BOOK REVIEW⎜Defenseless by Elizabeth Dyer

MY RATING

For the gift that Parker and Georgia were together and every little nerdy joke, “Defenseless” is definitely worth a try, at least I know I’ll be keeping an eye on Elizabeth Dyer’s next release.

Book Infos

How far will she go to protect the sexiest guy in tech?

When ex-marine Georgia Bennett left the military for high-end private security, it was supposed to soften her snarky attitude. Instead, her short fuse just earned her a punishment of an assignment: protect smart-ass tech genius and Department of Defense contractor Parker Livingston. It should have been easy—only no one warned Georgia that Parker was one seriously drop-dead-gorgeous geek.

The last thing Parker needs is a bodyguard, especially not one with killer curves and a sassy mouth who tempts him to do something incredibly stupid. He’s too busy investigating whoever is turning his technology against him and threatening his team of covert operatives. But when an assassin sends Georgia and Parker running for their lives, it might just be the explosive sexual chemistry and the trust that’s building between them that saves their necks. Because the only thing more dangerous than the combination of Parker’s intellect and Georgia’s aim is their steadfast desire to protect each other, no matter the cost.

Author : Elizabeth Dyer
Title : Defenseless
Series : Somerton Security #1

Number of pages : 288
Publisher : Montlake
Release Date :  December 1st, 2017
Genre : Romantic Suspense.

My Review

I love a good romantic suspense. If the plot is twisted enough I’ll get my brains picked at while having the promise and satisfaction of an HEA. These days I’m all about romance, I’m craving that connection between my fictional characters but I’m not against some mystery or suspense added to the blend.

Now, throw into this mix a sexy nerd with an eight pack and the mandatory glasses in the role of the damsel in distress and a badass ex-marine bombshell sent to save his ass and I’m SOLD. Take my moneeey!

This role reversal solely made me pick “Defenseless“, a romantic suspense and debut novel by Elizabeth Dyer. (I was offered an advanced review copy though, but you got my drift.)

Relax Princess Peach. No one’s raiding your castle.

But what furthermore piqued my interest was the plot. 

Think “Person of Interest” (the TV show) but focused on a sexy Finch (the man behind the “machine”). I love anything technology based, I can’t help it, I’m a nerd at heart. Well, until some extent it seems. But let’s start with what I liked in “Defenseless“.

I was hooked within the first lines and positively convinced this book would be a 5 stars for me all throughout the first third of the book. It had everything to make me happy, entertained and intrigued.

I loved the brand of humor distilled throughout the book, nerd jokes and snarky retorts from both the heroine and the hero had me chuckling out loud and nodding in appreciation, as you do when you feel you’re within your tribe. I loved all the references to the nerd culture! Just for this fact alone Elizabeth Dyer made herself a nice place on my “cool people”’s list (If I ever had such a list at all that is).

I fell in love with the heroine at first sight! Georgia was a great leading character, full on snark, exuding self assurance but still with that lingering trace of fragility.

It was a great experience to walk in her boots, she was fun and strong with a sweet side underneath her badass outershell which was a nice balance. What can I say, I like my heroines a little bitchy and Georgia? Bitchy alright. The nice kind of course.

…the woman standing in front of him, an odd mix of aggression and unguarded softness, was a mystery.

I really liked the hero, Parker. A sexy nerd? Like I’d ever say no to that!

And I really liked that he was that mix of the ever so cliché fixated nerd about his job, so obsessed with his craft he would forget to even feed himself and at the same time a shameless flirt with a cocksure attitude when it came to seduce Georgia. To be able to get in his head and be rewarded by his dirty thoughts was a nice gift and I’m thankful for that dual POV.

He was all cocksure arrogance wrapped up in subtle, playful charm, but there was no pretense.

What he lacked in social interactions he made up for them in tenfold when fueled by his desire for Georgia and it showed in the bedroom.

It was fascinating and hot as all get out to see the transformation of ‘cute-nerdy-Parker’ into ‘sexy-jerk-with-a-dominant-vibe-Parker’.

Between Parker and Georgia it was lust at first glance, their chemistry and common interest undeniable and frenzied. I toroughly enjoyed their banter and every little eccentricities the author forged around such different characters. Against a wall or in a bed it was hot and playful, hard and sweet. 

What will it take, Georgia? What button did he have to push, what switch did he need to flip, to set her alright? To strip her bare and ignite the desire he saw simmering just beneath the surface?

The plot, originally, had me captivated, the idea of an artificial intelligence rebelling against his creator sounding plenty twisted to get my mind reeling with possibilities of conspiracies and the underlying plot about the heroine’s dead brother added a welcome sub-layer of intrigue.

Until it started to… pace off. Yeah sadly I hit a wall of opaque and stiff inaction block about 50% in the book. 

In my experience I felt “Defenseless” gave its best at the beginning, what appeared to be a force during the first 30%, turned out being a weakness later.

I felt I was given too much background or data about Parker’s invention. At some point it just felt like infos and specifics about his technology were thrown in for the sake of filling some space, but it was leading nowhere in term of plot.

All the behavioral explanations about Parker’s app… While I can salute the obvious effort the author put into her research, it felt repetitive, and with the impending death threats hovering above our heroes, it felt counter productive to put all that action to a stand still point and discuss technicalities at lenght. As a result I felt my interest for the main plot barely subsiding.

From this stage things slowly fizzled out, apart from the nerdy come ons, I didn’t much care about the ex coming back all too conveniently to help both the team and the couple’s relationship issues. (major eye roll about this one.)

Any new development wasn’t enough to pull me back in entirely, unfortunately. 

I still think this is a nice Romantic Suspense and a good debut novel if you can spare some time to read your share of background intel and data (or if unlike me you have a need to feed your brain tech-y intel instead of going after the bad guys.). For the gift that Parker and Georgia were together and every little nerdy joke, “Defenseless” is definitely worth a try, at least I know I’ll be keeping an eye on Elizabeth Dyer’s next release.

The Angry Reader's Review

This review is brought to you by Camille, a.k.a “The Angry Reader“.
I love her reviews and we seem to share a common taste for awesome books and blunt reviews. Check out her blog at The Angry Reader  where the motto is “Painfully Honest Book Reviews“!

Camille's rating

When these two were moving and shaking I was in heaven, but there just wasn’t enough of that for me.

GAHHHHHH! I wanted to love this book! If wishes were ponies I’d have a damn fine stable…

We have a bad ass chick and a techie genius and things going boom. Pretty much everything I need in life. But we spend more than half the book in Georgia and Parker‘s heads – not a place I want to be in an action-romance. When these two were moving and shaking I was in heaven, but there just wasn’t enough of that for me.

It took a while but I leverage my academic focus – advanced algorithms and predictive analysis – to create a program that could mine through terabytes of date and create a profile for every individual we were tasked with either finding or stopping.

Also — as with my last read — there’s the tear between wanting the escape of reading fiction and needing something mostly grounded in reality.
There was little fallout from all the destruction in this book, things happened either too easily or became ridiculously difficult, and too many coincidences tied everything together. Books about the government and espionage and special ops are difficult because you need a mix of bad ass and realism – this book missed the mark for me. I got frustrated.

All in all, I loved the ideas. And Georgia and Parker were fantastic. This book would be fantastic without about 50% less head-time with the main characters and a dash of fact anchoring all the fiction.

His scrutiny was as visceral and physical as his hands, as thorough and talented as his tongue.

EXCERPT
“Defenseless” by Elizabet Dyer. ©

Excerpt “Defenseless” by Elizabeth Dyer. ©

“You need stitches,” he said, his voice hoarse. Shaking, he stood, wetting a fresh washcloth
from the sink.
“Nah.” She tried on a smile, hoping to cut the odd tension filling the room like a heavy cloud
of steam. He was angry, but for the life of her she couldn’t figure out why. “Nothing a Band-Aid
or two can’t fix.” She smiled as he turned. “But if you want to kiss it and make it all better, go
ahead.”
“It’s not funny, Georgia.”
Well, no, it wasn’t. But she could see he was winding himself into a first-rate fit, and over
what? She’d had worse. “It’s just a graze, Parker. A bit of antibiotic ointment and I’ll be fine.”
Provided she touched absolutely nothing in this roach motel, anyway.
“Just a graze?” He rounded on her, resuming his position between her legs. “He shot you,
Georgia. Shot you.” Agony destroyed his face as he set himself about the task of cleaning up her
side. “He came for me, but he hurt you.”
“Hey,” she said, laying a palm against his forearm. She tried not to let the way his muscles,
bunched and twitching with tension, distract her. “I’m okay. It’s my job to get between you and
the bullets.” She stroked a finger along a ridge of muscle and up toward his elbow. “It could have
been a lot worse, Parker. We got off easy.”
“I don’t consider this,” he said, carefully dabbing at the cut, “getting off easy. It should have
been me.”
Georgia pulled away. Of course it should have been him. God forbid his fragile male pride
suffer the indignity of being saved by a woman.

“Your ego will recover. And if it helps, remind yourself a woman didn’t save you; your paid
bodyguard did.” She tried to stand, only to have Parker slap a hand on her shoulder and shove
her back down.
“You think that’s what this is?” he asked, anger lending a frenzied, jerking motion to his
movements as he reached for the alcohol and sterile gauze. “Some antiquated antifeminist
bullshit? You think my self-esteem is so low that I can’t admit when a woman can kick my
ass—or that I’m such a self-important prick I can’t admit when she’s saved it?”
Well, yeah.
“God, you’re a stubborn creature.” He sighed, letting the righteous indignation he wore so
well slip away. “I’m mad because if I’d listened to you, if I hadn’t been so busy thinking things
through, analyzing every angle, you might not have been shot at all.”
That was what was bothering him? Guilt? Concern? For her?

Author Bio & Links

Elizabeth Dyer likes her heroines smart and snarky, and her heroes strong and sexy. An attorney and recent coffee devotee, she spends the majority of her time tucked into a corner table at Starbucks or pinned beneath her bullmastiff. When she isn’t working or wrestling the dog, you can usually find her writing the types of sexy, suspenseful books she most loves to read.

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