Keeping Laryn

I liked this a lot, it was enjoyable

Would have been a five but to me the sex scenes were overkill.

I loved, loved this military romance with its perfect balance of love, real life issues, nail biting danger, fun banter, and spicy romance. This heart warming story includes two strong, intense, and passionate main characters who are real, relatable people who have flaws and make mistakes, but are really just trying to just do their best being messy humans. I have a soft spot for the people who are a bit uncomfortable in their skin because they don’t feel like they fit in, like Laryn. So I love when they finally see their worth and their truth and get swoon worthy HEAs. Laryn is the head helicopter mechanic who works on Night Stalker MH-60 Army helicopters. She is comfortable in her role in a male dominated field but feels lonely at times. Tate is a Night Stalker army helicopter pilot. Tate and Laryn have worked together for three years and when his group of pilots was stationed in Norfolk, she was moved with them. Most of their interactions have involved teasing banter, but Laryn has had big feelings for Tate almost the entire time. When Tate’s helicopter was recently shot down (Protecting Josie) things shifted between them and the journey to their HEA began. To get to there, they’ll just need to be honest while dealing with the potential danger to Laryn because of her expertise. Laryn and Tate’s love story has a little bit of everything and expect to feel all the things - fear, love, anger, tears, joy, and so much all encompassing, nurturing, protective love. Susan Stoker is a master of balancing a story of romance, danger, and personal growth. And while most of us will never be in the dangerous situations the main characters are a part of, the author nevertheless makes who they are as people so relatable and real that it is easy to fall in love with them. I cannot wait to hear what happens next for the rest of the pilots in the Rescue Angels series.

Exciting story

Susan you did again! You made me fall in love with another new series and have me waiting with anticipation for the next. I always love your characters but something about Laryn really connected with me. She’s a strong independent, tomboy who can work an engine better than anyone. And Tate, Casper’s, ability to see around her hard edges is just magical. Thanks again for a wonderful ride Susan!

I’m a big fan and pre-order all of Ms. Stoker’s books. Unfortunately, this one was a huge disappointment. The two biggest shortfalls were that there were a couple of themes (He ignored me for 3 years and I’m sorry I ignored you for 3 years) that were repeated over and over and over and over again with slight changes in wording. There was little development of the actual story arc. The sense of tension and suspense usually so captivating in her books was almost completely lacking because of the sparse development of the challenges faced by the heroine. The story lacked the creativity that can broaden the story arc and deepen the sense of place and characters. Overall it looked like there was a broad general outline of the book, the key story arc scenes were quickly dashed off as tersely as possible, and page filler was added to fit the page target and meet a deadline. The result was no where near the quality of her usual work.