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Men Out of Uniform #4
The Loner
He's every woman's fantasy. She's every bodyguard's nightmare...
Lucas "Huck" Finn is thrilled to join elite Ranger Security, until he learns his new assignment is to babysit heiress Sapphira Stravos, a doggy-toting debutante who's driving everyone crazy. Still, he can't help but feel there's more to Sapphira than meets the eye. And what's meeting the eye is damn hard to resist....
Thanks to a few stupid threatening letters, Sapphira Stravos is having her style cramped, big-time How is she going to look after the charities she secretly supports? Although she'd managed to ditch her former jailers, this guy isn't budging. Still, having a guy as hot as Huck around has its perks. After all, if he has to guard her body, he might as well get to enjoy it, too...
Lucas "Huck" Finn is thrilled to join elite Ranger Security, until he learns his new assignment is to babysit heiress Sapphira Stravos, a doggy-toting debutante who's driving everyone crazy. Still, he can't help but feel there's more to Sapphira than meets the eye. And what's meeting the eye is damn hard to resist....
Thanks to a few stupid threatening letters, Sapphira Stravos is having her style cramped, big-time How is she going to look after the charities she secretly supports? Although she'd managed to ditch her former jailers, this guy isn't budging. Still, having a guy as hot as Huck around has its perks. After all, if he has to guard her body, he might as well get to enjoy it, too...
224 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 1, 2008
43 people are currently reading
263 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
July 15, 2009
This was a nice quick and hot read, but a bit disappointing.
Lucas "Huck" Finn was a former Army Ranger who had chosen to quit his military career after a botched parachute landing that left him with an injured knee. As the new employee in Rangers Security, the company created by the 3 previous heroes in this Men Out of Uniform series, Huck is assigned to protect Sapphira Stravos, a supposed pampered and spoiled heiress who had received some disturbing letters. Those letters were not exactly threatening but her father was concerned enough to hire Rangers Security. Naturally, Sapphira was anything but pampered and spoiled, she only pretended to be that way in order to fool her father and keep doing her secret charity work. Why that had to be a secret, I'll never know. Anyway, it didn't take long for Huck to see what a good and caring woman Sapphira was and, less than 48 hours after their 1st meeting, they were in bed and in love with each other.
Okay, I admit I've bought this kind of fast paced falling-in-love beat before but not so much this time. There were too many "flaws" in the story, and they were distracting:
1. Sapphira's "need" to keep her charity work a secret made no sense at all. Why was she so afraid of her father? He was cold and distant, but he wasn't a bad man and there was nothing to support her behavior. In the end, his reaction when she finally told him her secret just proved how unreasonable she had been.
2. The mystery around the "threatening" letters was almost insignificant - I didn't see Huck spending any hard time trying to ID the "stalker", which made him a very bad security expert, IMHO - and the final resolution was just meh.
3. Huck's search for the father he never knew seemed like filler to me. The fact that I was told about the resolution to this and didn't get to see him talking to his mother and learning who his father was, well, that just about let me know how unimportant the whole deal was.
4. No matter how hot those guys at Rangers Security are, this book made me question how smart they were. Besides the aforementioned lack of hard work on Huck's part - well, having mind-boggling sex with Sapphira could be considered hard work but that's not what I mean, LOL -, their investigation skills needed improvement considering how they missed Sapphira's connection to the charity organization she owned. Shouldn't that have been discovered during the preliminary investigation they did when they were hired? They also needed some basic lessons on computer security. They used Huck's nickname "Falcon" as a password, and any security expert should know that you never, ever use personal info as your password. That's a hacker's dream come true.
All in all, Huck and Sapphira were likable and funny, the sex was hot, and the story was easy to read. Nice, but forgettable.
Lucas "Huck" Finn was a former Army Ranger who had chosen to quit his military career after a botched parachute landing that left him with an injured knee. As the new employee in Rangers Security, the company created by the 3 previous heroes in this Men Out of Uniform series, Huck is assigned to protect Sapphira Stravos, a supposed pampered and spoiled heiress who had received some disturbing letters. Those letters were not exactly threatening but her father was concerned enough to hire Rangers Security. Naturally, Sapphira was anything but pampered and spoiled, she only pretended to be that way in order to fool her father and keep doing her secret charity work. Why that had to be a secret, I'll never know. Anyway, it didn't take long for Huck to see what a good and caring woman Sapphira was and, less than 48 hours after their 1st meeting, they were in bed and in love with each other.
Okay, I admit I've bought this kind of fast paced falling-in-love beat before but not so much this time. There were too many "flaws" in the story, and they were distracting:
1. Sapphira's "need" to keep her charity work a secret made no sense at all. Why was she so afraid of her father? He was cold and distant, but he wasn't a bad man and there was nothing to support her behavior. In the end, his reaction when she finally told him her secret just proved how unreasonable she had been.
2. The mystery around the "threatening" letters was almost insignificant - I didn't see Huck spending any hard time trying to ID the "stalker", which made him a very bad security expert, IMHO - and the final resolution was just meh.
3. Huck's search for the father he never knew seemed like filler to me. The fact that I was told about the resolution to this and didn't get to see him talking to his mother and learning who his father was, well, that just about let me know how unimportant the whole deal was.
4. No matter how hot those guys at Rangers Security are, this book made me question how smart they were. Besides the aforementioned lack of hard work on Huck's part - well, having mind-boggling sex with Sapphira could be considered hard work but that's not what I mean, LOL -, their investigation skills needed improvement considering how they missed Sapphira's connection to the charity organization she owned. Shouldn't that have been discovered during the preliminary investigation they did when they were hired? They also needed some basic lessons on computer security. They used Huck's nickname "Falcon" as a password, and any security expert should know that you never, ever use personal info as your password. That's a hacker's dream come true.
All in all, Huck and Sapphira were likable and funny, the sex was hot, and the story was easy to read. Nice, but forgettable.
December 23, 2014
This bitch... *smh* How to describe this girl... I don't even know. She's a huge contradiction. Graduated top of her class, but thinks pissing off a few Rangers is the best plan. She'll go toe to toe with said Rangers, but shakes in her boots at the thought of Daddy finding out she does charity work. She plays the pampered princess role, then gets upset when somebody thinks she's a spoiled socialite. She demands honesty, but she lies constantly. And then she tops it all off with "We need to both be miserable and alone to benefit others"... Fuck this bitch, man.
June 1, 2011
I really wanted to love this one, but I think it pales compared to others in the same series. The female character is just too unrealistic in her motivation. What kind of a charity organization has only one source of income and no planning for the future? The small kind, I guess, but the justification wasn't there.
February 25, 2013
I enjoyed the romance. Huck and Sapphira were great together. It was written pretty well, however the mystery to the letter and charity part wasn’t so well developed. By the end, the truth didn’t seem that important or really worth too much waiting for.
The Bad Points:
- The letter senders reasons for the letters sounded kind of childish. There wasn’t a strong reason for the sender to write them.
- When everything is revealed, Sapphira’s reasons for keeping everything secret didn’t make sense. She keeps saying her dad will take action against her but really, that didn’t seem likely. So in a way, Sapphira’s decision to let Huck go didn’t really have a strong reason behind it. Even if her dad has made it difficult for her to get a job by telling everyone he knows not to hire her, she could go to another state maybe even another county to find a job and still make enough money for her charities and still be with Huck. And no matter how much good she does for others with the salary her dad gives her, since her dad didn’t seem that evil, her decision to give up Huck because he wasn’t rich like her dad would want, seemed like a dumb excuse at this point.
- Sometimes when people let their love go so that someone or some other people can get the best in life, still doesn’t sit well with me. How can there be the same value in this sacrifice which shows caring if you can’t value the love you were given? And even after her dad tells her to go do whatever she wants, she still doesn’t go to Huck and believes her dad will take away her salary because of Huck. If her dad didn’t care about the charity, why would he care about who she loves? It sort of made me believe that she doesn’t deserve him no matter all the good she does because she didn’t even stop and try to think of any alternatives to how she can have it all.
- The explanation given for Huck’s father’s identity left me thinking, that’s it, and all these people refrained from simply talking it out? Another matter that didn’t have good reasons.
The Bad Points:
- The letter senders reasons for the letters sounded kind of childish. There wasn’t a strong reason for the sender to write them.
- When everything is revealed, Sapphira’s reasons for keeping everything secret didn’t make sense. She keeps saying her dad will take action against her but really, that didn’t seem likely. So in a way, Sapphira’s decision to let Huck go didn’t really have a strong reason behind it. Even if her dad has made it difficult for her to get a job by telling everyone he knows not to hire her, she could go to another state maybe even another county to find a job and still make enough money for her charities and still be with Huck. And no matter how much good she does for others with the salary her dad gives her, since her dad didn’t seem that evil, her decision to give up Huck because he wasn’t rich like her dad would want, seemed like a dumb excuse at this point.
- Sometimes when people let their love go so that someone or some other people can get the best in life, still doesn’t sit well with me. How can there be the same value in this sacrifice which shows caring if you can’t value the love you were given? And even after her dad tells her to go do whatever she wants, she still doesn’t go to Huck and believes her dad will take away her salary because of Huck. If her dad didn’t care about the charity, why would he care about who she loves? It sort of made me believe that she doesn’t deserve him no matter all the good she does because she didn’t even stop and try to think of any alternatives to how she can have it all.
- The explanation given for Huck’s father’s identity left me thinking, that’s it, and all these people refrained from simply talking it out? Another matter that didn’t have good reasons.
May 22, 2011
ok, i liked this a little better then the first three - simply because it actually deviates from the formula the first three shared.
but even as a blaze, this isn't going to rock the literary world. a misunderstood heiress with a heart of gold, a cold father and a dead mother. i think this is book #4,590 to share that device.
in fairness (to blaze, i mean) i've been in a blaze mode for the past three days and have gone through something like 6 books. so there's a bit of burn out happening, and as anyone with any reading experience will tell you - with blaze you get hot sex, a quirky heroine, an alpha male and more hot sex. following that ingredient list: 'the loner' will satisfy.
but even as a blaze, this isn't going to rock the literary world. a misunderstood heiress with a heart of gold, a cold father and a dead mother. i think this is book #4,590 to share that device.
in fairness (to blaze, i mean) i've been in a blaze mode for the past three days and have gone through something like 6 books. so there's a bit of burn out happening, and as anyone with any reading experience will tell you - with blaze you get hot sex, a quirky heroine, an alpha male and more hot sex. following that ingredient list: 'the loner' will satisfy.
March 20, 2011
Cliched and corny but quite nice to read for a change of pace. Very predictable and very well written. Even though it is a short book it's not rushed nor does it skimp on details. A very good book for a rainy day.
June 10, 2018
I received this book in a 6 book bundle, and ended up reading them back to back! Each story was a fresh concept with great characters. Light, happy reading. I truly enjoyed each story. ... do yourself a favor and give this author a chance.
August 10, 2017
The Loner review
The Loaner is the fourth romantic suspense book in the Men Out of Uniform series written by author Rhonda Nelson.
The Loaner is the fourth romantic suspense book in the Men Out of Uniform series written by author Rhonda Nelson.
December 13, 2017
Wow!
I love this series! It’s an awesome love story with some kick a$$ men. These books are well written and give you enough excitement to keep you reading.
I love this series! It’s an awesome love story with some kick a$$ men. These books are well written and give you enough excitement to keep you reading.
December 31, 2017
Great book!! Couldn’t put it down! Had to see what was going to happen next. Highly recommend this series. No matter which book you choose you can’t go wrong!
January 16, 2021
HBZ #400 = 3+ stars
June 19, 2021
Better best brilliant
Well I think this is my favourite so far (Ignoring the need for a better proof reader). Great read and I’m off to get the next one!!
Well I think this is my favourite so far (Ignoring the need for a better proof reader). Great read and I’m off to get the next one!!
November 29, 2015
Another book with a bad title. There's nothing about Huck that says "loner" - then again, maybe he's being "loned" out as a bodyguard (a bad one at that) and I just misunderstood the title.
Apparently, the rich girl has never heard of fundraising. She's so dumb and entitled it pained me. Annoying the Security firm is the best plan she can come up with? I did a whole lot of eye rolling.
And it has a bad ending. I would have preferred the rich girl found her own why out of her situation, but alas, nope.
Once again with these little romance books, I found the writing was fine. It's the plot that ruins it.
Apparently, the rich girl has never heard of fundraising. She's so dumb and entitled it pained me. Annoying the Security firm is the best plan she can come up with? I did a whole lot of eye rolling.
And it has a bad ending. I would have preferred the rich girl found her own why out of her situation, but alas, nope.
Once again with these little romance books, I found the writing was fine. It's the plot that ruins it.
April 11, 2011
I love Huck and Sapphira. I've read other body guard romance books and this one held its own and had its own twist. The attraction is immediate and you actually feel as if its real. At first they both make wrong assumptions about each other, but gradually they learn to trust and open up. The romance was perfect and the witty batter that went on between Huck and Sapphira are priceless
February 24, 2011
Quick, fun read about a socially-conscious socialite pretending to be an airhead in order to fool the security company bodyguards her father has hired after she starts receiving death threats. The dialoge between Sapphira and Huck is smart, and the story moves along quickly. Nicely done.
September 25, 2009
Modern
July 25, 2011
Mmmm, now size 14 girls want hardbody men? Even the sex was boring - and the resolution, unrealistic. I'm done with heiresses with secret charities- this is the second one this year.
Read
July 30, 2012never read it it came up as the wrong title and author!!! I ask you!! I am thinking of giving lark up!!!!!!
Want to Read
February 10, 2013Men out of uniform - Book 4
Paperback version
Paperback version
August 17, 2015
A good, quick read. I have read a few other Rhonda Nelson books and have never been disappointed in one! This is the first in this series but is a tie-in to one of her earlier series.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews