Securing Jane, an all-new must read Seal of Protection: Legacy Series Novella from New York Times bestselling author Susan Stoker and 1,001 Dark Nights is available now!
From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Susan Stoker comes a new story in her SEAL of Protection: Legacy Series…
Over the years, Storm North has witnessed two teams of Navy SEALs under his command find true love. He doesn’t expect the same for himself. He’s too old. Too jaded. Too set in his ways. Until a woman who’s been right in front of him for years manages to impress Storm in a way very few women—or men—ever have.
Jane Hamilton knows it’s ridiculous to have a crush on the charismatic and handsome commander. She’s the divorced mother of a twenty-six-year-old daughter. Too old for crushes. Too old for a lot of things. There’s no chance she’ll ever catch the eye of a man like Storm North.
Until someone delivers a bomb to the base.
As the civilian contractor in charge of the mail room, Jane finds herself in the direct line of fire, enduring a series of events that leads to a budding relationship with the very man she’s been longing for. She couldn’t be happier, and Storm feels the same.
The only one unhappy, in fact, is the thwarted bomber. Unhappy enough to do something drastic. Now Storm and Jane have to work together to save innocent sailors—and themselves—from an explosive situation threatening their happily ever after.
**Securing Jane is the 7th book in the SEAL of Protection: Legacy Series and a part of the 1001 Dark Nights collection. Each book is a stand-alone, with no cliffhanger endings.
**Every 1,001 Dark Nights novella is a standalone story. For new readers, it’s an introduction to an author’s world. And for fans, it’s a bonus book in the author’s series. We hope you'll enjoy each one as much as we do.**
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Review:
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Securing Jane is a novella set in the SEAL of Protection: Legacy series by Susan Stoker and it's listed as book 6.5 or 7 depending on how you see it. The book is a stand-alone, but it contains some spoilers about what happened in the previous books so I would recommend reading the series in order. I don't think Susan Stoker has ever disappointed me with one of her books, so I will just say read the whole series or at least give this one a chance.
The book is well written for a novella. There was no need for character development and which is something that usually it's a miss in novellas due to their length. This story is all about Jane, Storm their developing romance, and them taking down a bad guy. And that's acceptable mainly because our characters are old enough to know what they want and be mature enough to get it without the unnecessary drama. Jane is 51 one and Storm 47 if I recall correctly and they are by far the oldest couple I read about in a long time. That's not a bad thing and I don't want to give you the impression that I disliked it, it's just that I was caught by surprise when I discovered just how old the main characters were. It's refreshing.
I want to see if Rose, Jane's daughter will get a story too. She didn't appear much, but I want to see a happy ending for her and more of Storm and Jane. Their romance was very good, and I feel like they have a strong and solid relationship, so I would love to see more of them in a future SS book.
Excerpt
She was sure Storm had to have a girlfriend, though he wasn’t married, as far as Jane knew. She constantly checked out his left hand for a ring.
On the outside looking in, Storm North was the perfect catch, and she was…simply Jane. Plain Jane, as her ex used to call her. It was a nickname their daughter had picked up and taunted her with for most of her mean teenage years.
Raising Rose by herself hadn’t been a walk in the park. At first, Jake had wanted to co-raise their daughter, but as the years went by, and he moved from one base to another, his trips to see her had become fewer and fewer. It affected Rose greatly. She’d felt abandoned, blaming her mom for the fact that her dad wasn’t around. She’d snuck out of their apartment all the time in high school and graduated by the skin of her teeth.
Jane hadn’t been surprised when she’d moved out on her eighteenth birthday. There were even a few years when Jane thought she’d wake up to a knock on the door from the police, letting her know that Rose was dead of an overdose or because she’d hooked up with the wrong man. But finally, after several painful years for them both, things had at least leveled out when it came to their relationship. She was twenty-six, had a steady boyfriend—who Jane didn’t know at all—and was at least making an effort to be a little nicer. She wasn’t sure what her daughter was doing for a living, but when Rose did reach out, she was no longer begging for money.
It was kind of pathetic that Jane was taking that as a good sign.
In the near decade that she’d been living on her own, Jane had felt as if she’d been learning who she was as a woman.
At first she’d been Jake’s girlfriend. Then his Navy wife. Then she was the woman who’d been dumped and a single mother. She’d struggled for so long and so hard that she still felt as if she was finding herself. Which was somewhat silly after half a century, but there it was. And she wanted to find love again. Find a man who would support her as much as she supported him. Wanted someone to laugh with…and do all the naughty things she’d been fantasizing about for years and years.
But Storm North wasn’t that man.
Jane knew it, but that didn’t mean she could stop fantasizing about him.
Pushing the mail cart down the hallway, Jane felt her heart rate increase as she got closer to Storm’s office. It was silly. Ridiculous. But she felt as if she was in middle school again, about to see the boy she had a massive crush on.
But Storm was no boy, that was for sure.
She entered his administrative assistant’s office and smiled at the man sitting behind the desk.
“Good morning,” she said cheerily.
“Hi, Jane,” the young man replied with a smile. “Go on in. He’s not in a meeting.”
“Thanks,” Jane told him, hoping she didn’t look as excited as she felt. She didn’t get to see Storm every day, since he was a very busy man, and whenever she did, it made her morning.
About Susan Stoker
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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