Securing Piper

Securing Piper (SEAL of Protection: Legacy Series)- Susan Stoker
Amazon Digital Services
Release Date: August 20, 2019

Rating:
📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: What started as an adventure, soon became hell. Piper Johnson’s thrilled to spend time in Timor-Leste with her best friend, a Peace Corps volunteer…until civil unrest erupts throughout the countryside, including an attack at the orphanage the women were visiting. With the aid of a SEAL team sent to extract the government employee, Piper flees with the only other known survivors—three young orphan girls. Piper wasn’t able to save her friend, but she’ll be damned if she leaves the girls to the mercy of child traffickers in the country’s impoverished capital. However, taking them with her to the States requires something drastic, something crazy…something she can’t do alone.

What started as a mission, soon becomes fate. Since nearly dying on a previous op, Beckett “Ace” Morgan has no time for regrets. Life is far too short. So when he learns the brave, beautiful, selfless woman he’s rescued has a better chance of getting three orphans out of the country if she’s married, he doesn’t hesitate. Ace marries her then and there, instantly gaining the family he’s always wanted. With time, he knows his respect for Piper can grow into love, and meanwhile, he’s saved both her and their new daughters from a fast-spreading rebel incursion.Protecting his girls on foreign soil turns out to be the easy part of the team’s mission. Protecting them from a threat waiting at home may be the biggest fight of Ace’s life. 

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Piper joined her best friend Kaylee in Timor-Leste for what was supposed to be a nice vacation. Kaylee would show Piper the villages she worked at for Peace Corps, they'd catch up, and Piper would get a break from work.  What neither expected was for that to be when rebellion erupts across the country and the orphanage they were visiting gets attacked.  Kaylee hid Piper with three girls and went to find more. She never returned. Ace's SEAL team went into Timor-Leste to find Piper and Kaylee- and found Piper with three girls instead.  They may think they've seen some of the worst the world has to offer, but in the midst of darkness, these girls show them trust and love they didn't expect.  Ace marries Piper to help her adopt the girls and bring them to America, but danger isn't exclusive to foreign countries.

Securing Piper gives a modern (and lovely) twist to the marriage of convenience trope. In this case, it ensures Piper can adopt all three girls before leaving the country (some Tex computer magic may also have helped). Piper and Ace have seen the situation the girls will be in if they stay and that, plus the bond they've already developed with the girls, means neither of them are willing to leave them behind.  It's an eye opening situation, both for them and for the reader, and instead of yelling that they are crazy you're cheering it all along. 

Piper and Ace connect from the beginning- they are a relationship that highlight how well Stoker can make chemistry sizzle between two people without being near a bed. The connection between the team members is great, and despite not really being a fan of kids, I ended up enjoying how Rani, Sinta, and Kemala touch everyone on the team, not just Ace and Piper.  Stoker also does a fantastic job balancing suspense, menace, danger, and forgiveness when it comes to her bad guy.  Without giving it away, this is a book of love and forgiveness even when something seems unforgivable.  Which is a theme that may come back and haunt all of these characters in a future book. Instead of giving the reader hints for just the next book in the series, Stoker also sets up the last book in the series- and while there is no cliff-hanger to Piper and Ace's story, I for one found myself yelling at the end of the book: how can you make us wait a whole year until that story!! The answer of course, is that Stoker is a prolific enough writer that she's keeping busy with several other series for the reader to enjoy while waiting- and that she probably secretly enjoys a bit of maniacal laughter at stringing along the readers as much as she does her heroes.

Securing Piper keeps up the best of Susan Stoker (Securing Caite) traditions: jungle rescues, hot-yet- compassionate heroes, and relatable could-be-you heroines.  A must read for fans of Stoker and her series, or for those just discovering the author.

I received an ARC of this book from BookSprout in exchange for an honest review