Finding Elodie by Susan Stoker

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Renowned chef Elodie Winters’ dream job, private chef to a powerful family in New York, quickly becomes a nightmare when her employer turns out to be the head of a notorious mob family. Now on the run, she thinks she’s finally safe, having landed in the middle of the Arabian Sea, cook on the Asaka Express cargo ship. When the ship is taken by pirates, she can’t believe her bad luck…but it’s about to take a turn for the better. 

Scott “Mustang” Webber is pulled from his current mission, along with the rest of his SEAL team, to prevent an act of piracy in the Middle East. They’re all surprised when the first person to radio for help is a woman. He soon senses “Rachel Walters” is hiding something, and offers his help. He’s both shocked and pleased when she actually comes looking for him in Hawaii months later. He’d felt a connection with her on that cargo ship…one he’s looking forward to exploring further. 

Keeping Elodie safe in Hawaii turns out to be easy…until it isn’t. Long days in paradise have a way of making one complacent. Now Mustang is working against the clock and the elements themselves, as he faces his greatest mission ever—finding Elodie.

Finding Elodie

Protective SEALs, Dangerous Enemies, and Romance

The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: ❤️💙💚💛
Spice: 🌶️🌶️
Chemistry: 🧪🧪🧪
Story/Plot: 📕📗📙📘
World building: 🌏🌍🌎🌏
Character development: 😋😉😎🤯
Narration: 🎙🎙🎙🎙🎙
Narration Type: Dual Narration

Characters and Plot Summary

Finding Elodie introduces Elodie Winters, a talented chef who takes a job as a private chef for what she believes is simply a wealthy New York family, only to discover that her employer is actually a mob boss. Her situation becomes terrifying when she refuses to poison someone at his command, forcing her to disappear and eventually take a job under the name Rachel Walters aboard the Asaka Express. I immediately liked that Elodie is not portrayed as helpless. When pirates attack the cargo ship in the Arabian Sea, she thinks ahead and heads for the galley, using her knowledge of the ship and its supplies while trying to contact help over the emergency radio.

That call puts her in contact with Navy SEAL Scott “Mustang” Webber, who is leading the rescue operation. Mustang is immediately suspicious that Rachel is hiding something, but he is also intrigued by her. Their first meeting during the pirate rescue is one of my favorite parts of the book because Elodie manages to impress him while she is scared and completely out of her element. Mustang gives her his number and tells her to find him in Hawaii if she ever needs help. Months later, after losing the number, Elodie still makes her way to Hawaii hoping to find him.

From there, the romance develops alongside the threat from her past. I enjoyed watching Mustang’s protective instincts clash with Elodie’s determination to handle things herself. The danger eventually catches up with her, leading to a much more personal mission for Mustang and his team.

Highlights and Limitations

The strongest part of this book for me was Elodie herself. I expected the chef-on-the-run setup to make her more of a damsel in distress, but she repeatedly proves that she can think under pressure. Her actions during the cargo-ship attack, including helping the SEALs while she is hiding from the pirates, made me respect her much more than I expected.

I also really enjoyed Mustang’s relationship with his team. The scenes where Elodie begins becoming part of their circle added some welcome humor and warmth between the more intense action sequences. The team feels like an actual brotherhood, and those interactions made me curious about the other SEALs, especially Baker.

The romance has plenty of chemistry, and Mustang’s complete certainty that Elodie is his woman is very much in keeping with the protective alpha heroes I expect from Susan Stoker. I particularly liked that his protectiveness did not completely erase Elodie’s independence.

My biggest limitation was that some of the emotional progression between Elodie and Mustang felt faster than I would have preferred. Their attraction is obvious from their first encounter, but I wanted a little more time for the emotional side of their relationship to develop before everything became so intense. I also thought the ending moved a little quickly after so much buildup. That said, I appreciated getting a complete story without a cliffhanger.

Narration

The narration was a definite strength for me. Emma Wilder gives Elodie a voice that captures both her vulnerability and her determination, which worked especially well during the scenes where Elodie is trying to stay calm while everything around her is falling apart. Jacob Morgan’s Mustang has the confident, commanding quality I expect from a SEAL hero without making him sound completely emotionless.

I also liked having Aaron Shedlock involved for the additional perspective. Having three narrators helped distinguish the different viewpoints and added some extra tension to the suspense portions. The pacing worked particularly well during the action scenes, while the quieter romantic moments had enough emotional contrast to keep the audiobook engaging.

Final Thoughts

Overall, Finding Elodie was a very entertaining start to the SEAL Team Hawaii series. I got exactly the combination I was hoping for: protective SEALs, a heroine with a dangerous past, suspense, romance, humor, and plenty of team camaraderie. Elodie’s journey from running for her life to finally allowing someone else to stand beside her was probably my favorite part of the story.

I especially appreciated that she was capable of helping herself even when Mustang and his team ultimately had to rescue her. The cargo-ship sequence grabbed my attention immediately, and by the time Elodie arrived in Hawaii, I was invested in seeing whether she could finally stop running.

This is a solid choice for fans of Susan Stoker’s military romantic suspense. It has the familiar protective-alpha energy, but Elodie’s strength and the new Hawaii SEAL team give the series a fresh starting point. I finished this one wanting to know more about the other members of Mustang’s team, and Baker in particular definitely caught my attention.

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