DEFENDING CHLOE (Mountain Mercenaries #2) by Susan Stoker-a review

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About the book: Release Date December 4, 2018

Gorgeous women don’t just stumble onto Ronan Cross’s remote property. But this one—vulnerable, victimized, and needing the kind of help only Ronan can offer—tells a story that makes his blood boil almost as hot as his need to protect her.

Since her father’s death, Chloe Harris has become a prisoner. Her own brother, a flesh peddler and low-level player in the Denver Mafia, is forcing her to sell her body for an endgame Chloe never saw coming: control over a vast fortune. Her only way out is to run—straight into the arms of the one hard-bodied man she can trust.

Defending Chloe could rain punishment down on the Mountain Mercenaries. Her brother has Mob connections and the local police in his pocket. But Ronan still has an edge—the unshakable loyalty of his deadly teammates. As well as an unquenchable thirst for retribution…and Chloe.

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REVIEW: DEFENDING CHLOE is the second instalment in Susan Stoker’s contemporary, adult MOUNTAIN MERCENARIES romantic, military, suspense series focusing on a group of six former soldiers and Navy SEALS who call themselves Mountain Mercenaries, headed by the mysterious ‘Rex’. This is former British SAS soldier Ronan Cross, and thirty-four year old, accountant Chloe Harris’ story line. DEFENDING CHLOE can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story line is revealed where necessary.

NOTE: The Mountain Mercenaries is a spin off from the author’s Ace Security series but you do not have to have read the previous series to understand or follow the current timeline. The Mountain Mercenaries were first introduced in CLAIMING FELICITY (Ace Security 4).

Told from dual third person perspectives (Chloe and Ronan) DEFENDING CHLOE follows former British SAS soldier Ronan Cross as he sets into motion a plan to rescue Chloe Harris, a woman he believes is being forced against her will, to work in a strip club owned by her pathological brother. A daring rescue results in further injuries to our story line heroine, as the rescue goes off course when Chloe is unaware of what’s going down. Believing she has traded one prison for another, protective custody with Ronan Cross screams all kinds of wrong especially with the growing sexual attraction between our leading couple. What ensues is the building relationship between Chloe and Ronan; the search for the truth behind Chloe’s years of servitude to her brother, and the connections to the local mob.

Chloe Harris’ life spiralled out of control shortly after the death of her beloved father when her younger brother gained control of the family business. Never having questioned her father about the how or why, Chloe finds herself working for the mob when her brother forces our heroine to do the job. Weeks earlier a bruised and battered Chloe Harris found herself at a stranger’s door, and in the ensuing time Ronan was unable to forget about the woman who stirred something within his heart, something he believed could be his future.

The relationship between Chloe and Ronan begins acrimoniously. Ronan’s attraction to Chloe is immediate but her ‘rescue’ from her brother’s strip club goes all kinds of wrong, and Chloe struggles to trust the man with whom she will fall in love. The $ex scenes are limited, passionate and seductive.

The colorful secondary and supporting characters include Meat, Arrow and Ball; Grayson and Allye (Defending Allye #1), as well as the mysterious ‘Rex’, the head of the Denver Cosa Nostra Joseph Carlino, and his business partner Peter Smaldone. The requisite evil has many faces including Chloe’s brother Leon Harris, and Leon’s girlfriend Abbie.

The world building continues to follow the Mountain Mercenaries who rescue vulnerable women and children from their abusers and oppressors.

DEFENDING CHLOE is a heart breaking, edgy, emotional and passionate story line. The premise is intriguing and engaging; the characters are dynamic and charismatic; the romance is seductive.

Click HERE for Sandy’s review of book one-DEFENDING ALLYE

Copy supplied by Netgalley

Reviewed by Sandy

New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author, Susan Stoker has a heart as big as the state of Texas where she lives, but this all-American girl has also spent the last fourteen years living in Missouri, California, Colorado, and Indiana. She’s married to a retired Army man who now gets to follow her around the country.

She debuted her first series in 2014 and quickly followed that up with the SEAL of Protection Series, which solidified her love of writing and creating stories readers can get lost in.

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