has his throat cut while leaning over her) so I'd imagine it's literally dripping with the stuff � but she manages to get rid of most of it with baby wipes, and then turns her t-shirt inside out so no-one will notice. I guess that makes sense because it's not like fresh, liquid blood would soak through and stain or anything.
4. We learn that Caroline sustained a large stab-wound on her side during the attack. This has been bleeding for hours on end, and appears infected when she inspects it in the mirror. She's in trouble... dizzy and faint suggesting major blood loss and mid-stage shock. Firstly, any cut that continually bleeds for many hours needs urgent medical attention � you either have a life-threatening clotting disorder or you've done major damage; visceral or vascular. Secondly, if the wound is infected you'll very quickly become septic which is no joke. You would need urgent IV antibiotics and probably debridement along with all the other stuff; fluids, oxygen, etc. How is it that she's fine after a few stitches, issued by a Navy SEAL medic no less? No antibiotics, no fluid replacement.
5. The entire rescue scene at the end. The fact that Caroline, despite being severely beaten, inside a warehouse, is able to both hear and recognise the difference in sound between a boat and a ship (is there a difference?!) and uses this, plus her observation that she can hear seagulls (FYI - I live 40 miles from the sea and often see/hear seagulls circling overhead) to pass on a secret message to her rescuers - she looks intently into the camera and calmly says "You and your army of GULLible terrorists can get back on whatever party boat you sailed here on and go to hell!" - and despite its randomness, in the middle of being beaten to death, no one seems to notice?!?!? And then the message itself... so both she and the SEALs already know she's somewhere in Norfolk, a coastal port town, yet they manage to utilise her recognition of boats and seagulls to help locate her?
6. Tex (an ex-SEAL, but now a PI) and his instant, unrestricted access to worldwide CCTV footage, no warrant or anything required. He even seems to have CCTV access to places where you wouldn't think it exists - like abandoned warehouses.
7. The suspense aspect of the story: There's a terrorist attack on a plane. A bunch of passengers (3 SEALs and Caroline) intervene and kill all four terrorists, saving the day. I guess that could happen... (I mean it seems unlikely since we're told at the start that these SEALs are so massively muscular they can't even physically fit shoulder-shoulder in the same row on the plane - yet the terrorists don't seem to be concerned by three hugely strong men who according to Caroline are instantly recognisable as military men... but a pinch of salt and all that) but then it gets silly... The lone-wolf conspirator of this plot happens to be an FBI agent. It bugged me that we're never even told what his terrorism cause is, I guess it's not important?!? Anyway, somehow he finds out Caroline is involved in stopping his master plan (God knows how he found this out... we're told neither the SEALs nor Caroline told anyone about her involvement) so he decides to go after Caroline as revenge. Revenge for what? Well because he wants to punish her for airline security being escalated in the wake of this attack. Yep, that's right.
I'm sorry, I really am. I hate to leave bad reviews. I know a book takes a lot of work and I admire authors for the commitment and dedication it takes to complete a story. And I am fully aware that this is a rant... but I just feel so disappointed! The blurb on the back held such promise but it just didn't deliver. I felt like this entire book was a 'connect the dots' story where the author clearly had things that she wanted to happen, and so they just went from A to B to C as quickly and illogically as they possibly could. It was just like the entire terrorism thing was a means to an end - just dreamt up with no background or reason to get Caroline and Wolf together. It made no sense!! I honestly don't know how I got past the 50% mark. I kinda wish I hadn't bothered because it was definitely all downhill from there.
The heroine, Caroline...
I started off feeling sorry for her. She obviously had some massive, massive self-esteem issues. Then I thought perhaps she was just seriously, seriously mind-numbingly stupid. Then about halfway through the book she starts to say and do things that are just so... unreasonable. I've therefore come to the conclusion that she must be mentally deranged. I hated the fact she constantly described herself as 'average'... average intelligence, average body, average hair, average shoe size.. you get the picture. We get the sob story that she never went to prom and men always look through her like she doesn't exist. Apparently this is confirmed by the fact that neither Wolf, Abe nor Mozart (the 3 Navy SEALs) recognised her on the plane despite having not-very-memorably bumped into her very briefly earlier in the day. She then continues to use her perceived invisibility to justify her ridiculous self-sacrificing behaviour throughout the rest of the book (that was another thing that annoyed me - wallow in self-pity and sacrifice yourself all you want, but don't then call a bunch of Navy SEALs to alert them to what you've done - it reeks of attenion-seeking). Despite all of this, we're told she has really 'healthy' self-esteem and is actually really smart. She was just so inconsistent. She really needs to decide whether she's going to be a self-depreciating, moaning damsel-in-distress or a strong-willed, flirtatious and confident heroine. She seemed to flip from one extreme to the other with no in-between. For example - not telling the men about her injury and refusing to sit with them because she's socially inept around males to only a few pages later, warning Mozart that when he lifts up her top (while he's examining her side) he should be careful because he might 'want to jump her'. She genuinely had the most insane reasoning I've ever come across... Like she decides to sleep on the dirty airport floor despite being offered a free hotel room, or while someone is trying to break into her apartment - she runs to the window, opens it, and then returns to the bath-tub to hide, all in an attempt to fool the assailant into thinking she has escaped via the fire escape. Why not actually escape by the frigging fire escape?!?!?!?
Not a single character has any personality...
Physical appearance trumped ALL personality traits. Every single character was described only with adjectives describing their breast size/weight/general appearance and nothing else seemed to matter. I guess maybe you can get away with that if it's an erotic novel... but this isn't. For relationships to be established and be believable, there just has to be more. Literally, Caroline and Wolf's relationship is based entirely on the fact that she thinks he's really hot, and he is shocked she doesn't attempt to hit on him when they first meet. Everything was too black and white... characters were either tall, slender and beautiful or just plain ugly. There's just no depth - the writing came across as incredibly childish and immature and the characters were 2D and shallow. For example, Caroline is shell-shocked in the midst of a terrorist takeover of a passenger plane. She narrowly escapes with her life. She goes to the back of the plane and her very first thought is “the women are all gorgeous. Jesus, where are all the ugly people? Oh crap, was she the ugly person here?� Because apparently in every social situation (even when it's life or death) there will always be “an ugly person�. I felt like a 13 year girl old again.
The generalisation of women and men...
According to this book, the extent of all women's ambition is to bag themselves a man in uniform (forget personality, intelligence or interests) and to try and 'force them to settle down'. Even towards the end of the book where Caroline is pretty sure she's about to die, her last thoughts are only that she wishes she'd slept with Wolf when she had the chance. Forget family, her dead parents, friends, her childhood, etc. Nope. She just wishes she'd slept with a SEAL. Wow. There's also a scene where an EMT comes onto the plane and a woman called Brandy “grips his bicep while pushing her ample boobs� onto him to try and distract him from doing his job and looking after another woman? So he responds by slinging some antiseptic wipes at the injured woman so he can focus his attentions on the more attractive Brandy????? What the actual hell?!?! Also, the fact that from 50% onwards, Caroline seems to no longer be known by her own name, but rather by the title 'Wolf's woman' � how flattering.
The writing style...
The writing is distractingly lengthy and arduous � there was literally an entire kindle page describing a single hand shake. Sometimes as a reader, things don't need to be spelled out so blatantly. I'm not a child � I can read between the lines. Word repetition was also tedious � for example: “She got her cell phone out and walked with a purpose toward the bus stop. She only had to go three blocks, but it was dark out. Luckily the bus arrived not too much after she arrived at the bus stop, which was good because she didn't want to stand in the dark waiting for it�.
The fact that Navy SEALs are God's gift to the world...
The CONSTANT (and I mean constant) mention of the how hot/brave/fit/elite/fast/”sex-on-a-stick�/strong/sexy/muscular/desirable/”kick-butt� all SEALs are. Poor them... they can't even leave the house without women 'throwing themselves' at them. Would you believe that post-terrorist attack, women are literally clambering over each other to stand next to one of them?! Apparently all women want to sleep with a SEAL 'just so that they can say they have.' I know this is a book about Navy SEALs, I've read similar books before (most of the RS genre now seems to be centred around the heroics of Navy SEALs)... But I just felt like it was constantly being rammed down my throat on every single page, to the point that it disturbed the flow of the story - every time the word SEAL was mentioned, the author deemed it necessary to remind us (again) how awesome they are. It got very old very quickly. Example: “Wolf jerked awake. He could go from asleep to being one hundred percent awake, thanks to being a SEAL�, or “How'd you get in here? Oh, never mind, Caroline whined petulantly, He was a SEAL; a locked door wouldn't keep him out�.
The cheese factor...
I think I must have an unusually low cheese threshold but this book was almost haemorrhaging it on every page. I got repetitive strain injury from rolling my eyes and slamming my kindle down in disgust. The fact that a group of SEALs decide she is quite literally one of them (this was said so frequently it reminded me of the little toy aliens on Toy Story... 'One of Us, One of Us, One of Us') � they keep referring to the fact that a SEAL never leaves a SEAL behind, and even give her an honorary nickname, Ice, and present her with their legendary regimental pin badge. It makes me cringe just recalling it. Also, I'm not a feminist or anything but I hated the way that the book kept implying that all women are generally useless (other than for sex, obviously). According to our SEAL heroes, every other woman would have been paralysed with fear, screaming in a corner while desperately waiting for a big burly man to come and rescue them. Not Caroline though.
The story continuity and the believability factor...
Don't get me wrong.. I understand that a work of fiction is just that, and therefore some aspects of the story are going to be far-fetched. I get it, I do. But there were just lots of silly things... Infact there were just so many I gave up keeping note of all of them. These are some of the ones that stand out from memory...
1. The fact that the SEALs already had secret hand signals in place to gesture to each other that they shouldn't consume the drink on the plane. So I'm thinking, yeah OK... maybe they learned sign language in their training.... but no, we're then told that the reason they can communicate like this is because someone previously tried to poison the team on a mission... so they invented a hand signal for it. Wow, how convenient.
2. Wolf and his colleagues have been taught how to fly all aircraft types as part of their training... A basic google search tells me they're not trained to fly. But OK, you know, creative license and all that - I can understand (maybe) this applying to helicopters and jets, but commercial airliners?! Alas, yes. It does include commercial airliners according to this story.
3. Caroline's shirt is absolutely drenched in blood (some guy has his throat cut while leaning over her) so I'd imagine it's literally dripping with the stuff � but she manages to get rid of most of it with baby wipes, and then turns her t-shirt inside out so no-one will notice. I guess that makes sense because it's not like fresh, liquid blood would soak through and stain or anything.
4. We learn that Caroline sustained a large stab-wound on her side during the attack. This has been bleeding for hours on end, and appears infected when she inspects it in the mirror. She's in trouble... dizzy and faint suggesting major blood loss and mid-stage shock. Firstly, any cut that continually bleeds for many hours needs urgent medical attention � you either have a life-threatening clotting disorder or you've done major damage; visceral or vascular. Secondly, if the wound is infected you'll very quickly become septic which is no joke. You would need urgent IV antibiotics and probably debridement along with all the other stuff; fluids, oxygen, etc. How is it that she's fine after a few stitches, issued by a Navy SEAL medic no less? No antibiotics, no fluid replacement.
5. The entire rescue scene at the end. The fact that Caroline, despite being severely beaten, inside a warehouse, is able to both hear and recognise the difference in sound between a boat and a ship (is there a difference?!) and uses this, plus her observation that she can hear seagulls (FYI - I live 40 miles from the sea and often see/hear seagulls circling overhead) to pass on a secret message to her rescuers - she looks intently into the camera and calmly says "You and your army of GULLible terrorists can get back on whatever party boat you sailed here on and go to hell!" - and despite its randomness, in the middle of being beaten to death, no one seems to notice?!?!? And then the message itself... so both she and the SEALs already know she's somewhere in Norfolk, a coastal port town, yet they manage to utilise her recognition of boats and seagulls to help locate her?
6. Tex (an ex-SEAL, but now a PI) and his instant, unrestricted access to worldwide CCTV footage, no warrant or anything required. He even seems to have CCTV access to places where you wouldn't think it exists - like abandoned warehouses.
7. The suspense aspect of the story: There's a terrorist attack on a plane. A bunch of passengers (3 SEALs and Caroline) intervene and kill all four terrorists, saving the day. I guess that could happen... (I mean it seems unlikely since we're told at the start that these SEALs are so massively muscular they can't even physically fit shoulder-shoulder in the same row on the plane - yet the terrorists don't seem to be concerned by three hugely strong men who according to Caroline are instantly recognisable as military men... but a pinch of salt and all that) but then it gets silly... The lone-wolf conspirator of this plot happens to be an FBI agent. It bugged me that we're never even told what his terrorism cause is, I guess it's not important?!? Anyway, somehow he finds out Caroline is involved in stopping his master plan (God knows how he found this out... we're told neither the SEALs nor Caroline told anyone about her involvement) so he decides to go after Caroline as revenge. Revenge for what? Well because he wants to punish her for airline security being escalated in the wake of this attack. Yep, that's right.
I'm sorry, I really am. I hate to leave bad reviews. I know a book takes a lot of work and I admire authors for the commitment and dedication it takes to complete a story. And I am fully aware that this is a rant... but I just feel so disappointed! The blurb on the back held such promise but it just didn't deliver. I felt like this entire book was a 'connect the dots' story where the author clearly had things that she wanted to happen, and so they just went from A to B to C as quickly and illogically as they possibly could. It was just like the entire terrorism thing was a means to an end - just dreamt up with no background or reason to get Caroline and Wolf together. It made no sense!! I honestly don't know how I got past the 50% mark. I kinda wish I hadn't bothered because it was definitely all downhill from there.
January 31, 2020
*** My first time with this author. *** Wow, her characters are wonderful. They are emotional, deeply thoughtful, and caring. Alpha Seals are always so hot.
Caroline is one strong, tough gal. She will fit perfectly with this Seal, Wolf. Loved the nicknames and that they nicknamed her, Ice, because of the ice cubes.
Interesting story, lots of suspense and terrific action. Sweet romance, (no sex), and lovable people. I am definitely reading more from Susan Stoker. Some reviews I didn't understand. I guess they wanted perfection, and people aren't perfect.
The Seals did get the reputation of sleeping around a lot.
Still,
Highly recommended. ENJOY !!!!!!!!!!!!!
==============================
I read this whole series awhile back and really liked each book !
=========
Caroline is one strong, tough gal. She will fit perfectly with this Seal, Wolf. Loved the nicknames and that they nicknamed her, Ice, because of the ice cubes.
Interesting story, lots of suspense and terrific action. Sweet romance, (no sex), and lovable people. I am definitely reading more from Susan Stoker. Some reviews I didn't understand. I guess they wanted perfection, and people aren't perfect.
The Seals did get the reputation of sleeping around a lot.
Still,
Highly recommended. ENJOY !!!!!!!!!!!!!
==============================
I read this whole series awhile back and really liked each book !
=========
Want to read
October 9, 2016FREE on Amazon US today (10/8/2016)
Stand-alone book 1.
BLURB:
Matthew “Wolf� Steel hated flying commercial. Luckily his job as a Navy SEAL meant he didn’t have to do it very often. He’d been unlucky enough to be assigned a middle seat on the cramped jet, but fortunately for him, the woman next to him was willing to switch seats with him. Hoping for a relaxing flight, Wolf was pleasantly surprised at the good conversation and sense of humor the woman had as they flew 36,000 feet over the countryside.
When Caroline boarded the plane to Virginia to move across the country for her new job she never expected to be seated next to the hottest guy she’d ever seen. She also never expected he’d be so easy to talk to. She knew he’d never be interested in talking to her if he hadn’t been trapped in the seat next to her, but it was a nice way to spend a long plane ride.
Neither Wolf nor Caroline were prepared for a terrorist hijacking of their plane, but if Caroline thought that would be the last time she’d see, or need, Wolf, she’d be sorely mistaken.
Start the SEAL of Protection Series with Caroline and Wolf's story
FREE:
FREEBIES are often good for MORE than one day, I have gathered all my FREEBIES on a special shelf: Kindle-freebies (currently over 600 books)
/review/list...
June 29, 2016
*Free on Amazon as of 6/28/16
I love a Susan Stoker book! This first book in the series is free right now on Amazon..... The start of a great series of a Seal team. Each book is about a different member of the team. I loved them all! Completely safe for me!
I love a Susan Stoker book! This first book in the series is free right now on Amazon..... The start of a great series of a Seal team. Each book is about a different member of the team. I loved them all! Completely safe for me!
March 11, 2023
Purch Amazon April 18, 2018
2.75 stars
I'm very disappointed.
1st, there are not ANY adult steamy scenes. In fact, the most done her is kissing. And even that is done in moderation.
2nd, there are quite a few editing errors.
3rd, repetition of stupid internal thoughts
4th, Cartoon villains that literally come off as Dudley Do-Right's nemesis, Snidely Whiplash. Even has the creepy cackle laugh that is used often.
5, numerous scenes come off as disjointed and amature.
I have a ton of this author's books.
I thought they were ADULT.
This one is 'CLEAN'.
In fact, it is so clean I could get more steam from reading the Song of Solomon.
More than likely all the books I have of hers, and I have a ton of them, are going in my trash bin.
Also known as 'Author Rejected'
🎵5/31/20 Note: I have reread the reviews for this and the other books in this series. It looks like this was her 1st book, published in 2014. From the reviews of the other books in this series, all but this one have adult sex scenes. It also appears that her writing gets better with each book.
I have an omnibus with books 1-3.5 in it. So with the information I now have, I am going to give them a try .
2.75 stars
I'm very disappointed.
1st, there are not ANY adult steamy scenes. In fact, the most done her is kissing. And even that is done in moderation.
2nd, there are quite a few editing errors.
3rd, repetition of stupid internal thoughts
4th, Cartoon villains that literally come off as Dudley Do-Right's nemesis, Snidely Whiplash. Even has the creepy cackle laugh that is used often.
5, numerous scenes come off as disjointed and amature.
I have a ton of this author's books.
I thought they were ADULT.
This one is 'CLEAN'.
In fact, it is so clean I could get more steam from reading the Song of Solomon.
More than likely all the books I have of hers, and I have a ton of them, are going in my trash bin.
Also known as 'Author Rejected'
🎵5/31/20 Note: I have reread the reviews for this and the other books in this series. It looks like this was her 1st book, published in 2014. From the reviews of the other books in this series, all but this one have adult sex scenes. It also appears that her writing gets better with each book.
I have an omnibus with books 1-3.5 in it. So with the information I now have, I am going to give them a try .
Read
September 29, 2014No rating- I came across this novella length military/romantic suspense story and the blurb looked like something I would like. The high ratings on ŷ and the fact I could borrow for free as part of the Kindle Unlimited program put this high on my TBR list and I started it last night.
It looks like I'm in the minority, but unfortunately, the writing didn't work for me at all. I thought maybe the beginning just started a bit rough and perhaps it would get better so I skimmed a bit...and then realized...I have access to too many books to spend reading something I just don't like. The writing wasn't terrible, I just didn't like the style. Enough said.
It looks like I'm in the minority, but unfortunately, the writing didn't work for me at all. I thought maybe the beginning just started a bit rough and perhaps it would get better so I skimmed a bit...and then realized...I have access to too many books to spend reading something I just don't like. The writing wasn't terrible, I just didn't like the style. Enough said.
November 4, 2014
3 meh stars
This was okay. Not bad but not great. My biggest issues with the book was that Caroline was so insecure that it annoyed me. For someone so brave and so strong her whiny insecure self was an welcomed contradiction to the smart take no prisoners woman Wolf falls for.
Also, the fact that she refuses to use their nicknames is way too confusing. Instead of just having to keep the 7 guys straight in my head I had to keep up with which nickname belonged to which person she was referring to. It was like having 14 different characters and it just became a clusterf@$k. It really was ridiculous that she didn't call them by the names they preferred and wanted to be called. It made it hard for me really get a clear picture of who any of the guys were because I was too busy trying to keep straight who they were talking about or to.
Advice to the author. Either call them by their real names or their nick names but don't have some people refer to them one way and others another. Just way too confusing.
This was okay. Not bad but not great. My biggest issues with the book was that Caroline was so insecure that it annoyed me. For someone so brave and so strong her whiny insecure self was an welcomed contradiction to the smart take no prisoners woman Wolf falls for.
Also, the fact that she refuses to use their nicknames is way too confusing. Instead of just having to keep the 7 guys straight in my head I had to keep up with which nickname belonged to which person she was referring to. It was like having 14 different characters and it just became a clusterf@$k. It really was ridiculous that she didn't call them by the names they preferred and wanted to be called. It made it hard for me really get a clear picture of who any of the guys were because I was too busy trying to keep straight who they were talking about or to.
Advice to the author. Either call them by their real names or their nick names but don't have some people refer to them one way and others another. Just way too confusing.
November 28, 2019
I find myself a bit surprised with how much I liked that the heroine was described as being an unassuming woman. She is not described as ugly, just as average and easily overlooked. Some of the scenes where she was ignored over the overly pretty women is something I have actually seen happen.
What I liked most was the way the author focused on Carolyns honor, selflessness and bravery. I think this was a good message that in the end, looks aren't all that important. I loved that the whole Seal team came to realize that as well.
The story itself was a pretty exciting read. It kept my attention and I read this in one sitting. I'm looking forward to how the rest of the series will shape up.
What I liked most was the way the author focused on Carolyns honor, selflessness and bravery. I think this was a good message that in the end, looks aren't all that important. I loved that the whole Seal team came to realize that as well.
The story itself was a pretty exciting read. It kept my attention and I read this in one sitting. I'm looking forward to how the rest of the series will shape up.
June 16, 2021
I am expecting way much more from Miss Stoker. Way much more. Protecting Caroline is meant for cheesy romance. OTT action that has so many loop holes on the plot. OTT damsel in distress. OTT insta lust without any intimate/ emotional connection.
The whole story is meant for Caroline to get her back bone. SEAL team done their worst job protecting her. They easily tricked and beaten up.
Oh well... Another disappointment.
2 stars
The whole story is meant for Caroline to get her back bone. SEAL team done their worst job protecting her. They easily tricked and beaten up.
Oh well... Another disappointment.
2 stars
August 2, 2019
Just a wee bit too corny for me...
I did listen to Protecting Caroline the whole way through but I think that was because of Stella Bloom's narration more than the story. I just found myself smirking too much at the OTT drama and thinking it read/sounded like a TV drama from the '80s. I had been planning to try a Susan Stoker for years and in all that time, I had no idea she wrote clean romance...THE HORROR!!
No sexy shenanigans but there were a few kissing scenes and "talk" of how well they connected. Nope, not good enough for me to really see their connection. This was insta-love at its finest and considering how invisible and forgettable the heroine was, I found it a wee bit hard to believe. After their drama, he doesn't check in to see how she is but gets upset when she's not excited to see him when he does eventually remember she exists.
It wasn't all bad and at times I was really sucked into the drama but in the end, it was just OK for me. Don't judge by my review alone, you may find that Protecting Caroline is perfect for you.
I did listen to Protecting Caroline the whole way through but I think that was because of Stella Bloom's narration more than the story. I just found myself smirking too much at the OTT drama and thinking it read/sounded like a TV drama from the '80s. I had been planning to try a Susan Stoker for years and in all that time, I had no idea she wrote clean romance...THE HORROR!!
No sexy shenanigans but there were a few kissing scenes and "talk" of how well they connected. Nope, not good enough for me to really see their connection. This was insta-love at its finest and considering how invisible and forgettable the heroine was, I found it a wee bit hard to believe. After their drama, he doesn't check in to see how she is but gets upset when she's not excited to see him when he does eventually remember she exists.
It wasn't all bad and at times I was really sucked into the drama but in the end, it was just OK for me. Don't judge by my review alone, you may find that Protecting Caroline is perfect for you.
June 25, 2015
This was my first book by Susan. I had it on my wishlist for awhile and for some stupid reason, didn't one-click right away. I'm a flipping idiot. This book was fantastic!!! I did a happy dance when I saw book 2 was available and quickly purchased and devoured it as well. Susan, I am now a loyal fan who jumps for joy whenever I see you've released a new book. I pre-order it as soon as possible and then count down until it hits my Kindle. I gladly suffer a book hangover the next day because I'm unable to put it down until the end. Then I'm sad because it's the end.
Matthew (Wolf) and Caroline (Ice) are an awesome couple. They're one of my favorites of all time. I can't find the words to adequately express how much I love this book. I've reread it numerous times and have recommended the whole series to a lot of friends and have gotten them addicted as well. All I can tell you is that you need to buy this. You will not regret it. You will then proceed to hunt down the other books in the series to buy them and then wish you had a time machine so the future books would release quicker.
Matthew (Wolf) and Caroline (Ice) are an awesome couple. They're one of my favorites of all time. I can't find the words to adequately express how much I love this book. I've reread it numerous times and have recommended the whole series to a lot of friends and have gotten them addicted as well. All I can tell you is that you need to buy this. You will not regret it. You will then proceed to hunt down the other books in the series to buy them and then wish you had a time machine so the future books would release quicker.
February 4, 2015
With a storyline description that sounded intriguing - a civilian getting caught up in a hijacking - I expected a compelling, romantic suspense story. Unfortunately, I was disappointed with the result. There was so much potential in the story but the writing just fell flat.
I think the most frustrating thing about the story was the constant change in point of view. Typically whole chapters, or major sections of chapters will be from a single character's point of view and then there may be a space or a divided that clearly demarcates a change in POV. Instead, I would finish a paragraph and get to the next one and all of a sudden it was in the other character's POV. Its one thing to write dialog and have a conversation - but this was going back and forth with their thoughts and their points of view. And typically in a book like this, it will stick with two points of view - the hero and the heroine. Not with this book. Once new characters were introduced, every once in a while it would jump to one of their points of view for a paragraph and then jump back. It made for a very disjointed read and made it difficult to connect with the characters because you weren't with them.
And Woah is not a word. Whoa is!
Caroline's character was incredibly frustrating for me. She explained how she was "invisible" to other people and I actually like how she explained how she had actually met the 3 SEALs on the plane prior to boarding, when they didn't remember. But the entire "theme" of "I'm a nobody, nobody cares about me, nobody notices me, nobody loves me" got extremely old. She said that she understood where she was in her life and was happy by it, but her words and actions didn't convey that. It turned into a "pity party" for Caroline at the end of "woe is me, nobody loves me" and it was tired by that point.
The author overused superlatives. She sat "so quickly". He liked her "very much". The author kept using the "superlative adjectives" to try and convey emphasis on the feelings but it just didn't work - it is a better technique to find a more emphatic emotion word to convey the feelings. That would help the reader connect with the characters.
Then there were scenes that were "trite" and felt more like the author was "restating a bad movie" instead of actually doing research and writing a scene that felt realistic. For example, "'You're coming with us, bitch,' the man smirked and backhanded her hard across the face". He had just walked up to her and they hadn't even interacted. That IS like a scene from a bad movie. Another example was when Bennie went "undercover" by being a fisherman. Again, this smacks of someone who has watched too many movies but doesn't quite get it. A typical SEAL or special ops mission will likely include members of the operation in different areas of the operating zone, BLENDING IN so they aren't noticed. But they aren't "undercover". Undercover is when an operative infiltrates an organization as a member as a means of ferreting information and/or bringing down the organization.
I only finished the book because I just wanted to see how it finished but I just didn't relate to the characters enough and was disappointed because it was a story / series that I had WANTED to like but just didn't. I read many authors who have books in a series and in many of them, reading one book has left me craving the next book because I can't wait to see what's going to happen with the characters. I unfortunately don't feel that way here and won't be spending the money on the subsequent books in the series.
I think the most frustrating thing about the story was the constant change in point of view. Typically whole chapters, or major sections of chapters will be from a single character's point of view and then there may be a space or a divided that clearly demarcates a change in POV. Instead, I would finish a paragraph and get to the next one and all of a sudden it was in the other character's POV. Its one thing to write dialog and have a conversation - but this was going back and forth with their thoughts and their points of view. And typically in a book like this, it will stick with two points of view - the hero and the heroine. Not with this book. Once new characters were introduced, every once in a while it would jump to one of their points of view for a paragraph and then jump back. It made for a very disjointed read and made it difficult to connect with the characters because you weren't with them.
And Woah is not a word. Whoa is!
Caroline's character was incredibly frustrating for me. She explained how she was "invisible" to other people and I actually like how she explained how she had actually met the 3 SEALs on the plane prior to boarding, when they didn't remember. But the entire "theme" of "I'm a nobody, nobody cares about me, nobody notices me, nobody loves me" got extremely old. She said that she understood where she was in her life and was happy by it, but her words and actions didn't convey that. It turned into a "pity party" for Caroline at the end of "woe is me, nobody loves me" and it was tired by that point.
The author overused superlatives. She sat "so quickly". He liked her "very much". The author kept using the "superlative adjectives" to try and convey emphasis on the feelings but it just didn't work - it is a better technique to find a more emphatic emotion word to convey the feelings. That would help the reader connect with the characters.
Then there were scenes that were "trite" and felt more like the author was "restating a bad movie" instead of actually doing research and writing a scene that felt realistic. For example, "'You're coming with us, bitch,' the man smirked and backhanded her hard across the face". He had just walked up to her and they hadn't even interacted. That IS like a scene from a bad movie. Another example was when Bennie went "undercover" by being a fisherman. Again, this smacks of someone who has watched too many movies but doesn't quite get it. A typical SEAL or special ops mission will likely include members of the operation in different areas of the operating zone, BLENDING IN so they aren't noticed. But they aren't "undercover". Undercover is when an operative infiltrates an organization as a member as a means of ferreting information and/or bringing down the organization.
I only finished the book because I just wanted to see how it finished but I just didn't relate to the characters enough and was disappointed because it was a story / series that I had WANTED to like but just didn't. I read many authors who have books in a series and in many of them, reading one book has left me craving the next book because I can't wait to see what's going to happen with the characters. I unfortunately don't feel that way here and won't be spending the money on the subsequent books in the series.
April 23, 2017
Sometimes you come across a novel that you simply love. And then sometimes you come across a novel that when you reach the end you slowly close your eyes, then softly sigh with such content and satisfaction, slowly slouching down in your seat leaving you with a tingly feeling all over. This is how I felt by the time I finished reading “Protecting Caroline.� For a simple yet engaging story, this was an amazing read. I loved it! I loved everything about it. And the cover? Not a man I’d turn away. Yum!
Matthew (Wolf) is one sexy, hard-bodied Navy SEAL who has finally met the woman of his dreams. The more he talks to her, the more time he spends with her, the more he realizes that she’s the woman he wants to be with for the rest of his life. Caroline is his. He’s claimed her. No one else can have her. I loved Wolf. For a big guy who’s a SEAL, he’s so loving, gentle and caring when it comes to Caroline. In his eyes and those of his buddies, it’s Caroline who’s the true hero. Caroline, what an awesome heroine. She’s so not like any of the other heroines I’ve come across before.
“Caroline knew she wasn’t model beautiful, but she didn’t think she was a troll either. She wasn’t tall like men seemed to want in a woman, but she wasn’t short and cute either. Caroline was average from the top of her brown-haired head to the bottom of her normal sized feet.�
“Men all seemed to want the skinny, perky, bubbly, woman they’d seen on television and in magazines all their lives. From reality shows to news casters and even to sit-coms, today’s world was bombarded with flawless women, beautiful from sun-up to sun-down. That just wasn’t Caroline. She wasn’t a genius, but she also wasn’t dumb. But she often wished, when she was lying in bed late at night, that she could find a man that would see her. See the real her.�
Regardless of how Caroline feels about herself, she doesn’t let it get to her. One of my favourite scenes is when Caroline tells the three SEALS how invisible she really is. Kudos to the author for giving her readers something different and so very realistic.
“Wolf couldn’t believe he’d ever thought this woman plain.�
I loved how Wolf found her to be more beautiful the more time he spent with her. The fact that he couldn’t stop thinking about her was so endearing. While they only shared a few kisses, you could really feel the heat and chemistry between them. Unfortunately, there are no sexcapades. Nothing light or erotically descriptive. So if you’re looking for some in-depth erotic sex, you won’t find any here, which for the reader is no fun since both Wolf and Caroline are so amazing together.
I rated this novel five stars instead of four because of Caroline. It’s very rare that you come across such a heroine. It’s so refreshing and realistic. In the end, this is one novel I highly recommend to all. My only wish was that it was a little longer and that there’d been some erotic sex. No matter, still five stars because the author gives the reader one of the most memorable heroines. I can’t wait to read the next installment.
Matthew (Wolf) is one sexy, hard-bodied Navy SEAL who has finally met the woman of his dreams. The more he talks to her, the more time he spends with her, the more he realizes that she’s the woman he wants to be with for the rest of his life. Caroline is his. He’s claimed her. No one else can have her. I loved Wolf. For a big guy who’s a SEAL, he’s so loving, gentle and caring when it comes to Caroline. In his eyes and those of his buddies, it’s Caroline who’s the true hero. Caroline, what an awesome heroine. She’s so not like any of the other heroines I’ve come across before.
“Caroline knew she wasn’t model beautiful, but she didn’t think she was a troll either. She wasn’t tall like men seemed to want in a woman, but she wasn’t short and cute either. Caroline was average from the top of her brown-haired head to the bottom of her normal sized feet.�
“Men all seemed to want the skinny, perky, bubbly, woman they’d seen on television and in magazines all their lives. From reality shows to news casters and even to sit-coms, today’s world was bombarded with flawless women, beautiful from sun-up to sun-down. That just wasn’t Caroline. She wasn’t a genius, but she also wasn’t dumb. But she often wished, when she was lying in bed late at night, that she could find a man that would see her. See the real her.�
Regardless of how Caroline feels about herself, she doesn’t let it get to her. One of my favourite scenes is when Caroline tells the three SEALS how invisible she really is. Kudos to the author for giving her readers something different and so very realistic.
“Wolf couldn’t believe he’d ever thought this woman plain.�
I loved how Wolf found her to be more beautiful the more time he spent with her. The fact that he couldn’t stop thinking about her was so endearing. While they only shared a few kisses, you could really feel the heat and chemistry between them. Unfortunately, there are no sexcapades. Nothing light or erotically descriptive. So if you’re looking for some in-depth erotic sex, you won’t find any here, which for the reader is no fun since both Wolf and Caroline are so amazing together.
I rated this novel five stars instead of four because of Caroline. It’s very rare that you come across such a heroine. It’s so refreshing and realistic. In the end, this is one novel I highly recommend to all. My only wish was that it was a little longer and that there’d been some erotic sex. No matter, still five stars because the author gives the reader one of the most memorable heroines. I can’t wait to read the next installment.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 31, 2015
Probably me, but the writing was choppy and beyond basic. Third person pov and it was like watching a pingpong match. Jumping back and forth every paragraph. The character's names were repeated a rediculous amount of times for every action, averaging two time paragraph. Too Dick and Jane-ish for me.
February 7, 2017
This was a fast read. Lots of action and suspense. Ended and I realized there was zero sex lol.
Some kissing and petting. But it wasn't bad. I actually really wished Matthew (Wolf) wasn't so beta. Knocked me down to 3 stars when I realized even in the physical aspect that Caroline was the hero of the story.
Some kissing and petting. But it wasn't bad. I actually really wished Matthew (Wolf) wasn't so beta. Knocked me down to 3 stars when I realized even in the physical aspect that Caroline was the hero of the story.
August 12, 2018
Still trying to catch up.
The writing could be better. Susan Stoker should work on differentiating the POV’s clearer. Readers need to follow when an author is switching POVs. Also, Susan over sold Wolf being a Navy Seal. She really beat us over the head with it.
Opposites attract trope. Nerdy, plain female and the hot Navy Seal.
Action packed, with a strong heroine. Caroline wasn’t completely helpless.
The writing could be better. Susan Stoker should work on differentiating the POV’s clearer. Readers need to follow when an author is switching POVs. Also, Susan over sold Wolf being a Navy Seal. She really beat us over the head with it.
Opposites attract trope. Nerdy, plain female and the hot Navy Seal.
Action packed, with a strong heroine. Caroline wasn’t completely helpless.
no-way-jose
November 3, 2018Another self deprecating heroine.
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September 3, 2014
Meet the sexy SEAL team of the SEAL of Protection series by Susan Stoker.
Matthew Steel � Wolf, the unofficial leader of the group
Christopher Powers � Abe, Wolf’s closest friend and honest to a fault, just like his nickname
Hunter Knox � Cookie, the newest member and the swimmer of the group
Faulkner Cooper � Dude, resident bomb expert
Sam Reed � Mozart, hunky and flirty, he’s man-whore of the group
Kason Sawyer � Benny, the farm boy, trying to shed his nickname, never going to happen
Tex � Unofficial member, due to an accident that left him injured and discharged from the military, he’s the Intel specialist
This story is about Matthew “Wolf� Steel and Caroline Martin.
In the first book of this series, we meet these delectable characters and learn a little about how they work together in synch. Becoming the “go to� group for extreme missions, this SEAL team is the best of the best. When Wolf, Abe and Mozart board a plane from California to VA none of them realize how their life is about to change forever. How small things can alter an entire situation and sometimes heroes are the people you least expect.
Caroline is alone in the world, on her way to a new job. Having experienced being thought of as plain and looked over most of her life, she accepts it and actually loves herself. She may be just ordinary but her spirit and personality are amazing. Boarding a plane in California she’s headed to VA to start her new life and a new career. She never thought, in just a short time, a plane ride would change her life and her future forever.
As unassuming as Caroline is, she attracts the attention of a major group of terrorists and suffers some serious physical abuse because of her roll in a busted terror plot. Despite all of the abuse she still tries to shield the SEAL team from getting too involved. Caroline finally understands what it is to love with her whole heart. Trying to save her from the terrorists, Wolf feels like his heart is being physically pulled out of his body. He’s found his soul mate and is slowly losing her to the kidnappers.
From the very beginning of this book you start pulling for Caroline and Wolf to get together. As you continue to read you are completely drawn into the plot. I spent most of the time reading this on the edge of my seat. The first 2 chapters were a great foundation. Then the freight train came out of nowhere. It picked up speed and man; you just had to hang on for the ride. The last couple of chapters were so emotional; I needed Kleenex handy because I just couldn’t stop the tears.
This story has it all for me� sexy, smoking hot, alpha men (in uniform, I might add), damsels in distress but with more strength than some men, sex, romance, adventure and a hell of a plot.
The writing was excellent and the flow of the story was incredible. Not like any other SEAL books I have read, I was obsessed with finishing this book. It’s original and on point. Unique in such a way that it captures you and guides you through, like a fairy tale. Wanting the happily ever after and knowing it’s just beyond reach made me sit until I read the entire book.
All I can say is, hang on for the ride� it’s going to be awesome.
Matthew Steel � Wolf, the unofficial leader of the group
Christopher Powers � Abe, Wolf’s closest friend and honest to a fault, just like his nickname
Hunter Knox � Cookie, the newest member and the swimmer of the group
Faulkner Cooper � Dude, resident bomb expert
Sam Reed � Mozart, hunky and flirty, he’s man-whore of the group
Kason Sawyer � Benny, the farm boy, trying to shed his nickname, never going to happen
Tex � Unofficial member, due to an accident that left him injured and discharged from the military, he’s the Intel specialist
This story is about Matthew “Wolf� Steel and Caroline Martin.
In the first book of this series, we meet these delectable characters and learn a little about how they work together in synch. Becoming the “go to� group for extreme missions, this SEAL team is the best of the best. When Wolf, Abe and Mozart board a plane from California to VA none of them realize how their life is about to change forever. How small things can alter an entire situation and sometimes heroes are the people you least expect.
Caroline is alone in the world, on her way to a new job. Having experienced being thought of as plain and looked over most of her life, she accepts it and actually loves herself. She may be just ordinary but her spirit and personality are amazing. Boarding a plane in California she’s headed to VA to start her new life and a new career. She never thought, in just a short time, a plane ride would change her life and her future forever.
As unassuming as Caroline is, she attracts the attention of a major group of terrorists and suffers some serious physical abuse because of her roll in a busted terror plot. Despite all of the abuse she still tries to shield the SEAL team from getting too involved. Caroline finally understands what it is to love with her whole heart. Trying to save her from the terrorists, Wolf feels like his heart is being physically pulled out of his body. He’s found his soul mate and is slowly losing her to the kidnappers.
From the very beginning of this book you start pulling for Caroline and Wolf to get together. As you continue to read you are completely drawn into the plot. I spent most of the time reading this on the edge of my seat. The first 2 chapters were a great foundation. Then the freight train came out of nowhere. It picked up speed and man; you just had to hang on for the ride. The last couple of chapters were so emotional; I needed Kleenex handy because I just couldn’t stop the tears.
This story has it all for me� sexy, smoking hot, alpha men (in uniform, I might add), damsels in distress but with more strength than some men, sex, romance, adventure and a hell of a plot.
The writing was excellent and the flow of the story was incredible. Not like any other SEAL books I have read, I was obsessed with finishing this book. It’s original and on point. Unique in such a way that it captures you and guides you through, like a fairy tale. Wanting the happily ever after and knowing it’s just beyond reach made me sit until I read the entire book.
All I can say is, hang on for the ride� it’s going to be awesome.
January 7, 2022
***3.00 - 3.50 Stars***
The first half of the book was good and held my attention even though it did drag a bit. Once it got to 50% to the end it got a little wonky. Too much angst on top of angst. OTT on the violence and to a woman no less.
What I liked the least: There was just way-way-way too much focus on good looks. If you weren't better than average no one even noticed you in this story. Mozart had his face cut up in battle so now his friend is thinking that the scar is going to turn some women off that Mozart the Man-whore used to bag. Also thought that he would be getting a lot less sex because he wasn't as pretty anymore. Because the heroine wasn't beautiful...just average...the author made her invisible. Ever where we look in this world today it is all about beauty, being slender, being tall! Just too much.
Our heroine was too naive to be believable and had been put through hell on earth. Then after the love of her life and his seal team rescue her the hero pushes her away and doesn't even show up at the hospital. Woe is me...it was all my fault...she was attacked because of me...and on it went. Made me think so much less of the hero as it did in 'Portecting Alabama.' I really didn't find that he was redeemed after he crushed her heart (while protecting her from himself!) Nope, I don't buy that garbage. He was a flat out ass!
I was disappointed in this book and the direction it took.
The first half of the book was good and held my attention even though it did drag a bit. Once it got to 50% to the end it got a little wonky. Too much angst on top of angst. OTT on the violence and to a woman no less.
What I liked the least: There was just way-way-way too much focus on good looks. If you weren't better than average no one even noticed you in this story. Mozart had his face cut up in battle so now his friend is thinking that the scar is going to turn some women off that Mozart the Man-whore used to bag. Also thought that he would be getting a lot less sex because he wasn't as pretty anymore. Because the heroine wasn't beautiful...just average...the author made her invisible. Ever where we look in this world today it is all about beauty, being slender, being tall! Just too much.
Our heroine was too naive to be believable and had been put through hell on earth. Then after the love of her life and his seal team rescue her the hero pushes her away and doesn't even show up at the hospital. Woe is me...it was all my fault...she was attacked because of me...and on it went. Made me think so much less of the hero as it did in 'Portecting Alabama.' I really didn't find that he was redeemed after he crushed her heart (while protecting her from himself!) Nope, I don't buy that garbage. He was a flat out ass!
I was disappointed in this book and the direction it took.
October 7, 2014
This is the first in this fantastic series. What a great way to start as I loved it.
This series is about a hot brilliant seal team. We get to meet the team in this story and I loved them. This is Matthew 'Wolf' Steels story. Caroline boards a plane and heads off for a new life. She doesn't realise that this trip will change her life forever.
I love seal romances and I thoroughly loved this story. This team is solid and loyal. They will do anything for their team.
If I could give them more than five stars I would. I'm so looking forward to reading more about these guys.
This series is about a hot brilliant seal team. We get to meet the team in this story and I loved them. This is Matthew 'Wolf' Steels story. Caroline boards a plane and heads off for a new life. She doesn't realise that this trip will change her life forever.
I love seal romances and I thoroughly loved this story. This team is solid and loyal. They will do anything for their team.
If I could give them more than five stars I would. I'm so looking forward to reading more about these guys.
December 13, 2014
Some WTF moments and sort of repetitive, like I was reading some scenes/phrases several times over and over again.
November 3, 2016
I forgot how much I loved this story! And Stella Bloom is a great narrator!
January 8, 2023
3.5 Stars
Well, I'm glad that book was free on my kindle.
Well, I'm glad that book was free on my kindle.
August 4, 2015
I think I just found my next favourite series! *inserts evil laughter* more books for me! I am really really interested in Dude's story, can't wait to get there.
The man simply nodded and helped her right herself. He didn’t actually say anything to her, and Caroline found herself blushing, as if she hadn’t fallen into him on purpose. She had to get herself together. Sheesh. These sexy men were going to be the death of her.
I love that for once, we have an ordinary heroine. So ordinary that no one gives her a second glance. I like that. And I like that our lovely bad ass SEALs fall for her, drawing out all of their protective sides.
She still couldn’t get over that Matthew, looking like he did, tall, dark and handsome, a man who could get any woman in his bed, seemed to want her.
She must have said that bit out loud because Matthew retorted, “Hell yeah I want you, Ice. You’re smart, you’re level headed, and I’ve wanted you since I shook your hand on the damn plane.�
“Uh…� was all Caroline could get out. Holy. Shit.
I adore how tough and bad ass Caroline is, despite all the hurt and loneliness that she's been through. Ordinary she may be, but she's got a heart of gold. The loyalty she shows to Matt and the SEALs, her inner strength, bravery and selflessness is breathtaking. I'd love to be friends with her for sure. Her being ordinary makes the story more special.
“She’s in there because she’s one tough chick. Most women I know would’ve given up and died. Hell, most women I know would’ve cowered in the back of that plane and done nothing. Think about it. If I ever find a woman who puts me first, who looks out for me before she looks out for herself, I’m grabbing her and never letting go.
If Ice wasn’t as tough as she was, she would’ve died five different ways. But she didn’t. She’s still alive and wishing you were there with her. You have one hell of a woman, and you’re throwing her away. She’s loyal as hell and doesn’t take any shit from anyone. Just the kind of woman you need. You’ll never find another like her. She’s yours. You just have to be brave enough to go and take what you want for once in your damn life.
There’s no guarantee any of us will be around tomorrow. We could fall down a flight of stairs or be hit by a car walking across a street. There are no guarantees in life, but I can guaran-damn-tee if you don’t go to her now, you will regret it the rest of your life.�
Honestly speaking, I didn't really pay much attention to the alpha males, they were awesome and growl but Caroline was definitely the kicker in this book! I'm definitely looking forward to watching the other men find that special one. I love the amount of love, attention and care Wolf showers Caroline with. Such sweetness.
“I’m a card carrying, lab coat wearing, chemist geek,� Caroline answered laughing at herself.
Wolf didn’t think, but reached over and took her hand in his. “You’re not a geek sweetheart; you’re a scholar in a lab coat that does magic with her hands.�
Holy crap. This man was lethal. Caroline’s stomach clenched at his words. Had any man, ever, said anything nicer to her than that? She didn’t think so.
A good balance of romance, drama and action. The story flow, development of plot as well as characters was amazing. Caroline's character really moved me. A definite must read to all of you!
The man simply nodded and helped her right herself. He didn’t actually say anything to her, and Caroline found herself blushing, as if she hadn’t fallen into him on purpose. She had to get herself together. Sheesh. These sexy men were going to be the death of her.
I love that for once, we have an ordinary heroine. So ordinary that no one gives her a second glance. I like that. And I like that our lovely bad ass SEALs fall for her, drawing out all of their protective sides.
She still couldn’t get over that Matthew, looking like he did, tall, dark and handsome, a man who could get any woman in his bed, seemed to want her.
She must have said that bit out loud because Matthew retorted, “Hell yeah I want you, Ice. You’re smart, you’re level headed, and I’ve wanted you since I shook your hand on the damn plane.�
“Uh…� was all Caroline could get out. Holy. Shit.
I adore how tough and bad ass Caroline is, despite all the hurt and loneliness that she's been through. Ordinary she may be, but she's got a heart of gold. The loyalty she shows to Matt and the SEALs, her inner strength, bravery and selflessness is breathtaking. I'd love to be friends with her for sure. Her being ordinary makes the story more special.
“She’s in there because she’s one tough chick. Most women I know would’ve given up and died. Hell, most women I know would’ve cowered in the back of that plane and done nothing. Think about it. If I ever find a woman who puts me first, who looks out for me before she looks out for herself, I’m grabbing her and never letting go.
If Ice wasn’t as tough as she was, she would’ve died five different ways. But she didn’t. She’s still alive and wishing you were there with her. You have one hell of a woman, and you’re throwing her away. She’s loyal as hell and doesn’t take any shit from anyone. Just the kind of woman you need. You’ll never find another like her. She’s yours. You just have to be brave enough to go and take what you want for once in your damn life.
There’s no guarantee any of us will be around tomorrow. We could fall down a flight of stairs or be hit by a car walking across a street. There are no guarantees in life, but I can guaran-damn-tee if you don’t go to her now, you will regret it the rest of your life.�
Honestly speaking, I didn't really pay much attention to the alpha males, they were awesome and growl but Caroline was definitely the kicker in this book! I'm definitely looking forward to watching the other men find that special one. I love the amount of love, attention and care Wolf showers Caroline with. Such sweetness.
“I’m a card carrying, lab coat wearing, chemist geek,� Caroline answered laughing at herself.
Wolf didn’t think, but reached over and took her hand in his. “You’re not a geek sweetheart; you’re a scholar in a lab coat that does magic with her hands.�
Holy crap. This man was lethal. Caroline’s stomach clenched at his words. Had any man, ever, said anything nicer to her than that? She didn’t think so.
A good balance of romance, drama and action. The story flow, development of plot as well as characters was amazing. Caroline's character really moved me. A definite must read to all of you!
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