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The Precinct: SWAT #1
Man with the Muscle
Assistant district attorney Audrey Kline has privilege at her feet--until her latest courtroom battle brings danger to her door. Her quest to convict a cold-blooded gang leader makes her a target. The threats point to something beyond gang revenge...like the work of a serial stalker.
It takes a man with extraordinary instincts and skill to guard Audrey from an elusive killer, and SWAT member Alex Taylor fits the bill. He's survived the gritty city streets and refuses to let the captivating, determined woman out of his protection...or under his skin. But to rescue her from evil, he must be willing to confront anything--including the powerful passion that binds them.
It takes a man with extraordinary instincts and skill to guard Audrey from an elusive killer, and SWAT member Alex Taylor fits the bill. He's survived the gritty city streets and refuses to let the captivating, determined woman out of his protection...or under his skin. But to rescue her from evil, he must be willing to confront anything--including the powerful passion that binds them.
224 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published December 1, 2010
23 people are currently reading
375 people want to read
About the author
Julie Miller
295 books368 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
USA TODAY Bestselling author Julie Miller writes breathtaking romantic suspense. She's won a National Readers Choice Award and two Daphne du Maurier Awards among other prizes. She was also honored to receive a Career Achievement Award from RT BookReviews and has been a finalist for many national and international awards. Her books have appeared on the USA Today, Publisher's Weekly, Amazon and BookScan Top 100 Romances bestseller lists.
Writing about Kansas City cops, Julie has crafted bestselling, award-winning books for Harlequin Intrigue. In addition, Ms. Miller publishes romantic suspense books with a military twist. Millions of copies of her books have been sold in print and digital formats around the world.
USA TODAY Bestselling author Julie Miller writes breathtaking romantic suspense. She's won a National Readers Choice Award and two Daphne du Maurier Awards among other prizes. She was also honored to receive a Career Achievement Award from RT BookReviews and has been a finalist for many national and international awards. Her books have appeared on the USA Today, Publisher's Weekly, Amazon and BookScan Top 100 Romances bestseller lists.
Writing about Kansas City cops, Julie has crafted bestselling, award-winning books for Harlequin Intrigue. In addition, Ms. Miller publishes romantic suspense books with a military twist. Millions of copies of her books have been sold in print and digital formats around the world.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
February 24, 2011
This is a good 3.5. I'll definitely read the next one. I've liked all of this series. They keep the same bad dude for a few books of the series, which seems a little more realisitc to me. I love to read series but hate when it's a different bad guy each book and I'm thinking to myself, 'there couldn't possibly be this many bad guys and f-ed up things happening in one little town, to one group of people.' lol
October 13, 2024
Audrey Kline is the daughter of a well-known rich lawyer, and she wants to prove her worth as a prosecutor by putting away a notorious gangbanger accused of murder. Alex Taylor is part of a SWAT team called to a bomb threat at the site of a recent murder by the Rich Girl Killer. Audrey arrives at the scene because the victim was her friend. What could these incidents have to do with each other?
Nothing, actually, but I'll get to that later.
Because Audrey's case is high profile, she becomes the target of threats. Alex steps in to officially protect her. Is her stalker related to the case she's prosecuting or the serial killer on the loose?
The book would have been much more interesting if Audrey had been the target of a serial killer, with a final revelation of the killer's identity and a showdown, but this is book 1 in a mini-series, so oh no no no, we can't have that, can we? Jesus Christ, on what planet does this publisher think it is okay to believe that a book can be in any way satisfying if you don't resolve a MAJOR aspect of the plot? Maybe I don't want to read four books to get the answer to what I should have been given in the first! If the serial killer aspect had been in the background and not directly impacting on this story, it would have been fine. But, no, the serial killer actually has their eye on Audrey and has threatened her, and at the end just decides, "Nah, I'll move onto someone else," for that mystery to be solved some other day.
Not believable. Not satisfying in any way.
So, all we're really left with is a half-assed story about gangbangers (yawn) and Audrey's attempts to put the leader in prison. I'm not a fan of stories about gangs. I don't find them scary or interesting. They're just thugs. Here, they're mostly faceless, which also takes me out of the story. There was surprisingly little action or suspense to be found here. There's a bomb explosion that was deliberately designed not to hurt anyone (yawn), plus a couple of gangbanger messages (yawn) before everything hastily wraps up for a shootout that shouldn't have been able to happen in the first place if Alex's house's security system was set up as it was, as described earlier in the book.
Of course, this is a romance, but it utterly fails on that level as well. Audrey and Alex barely interact for the first 80 pages. He makes some condescending remarks to her about how she needs to win the case during a first meet at a pub. Then there's a second meeting during a truly bizarre sequence in which Audrey is having a crying meltdown at the scene of her friend's murder and Alex makes some more smug comments about the case before handing her a handkerchief (or bandanna) for her tears - and their connection is forged! Huh? They don't interact again for a month (!) and then after a day, they're basically in love. There's another utterly bizarre scene in which Audrey has a screaming fit and panic attack when she wakes up and Alex isn't in bed next to her. I couldn't understand what I was reading! Who acts like that?!?
It's not the worst category romance I've read this year - I haven't read many this year because the ones I have been picking have been largely terrible - but that is not enough of an endorsement to rate it anything more than 1 star. The romance failed to convince, the story was a yawn, and the most major element of the plot was left completely unresolved, always a big no-no for me. Use your muscles to chuck this misfire on the...fire.
Nothing, actually, but I'll get to that later.
Because Audrey's case is high profile, she becomes the target of threats. Alex steps in to officially protect her. Is her stalker related to the case she's prosecuting or the serial killer on the loose?
The book would have been much more interesting if Audrey had been the target of a serial killer, with a final revelation of the killer's identity and a showdown, but this is book 1 in a mini-series, so oh no no no, we can't have that, can we? Jesus Christ, on what planet does this publisher think it is okay to believe that a book can be in any way satisfying if you don't resolve a MAJOR aspect of the plot? Maybe I don't want to read four books to get the answer to what I should have been given in the first! If the serial killer aspect had been in the background and not directly impacting on this story, it would have been fine. But, no, the serial killer actually has their eye on Audrey and has threatened her, and at the end just decides, "Nah, I'll move onto someone else," for that mystery to be solved some other day.
Not believable. Not satisfying in any way.
So, all we're really left with is a half-assed story about gangbangers (yawn) and Audrey's attempts to put the leader in prison. I'm not a fan of stories about gangs. I don't find them scary or interesting. They're just thugs. Here, they're mostly faceless, which also takes me out of the story. There was surprisingly little action or suspense to be found here. There's a bomb explosion that was deliberately designed not to hurt anyone (yawn), plus a couple of gangbanger messages (yawn) before everything hastily wraps up for a shootout that shouldn't have been able to happen in the first place if Alex's house's security system was set up as it was, as described earlier in the book.
Of course, this is a romance, but it utterly fails on that level as well. Audrey and Alex barely interact for the first 80 pages. He makes some condescending remarks to her about how she needs to win the case during a first meet at a pub. Then there's a second meeting during a truly bizarre sequence in which Audrey is having a crying meltdown at the scene of her friend's murder and Alex makes some more smug comments about the case before handing her a handkerchief (or bandanna) for her tears - and their connection is forged! Huh? They don't interact again for a month (!) and then after a day, they're basically in love. There's another utterly bizarre scene in which Audrey has a screaming fit and panic attack when she wakes up and Alex isn't in bed next to her. I couldn't understand what I was reading! Who acts like that?!?
It's not the worst category romance I've read this year - I haven't read many this year because the ones I have been picking have been largely terrible - but that is not enough of an endorsement to rate it anything more than 1 star. The romance failed to convince, the story was a yawn, and the most major element of the plot was left completely unresolved, always a big no-no for me. Use your muscles to chuck this misfire on the...fire.
January 7, 2015
I loved this book for a lot of reasons.
I loved that something about this book was different from the usual cliched premises I'm often graced with when I open a book. Julie Miller is very good at defying the normals and writing books that go outside of the stereotypes.
Let me just say that I loved our kickass heroine, Audrey Kline. Audrey is a lawyer, and she is desperate to step outside of her father's shadow and make her own future. But it is her job to lock away a gang leader, and she is also the victim of the Rich Girl Killer's onslaught. This man has already taken the lives of Gretchen Cosgrove and Valeska Gordeeva (which is also a perfect segue into the fourth book, Nanny 911), two of her rich and beautiful friends.
And then we have Alex, a handsome SWAT officer with a dark past filled with alcoholic mothers and gang relations (and he has the scars from tattoo laser removal surgery to prove it). He knows what it's like to be part of a gang, and now that his love interest, Audrey, has fallen victim to their callous onslaughts, he feels a strange sense of protectiveness over the auburn-haired, strong-willed beauty.
What ensues is an incredible novel filled with a gradual love, and a sense of need and desperation. I whirled through this book very quickly, as Ms Miller's books are short and light to read, yet still enthralling and slightly exciting. With the potential sexually to be a Mills and Boon book, it also has the concept and writing to be a proper novel, being the perfect mix between the two. It also helps that it's not extremely short, but not too long either. Ms Miller is a jack of all trades when it comes to length, description, concepts and writing. I applaud her for writing such an excellent series.
I think what I like the most about this book is the ties each book has to the other. With the arrival of Miranda Murdock in the second book and the mentions of Quinn Gallagher and Valeska Gordeeva from the very beginning, it always gives you the proper information you need to understand each book. Trip and Charlotte are also mentioned in this book, and I know that they are the two protagonists in the next book. Something about the fact they all tie into each other gets me somewhat irrationally excited over the concept, and I can't wait to continue on with the series and see what Julie Miller has in store for her readers on the next book.
I loved that something about this book was different from the usual cliched premises I'm often graced with when I open a book. Julie Miller is very good at defying the normals and writing books that go outside of the stereotypes.
Let me just say that I loved our kickass heroine, Audrey Kline. Audrey is a lawyer, and she is desperate to step outside of her father's shadow and make her own future. But it is her job to lock away a gang leader, and she is also the victim of the Rich Girl Killer's onslaught. This man has already taken the lives of Gretchen Cosgrove and Valeska Gordeeva (which is also a perfect segue into the fourth book, Nanny 911), two of her rich and beautiful friends.
And then we have Alex, a handsome SWAT officer with a dark past filled with alcoholic mothers and gang relations (and he has the scars from tattoo laser removal surgery to prove it). He knows what it's like to be part of a gang, and now that his love interest, Audrey, has fallen victim to their callous onslaughts, he feels a strange sense of protectiveness over the auburn-haired, strong-willed beauty.
What ensues is an incredible novel filled with a gradual love, and a sense of need and desperation. I whirled through this book very quickly, as Ms Miller's books are short and light to read, yet still enthralling and slightly exciting. With the potential sexually to be a Mills and Boon book, it also has the concept and writing to be a proper novel, being the perfect mix between the two. It also helps that it's not extremely short, but not too long either. Ms Miller is a jack of all trades when it comes to length, description, concepts and writing. I applaud her for writing such an excellent series.
I think what I like the most about this book is the ties each book has to the other. With the arrival of Miranda Murdock in the second book and the mentions of Quinn Gallagher and Valeska Gordeeva from the very beginning, it always gives you the proper information you need to understand each book. Trip and Charlotte are also mentioned in this book, and I know that they are the two protagonists in the next book. Something about the fact they all tie into each other gets me somewhat irrationally excited over the concept, and I can't wait to continue on with the series and see what Julie Miller has in store for her readers on the next book.
September 2, 2018
I enjoyed Man with the Muscle but then I am a die hard Julie Miller fan and automatically read her books. (I've read this one before but haven't reviewed. I'm rereading the series because I enjoy them so much) Fast paced, SWAT camaraderie, legal system, murder, drugs, gangs, and HEA ending. While there is somewhat of a cliff hanger because you don't know who is pulling the strings it doesn't take away from the read. The characters were developed and fun to be around, the kind you'd want to sit and talk with.
While we meet all of S.W.A.T. Team One this story is about Alex. He comes from a background of cops via the gangs and adoption and this diversity gives him so needed insight. The man he has developed into is one that is comfortable in his own skin and sensitive to others, yet all man!
His respect and love for his family is evident and has made a huge impact in his life.
He reads situations well and follows his gut. I enjoyed his interaction with Audrey and how he drew out the best in her.
This one had a lot of action and kept you guessing. Everything wasn't wrapped neatly in a bow either, but it didn't leave you annoyed because the important things were tied up. So it looks like I'm reading the next book. I want to find out who the rich girl killer is. I think you'll enjoy the book and the series.
While we meet all of S.W.A.T. Team One this story is about Alex. He comes from a background of cops via the gangs and adoption and this diversity gives him so needed insight. The man he has developed into is one that is comfortable in his own skin and sensitive to others, yet all man!
His respect and love for his family is evident and has made a huge impact in his life.
He reads situations well and follows his gut. I enjoyed his interaction with Audrey and how he drew out the best in her.
This one had a lot of action and kept you guessing. Everything wasn't wrapped neatly in a bow either, but it didn't leave you annoyed because the important things were tied up. So it looks like I'm reading the next book. I want to find out who the rich girl killer is. I think you'll enjoy the book and the series.
December 21, 2010
i chose 5 star i read the book in less than 4 hr and it was kind you can not put down and i in joyed it
a lot of t he book i think i hve read some of the other and will try to find them the body guard did his
job and he put his life for the people he took care of the lawyer and then put his life up for trouble and fell in love
a lot of t he book i think i hve read some of the other and will try to find them the body guard did his
job and he put his life for the people he took care of the lawyer and then put his life up for trouble and fell in love
May 28, 2025
Giving 4.5 cause this didn't give us the conclusion to the second mystery going on just left us hanging with the culprit moving on which is really annoying even if it's a series. It's also the last book in Bodyguard Of The Month which was 12 books long.
Alex Taylor is the adopted son of Gideon and Meghan Taylor who took him in 10 years back. He used to be a gang member but now he's 8 months in SWAT and he's tasked to protect Audrey who's the A.D.A. When threats happen her dad who's also a lawyer gets Alex to protect his daughter.
Audrey at first doesn't want it but when a bomb goes off that could hurt others she takes it seriously. She wants to he independent but also finally sees help is needed as she tries the murder trial.
I loved Alex from the original series and this was a great. We got see his grandparents in this. His team members were also helping him at times. That ending of the trial I had to laugh at what the guy did. Really wish we got more though. Felt like loose ends.
Alex Taylor is the adopted son of Gideon and Meghan Taylor who took him in 10 years back. He used to be a gang member but now he's 8 months in SWAT and he's tasked to protect Audrey who's the A.D.A. When threats happen her dad who's also a lawyer gets Alex to protect his daughter.
Audrey at first doesn't want it but when a bomb goes off that could hurt others she takes it seriously. She wants to he independent but also finally sees help is needed as she tries the murder trial.
I loved Alex from the original series and this was a great. We got see his grandparents in this. His team members were also helping him at times. That ending of the trial I had to laugh at what the guy did. Really wish we got more though. Felt like loose ends.
July 12, 2020
Another great book by Julie Miller
Several years ago I started buying this series of books. Not one of them disappointed me. I have begun reading them again and they seem better the 2nd time around. I am retired and I am an author and audiobook narrator. Julie Miller is my favorite author of these types of books. I have always been an avid reader but more so now during the COVID19 pandemic. Thank you Julie Miller for writing such exciting books.
Several years ago I started buying this series of books. Not one of them disappointed me. I have begun reading them again and they seem better the 2nd time around. I am retired and I am an author and audiobook narrator. Julie Miller is my favorite author of these types of books. I have always been an avid reader but more so now during the COVID19 pandemic. Thank you Julie Miller for writing such exciting books.
January 1, 2023
One I've read several times over the years. I love the "just right" mix of mystery and romance. Beginning of a great series. Julie Miller is a great author.
May 17, 2025
I thoroughly enjoyed this book & highly recommend it to everyone---Mrs. Miller always does an excellent job with her writing-----lots of intrigue & romance!!!
August 27, 2015
I love these books and I always seem to choose the right ones to read even if I do read them out of order so to speak , I thought the plot and story line felt like a perfect story that would play out in a real cop show or a law and order feel to it. In all I wish I was lucky enought to catch anyone of the handsome devils in these books.
April 5, 2013
Alex and Audrey were an enjoyable couple.
September 9, 2013
The love story between Alex & Audrey was good, but I did NOT care at all for the lack of resolution in regards to "The Rich Girl Killer." Had there been resolution to that part of the story, I would've rated this book w/ 3 or 4 stars.
Read
December 23, 2014Miniseries: Bodyguard of the Month
Read
December 23, 2014Miniseries: Bodyguard of the Month
Want to read
February 21, 2011Looking forward to reading this first book in Julie's brand new series! Julie never disappoints me.
April 1, 2011
A good book, but I hated the cliffhanger at the end. Argh! Now I have to find the next one by her.
Read
June 27, 2012Really? "Man with the Muscle"? Who comes up with these titles! I can't bring myself to read it. ;-)
August 1, 2012
Yes, it's a Halequin. But my God, I wish there was a real life guy just like Alex Taylor! Haha!
April 28, 2014
Start of a fab series of books
June 28, 2014
It was a good book
September 24, 2015
This was such a good book! I loved it!
And can't wait to read Nanny 911 next and finish this series.
And can't wait to read Nanny 911 next and finish this series.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews