Caitlyn O'Leary

I received a copy of Her Devoted HERO from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The following opinions are mine and mine alone.
Dex is a Navy SEAL who never thought he'd be victim to a dating profile prank, but he was. After he and his teammates prank a fellow SEAL team, he's signed up for a dating site as SailorBoy69 by his counterpart on the second team. When he gets back from assignment, he's greeted with a flooded inbox from responses to 'winks' that SailorBoy69 show more had sent out. To every woman in the tricounty area. Being a gentleman, he replied to each and every single message, explaining the prank profile. When he reaches the final one, he's intrigued enough to ignore the prank and reply to Poppy (Kenna).
The self-deprecating single mom works two jobs, one a nurse and one a personal assistant to a silver screen actress. In her initial email, and all the ones to follow, she cuts herself down and tells SailorBoy69 all the reasons why he should just ignore her message. When Dex continues emailing her and informs Poppy that he's really and truly in it for the long haul, she breaks things off and deletes her account. That's when Dex gets a little stalkerish, he contacts her boss and pleads his case. Rosalie, being the romantic she is, pounces and sets things up. Almost immediately after Dex convinces Kenna to give him a real chance, Kenna picks up an extreme stalker. Dex forgets the whole 'budding relationship' status of his connection with Kenna and kind of takes over her whole existence after that.
I was happily surprised that I wasn't able to figure out the whodunnit factor, which is a certifiable feat for any writer that can stump me like Ms O'Leary did. And I totally understood Kenna's need to stress clean through her ordeal, I've actually broken into my grandmother's church in the middle of the night and cleaned every inch of the place because I was upset.
What put me off? I wasn't impressed with how easily Kenna capitulated to Dex's massive alpha complex after the initial rebellion. It had promise but Kenna seesaws between 'help me, I can't do a thing' and 'I don't need nobody' and I felt as if I'd develop whiplash if she continued the back and forth. I was disappointed that once they became intimate the story became secondary information. Kenna is asked early in the book for a favour from a friend and she completely forgets halfway through said favour because of boy-brain. And it paints her as a vapid woman the way she does a complete character remix for a guy. The author introduced a bevy of important characters and did nothing for their character building. We learn which of Dex's teammates drives what vehicle and they get a few lines and two references to past incidences. But other than that, they were nonexistent.
Overall, I'm going to give Her Devoted Hero 3 stars because I could see the story coming alive and I was held captive with suspense, but Kenna was just a hot mess and most of the characters lacked depth. And let's not talk about the whodunnit. I mean, points for stumping me, but come on! show less

This is a solid book, but it doesn't stand out to me as anything particularly engaging or enthralling. I actually re-read it because I couldn't really remember the plot line, after only a couple of weeks. Usually I re-read things so I can experience it all again. I think the biggest problem is that it depends a bit too much on "telling" instead of "showing". I wouldn't really picture Mason as a SEAL if I wasn't told about again and again. Even the mission scenes feel somehow divorced from my show more image of the character in the rest of the book. show less

Well Ladies and Gents, I am going to let you into a little secret of mine...I love Ménage stories, and Claiming Kara has fast become one of my favorites, and no, it’s not because we share the same first name (although it gives me a thrill when reading the book  ).
So the story goes like this, Kara is in love with two men, luckily for her they are brothers AND they both want a plural relationship. But after troubles with their family back home in Alaska, Ben and Quinn (the brothers) send show more her home. Well after a year and a half of waiting for them, Kara is heartbroken and has decided that she is not going to wait for them anymore and starts serial dating. When the brother’s hear that she is dating and dismissing their dreams of their lives together the rush to her, only to find that Kara has had enough…of both of them. I am going to leave the story there as I don't spoil it for you
The story is so well written and I loved it, even the flashbacks (which I would normally hate). The characters are three- dimensional and you can really feel their emotions. Other than the dickhead doctor (one of Kara’s dates), I loved every character. I think my favorite is Quinn, although they are all great.
I give Claiming Kara 10 out of 10 and kudos to Caitlyn O'Leary for writing such a fantastic book show less

This book was a good read packed with a lot of details so it was slow to get into until Kane and his team meet AJ on an assignment. I loved this band of brother's and how they have each other's backs no matter what. I also enjoyed Aj because she is smart, feisty, and could hold her own. I wish it had more time with Kane and Aj because they spend more time apart doing their own things during this mission than they do together. The military side was intense, action packed, but it ran over the show more book instead of the romance side of things. Overall a good easy read and I will continue with the rest of the guys. show less