Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Aces #3.5

The Guardian

Rate this book
Falling in love would end Jason Green’s clandestine career. That was okay; he’d planned to quit anyway. There was no better time than after proposing to Roxana Carter. But Jason hadn’t expected his employer to refuse his resignation unless he left in a body bag.
Roxana loved many things about her man. The stability he offered after years of family tragedies was at the top of her list. Then again, his killer bedroom moves were also a strong contender for the number one spot. Ranking their relationship qualities was the most challenging part of her life until the arrival of a mysterious gun-wielding couple.
Their message offered a shattering revelation. Roxana’s steadfast man isn’t who he seems.

94 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 2020

200 people are currently reading
130 people want to read

About the author

Cristin Harber

58 books2,365 followers
Cristin Harber is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling romance author. She writes sexy romantic suspense, military romance, and new adult. Fans voted her onto Amazon's Top Picks for Debut Romance Authors in 2013, and her debut Titan series was both a #1 romantic suspense and #1 military romance bestseller.

The Titan Series:
Winters Heat
Sweet Girl
Garrison's Creed
Westin's Chase
Gambled
Chased
Savage Secrets
Hart Attack
Sweet One
Live Wire
Black Dawn
Bishop’s Queen
Locke and Key
Jax
Deja Vu

The Delta Series:
Delta: Retribution
Delta: Revenge
Delta: Rescue*
Delta: Redemption
Delta: Ricochet

*Delta: Rescue is a novella in Liliana Hart's MacKenzie Family Collection. It can read as a standalone story or in conjunction with either authors' series.

The Only Series:
Only for Him
Only for Her
Only for Us
Only Forever

Each Titan and Delta book can be read as a standalone (except for Sweet Girl), but readers will likely best enjoy the series in order. The Only series must be read in order.

7 Brides for 7 Soldiers:
Ryder (#1) - Barbara Freethy
Adam (#2) - Roxanne St. Claire
Zane (#3) - Christie Ridgway
Wyatt (#4) - Lynn Raye Harris
Jack (#5) - Julia London
Noah (#6) - Cristin Harber
Ford (#7) - Samantha Chase

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
209 (44%)
4 stars
138 (29%)
3 stars
91 (19%)
2 stars
19 (4%)
1 star
13 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews
Profile Image for E-Reader Addict.
1,337 reviews46 followers
June 10, 2025
It’s been a long time since I’ve read a Cristin Harber book, and I’m glad to be back. This novella was short and sweet but hit the notes I love best about this author - an equal amount of romance and suspense, along with a smart woman and a man who loves her for being that way.
Profile Image for Kristen Lewendon.
8,429 reviews64 followers
September 13, 2020
There’s a bit of a Mr. & Mrs. Smith feeling about this. Kind of like The Keystone Cops meet Mission Impossible. There’s danger, and action, and suspense, but there’s also an irreverent humor I wasn’t expecting. Roxana may be an innocent caught in the middle of a bunch of misconceptions, but she’s got a spine of pure adamantine that will serve her well. Jason’s living several different layers of secret lives, but when all the layers are stripped away, the only thing that matters to him is Roxana.
Profile Image for Siobhan.
5,048 reviews599 followers
February 12, 2021
The Guardian is book three-point-five in Cristin Haber’s Ace series, and I feel this was a story that would have worked better if I had read the other books in the series. As it was, I felt like I stepped into the middle of a story and was lacking in the information to understand it.

I’ll be honest and say there were a couple of elements in this one that had me interested. Unfortunately, things were far too quick in this one. There was no real development, and everything happened too quickly. I wanted to feel a connection to the characters or the suspense of the events, but neither grabbed me.

I’m sure fans of the series will get something from this, but it wasn’t for me.
Profile Image for Diane (Books and Tequila Blog).
1,526 reviews71 followers
October 21, 2020
I really loved smart and spunky Roxana. She wanted quiet, safe accountant Jason and found out the hard way that she ended up with way more than she had bargained for.

“More guns in your house than the one you saw,” he muttered under his breath, still coaxing her from the bushes.
Roxana cursed. “Of course there are—and when did you pick up cross-stitching? Any covert doilies I don’t know about?”

This story is a standalone, but there were several times that I felt like I was missing something because I wasn’t familiar with the previous books in this series. But even when I felt a little lost, I was always entertained especially by Roxana’s brand of snark!

“... I shook a Magic Eight Ball, and it said the future would be hunky-dory perfect.”

The only problem here is that now I NEED to go back and read the whole Aces series!!
-4 Stars-
Profile Image for Mei.
315 reviews1 follower
December 28, 2020
This was a quick read as part of the Danger and Desire boxset. There were a few typos and missing words. Eg. “The backyard gate clanked against its unmoving lock before the familiar voice of her called, ‘Roxana, are you back there?’” —The voice of her WHAT??

It took some guessing and further reading to figure out who was there and re-reading the line over and over wasn’t helping. Things like this that just required extra effort to figure out what was happening really took away from the story.

I also forgot this author likes to use the word ‘mum’ to mean silent. That’s just a personal dislike of mine especially when that word means mother where I live.
Profile Image for Chanel.
1,833 reviews
September 24, 2020
3.25 for this entertaining romantic comedy with intrigue. It’s not everyday you read a book where the boss is drunk and shooting at his employee, who is the leading man. That isn’t the worse thing that happens to Jason that day, as his secret life has just been exposed to his sweet fiancé, Roxanne.
This novella was included in the “Danger and Desire” book.
917 reviews5 followers
July 7, 2021
Not actually an Aces book

No plot spoilers
No potential triggers
There are some grammatical and editorial errors including mixed tense errors.
The characterisation is good and I liked the characters, but the story didn't measure up to previous books. It felt like a doodle from the author that expanded to fill the page rather than a well thought out story.
I know it's a novella so space is limited but what I don't understand is why it was written in the first place.
It has no connection to Titan, it's a Buck Baer GSI book and had I understood that from the blurb I wouldn't have purchased it.
It's billed as an Aces book, it isn't and no matter how engaging the characters are I felt cheated.
There are a couple of light sex scenes and some swearing.
It's an okay read, just not what it's supposed to be and in my opinion it adds absolutely nothing to the series. It's an opportunity for the author to make bank.
Profile Image for Maria .
2,496 reviews23 followers
April 23, 2021
Oblivious

3.5 Stars - Roxana and Jason's story was very fast paced. I would have given it five stars if it would have been more complete. It completely left us hanging in reference to Roxana and Hagan's come to Jesus encounter. As a devoted reader of this series I felt we deserved to witness it. That disappointed me, plus the whole thing with Buck at the end left me perplexed. Hagan's story was better.

Here we have a man who proposes to his girlfriend, but he has dark secrets. She believes he is an accountant, which is far from what he truly is. Her brother is involved in the whole keep her in the dark scenario. His boss tries to kill him, then his colleagues try to keep her as a hostage. This one was farfetched. The story all happens within less than a week.
Profile Image for Donna Ferriola.
407 reviews1 follower
July 24, 2021
The Guardian- Aces Book 4

This was an cute romantic book with Jason having to explain his secret life to the love of his life, Roxana. He quit his job as a Watcher because he wanted a normal life with her but things were not that easy. First he had to get away from his crazy boss and get back to Roxana to explain everything to her. His boss sent out two contractors out to her house, Vanka and Spiker, who threatened her life. Roxana understood when he told her in code what to do to get away from them so he could meet up with her and explain everything. After some bumps in the road they straighten things out and they get to move on with their lives . It makes for some funny moments while they get their happily ever after. I cannot wait to read the next release in this series when Vanka and Spiker get their story.
Profile Image for Dawn Cruikshank.
1,143 reviews8 followers
October 7, 2020
The Guardian

WOW! Another FANTASTIC story by Cristin! Do we get to know Jason's real name or is his name actually Jason? Roxana seemed a bit flighty but she definitely had spunk and towards the end she seemed strong. This story went way too fast but then again great stories always go fast. I guess I forgot that Jared started a new division called Aces. So, is Jason going to join Aces and does Roxana get back at her brother Hagan for lying to her and I don't know if I would have easily forgiven Jason for deceiving her but she did. I am assuming that these two finally work on their happily ever after. FANTASTIC job Cristin! I would highly recommend this book.
Profile Image for Jane A.
338 reviews2 followers
October 8, 2020
Fabulous and fun! This story follows on from The Survivor (Aces #3). After a series of family tragedies feisty Roxana has found stability and happiness with boyfriend Jason but suddenly that happiness unravels when she discovers nothing is as it seems and Jason isn’t who she thought he was. Jason loves Roxana and wants out of his clandestine life but finds extracting himself isn’t straightforward. Can Jason keep himself and Roxana alive long enough for her to forgive his deception? A brilliant short story with wonderful characters, heat, humour and action packed. 5 stars.
Profile Image for Dawn Myers.
1,303 reviews2 followers
October 22, 2020
I found this book fun, entertaining and a lot confusing. I knew who Hagan was but Roxana didn't register to me right off the bat. I was able to kind of piece things together, but felt I was missing something. I got some suspense and wondering if Roxana was going to survive. I loved Roxana's resilience and her survival instinct. I just could understand what Jason's part in things. In my opinion there were just too man questions left unanswered. I read in Danger and Desire Boxed Set.
Profile Image for Shelley C.
2,992 reviews65 followers
November 4, 2020
Her Guardian is also a Watcher😱

This novella sized ACES story is about Hagan’s sister, Hagan is from the previous book in this series, Roxanna and Jason who works for another company which competes with ACES.

Even though the story was good and I enjoyed reading it, it didn’t really have much to do with ACES other than the connection between Hagan and his sister😳 I’m looking forward to Spider and Vanka’s story next and I hope it has more to do with ACES than this one❣️
Profile Image for PepperP0t .
5,161 reviews88 followers
December 7, 2024
After getting her mom in a facility, Roxana Carter was succeeding in her new job and ecstatic when her boyfriend, Jason Green asked her to marry him. She didn’t think her brother would be pleased and he wasn’t. That was before an armed couple came in looking for her newly minted fiancé. Meanwhile, Jason notified his boss he was quitting and was stunned when said his boss pulled a gun on him.
Rating: 3stars
1,934 reviews5 followers
September 27, 2020
Jason loves Roxana. She is the one for him. He has a secret he hasn't revealed to her yet.
After Jason tries to quit his job, Roxana receives visitors wanting to know what is going on.
She is able to get away from the visitors but will she forgive Jason? Will he finally tell her the truth if he can find her?
Profile Image for Wendy Hodges.
2,927 reviews44 followers
November 5, 2020
I had a feeling there was more to Jason than it appeared though I'm sorry he wasn't upfront with Roxanne before certain events take place. He was lucky she loved him. There is suspense and some quite worrying action in this short read, it is interesting and holds the reader. As always Cristin weaves a tale with a mix of intrigue and excitement along with the romance.
Profile Image for Alexa Whitewolf.
Author 34 books116 followers
February 16, 2021
It had me until the ending 😞 when the entire plot twist was solved with a magic wand. I liked the female MC’s strength through the trial, but then the fact it was all wrapped so nicely feels pointless. Also, magically disappearing injuries? lol wish I could do that. Good for a quick read, probably better if you’ve read the entire series first.
Profile Image for Carol.
3,599 reviews3 followers
August 1, 2021
The Guardian

The drama, intense, emotional proposal, so full of love. Then Jason’s job intervenes, what he does? Truth, lies by omission, action, his boss is full on attitude. This story is full of unknowns, dramatic events, and a fiancé who is clueless as to what her guy does. Awesome story ❤️
1,542 reviews2 followers
September 15, 2020
Loved this story with its humor and passion! Haven’t read the series yet but will definitely be doing that next. Jason and Roxana have a love that anyone would envy. Even though they find themselves living on the edge, they somehow make it through with their sense of humor in tact.
Profile Image for Andrea Akers.
1,037 reviews6 followers
January 16, 2021
The Guardian

When Roxanne thought she knew her boyfriend Jason she suddenly realized she didn't know him at all. Or did she? Many questions are asked and Roxanne finds her answers. Will Jason and Roxanne find their happily ever after?
Profile Image for Angela.
3,434 reviews33 followers
September 24, 2021
A great novella

This was a terrific story, and great addition to the series. It was mysterious, suspenseful, with lots of unexpected twists.
I would definitely recommend this book, series, and outstanding author.
2,596 reviews
books-boxed-sets
September 15, 2020
In boxed set - "Danger and Desire: A Romantic Suspense Anthology"
61 reviews1 follower
October 7, 2020
The guardian

Something about this book just did not click. Even towards the end, I could not really understand what the issues were. Not her best book.
Profile Image for Mariah Bowman.
880 reviews1 follower
October 8, 2020
Too short, but so good!

I know novellas are short but I wanted so much more! Loved every word and laughed quite a few times. Excellent tidbit between full length books.
3 reviews
October 14, 2020
Poor Story & Zero Editing

The one star is being generous. This whole book could had been reduced to a few scenes. There was no engaging story and I was left very much wanting.
Profile Image for Helen McNabb.
948 reviews10 followers
October 17, 2020
4 Aces

Trumped by the queen of his heart.
An exciting story and well worth reading.
Enjoy the story, if you aren’t already hooked then you will do so.
132 reviews1 follower
February 25, 2021
Thoroughly enjoyed! I can't wait for the next book in the series to come out in the spring!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.