This wasn't exactly what I expected but it was a really good read. I enjoy this author and the way they weave the suspense along with the romance. There was a pretty good balance overall between those two elements and I appreciated the loose ends being sufficiently tied up as well as how the romance came together. There were definitely some annoying moments with the romance bit, but it was easily overlooked because they woke up to what they should be doing and feeling in time to make sure it all came out okay.

3.5 stars

I really enjoyed the second half of the book. I felt like that was really when things picked up. The beginning was fairly predictable - no major shocks. It’s a cute story with some interesting twists. Looking forward to reading the next book in this series.

This review was originally posted on <a href="https://booksofmyheart.net/2021/07/13/keeping-guard-by-sandra-owens/" target="_blank"> Books of My Heart</a>
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<i>Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.</i>

I love K-9 stories and really enjoyed the first book in this <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/series/306297-operation-k-9-brothers" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em><strong>Operation K-9 Brothers</strong></em></a> series.  I requested <strong>Keeping Guard</strong> right away.  Somehow it fell off my radar and I missed getting it reviewed when it released and I hate that. I have improved my radar system.

The guys are Navy SEALs in both cases so far, transitioning to civilian life due to injuries.  The setting is Asheville, North Carolina which isn't too far from me. Jack, from the first story, has set up a facility to train companion and therapy dogs.  Both books are a romantic suspense drama where the woman are facing stalkers, which rouses the SEAL protective instincts.

Noah is not interested in having a dog or having a relationship, but after an injury he was sent to work with Jack.   A runaway bride stumbles upon him and they help each other.  He protects her and she makes him laugh.  They are kind to each other and build a good relationship.  Noah makes progress on his issues and Peyton learns to fight for what she wants and value her own worth.

There are plenty of dogs in the story but mostly as companions, rather than doing much work.  We don't get to see a lot of the training.  There is some but I always would like more.   In the beginning, Noah has a tendency to not take his dog, Lucky with him.  By the time he is deployed again, he'd like to keep the dog and stay in Asheville.  But what can he do outside of the military and in Asheville?  He really doesn't want to train dogs.

I love how Noah supports Peyton in resolving her problems and she lets him work through what he wants.   We are getting quite the circle of friends and comradery of a support group.  The next book, <strong>Mountain Rescue</strong>, has a short excerpt at the end and it looks like we have another SEAL visiting NC to get his head on straight and protect a woman in trouble.

This is a voluntary review of an advanced copy.

Lots of intrigue and drama with romance thrown in to keep you involved in this book! Peyton runs away from her wedding when she hears that her groom is only marrying her for her shares in the brewery. It seems like her father is part of this but more is revealed later as the full plot is unveiled.

When Peyton runs away, she meets Noah who is really grumpy and surly and doesn't want to be bothered by anyone. Soon, he comes to help her out and protect her as well as start to heal himself.

It is always fun to read about these guys that swear that they will never have a relationship and then they fall and fall hard!

I loved this book. Sandra owens did it again. This one of my favorite books. I will reread this book over and over again.

Keeping Guard by Sandra Owen is book two in the Operation K9 series. It reads well by itself but I am going back to find book one. I am a new fan of Sandra Owens. The book was well written with great dialogue between the two main characters and between Noah and his friend.

There were some hilarious scenes between Noah and Peyton starting with the scene where they meet each other for the first time.

Peyton is a brew master which was a fun occupation and make her an interesting character. Her relationship with her father also added some drama to the book.

Noah was one of my favorite characters. He had a tough background to overcome. In addition he was trying to heal from a mistake that cost someone their life. I felt the author wrote this storyline very well. And Peyton handled Noah’s issues well and didn’t always take things personally.

There were some secondary character that added depth to the story. Overall I would highly recommend.
Language – use of foul language
Sexual Content – there were a few physical scenes and they were describe in some detail. They were not trashy though.
Violence – some threat of violence and flashbacks from war scenes

Noah Alba is a Navy Seal who is home after losing some of his men in an operation. He is on medical leave assigned to a K-9 training operation to help him overcome battle fatigue.

The operation is headed up by Jack Daniels, a disabled veteran. He knows that having the men help train the dogs also helps to reduce their PTSD. Hopefully it will work on Noah.

Payton Sutton is a runaway bride. She overhears the groom telling a friend; “the only reason I am marrying her is to get her father’s micro-brewery.” She grabs two bottles of champagne and escapes before the ceremony. The groom, Dalton, is a real piece of work whose first wife died leaving him a small fortune.

Fate has Noah meeting Peyton down near a river where she is enjoying the champagne and being thankful for realizing the situation in time. Dalton is not so easily put off, however, and intends to complete the marriage no matter what! He doesn’t care that Payton has become a Master Brewer.

Recognizing the bullying tactics of Dalton and Payton’s father, Noah steps in to help her. She is enamored with his physical prowess and like any white knight, he is not about to allow the situation to proceed. Sandra Owens keeps a very energetic dialogue going between herself and this seasoned veteran. Noah is not looking for a relationship but circumstances dictate otherwise.

I found this read very entertaining; the storyline didn’t lag. I suggest it to any one who wants an fun, enjoyable romantic read. 5 stars - CE Williams

Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) provided by the Author and Publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an fair and honest review.

I'm having a really tough time getting past the angst and self-flagellation of the hero in this book. Yeah, bad things happen in war. Yeah, mistakes can be made that result in the death of others. Yeah, survivors suffer too. But, do I have to be beat over the head every five pages with it? I have some problems with the heroine too, but not nearly what I have with the hero. Overall, I feel like I've read this book before, like the last book Sandra Owens wrote. Must be her formula and I didn't care for it last time either.

When Navy SEAL Noah Alba lands in Asheville, North Carolina he is a mess and suffering from PTSD over a mistake that took the life of his translator and the team dog. This is just one more tragedy in a life marked from a young age. His friend , Jack, trains service dogs and Jack hopes to help Noah through this really tough time. Jack has just the dog for Noah, but Noah wants nothing to do with the dog.

Peyton Sutton's wedding day is supposed to be the happiest day of her life, but the reality is so not. Her father and fiancé have controlled every aspect of it right down to the gown she is wearing. When she overhears a conversation, she realizes that this wedding is going to be a no go and she runs. Peyton ends up at on a trail at the waterfall and she proceeds to toast her escape with a bottle of champagne. When Noah comes upon her, he isn't sure just what is going on, but the sight of Peyton is enough to take his breath away.

But, Peyton's jilted fiancé is not taking "no" for an answer and is determined to take and marry Peyton. Not on Noah's watch and Peyton is fast becoming addicted to the "tingles" Noah kisses give her.

Peyton is a runaway bride finding out that her fiancé was only into her because her fathers promise that he'll get part of her family business shares. Noah is dealing with PSTD and trying to move forward wen he finds Peyton in rough shape after leaving her wedding. Sensing that she needs a bit of help he gets her out of a tight situation but when its clear that her ex-fiancé isn't getting the hint he sticks around longer to be of assistance.

I enjoyed this book. I loved seeing the connection between Peyton and Noah, they were there at the right moment to be what each others needs. I mean Peyton's ex just wasn't taking no for answer and was getting progressively worse and I was curious just how far he would go. Then there was that simmering attraction between Peyton and Noah and you can't help but root for them. I was curious to see what would become of things between the two especially since Noah was around for a reason, he had his demons he's working though. Overall this was a pretty good book I really enjoyed it.

K-9s, SEALS, and Romance
This is a nice hero romance. There is a lot of explicit sex that is part of the story but can be skipped over. It is a fine romance that builds between a SEAL on leave and a young woman who he saves. As their feelings for each other grow, he begins to heal. This book has a very good plot that keeps the reader interested and engaged. The character development is good and all of them are quite believable. The story is full of wounded warriors in various stages of healing. It is an emotionally touching book that left me mulling it over for several days. I received this ARC book for free from Net Galley and this is my honest review.

This story will knock your socks off. It is compelling, heartbreaking and dare I say sweet. It has one of my favorite elements, a tortured hero. He is a real hero but only sees himself as a failure. The K-9 Operations is there to help warriors who need support. We met the owner in the previous book and he is an integral part of this story. I cannot imagine how these men and women deal with the tragedies they encounter while on deployment. Sandra brings to life the real struggles and doubts. While this is a romance and I loved it, the real story lies with Noah. He does not want to accept help and keeps saying he gives up but his healing is present and in front of us. A powerful story.

This is book two of the K9 Brothers Series but it completely stands alone. Reading book one gives you a little more background on the dog training center came to be, but it is not required reading to enjoy this one.

Ms. Owens has a real way with writing stories that are serious and deal with difficult topics, but are still light-hearted and a feel-good kind of read. That she can balance the angst and sadness with so much goodness and humor is a real skill that not all romantic suspense/mystery authors have.

Noah is such a great hero because he's struggling and imperfect, but he's trying his best to deal with the hardships life has dealt him, which I really appreciate in a romance hero. He's not too perfect, but he's also not the total jerk hero that seems to be baffling popular in the genre these days. Noah's recovery and his many slowly-developing relationships were wonderful. Ms. Owens writes strong, self-rescuing heroines, and Peyton is my favorite of all of them. Peyton might have gotten herself into a bad situation to start with, but she takes no crap from anyone, and while she lets Noah help keep her safe, she she doesn't need rescuing, she handles herself like a boss. If you like strong, sassy heroines, Peyton is your girl.

I highly recommend this book (and this series) to anyone who enjoys a well-written love story between two really great characters - you won't regret it.

Sandra Owens has become a top five author of mine. This series is going to be a favorite for certain. KEEPING GUARD was funny, sweet, intense, suspenseful, and satisfying. I didn't want to put it down. The romance was perfect. Peyton was super funny, kind, intelligent, and a rambler. I truly loved her character! And Noah was just perfect for her. He was charming, attentive, and protective. My heart broke for each of them, but neither allowed their childhoods to totally dictate their futures. This is a great standalone, but I can't imagine not picking up book one as well. Beautifully written book.

Thank you Netgalley, Carina Press, and Sandra Owen for allowing me to read an ARC of this book. This is my voluntary and honest review.

Keeping Guard is the second book in Sandra Owens’ new series called Operation K9 Brothers. It is a romantic suspense story with great well developed characters, a lucky K9, a fantastic storyline and a happily ever after.

I truly enjoyed how Noah and Peyton meet. It’s definitely a story to tell the grandkids about. The connection between them was instant and deep and their chemistry was explosive when they finally let go. I loved how both Peyton and Noah did what they could to encourage and help each other with handling their demons. They just have to find a way to survive when their pasts begin to affect their future. Read it to find out way happens.

All the books in Sandra Owenks Operation K9 Brothers series can be read as a standalone, however, reading it in order will give you a better appreciation for the characters and the series itself. I can’t wait to read Dallas’ story in the next book!

This is a voluntary review of an advanced readers copy received from Netgalley.

I’m always on the lookout for a new to me romantic suspense author and this book sounded perfect, especially with the dogs.

I really liked Peyton and Noah. She’s smart and independent. He’s stoic and hurting. Together they have instant attraction and a slow, seemingly organic progression of a relationship. I loved Jack and Nichole and the dogs.

Plot wise, it was okay. I wanted a lot more of everything: the suspense was low, the tension was non-existent, and seriously, a few open conversations about the future wouldn’t have killed anyone. The inevitable break up didn’t last long (and was tempered with a fun scene between Peyton and Nichole) and the resolution was immediate.

At times, the writing felt clunky to me. There were odd word choices and repetitive phrases and (maybe it’s just a regional thing), it took me out of the story.

Overall, it was easy to root for these characters and I might go back to see if Jack and Nichole are in a previous book.

FYI: on the page scenes of violence against women

**Huge thanks to Carina Press for providing the arc free of charge**

Keeping Guard is the second book in the Operation K-9 Brothers series by Sandra Owens. A steamy romance with a hint of suspense.

Keeping Guard
Sandra Owens
May 25, 2021


Owen’s latest, Keeping Guard is the second of her Operation K-9 Brothers series. This romantic suspense has it all. Noah Alba, Navy Seal on an extended leave to receive some much needed counseling. He’s been told to take time with his Seal Brother, Jack Daniels - aka Whiskey to work with his dogs that become therapy guides for retired Seals. When Noah arrived in Asheville, North Carolina he wanted anything but help. His constant battle with anger and pain was his problem and he could deal with it. After checking in with Whiskey at the kennels he was told to drop his gear off at the small efficiency apartment the Navy booked for him. He was given a map to a local park and waterfall. Jack felt that if he chilled out from the flight he might be able to get something to eat and then sleep. His first day at the K-9 facility was scheduled for tomorrow. Neither thought he would be any good if he couldn’t relax.
In the interim, Peyton Sutton was dressing for her wedding but she overheard Dalton discussing the marriage to his best man. He only planned to marry her to gain her father’s trust along with his gift of shares in his business. The prospective groom, Dalton, was financed to the hilt with shady loans and his game was to inherit Sutton’s millions.
Operation K-9 Brothers is a great series. It has fun yet lures the reader in with suspense. When Noah discovers Peyton at the waterfall stripped of her bridal gown sitting on a boulder drinking champagne; his journey opens up and the story becomes an incredibly good read.
Keeping Guard by Sandra Owens will be published by Carina Press of Harlequin Digital Sales on May 25, 2021. I appreciate their allowing me to read and review this latest Owen’s novel via Netgalley. It gives us a view of the need for dogs in the military as well as for the retired brothers and sisters who suffer PTSD. I thoroughly enjoyed this journey of Noah and Peyton. Do pick this one up, a great beach read. Enjoy!

Amusing, sexy and featuring very interesting, troubled characters, particularly a broken, grumpy hero, “Keeping Guard”, by Sandra Owens (HARLEQUIN – Carina Press), maintains a perfect balance between humor and depth.
This was just a joy, a pleasure to read – the characters, the dialogue, the dogs, the setting (Asheville), everything is delightful and well written.
Noah and Peyton are both very decent people: Noah with his wounded soul (tortured, yet so smitten with the heroine and deep down such a gentle man), Peyton with her enormous, impulsive heart and that cute tendency to ramble.
I found the hero’s internal musings very well done, showing the psychological scars (with suggestive imagery of mental trauma) and baggage but also the ability to care and love, and all wrapped up in a light, dry humor.
Peyton is a great character, too, a vibrant woman, genuine and mature but still with an adorable youthfulness.
I liked that besides the physical attraction there’s a strong emotional connection between Noah and Peyton.
Funny and sweet, the story also has some heart-breaking moments and depth, and addresses serious issues like PTSD and domestic violence. Sandra Owens does a great job of conveying Noah’s guilt and that it doesn’t disappear with the love of a good woman… And even the therapy sessions were lively and interesting, with lots of showing.
I liked the brotherhood, the friendships that developed, and loved Noah’s gift (and how Owens intertwines it into the plot so very cleverly and economically).

Keeping Guard is the second book in Sandra Owens' Operation K-9 Brothers series, and it's the second book of hers I've read. Each book in the series is a standalone read, and although characters from the first novel appeared in this one, I never felt that readers would need to read these novels in the order written--they work just fine as standalones, and while I really enjoyed the series opener and I liked this one just as much, if not more so, which is why it gets 5 stars from this reader.

Noah Alba, who was abused as child by his violent, alcoholic father, is now a Navy SEAL, on leave after a bomb blast killed his K-9 bomb-detection dog as well as young local boy Noah was teaching to play his guitar. He is tortured by guilt and consumed with self-blame over the belief that it was his fault for not detecting the bomb and the bomb maker in the small hut he searched without benefit of his K-9 companion. As a result, he is now on leave from the SEALs, working with another former SEAL, Jack Daniels ("Whiskey"), who is a wounded warrior, now training K-9 companions and service dogs for wounded warriors like himself and other veterans with PTSD. Noah is also supposed to start seeing a therapist, something he dreads, and instead he keeps his tattered and battered emotions locked down tight, even to the point of never touching his guitar or playing it again because the last person to play it was the young boy whose death in the blast is one more thing Noah blames himself for. Divorcing himself from the guitar, the music he loves, and even singing, is his self-imposed penance for those two deaths. Trying to get his head on straight, and find some peace, Noah drives to a waterfall for some time to think, and very soon his life is about to change in a major way.

It's Peyton Sutton's wedding day, and 5 minutes before she's due to walk down the aisle, she overhears her fiancé, Dalton, tell his best man that the only reason he's marrying Peyton is to get the shares in her father's Elk Antler Brewery, which, as her father promised him, will become his as her husband. Dalton has been chief financial officer at the brewery, and has been cozying up to her father for years. Peyton is devastated, hurt, and confused, since she is a master brewer there, and was promised those shares for years by her emotionally distant father, who raised her from childhood after her mother, who'd divorced him, no longer wanted to raise Peyton alone. Peyton has spent her life trying to please the man, but she's convinced he doesn't love her, and hearing about the deal he made with Dalton, it's the last straw. She becomes a runaway bride, still in her wedding gown and grabbing two bottles of champagne on her way to steal Dalton's Mercedes and hit the road. She ends up at the waterfall, strips off her hated wedding gown, and proceeds to chug down the champagne--that is, until Noah shows up at the same waterfall, finding the beautiful, half-naked and more than half-loaded runaway bride, who, without much prompting, pours out her sad story to Noah.

It's not long after this chance meeting that Peyton's father and her jilted fiancé show up and try to get her to return to her wedding, but Peyton doesn't want to leave and Noah isn't going to allow them to do that, and he carries Peyton back to his car, leaving the two angry men behind. He has no idea what he's going to do with the runaway bride, but he certainly isn't going to leave her with her angry fiancé and the father who betrayed her, and especially later on, when Dalton starts stalking Peyton, breaking into her loft and trying to physically force her into marrying him. Noah soon comes to her rescue, eventually moving into her loft to protect her from Dalton, but he's also trying to protect himself from falling for Peyton, who is one of the best, most endearing, and funniest heroines I've come across in some time.

It's not all fun and games as Noah tries to protect himself from falling for beautiful and quirky Peyton, and, against his better judgement, they soon agree to a no-strings, no-regrets, sizzling sexual relationship, but if you're a romance reader, you already know where this is going to lead. However, in the interim, Ms. Owens has really done a remarkable job in developing these two characters, both of whom are worthy of so much more than a no-strings fling on Noah's part, and a marriage of convenience orchestrated by Peyton's cold and remote father, the man Peyton has spent her life trying to please, and who was devastated by his betrayal of her. Both of these characters have a full plate of problems but together those problems do have a solution.

If you're looking for an angsty, heart-wrenching, yet sexy novel about two people whom life has dealt with harshly, look no further--this is that book. Ms. Owens has written a deeply-moving novel, with well-drawn characters, suspense and danger, and interspersed with just enough light and funny banter to make these characters jump off the page and into your heart, as you watch them suffer through what life has handed them, yet who together manage to save and heal each other and themselves. This is one series I'll keep following, and one I'm happy to recommend it.

I voluntarily read an advance reader copy of this novel. The opinions expressed are my own.

My heart hurt for the love that both Peyton and Noah didn't receive as a child. It shaped them into the adults they became. Noah was keeping guard over Peyton but in her own way she was over Noah also. Making, Keeping Guard, the perfect name for the title.