Book picks similar to
Protecting Mari by Cara Carnes


romantic-suspense
romance
military
contemporary

Safe


Ryan Michele - 2013
    An escape—from him.After being brutally abused for years, Sadie seeks sanctuary and safety. But can she ever be safe when evil has his eyes on her from afar.Landon doesn’t want a relationship. He’s been burned too badly to want anything more from a woman than the physical, but one look at Sadie and he’s rethinking everything. Can trust be formed when it’s been so beaten down? Can love conquer fears? What happens when evil doesn’t give up? Can Sadie ever really be safe? **Please note. This book contains the very difficult subject of physical abuse and has a non-consensual sexual scene. It also has a very strong woman who learns to heal from these acts and finds the kind of love we all dream of having.

Next to Me


Jodi Watters - 2014
    A woman on the run.A man afraid of no one.A plan as old as time.Hiding from her violent ex, Ali Ross knows the law can't help her. She also knows someone like Sam can. Fearing for her life, she's willing to do whatever it takes to ensure her safety, and that includes seducing the sexy soldier next door. It’s the perfect plan. Until…A woman falling in love.A man already there.A past that won’t be ignored.All books in the Love Happens series are standalone novels:Next to Me (Sam)Wrong then Right (Beckett)True to You (Asher)Have a Heart (Jason)

Capture


Olivia Ryann - 2018
     One day, I’m cooking dinner for my brothers and dreaming about going off to college. I’m a good girl, protected by the family. After all, my dad is a big mob boss in New Orleans. The next day, I’m stuffed into the back of an SUV against my will. Kidnapped. Shaking with fear. I try to run, try to escape… but I don’t realize that I am just a pawn. I don’t see the larger picture, or the shadowed man pulling the strings. I don’t realize that he is going to capture me. Or that I will be lost from the first moment I look into his eyes… Reading Order: Capture (Cherish Series FREE Prequel) Control (Cherish Series Book 1) Covet (Cherish Series Book 2) Cherish (Cherish Series Book 3)

Irresistible Force


D.D. Ayres - 2014
    She just knows he’ll make a terrific watch dog—and with an abusive ex who won’t let go, she needs all the protection she can get. But Shay never suspected that her new pet is actually a trained police K-9 named Bogart—until Bogart’s even more gorgeous, human partner shows up on her doorstep.Officer James Cannon is one tall, strong alpha male who’s convinced that Shay stole his dog. But once he gets closer to the suspect, he realizes that this stubborn, independent woman not only needs a guard dog, she needs James as well. It seems that someone from her past is stalking her, and threatening her life. When danger meets desire, will James risk his career and his best friend…to protect the woman who’s stolen his heart?

Her Marine Hero


Mia Dailey - 2019
     She’s dreaming of something more than a ranch life. Two Believers looking for each other without knowing it and a chance encounter that changes everything. After the woman he wanted to marry broke his heart, young multimillionaire and businessman James Greyson decides to join the Marines. A true romantic disappointed in love, heartbroken and betrayed, he escapes in hopes that his broken heart will heal. James and his brother Alex have already suffered enough after the death of their parents. Will boot camp in San Diego will help him find what he’s looking for? Victoria Martinez, a God loving woman has always dreamed of something more than the ranch life in Ohio. After getting her bachelor’s degree at an early age, she joins the Officer Candidate School for the Marines in the hope that it will bring her something more. However, after her father dies of a heart attack a year later, she can’t stop blaming herself for it. Victoria seeks redemption in a children’s group at church, and solace on a beach that makes her feel connected to God – and finds a young, broke Marine just out of boot camp. Instantly drawn to each other, they’re soon to face their trials: a horrifying accident that puts Victoria’s mother in the hospital that forces her to hurry back home...to the family that still hasn’t forgiven her, and a fire on the military ship where James is deployed. Will Victoria finally forgive herself and have peace with her family? Will James make it out alive out of the burning ship to tell Victoria who he really is? Will these trials bring them closer to each other, or separate them forever, just when they’ve found true love? And will they both continue to trust God or will their faith be shaken? Other books in the Millionaire Solider Christian Romance Anthology Series: 1. Her Marine Hero (FREE book) 2. Her Army Hero 3. Her Navy Hero 4. Her Air Force Hero 5. Her Coast Guard Hero Enjoy this Christian Military Romance read today!

A SEAL's Seduction


Tawny Weber - 2013
    Checked. Rechecked. But when a mission ends badly, his entire team is ordered on leave. And that's when Blake sees the tall redhead whose dark eyes suggest that the rules-especially those in bed-are made to be broken. Scientist Alexia Lane has sex on the brain-partly for work, but mostly because she needs a man who makes her girly parts do the happy dance. Her only no-no? No military dudes. But Blake's rockin' bod promises delicious pleasures, and Alexia is halfway to sexual Nirvana before she can find out he's actually a Navy SEAL. And where one rule is broken, more are sure to follow.... Uniformly Hot! The Few. The Proud. The Sexy as Hell!

Vengeance


Vanessa Kier - 2013
    Vengeance. She vows revenge on the men behind the attack, including her once beloved older brother, Kai. But Kai has disappeared with a microchip containing data on a top-secret government research program.Ten years ago, undercover agent Niko Andros sent a vicious Mexican crime lord to prison. Now the man has been released and he's kidnapped Niko's aunt. The price for his aunt's freedom is Kai and the microchip. Niko will do anything to save his aunt―including using Jenna as bait.As Niko dives back into the deadly criminal underground he'd barely escaped, Jenna discovers she's not as tough as she thinks. Teamed up to find her brother, Niko and Jenna fight to survive in a dangerous world of lies, betrayal, and hidden agendas. Only love can save them...if they'll let it.

Beast


A. Zavarelli - 2017
    But then he took me. And he taught me that life isn’t a fairytale. He is scarred. Broken. A dark and wild thing. His beauty is violent and his words are cruel. His heart is a shadowed landscape where nothing can grow. He tells me he could never care for me, and he proves it every day. He’s destroyed my life. Tortured me. And worse… He’s trained me to beg for his affection. This prison is a place where sunlight doesn’t reach. He taught me that hate is born in darkness. And then he taught me that sometimes love is too.

Fixing Fate


Anna Brooks - 2017
    My brother’s friend and ex-partner is everything I’ll never be. Sexy, confident, and perfect. He calls me sunshine and tells me I’m beautiful. He asks me to stay. When my past come back with a vengeance, he proves just how much he’d risk to shield me from the demons that were never supposed to resurface.

Vulnerable


April Wilson - 2015
    Both books can be read standalone, and both books end in an HEA, but to get the most enjoyment out of them, they're best read in order. The second book - Fearless - is due out early 2016.)Beth Jamison had a rough start in life. She survived a childhood abduction, but her traumatic past still haunts her, and she suffers from anxiety and issues with intimacy. Beth doesn't know it, but the man who kidnapped her has just been released early from prison. When Beth’s brother hires McIntyre Security, Inc. to protect Beth and conduct surveillance on her kidnapper, Beth has no idea she has secret bodyguards keeping her safe 24/7. With his money and good looks, CEO Shane McIntyre has never been short on feminine company, and he’s developed a reputation as a “love ‘em and leave ‘em” kind of guy. But that changes when Shane meets Beth. Their mutual attraction is instant and intense, and Shane falls hard for Beth. Shane has his work cut out for him if he’s going to gain her trust and get past her fears. This alpha protector is determined to keep Beth safe, but he’s also determined to make her his.

Grit


J.M. Walker - 2016
    Walker" He refuses to fall in love. He was born alone and he will die alone. Or, at least he thought so until now. Vice-One is all he knows. His squad. His brothers. The men he spends every day protecting. He is empty and only one person can fill this void. This darkness. Meanwhile, Genevieve Gold makes it clear he should stay away when she is everything he craves. She is lost. Her heart has been ripped out; stomped on...crushed into tiny pieces, leaving only a gaping hole behind. King's Harlots is all she has. Her club. Her sisters. Her life. But something is missing until he shows up. Angel Rodriguez is everything she hates but everything she needs. Putting differences aside, they will work together to bring down a malevolent force threatening to rip them apart...

Protection Crisis


Rochelle Paige - 2016
    Raised by her grandmother after her parents died, her sheltered upbringing is a far cry from the celebrity lifestyle she's expected to live when she wins an Oscar for her first movie role. A former Navy SEAL… The ink on Kael Stewart's Navy separation papers is barely dry. The last thing he wants to do is babysit a spoiled movie star, but he can't say no when his grandfather asks him for a favor. And a crazed stalker… Kael has to find Chloe before he can protect her. Scared for her life, she's dropped out of sight in the hope that her obsessed fan will lose interest. Sparks fly when he hunts Chloe down, and Kael quickly discovers he has something in common with her stalker—an obsession with the beautiful actress. Lead to a love worth protecting.

Going Down


Shelli Stevens - 2010
    The other wants her dead...Holding Out for a Hero, Book 1Eleanor Owen needs to get out of Chicago and quick. It's not that she doesn't want to obey the subpoena to testify against her drug-trafficking ex-boyfriend. It's making it to the witness stand alive, should a dirty cop make good on his threats.Tiny, remote Wyattville, Oregon, looks like the perfect place to disappear, but it's hard to blend into the woodwork when one of the town's infamous namesakes sends her heart racing. Worse, Mr. Tall, Hot and Packing is the town sheriff, which means she should stay as far away from him as possible.Tyson Wyatt is positive the sexy new girl in town is hiding something. Question is, what? He vows to feel out her secrets--including what she feels like beneath him. Preferably naked. Until then, he's not buying the story she's selling.Their chemistry is sheet-melting hot, and Ellie realizes much too late that the man with the badge is as dangerous to her heart as her ex is to her life...Warning:A city girl on the run, and a small-town sheriff set to seduce. Explicit sex. Dirty talk. A hint of danger. Oral sex with a cupcake.

Coastal Elite


Kate Canterbary - 2017
    Business problems, political problems, cheating ex-girlfriend problems. He knows that a week away from the Washington D.C. Beltway won't do a damn bit of good for those problems, but his beach house in Montauk is exactly where he needs to be right now. April Veach has plans.Work plans, travel plans, try-everything-once plans. Montauk is keeping her plenty busy this summer between decorating wedding cakes and teaching yoga, and busy is good. But busy is also a lonely bed, and that wasn't part of her grand plan. After a weekend together, his problems and her plans take them in an unexpected direction.

Claiming Her SEAL


Kat Cantrell - 2016
    He hides the darkness in his past, content to run an island adventure company in the Caribbean with members of his former SEAL team—until resort guest Emma Richardson targets him for a vacation fling. Her fresh innocence and insistence on seeing hero material in Dex where none exists makes him yearn to be the man she deserves. And that terrifies Dex more than any war zone he's ever faced, until he discovers Emma has demons of her own…