Defenseless is Book One of Elizabeth Dyer's Somerton Security series. Where has this author been my whole life? I LOVED this book. What could possibly go wrong when a tough as nails ex-Marine is assigned to protect a super hot, geeky nerd?

This story had it all including laugh out loud moments (PITA!), nail biting suspense and sparks flying off the pages. Even though I'm by no means a tech geek that can create massive government software and I tend to trip going up the stairs, the author did such a great job developing these characters that they were absolutely relatable.

I cannot wait to read the next book in this series and I certainly plan to check out this author's back list.

An ARC copy of the book was received via NetGalley.

Defenseless takes the bodyguard trope and twists it a bit with a female bodyguard and a male client. I enjoyed the switch because Georgia isn't some perfect, badass soldier. She is stumbling through this new, post military job, unsure of herself and her purpose in life. It made her much more relatable than I expected because you really get to see her vulnerability. Parker was a great hero as well (again, I was a little nervous that he would be a flat character). He is a genius who does top secret government work...and makes video games! He is also playful, snarky, and flirty. He isn't this dominating alpha male, throwing his weight around and being domineering. Parker is unique and no less manly; he is just different. I appreciated that he didn't want a bodyguard period, but did accept that Georgia was better at tactical strategizing and he wasn't afraid to follow her lead in that area. They balance each other very well.

The action is non stop and Parker and Georgia are, quite literally, on the run from early on in the book! While the plot might seem a bit of a stretch, I didn't think it was implausible! Parker's program would be a huge win for the government and its use could certainly be abused. It doesn't seem impossible to imagine that the government might not use the program with integrity, so the plot that follows is believable. Overall, Defenseless is the type of romantic suspense story I enjoy because its fast, action packed, and remarkably interesting!

Defenseless is the first book in Elizabeth Dyer’s Somerton Security Series. It’s the story of private security agent Georgia Bennett and software developer Parker Livingston. After a few missteps, Georgia is assigned to protect Parker from forces unknown. Parker has a reputation for being extremely difficult to work with because he insists upon doing his own thing and has a lot of quirks that most people don’t understand. Things get even more interesting when the threat to Parker’s life becomes very real, very fast. Let’s not ignore the fact that he and Georgia immediately find themselves attracted to each other.

As is typical in all of these types of romances, nothing is what it seems. Georgia may come off to be a bit rough around the edges but she has a sensitive side that she tries to keep hidden away. She also has a lot of baggage due to all of the family that she has lost far too soon. The most impactful loss is of her brother with whom her boss, Ethan Somerton served in the military with. Ethan and her brother were also good friends. There is a lot about her brother’s death that she still doesn’t know and Ethan isn’t at liberty to tell her. Parker isn’t your typical software developer. He not only makes mainstream applications for the general public, he has also created some very dangerous software for the U.S. government that is likely putting many lives in danger. When things intensify, Parker and Georgia go on the run together and they become intimate in every way imaginable. Clearly, they shouldn’t get close but the heart wants what it wants, right? Their relationship gets tested as the secrets and lies pile up but you can’t help but root for their happy ending.

I thoroughly enjoyed Defenseless. It did take some of the usual routes but I was still interested in finding out how things ended. And, there are a few items that did not get resolved so I expect the next book, Relentless, will answer a lot of questions. I look forward to reading it.

***4.5 Stars***

A kickass female bodyguard falls in love with the smexy techy geek she is supposed to be protecting?

I say...Uuummm YES Please! I mean, I love kickass women and have a soft spot for techy geeks (even when I may not understand half of what comes out of their mouths...but their minds…) And I must say that Defenseless hit all the right buttons for me. Characters that all peaked my interest in one way or another, a good balance of humor, heat, drama and heart and a storyline, both the of the romance and suspense variety, that kept me turning the pages until the very end.

Georgia is all kinds of kickass goodness and wants to do her job to the best of her ability, especially since all her other options are ones she’d rather not deal with, but the walls she’s built around her and her desire to keep people at arm’s length has her on shaky ground. I actually loved Georgia from first meeting her ~ we have a similar view of snow ~ and found her to be quite compassionate, quick witted and good on her toes.

Parker is quite the mixed bag. He is way too smart for his own good. He gets lost in his work and has a tendency to take on challenges that could have him end up incarcerated. He may be uncomfortable in certain social situations he isn’t socially awkward, in fact he’s acutely aware of people and can read them quite well...at least when he wants to. I found Parker to be charming and adorable, and if anyone needed a coffee IV to become a reality...it’s him. All of this combined with his generous heart and the touch of alpha-ness that comes out in certain situations made him quite lethal.

Georgia and Parker’s journey to their HEA started off as one would expect when you have two seemingly opposites being thrown together ~ rocky with A LOT of one upmanship happening ~ but after participating in a very interesting icebreaker and cool down, things evened out between them. Well, as much as things could considering they were running for their lives, but intense situations tend to remove a lot of B.S. and it definitely did that here. They saw what each other’s strengths as well as vulnerabilities were and respected them for who they were and, in certain situations, helped to strengthen the other more. The chemistry between them was hot and I loved their bantering, even when they did snipe at each other. The bump in the road to their HEA wasn’t unexpected, but how it got worked out was and I really liked how things for them worked out in the end.

Defenseless is Ms. Dyer’s debut novel and I think she did a wonderful job with it. The writing was engaging, the story was well paced, the twists and turns were well thought out and executed. As this is a first in series, it could have turned into a total info dump, but that never happened. I felt as if everything was revealed in a natural was that flowed with the main storyline. We do get to spend a bit of time with some of the other employees of Somerton Security, not a lot, but enough to peak my interest in all of them, though Ethan and, amazingly enough, Isaac, are the two I find I want to know more about...at least for now. So, bring on the next book!

Phenomenal!

The characters are extremely well developed. The plot is thorough, intense, dramatic, heart wrenching and intriguing. Parker and Georgia are amazing together.

I voluntarily read an advanced copy.

I really enjoyed this one! The writing is fantastic with a perfect mix of action, suspense, and romance. A touch of humor and moments of great passion kept me glued to this one.

One super sexy geek and a sassy spitfire bodyguard combine to make a powerful duo that will track down the people responsible for using Parker's technology against him and the rest of the team he works with putting them all in danger.

Definitely a book I recommend.

A good romantic, on the run, plot twisting, humorous, and suspenseful book! What more can you ask for?? Elizabeth Dyer gives us all these things and much more in Defenseless.
Georgia goes to work for Ethan at Somerton Security after her stint in the military. Ethan is her brother's best friend and feels a need to watch over Georgia since her brother died. She's having a hard time adjusting to the work, and even more to the clientele. Cow-towing to rich celebrities just isn't her bag. Ethan sees her struggles and reassigns her to a tech nerd, Parker. And she sure wasn't expecting him to be so dazzling in those glasses!
Parker is literally a genius and developed special software for the military to use for their covert operations. He's dumbfounded by the new security detail for him. So attractive, snarky, and so self aware, she could pummel anything that crosses her path! Parker is fascinated with Georgia and I loved all their banter! Snarky, sexy and funny-quite a few times I was chuckling! I liked them together! They made a good team in trying to discover who is using Parker's program against them.
I enjoyed the whole mystery surrounding Parker and his enemies! It did get a bit wordy with the nerdy stuff, but I am sure some loved all that! Georgia was a take no prisoners heroine and I liked her from the beginning. You knew there was so much more to Parker than just a nerd doing nerd stuff in the basement stereotype too!
Entirely an intriguing book from start to finish! A good intro to the Somerton Security series!
4 Stars/3 Flames
This book was gifted to me for a voluntary review. The review and ratings are solely my opinions.

Elizabeth Dyer brings these characters to life with the emotions of wanting to be there for each no matter the circumstances even though they've just met. Georgia is a bodyguard and former marine. Parker is a computer genius who works for the government. Georgia is given this last chance at Somerton Security. A few hours into the assignment all hell breaks loose and she a Parker are on the run. From the beginning they are extremely attracted to each other. They meet up with the other members of the team but when the become involved in a mass shooting incident have only each other to rely on., after the person behind the attacks starts using Parker's own program against them. Parker is taken by the people after him and its up to Georgia and the team to rescue him. Will the information about her brother that her boss and Parker have been keeping from Georgia keep her and Parker apart forever or will they triumph over the bad guys. Defenseless the first book in Somerton Security series for Elizabeth Dyer and I look forward to hopefully reading Ethan's, Ryan's, Liam's, Isaac's and Ortiz's stories in the future. Hopefully there will be many more after these as well.

Fast paced, electrifying and sexy! Defenseless caught me with my panties down and I was totally DEFENSELESS against Parker Livingston and company! ~ Heather, White Hot Reads.

Parker Livingston is the untraditional hero - he's nerdy, uber smart and not the brawny guy that we typically read about. But he's super hot, a cross between Superman and Clark Kent, with ABS of STEEL and a heart of gold! He has replaced so many of my book boyfriends with his well rounded, sexy perfection! Georgia Bennett is the quintessential female, kick ass military career type. She doesn't need a man in her life - until Parker Livingston enters... or does she?

Georgia works for a security firm after leaving the military and Parker becomes her assignment and the rules of fraternization apply - NO FRATERNIZATION. However, murder, mayhem and a world of cyber security lead Parker and Georgia down a path no one can imagine.

Elizabeth Dyers writing is perfection. There weren't errors to be found in this book and it read flawlessly. The story was captivating, fast paced and interesting even with the tech speak. I found myself wanting more and more. I can't wait for more of the Somerton Security gang!

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.

<b>"'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.'"</b>

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.

<b>"His scrutiny was as visceral and physical as his hands, as thorough and talented as his tongue."</b>

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DNF

It’s not that DEFENSELESS is bad-- in fact, I quite enjoyed Georgia (it’s always refreshing to have the heroine be the kick-ass one and the hero be the one needing saving!) and the humorous, witty banter-- it just didn’t grab my interest from the outset (or at any point, TBH). When I’m 50% through a romantic suspense book and I still have no problem putting it down to do something as inane as looking at cat videos, it’s time to move on… there are way too many books on my TBR pile to sacrifice more time waiting for this story to enthrall me.

The author was kind enough to suggest this book might be up ROMANCE NOVELS FOR FEMINISTS' alley, given its inversion of the typical protective hero/damsel-in-distress romantic suspense paradigm, and so I picked up a copy from Netgalley.

Fresh out of the Marine Corps, Georgia Bennet is struggling to keep the job given to her by Ethan, a friend of her dead brother, who runs a security agency in the DC area. As a woman, she's supposed to be a benefit to primarily male Somerton Security—but Georgia can't seem to get along with the society women she's typically assigned to guard. So boss Ethan "punishes" her by assigning her to guard tech genius Parker Livingston, inventor of the wildly popular and addictive "Jungle Gem" game and Somerton Security's most hated client ("He's brilliant, but the guy doesn't have the sense God gave a lemur," Ethan informs Georgia [Kindle Loc 153]).

Why should a tech guy need guarding? Turns out that Parker is more than just a game developer; both he and Ethan are part of a government program that uses Parker's computer program to analyze and predict the outcomes of secret ops interventions in hot spots around the world. And Parker has been insisting for a while that something isn't quite right in their group, a warning that Ethan has only now begun to take seriously.

While Ethan goes off to investigate, Georgia is saddled with ADD Parker, a task that neither of them appreciates. Yet within hours of their meeting, the two are getting hot and heavy with each other, something that struck me as pretty unprofessional on Georgia's part. The rest of the book plays out as a girl & guy on the run story, complete with gunfire, sneak attacks, and lots of sex. And while Georgia puts herself in harm's way several times during the course of the book to protect Parker, she ends up not being very competent at keeping him safe (in fact, the first time they are attacked, it is geeky Parker is the one who rescues her). I'm all for inverting gender job roles, but such a move isn't very feminist when your "girl doing a man's job" proves pretty incompetent. And when Georgia spends as much time thinking about how attractive (or not) she is to the opposite sex as she does considering how to protect the man she's being paid to be guarding ("She'd long ago give up possessing a body that turned men's heads and instead focused on possessing a physique that saved men's lives" [1261]). This is meant to be character construction, but it's not very feminist character construction in my view.

Both Parker and Georgia are entertaining characters, though—smart wisecrackers who play well off of each other. Georgia: "The smallest boobs were bigger than the largest balls, which in Georgia's opinion made them the superior measurement of badassery" (189). Parker: "Nope, still sexy. Usually coffee worked like beer goggles in reverse, rendering whatever, or whomever, he was staring at less interesting or attractive" (266).

Did not enjoy the "he kept a big secret from me so I have to be super angry and break up with him" turn of events towards the book's end. This author seems way too smart to have to succumb to such a dull trope. Or the mansplaining of Georgia's ex-boyfriend, who somehow wasn't smart enough to figure out his own shit, but proves amazingly spot-on in telling Georgia what her problems with Parker are, and precisely how to fix them.

So, a mixed bag here.

I have found with this type of story and book so much can and will go wrong.
To my to my surprise as a reader I really enjoyed and fell in love with this book. I loved the surprising moments of humor, heart touching moments and high action this book is the complete package for any Romantic Suspense readers.

Elizabeth Dyer is able to take what seems a little over the stop synopsis and bring readers into a world where two people find out about one another, find humor in dark moments and love all in the course of this 288 page book. Defenseless felt a lot longer but not in a drag out every little detail but because the author was able to have readers connect to the characters. By the end of the book if you haven't cried once with Bennett you are not in touch with your emotions.
I can't wait to read more by this author and I will be recommending her to everyone I know.
Romance, Sexy time, Heart, Soul, Action and one heck of a ride I can't wait to get on again.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher Montlake for the advance copy

I was intrigued by the summary and secured this via NetGalley. I love badass heroines and life and death on-the-run action-suspense with romance. But, from lots of NetGalley reading, this sort of story could go bad. I'm pleased to say I liked Defenseless. The chemistry was there between our couple and some of the off-beat moments (PITA on a Roomba) were intriguing enough to make me smile. While I remained fairly addicted to reading this, what didn't blow me over is the tech-explanations -- which I can forgive, because I think the author made an effort in the best way she could and I'm not really reading this to get how one can dominate the world.

Parker may be one of my favorite book boyfriends. He is written perfectly- I wouldn't change a thing about him. Genius, cute, and nice. There aren't that many nice characters out there, so treasure this one!

Georgia is perfect for Parker. Tough yet vulnerable, she is just what Parker needs.

I received an ARC of this book from netgalley. I really enjoyed this book and the romantic connection that developed between Parker and Georgia. They had some great witty banter that brought some great laughs throughout and the action packed storyline kept me reading on. Great read.

I was hooked by the description of this story and hoped that it wouldn't be another letdown (I've had quite a few of those lately!). I'm pleased to say that this is one of the best romantic suspense novels I've read this year. And apparently it's the debut novel of this author, which is awe-inspiring. I was sucked into the story from the first page and stayed riveted throughout. The heroine, Georgia, is strong, smart, and witty--a winning combination in my opinion. And Parker. Holy crap, Parker. I don't think there's a sexier combination than this uber-intelligent, hot-flash-inducing computer geek, all gooey soft on the inside but badass when he needs to be. The characters are so well developed, and the story itself is full of intrigue. I did have a couple of head-scratching moments, like one scene where the characters are thinking about/talking about living in New York (which isn't true here--maybe in an earlier version?). Nonetheless, this is a great start to a new series with the promise of equally riveting stories for the other members of Somerton Security. I look forward to those upcoming books. I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys romantic suspense. This author has earned a spot on my eagerly-awaiting-the-next-one list.

I really enjoyed the characters in this one :)

They are the opposite of what you expect and blow stereotypes out of the water. Loving the characters really helps move the story along at a quick pace as you try to figure out who is causing the issues and could it be someone they trust with their lives?

DEFENSELESS by Elizabeth Dyer. Book 1 "Somerton Security "
Ex Marine Georgia left to do security work. Her boss tells her it's isn't enough to keep her clients alive and well. She needed to make a personal connection with her next assignment. Parker didn't want a bodyguard, let allow one like her. Sparks fly between them, and with an assassin, they are now running. A fast gripping story, that readers will enjoy, looking forward to more in this series. Given ARC by Net Galley for my voluntary review and my honest opinion.

Dyer's debut book is absolutely un-put-downable! I highly enjoyed it!