Defending Zara

Mountain Mercenaries, Book 6

By: Susan Stoker

Narrated by: Stella Bloom

Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's Summary

An Amazon Charts and Wall Street Journal bestseller.

For a Mountain Mercenary and a desperate woman, love becomes a dangerous refuge in New York Times bestselling author Susan Stoker's novel of heart-gripping suspense.

Mountain Mercenary Hunter "Meat" Snow has a mission: eliminate the human traffickers scouring the barrios of Lima for vulnerable prey. But it's Meat who's taken down. Separated from his team and beaten within an inch of his life, he's left for dead. When he wakes, it’s to the intimate care of a beautiful stranger who knows all about survival.

Zara Layne was a child when a brutal murder left her orphaned and abandoned in Peru. Ever since, she's fended for herself on the streets, outrunning its predators. Trusting men is not in Zara's blood...until it warms to the exhilarating touch of the wounded hero who promises deliverance. As each other's rescuers, they return to Colorado for a new normal.

But when Meat disappears, Zara discovers how ruthless the past can be. With the help of the loyal Mercenaries, she's drawing on her own skills of endurance to find him. And for Zara, there's no danger great enough to come between her and the man she loves.

©2020 Susan Stoker (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

WHAT!

Good story but a little less intense as Ms Stoker's other books. OMG ending!!!!

Holy Cow! Holy Cow! No, Really, HOLY. COW.

From the first paragraph Meat's story was different. It actually started as a cliffy in the last book, leaving us dangling while we grabbed the next adventure (thank heavens I'm a procrastinator and the next book was already out!). But sweet buttermilk muffins, this tale is Mountain Mercenaries on steroids all the way to the jaw-dropping end.

It's still got all the things we love about this series: the lightening-strike romance, the men who seem more than mortal, the women who have spines of steel, and the bad guys we truly loath. Yep. got it, and more, in wonderful Mountain Merc style. Meat and Zara's story is, by itself, harsh and beautiful, full of the gritty reality that helps make this series such a winner.

But this one, has...more. MORE! The best and worse possible cliffhanger ever, but, hey-the next book is already out. Just be prepared to grab it. You won't stop with this one!

A great addition

This is another great addition to this series. There was quite a bit of stress and danger in this one but the mountain mercenaries pulled together, as usual, and overcame the obstacles.

Strong heroine

This is the first I’ve read of this series and by this author. Zara is a very strong heroine! She has endured a lot. While I liked Meat, he was more the silent type, sitting back somewhat to let her take the lead. He’s an alpha hero but absolutely not the in your face, commandeering type.

He would do anything for her. As she gains confidence and really begins to acclimate, she takes control of her future and owns her decisions. She shows just how far she would go to help a friend snd save the man she loves.

Meat and Zara

I have slowly made my way through the Mountain Mercenaries series and have enjoyed them all. The men are all awesomely dedicated to helping women and children and the women they fall for are fierce survivors. Zara was lost and alone in Lima, Peru when she was only ten but against all odds she survived. The story line was good; Zara saved Meat and told him and the fellow Mercenaries her story, they got her home but getting accustomed to the US wasn’t as easy as she hoped. The stories people came up with about what really happened to Zara in Peru were crazy, and of course people starting plotting to get money from her now that she was rich. There was action and a little suspense but for some reason it still felt really slow to me, maybe because I saw it all coming so it just kind of dragged on. I think I continued on with this series just to get to Rex’s story… I have been dying to find out what happened to his wife and I had an inkling at the beginning of Defending Zara that we met her but now that she is revealed at the end, I can’t wait to jump into the next book!

Stella Bloom has done an amazing job narrating this entire series! I am so happy that Susan Stoker stuck with the same narrator for each book because Stella really brings all the characters to life.

"Wowwww!!!!"

Loved "Meat's" story with beautiful "Zara" and the eye opener to true friendship....and family that your born with can be very disappointing....but I Also Loved the comedy....the lifts from the heavy seriousness....annnnd the "epilogue!!!!" " Fan -freaking-tastic!!!!" Thank you again for these wonderful stories....! :) They're allll soooo addictive!... :)

ABS

Loved it! Meat and Zara's Story was heartwarming, sad. happy so many feelings. Love the Mountain Mercenaries Series!

Objection

I cannot comprehend why a person would write about sex trade and slavery and include explicit sex scenes. It seems like an oxymoron. The rest of this story is quite good.

I Knew It!

I don't know how I figured it out but I just knew. Not that Mags was Rex's wife but I knew Rex was the bartender.

I liked it, but something was missing.

Meat is in trouble..he’s hurt badly after a mission goes fubar. Zara and her band of women saved him and in the process, Zara was able to save herself. After being lost in Peru for 15 years, Zara doesn’t want to hope that this man she saved will be the saving grace she’s wanted since that fateful night. When the nature of her missing status comes to light, Zara will be in more danger than she had in the slums of Peru. Hopefully, she’ll learn to trust Meat and her new friends to help her before it’s too late.

Ok, we’ve been waiting for Meat’s story for a bit, but I have to say, it was a little lackluster. We know nothing about his life, where he’s from, his time in the service..nothing. The story was based solely on Zara, which I get, but there was no real depth for Meat. Additionally, I guess given all of what Zara went through, some of her feelings and decisions are understandable, but sometimes, you wanted to just yell at her what the problem is..I will acknowledge that I was wrong about the uncle, but I’ve always been surprised that the guys never guessed who Rex was. I figured that out in book 2.
Needless to say, I want to expect perfection in this last book, but I’m steeling myself to just let the story unfold and not expect fireworks..even if my fingers are crossed.
Well, here we go.. the last book in the series. Let’s see how we wrap it up.

Sadly I’m not going to finish listening

I’m half way through and I just have no interest in the characters or what will happen next. This is very pedestrian no ups or downs just sorry but boring. I’ve waited eagerly for this one because I wanted to know what happened after the end of the last one but it’s really not worth knowing. It may be that I’m all Susan Stoker’d out as I’ve read everything else by her. Am returning it and won’t be looking for anymore by this author

enjoyed

I love listening to Stella Bloom, always a joy .


I did enjoy this book and as usual Susan Stoker knows how to pull it out of the bag. Meat and Zara's story starts in Peru, where Zara saves Meat.

Zara is a USA citizen orphaned in Peru from a early age and has a hard life struggling on the streets of Peru. The action starts back in the states, who is a true friend and will family be happy to see the return of her....

Meat helps Zara and the two connect. Will it be a happy ending....... oh the ending in the Bar.....

Holy shit!

You did it again! I loved it! The story of Meat and Zara was great, if I hadn’t needed sleep and to go to work I wouldn’t have been able to put it down. And the ending? Perfect! It is a must read by far!