As a reader I like to sometimes try books from genres I don’t normally read. Romantic suspense is just that, so when I saw ‘Trusting Skylar’ on NetGalley I thought I’d give it a go. If nothing else, it confirmed to me why I don’t normally read romantic suspense. On its own terms it’s not a terrible book, it’s just a its own terms aren’t ones that interest me.
Romantic suspense is a fairly broad category and ‘Trusting Skylar’ fits into the “tough military operative falls in love with a normal gal” niche within it. Susan Stoker specialises in this sort of thing, having penned series with titles like ‘SEAL of Protection’, ‘Delta Force Heroes’, ‘Mountain Mercenaries’ and ‘Ace Security’. She’s written a tonne of books (there are 21 in the ‘SEAL of Protection’ series alone), so there’s market here. I’m guessing the books have a similar setup to ‘Trusting Skylar’, which is the first book in a series of its own, ‘Silverstone’.
The story here concerns ex-special forces hero Bull and his team of buddies who run a towing company in middle America, whilst also occasionally going on international missions funded by the FBI to kill terrorists. The book opens with a pretty entertaining military sequence that reads a lot like something from a Gold Eagle book.
After that the romance part gets going and my interest levels nose dived. Bull meets Skylar, a kindergarten teacher with a nice ass and a heart of gold who only sees the best in people. He tows her car and acts weirdly protective of her then asks her on a date. We then get a couple of hundred pages of them spending time together. They talk to each other a lot and Bull continues being overly protective. They also talk to other people about their feelings and stuff a lot. Then, after a respectable amount of time dating, they have hot sex. Then after that there is some more suspense stuff which I won’t spoil.
Now romantic books aren’t really my thing, so I may be way off the mark here, but I thought the thing that makes a romance is the “will they, won’t they” tension of the story. In ‘Trusting Skylar’ the only things that cause that tension are Skylar being a bit nervous as she hasn’t had much luck with guys in the past, and Bull worrying about telling her he kills people for a living. At no point was I at all worried that they wouldn’t get it on.
The suspense part, after that entertaining start, is pretty lacking too. The end is kind of exciting, but it’s a hell of a long time coming and you have to wade through a lot of boring conversations to get to it. But the book wasn’t written for me, so who am I to judge. If this is your kind of thing, give it a go.
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4 stars

Fast paced story that had both good and bad (cheesy ) moments. The potential was there for this series to be a good one filled with suspense and mystery. I'm going to hope that it gets better since this book laid the foundation for the series so it had those moments where it dragged on. ( )

Trusting Skylar by Susan Stoker
Silverstone #1

Excellent introduction to what will no doubt be a splendid series! The first chapter set the stage, introduced four men that I admired, and made me want to see what would happen next.

What I liked:
* Carson “Bull” Rhodes: capable, precision shooter, great teammate, friends closer than brothers, excellent boyfriend material, really liked him
* Skylar Reid: kindergarten teacher, warm-hearted, caring, a bit naïve, great friend, fierce, loyal, really liked her.
* Smoke, Eagle and Gramps: business partners with Bull in Silverstone, teammates, exceptional men – can’t wait to learn who they will end up with when their books are written.
* Shawn Archer and his daughter Sandra: good people that needed a break as their life wasn’t easy
* Tiana and some other neighbors of Skylar
* Dayana and Corey Reid: Skylar’s parents…they made me smile
* The relationship that developed between Carson and Skylar
* The way Silverstone treated their employees
* All of it really except…

What I didn’t like:
* Jay Ricketts: so glad he didn’t get away with what he had planned
* Having to say goodbye to the characters and now having to wait for the next book to be available.

Did I enjoy this book? Yes
Would I read more in this series? Definitely!

Thank you to NetGalley and Montlake for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars ( )