Stone (Sentinel Security #7) by Anna Hackett Format: eARC
Source: author
Formats available: ebook
Genres: action adventure romance, contemporary romance, romantic suspense
Series: Sentinel Security #7
Pages: 141
Published by Anna Hackett on July 25, 2024
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Amazon
Goodreads
He’s the new silver fox recruit at Sentinel Security. The hot, tough former Marine Raider. And he won’t touch her because he works with her brother.
Real estate agent Magnolia “Nola” Newhouse has it all. Okay, not *quite* all. She loves her work, has a growing collection of designer heels, and is about to become an aunt…she’s just missing the love of her life. She’s watched her brother and her best friend fall in love, and Nola wants that too.
When she first sees the big, rugged silver fox across the bar, she feels an instant connection, and knows he does too. They share a passionate kiss, then he discovers who her brother is…
Former Marine Knox “Stone” Holman needed a change. He’s left California and taken a job at New York’s top security firm: Sentinel Security. What he never expected was to lay eyes on a tiny, curvy woman and feel his world tip upside down. But Knox lives by a code, which means his co-worker’s beautiful sister is off-limits. Besides, Nola has love, marriage, and kids stamped all over her, and he’s past that.
But when Nola goes to inspect an empty penthouse and accidentally witnesses an execution-style murder, everything changes. She’s on the run and being hunted by the mob, and Knox will do everything to keep her safe.
Running the gauntlet of the New York streets, Knox and Nola will discover just how hot their attraction runs. Knox is determined to protect her, and Nola is determined to make him hers.
My Review:
The Sentinel Security series opened with Wolf back in 2022, so it seems fitting that the series close with him too. Well, sorta/kinda and not exactly. But it’s all in the family.
Back in that first story in the series, Wolf fell hard and fast for his little sister’s bestie – not that they aren’t both adults when that story takes place.
In this wrap-up novella for the series, it’s Wolf’s little sister Nola’s turn to find her HEA with one of his friends and colleagues, the newest member of the Sentinel Security family, Knox Holman, codename Stone from his own days as an elite operative for MARSOC, the Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command.
The sparks fly between Stone and Nola from their very first meeting – just before he’s introduced to his new team and learns that the woman he kissed up against the wall should be off-limits. A limit he’s determined to keep.
But their second meeting is a lot less cute, and throws all of both of their cautions out the window. That second meeting takes place behind a dumpster, where Nola is crouching to hide from the bad guys she just saw commit cold blooded murder in a high-end NYC apartment she was originally oh-so-thrilled to be contracted to sell.
On the run from her pursuers, chased at every turn, shot at at every opportunity, Stone and Nola have to hole up in one of Sentinel Security’s safehouses while their friends clear them a path to safety.
Even if it means breaking down doors, jumping through broken windows, and figuring out that no matter how much they should keep each other at arms’ length they’re both MUCH happier being held close.
Escape Rating A-: It looks like this is the really truly last and final entry in the Sentinel Security series after last year’s Hex. Not that we won’t see these folks again riding to someone’s rescue at some point in the future. (Something this author does that all her readers are grateful for, as it gives us an opportunity to see how our friends are doing!)
Still, this is the wrap-up novella and it does a terrific job of wrapping up. All the Sentinel Security agents have found their HEAs, sometimes even with each other, but we met Nola back in that first book and she still needed to find someone just for her.
Enter Stone, who is just what she’s been looking for, even if neither of them has a clue. Stone doesn’t even have a clue that he’s looking!
The romance in this one combined a couple of my favorite tropes, so two great tastes that went deliciously together.
First and foremost, Nola isn’t passive about her rescue – EVER. She’s on the run when she calls in her 911 to Sentinel Security, she’s preparing to fight back when Stone catches up to her, and she’s prepared to fight or fly the minute either of them sees trouble.
What made the story extra yummy for this reader is that it’s an age gap romance, and that’s always a favorite for me – no matter which direction that gap is in. That gap causes insecurities and questions and worries about the differing lengths of the emotional baggage train that each person has trailing behind them – as well as the places that they currently are in their lives and what they have in front of them.
Something that’s particularly true in this case as Nola is in her early 30s and the alarm on her biological clock is going off, while Stone, in his late 40s, tried marriage once, believes that the failure of it was all on him, and doesn’t think he has it in him to try again.
What made it work was that in spite of the 15+ year gap between them, they’re both more than mature enough to at least think they know what they want out of life and that it might not be the same thing.
Although we all hope they figure out that it is before the story and the series wraps. And of course they do.
This series has been fun, and it came to the perfect fireworks and explosions and happy ever after conclusion. The author is in the midst of her newest action adventure romance series, Unbroken Heroes, and will be returning to her Fury Brothers series in the fall with Take (Sept.) and Claim (Oct.) – but I’ll confess that as much as I’m looking forward to catching up with the Fury Family, the book I’m really anticipating is the opener for her new Sci-Fi Romance series in November!
