The Corps Security Series by Harper Sloan-reviews

AXEL (Corps Security #1) by Harper Sloan
ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date July 2013

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Fate hasn’t always been friends with Isabelle West. In fact, fate has been a downright bitch. Isabelle has learned the hard way how hard life can be when fate isn’t by your side. It can hand you dreams on silver platters, but it can snatch them right back and hand you nightmares. One thing Isabelle knew for sure fate was consistent with was taking away everything she ever loved.

For the last two years Isabelle has been slowly clearing the clouds of her past. Happiness is finally on the horizon. She has a thriving business, great friends, and her life back. All she has to do is jump over the last hurdle…her ex-husband. When problems start causing her to fear her new life, and memories that are better left forgotten start rushing to the surface the last thing she needs is a ghost from her past to come knocking on her door. Axel never thought he would look into the eyes of Isabelle West again, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to now. He’s carried his anger for so long he isn’t sure he can just turn it off, but when he is faced with protecting her and an unexpected desire to have her again, life gets a little more complicated. How will Axel and Isabelle deal when all their cards are put on the table and everything they thought was true blows up in their faces?

REVIEW: AXEL is the first instalment in Harper Sloan’s contemporary, adult, erotic Corps Security series focusing on a group of ex marines and the women they love. This is Isabelle and Axel’s storyline for a second chance at love. Axel may be a difficult read for some as part of the premise goes into graphic detail about spousal abuse and assault.

AXEL is a story of undying love between two people who have had their fair share of loss, betrayal and heartbreaking pain. Isabelle believes the only man she has ever loved is gone and dead. Ten years earlier, following the death of her parents, Isabelle’s world is thrown into turmoil when the man that she has loved since her early teens does not respond to her desperate pleas for help and reassurance. Believing Axel is dead, Isabelle’s life begins to spiral out of control until she meets the man she would marry. But marital bliss is soon replaced with broken bones, bloody noses and one too many nights spent cowering in the shadows. The day will come when Isabelle knows that the only way she will survive is to call her best friend and get the hell out of Dodge.

The storyline picks up almost two years later when Isabelle will come face to face with her past-the man she thought was dead-Holt “Axel” Reid. To say their meeting is anything but friendly is an understatement as both believe the other ran when the going got tough.

Told in alternating first person POVs, part of the story focuses on the back history between Axel and Isabelle. We watch as two teens fall desperately in love and are shattered when Axel heads out for basic training. Six months later, both of their worlds are destroyed when neither one knows the truth about what has happened to the other.

The relationship between Axel and Isabelle is hot, sexual and over the top but not before several uneasy weeks and months will pass when Isabelle refuses to acknowledge the truth. Friends are pitted against one another; the tension is high; and reality will sink in when well meaning friends let slip that there is more to their story than anyone should know.

My only complaint is that Isabelle was a little difficult to like at times with her attitude towards the people trying to give her the push she needed to accept the truth. These were the people who were there when she needed them the most; they literally saved her from the man who had destroyed her faith in humanity and yet she chose to give everyone the proverbial finger when the going got tough.

AXEL is also a storyline that introduces the friends and family of Corp Security. We meet Axel’s military buddies and best friends-all of the men believe they are not worthy of love but the women see the heroes that they are.

Harper Sloan has written an engaging, sexually passionate and intense storyline that addresses one of today’s most ignored issues-spousal abuse. If there is ever a story or series that address the need for protection and laws against the men (and women) who abuse their mates, Axel (and Cage) goes in head first and doesn’t pull any punches.

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CAGE (Corp Security #2) by Harper Sloan
ABOUT THE BOOK: Release date September 2013

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Greg Cage was born to protect. While growing up, he was his mother and sister’s shield against the world… until he failed. For the last decade, he has carried that guilt and need for vengeance around… until it was stripped from him. Now, with his best friend getting married and no longer needing his protection, he is even more lost, completely adrift, and desperate for some control. All he has ever known was how to protect: his family, his friends, and his country. Can he go against everything he has ever known, and give up that control?

Melissa Larson will never let anyone hold the reins in her life. She has been the rock in her family for more years than she can remember, and the fight to keep them together is her main priority right now. She has always been fiercely independent and proud. The last thing she will ever do is ask for someone else’s help. But when that choice is out of her control, forcing her to rely on others to save her and her family, and pick up the pieces that are left, will she be able to let someone else be her strength? The second Greg locks eyes with Meli, he knows that she is someone he needs. Someone he craves. Meli knew the second she met Greg that he would be nothing but trouble and heartache. Her life takes an unexpected turn, and that bitch Fate is back to wreak more havoc on another member of the Corps family.

REVIEW: CAGE is the second storyline in Harper Sloan’s contemporary, adult, erotic Corp Security series focusing on a group of ex-military friends and the women they love. This is Greg Cage and Melissa Larson’s story. Greg is floundering since his two best friends (Axel and Isabelle) reconnected after ten years apart-he believes he is no longer needed and the guilt about what happened to his twin sister eats away at his soul-one day at a time: until he meets Melissa Larson-the woman who will turn his world upside down.

The storyline, written in alternating first person POVs, will pull together the Corps Security family when Greg and Melissa’s relationship is attacked from an outside source-but a source that Greg knows only too well. Melissa’s life has been difficult caring for her aging mother and her late sister’s son but life is about to spiral out of control when someone from Greg’s immediate past makes it known that Melissa is in way over her head. Melissa and her family will become the target of a psychopathic mind and with it will come heartbreaking pain and the ugly truth about Greg’s connection to Melissa’s past.

Harper Sloan has written another sensually erotic story about two people drawn together by the physical but held together by love. Their relationship will encounter a series of threats that will pull together the Corps team to protect one of their own.

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BECK (Corp Security #3) by Harper Sloan
ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date December 23, 2013

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DEE
I’ve always been good at wearing masks. Not letting anyone see the real me. I’m content being the happy-go-lucky best friend. The strong willed boss. The independent woman who doesn’t need a man.

But the truth is I’m just as broken as the rest of you. I’m terrified that all it will take is one person to make all my carefully constructed walls crumble into fine dust. So I guard my heart with everything I have. Determined to never let anyone get close enough to hurt me again.

All is perfect until HE walks into my life. No… he doesn’t just walk. He struts his good-looking, sex-oozing self right into my space and demands that I see HIM. Making me want what I know I can’t have.

So I did the only thing I know how to do.
I run.
But he just won’t let me go.

BECK
The second I see her, I know she will be mine. I see past the gorgeous smiles and heart-stopping laughter. I see HER. She doesn’t want me to know her secrets or the past that haunts her, but I make it my mission to find out.

To make her mine.

She can run all she wants, but it will never be far enough to stop me from coming after her.
She’s it for me and she knows it.
She’s just too scared to admit it.

REVIEW: BECK is the third instalment in Harper Sloan’s contemporary, adult, erotica series focusing on a group of former marines and the women they love. This is John ‘Beck’ Beckett and Denise ‘Dee’ Roberts story-one that begins in the first book Axel.

This particular storyline begins with Dee Roberts reflecting on her life and the image she portrays to the public-the public lie; the mask that hides a multitude of secrets, demons and the truth. Dee’s background is rife with the stuff of nightmares and for many people, surviving against the odds is the best they will achieve. Dee is a woman who forges ahead, keeping the secrets and demons buried, so that no one including her two best friends has ever seen the pain and ugliness that lies within. But John Beckett-the man who stole her heart-sees everything. He may not know all of the details, but he can see into her soul and knows that there is more to the story than anyone knows.

Beck is a former marine who fell in love with Dee in Axel and Isabelle’s story. Over the ensuing two novels, we are given small hints the relationship between Beck and Dee is slowly starting to disintegrate but in reality Beck is the anchor that prevents Dee from floating away. One disaster after another befalls our heroine and Beck is the man she leans on for support. But there are some people that even the Corp Security team are unable to save, and in this, the storyline ends on a heartbreaking note.

BECK (told in alternating first person POV) is a storyline rife with graphic violence, abuse and death. Like the previous two instalments our leading heroines are continuously placed in the line of fire and the resulting pain and sorrow will affect them all. My only complaint, and this from a logistics point, why does everything happen right under the Security Team’s watch without them ever noticing? Not sure, but I guess, without the intrigue there would be no story.

Harper Sloan, once again, brings the Corp Security family together in a storyline that will break your heart; shed a tear; and leave you feeling lost. Our couple get their HEA but the losses to their friendship and the Team are going to hurt for a very long time.

Reviews by Sandy