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The Handler
Victor Thorogood is a senior agent for Paladin, a security company that provides discreet protection for elite clients. When he's assigned with his partner and best friend Brendan Borden to guard Prince Arkadio of Tramontaigne, he doesn’t expect to like the spoiled aristocrat and is proven a true prophet. But the young prince reveals the steel under his silken exterior during an abduction attempt, compelling Victor to develop an unlikely respect for him. As the two men are forced to rely on one another for survival, admiration warms into an emotion Victor was afraid he’d never feel.
136 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 12, 2011
1 person is currently reading
85 people want to read
About the author
Stefan Seabourne
3 books2 followersStefan Seabourne was born in 1977 in Vancouver, British Columbia. He left Canada to attend San Francisco State College in California. After a year's study in the history department of behavioral and social sciences, he dropped out for financial reasons and went to work in a bookstore in the Castro Street area, ultimately attaining U.S. citizenship. In 1997, he suggested the owner add a coffee bar, and he’s been managing it ever since. Conversations with readers and writers sparked a desire to tell some stories of his own. When he’s not working in the shop, he’s more than likely at his laptop typing away. He loves a good meal, a good adventure yarn, and is currently single except for one insanely jealous cat named Nemo.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
December 8, 2014
A robotic emotional story of a would be King Arkasha and his bodyguard Victor.Very fast paced story,jumping from one emotion to another in a blink.One moment Arkasha is grieving over the death of his bodyguard whom he fell in love and later comes to know he was his brother and the next moment he is introducing sex in a highly dangerous situation to a deeply closeted gay virgin at 33 years Victor his other bodyguard.WOW I did write the whole thing in a breath,without any comma.Seriously the authors effort of putting all his favorite parts from various stories killed the joy of the actual story he intended to write.That's how I felt after reading this story.Snippets from here and there put together and the result is The Handler.
March 29, 2013
Eh. I found it erratic, anticlimactic, and ultimately rather uninspired.
It was rather clear that the only purpose of the plot until the was pm to lead up to that point. Clusterfuck of told rather dryly.
The "intrigue" was either rushed or weak (or both) but definitely rushed, which ultimately made it weak.
The romance between the two seem inexplicable and baseless other than "they're the MCs; therefore, they must end up together."
That cheesy "look deeply into each other's eyes and see the soul" moment was excruciating.
Arkasha was a weird mix between useless idiot and Mary Sue. Maybe he was a Mary Sue because he seemed like a useless idiot...He's got a little TSTL going on.
I mean, come on. He seemed like he was going to be a sort of BA, at least a little bit. He wasn't. He was useless and impotent and just generally an annoying nuisance.
Victor was a weird wish-fullfillment thing for Arkasha. I mean, come on.
The queen's - sorry, - lame pun was lame.
I found it an odd mix between monotonous and melodramatic, but still in the end rather boring, rote, and rather excruciatingly painful to read.
In fact, I came very close to putting it in my kill-it-with-fire shelf, but the syntax itself wasn't that bad and I usually reserve that for authors who have pissed me off.
*sigh.
Pity, since I actually thought the premise was quite interesting.
*could have been
Actually, I think this/the author could have benefited from Visco's "How to Write Good"
This one's pretty bad, but I don't see the author as beyond hope, for some reason, so maybe that's a point in xer favor?
It was rather clear that the only purpose of the plot until the was pm to lead up to that point. Clusterfuck of told rather dryly.
The "intrigue" was either rushed or weak (or both) but definitely rushed, which ultimately made it weak.
The romance between the two seem inexplicable and baseless other than "they're the MCs; therefore, they must end up together."
That cheesy "look deeply into each other's eyes and see the soul" moment was excruciating.
Arkasha was a weird mix between useless idiot and Mary Sue. Maybe he was a Mary Sue because he seemed like a useless idiot...He's got a little TSTL going on.
I mean, come on. He seemed like he was going to be a sort of BA, at least a little bit. He wasn't. He was useless and impotent and just generally an annoying nuisance.
Victor was a weird wish-fullfillment thing for Arkasha. I mean, come on.
The queen's - sorry, - lame pun was lame.
I found it an odd mix between monotonous and melodramatic, but still in the end rather boring, rote, and rather excruciatingly painful to read.
In fact, I came very close to putting it in my kill-it-with-fire shelf, but the syntax itself wasn't that bad and I usually reserve that for authors who have pissed me off.
*sigh.
Pity, since I actually thought the premise was quite interesting.
*could have been
Actually, I think this/the author could have benefited from Visco's "How to Write Good"
This one's pretty bad, but I don't see the author as beyond hope, for some reason, so maybe that's a point in xer favor?
April 7, 2013
15 Morals of this story
1. Do not have sex when you're trapped in small confine spaces and a criminal is waiting for you outside. You will be caught with your pants down.
2. Do not have sex with anybody at all. They might turn out to be your brother.
3. Do not stalk anybody around. You will see them have sex. And then you'll find out that one of them is your brother.
4. Do not sass any of your bodyguards. The bodyguard you sass will be the only one who survives. And then what are you going to do?
5. Do not call people things like 'chemical experiment' or 'Mr. Potato Head', especially when they're crazy. They will kill you for it.
6. Do not stop crazy people trying to have sex. They will kill you for it too.
7. If your colleague dies, assume that he's still alive.
8. The person you think has betrayed you will be the wrong guess. Until otherwise proven, just assume that everyone betrayed you.
9. If you are a prince, have more than 3 bodyguards to protect you.
10. If you kidnap someone, you should at least try to escape the scene of the crime.
11. Keep lube on your person at all times, especially if you want to say things like 'Scout's honor.' You never know when you might be trapped in a dangerous situation and need to have sex.
12. Do not say things like 'I have found your slyly superior manner grating since we met,'. No reason. Just don't.
13. Variety is the spice of life! If your name is James, you can be called Jamie, and then Jam and then finally as J before you run out of letters to subtract from your name. Once you're done you can maybe do some anagram with your name. So John Smith can be Mints, Tito, No, This, and so on.
14. Fly in the face of near-rape and gun-rape. Scary? Trauma? Bitch, I keep calm.
15. Don't read this.
1. Do not have sex when you're trapped in small confine spaces and a criminal is waiting for you outside. You will be caught with your pants down.
2. Do not have sex with anybody at all. They might turn out to be your brother.
3. Do not stalk anybody around. You will see them have sex. And then you'll find out that one of them is your brother.
4. Do not sass any of your bodyguards. The bodyguard you sass will be the only one who survives. And then what are you going to do?
5. Do not call people things like 'chemical experiment' or 'Mr. Potato Head', especially when they're crazy. They will kill you for it.
6. Do not stop crazy people trying to have sex. They will kill you for it too.
7. If your colleague dies, assume that he's still alive.
8. The person you think has betrayed you will be the wrong guess. Until otherwise proven, just assume that everyone betrayed you.
9. If you are a prince, have more than 3 bodyguards to protect you.
10. If you kidnap someone, you should at least try to escape the scene of the crime.
11. Keep lube on your person at all times, especially if you want to say things like 'Scout's honor.' You never know when you might be trapped in a dangerous situation and need to have sex.
12. Do not say things like 'I have found your slyly superior manner grating since we met,'. No reason. Just don't.
13. Variety is the spice of life! If your name is James, you can be called Jamie, and then Jam and then finally as J before you run out of letters to subtract from your name. Once you're done you can maybe do some anagram with your name. So John Smith can be Mints, Tito, No, This, and so on.
14. Fly in the face of near-rape and gun-rape. Scary? Trauma? Bitch, I keep calm.
15. Don't read this.
January 22, 2011
2.5 stars
Victor and his partner and friend Brendan are bodyguards working for a top notch security firm. Their latest assignment is to protect Prince Arkadio 'Kasha' of Tramontaigne on his visit to New York. Things seem to be going well at first but before long the simple 'royal babysitting' job is anything but simple. Victor and the Prince must work together if they are to have any hope of surviving the dangerous situation they find themselves in. At first unsure of the young man Victor is thankful to find a backbone of steel in the young aristocrat but will it be enough and if they do make it can anything come of the feelings developing between them?
The story starts out well enough with the men shown as typical for their roles. Kasha is young, sexy and seemingly quite spoiled while Victor is stern, tough and somewhat cold. As the story progresses we get to see them both in a different light, Kasha displays strength while Victor shows a softer, almost vulnerable, side. I enjoyed seeing them develop as their situation deteriorated. However despite the author attempting to show a deeper side to them they never truly felt like three-dimensional characters. Victor is in his mid-thirties and Kasha is about fifteen years younger yet it's Kasha who's the experienced one while Victor is in essence a virgin having never been with a man. He's hidden his desires for years and is all about the job yet in the middle of their situation, locked in a safe room, they have sex. This was one of my biggest problems with the story as I felt if was totally against character for Victor. It didn't make sense that Victor, knowing at any moment the bad guys could walk in, knowing he's essentially got no real way to defend his client and having saved himself for the man of his dreams all this time would be okay with having sex in the middle of such a situation.
Another problem for me was that despite the book's length of 135 pages most of the story takes place in less than a full days time with a short follow up two years later. I didn't feel that the short span of time, mostly filled with violence and fear, was conducive to falling in love. Once the situation is under control they are quickly parted with no communication for two years. The next chapter then reunites them and the things that stood in their way are all of a sudden resolved. The story ends with a super sweet HEA ending for the Prince and his bodyguard but frankly by then I was just happy to have reached the end of the book.
I did like the premise of the story and enjoyed some parts of it. The identity of the bad guy was somewhat surprising and even though there is a lot of violence there was also a bit of humor and some tender moments. The sex scenes are hot and the ending was nice but there was some annoying head hopping throughout the story.
Overall for me this was a disappointing read. This is just my opinion and most definitely may not be how others feel once they read The Handler.
Victor and his partner and friend Brendan are bodyguards working for a top notch security firm. Their latest assignment is to protect Prince Arkadio 'Kasha' of Tramontaigne on his visit to New York. Things seem to be going well at first but before long the simple 'royal babysitting' job is anything but simple. Victor and the Prince must work together if they are to have any hope of surviving the dangerous situation they find themselves in. At first unsure of the young man Victor is thankful to find a backbone of steel in the young aristocrat but will it be enough and if they do make it can anything come of the feelings developing between them?
The story starts out well enough with the men shown as typical for their roles. Kasha is young, sexy and seemingly quite spoiled while Victor is stern, tough and somewhat cold. As the story progresses we get to see them both in a different light, Kasha displays strength while Victor shows a softer, almost vulnerable, side. I enjoyed seeing them develop as their situation deteriorated. However despite the author attempting to show a deeper side to them they never truly felt like three-dimensional characters. Victor is in his mid-thirties and Kasha is about fifteen years younger yet it's Kasha who's the experienced one while Victor is in essence a virgin having never been with a man. He's hidden his desires for years and is all about the job yet in the middle of their situation, locked in a safe room, they have sex. This was one of my biggest problems with the story as I felt if was totally against character for Victor. It didn't make sense that Victor, knowing at any moment the bad guys could walk in, knowing he's essentially got no real way to defend his client and having saved himself for the man of his dreams all this time would be okay with having sex in the middle of such a situation.
Another problem for me was that despite the book's length of 135 pages most of the story takes place in less than a full days time with a short follow up two years later. I didn't feel that the short span of time, mostly filled with violence and fear, was conducive to falling in love. Once the situation is under control they are quickly parted with no communication for two years. The next chapter then reunites them and the things that stood in their way are all of a sudden resolved. The story ends with a super sweet HEA ending for the Prince and his bodyguard but frankly by then I was just happy to have reached the end of the book.
I did like the premise of the story and enjoyed some parts of it. The identity of the bad guy was somewhat surprising and even though there is a lot of violence there was also a bit of humor and some tender moments. The sex scenes are hot and the ending was nice but there was some annoying head hopping throughout the story.
Overall for me this was a disappointing read. This is just my opinion and most definitely may not be how others feel once they read The Handler.
January 13, 2011
I liked this book. It was funny and fast-paced, which I didn't mind at all. I liked the characters, even if they were a bit shallow to the point that you don't learn a whole lot about them until the end but I didn't mind that either.
Prince Arkadio of Tramontaigne, or Kasha, is young and a bit bratty in the beginning but as the book progresses he turns into someone that is pretty responsible and can take care of himself. Victor Thorogood is the bodyguard assigned to keep Kasha alive. He's one of the best at Paladin Security Services. He's severe, cold, and always sticks to the rules but when Kasha and Victor bond, the coldness inside Victor begins to soften.
I must say that I was sad to find out who orchestrated the whole kidnapping. I didn't want him to be the bad guy but he was and it was still interesting. I was left with some questions about how the bad guy could have done it, though.
Handler is definitely one of those books that when you feel like a resolution is in sight, something happens to delay it. I know a few times I was thinking, "Yay! They're going to get out of there," only to be proven wrong when something messed up my assumption. Lol
While I really enjoyed the story, it was slightly annoying reading through the head-hoping POV. At times, I didn't know who was talking because it would switch between each characters POV within the same paragraph.
Overall, an enjoyable story if you are looking for something entertaining to read. :D
Prince Arkadio of Tramontaigne, or Kasha, is young and a bit bratty in the beginning but as the book progresses he turns into someone that is pretty responsible and can take care of himself. Victor Thorogood is the bodyguard assigned to keep Kasha alive. He's one of the best at Paladin Security Services. He's severe, cold, and always sticks to the rules but when Kasha and Victor bond, the coldness inside Victor begins to soften.
I must say that I was sad to find out who orchestrated the whole kidnapping. I didn't want him to be the bad guy but he was and it was still interesting. I was left with some questions about how the bad guy could have done it, though.
Handler is definitely one of those books that when you feel like a resolution is in sight, something happens to delay it. I know a few times I was thinking, "Yay! They're going to get out of there," only to be proven wrong when something messed up my assumption. Lol
While I really enjoyed the story, it was slightly annoying reading through the head-hoping POV. At times, I didn't know who was talking because it would switch between each characters POV within the same paragraph.
Overall, an enjoyable story if you are looking for something entertaining to read. :D
January 13, 2011
This story was entertaining but I felt like it was in fast forward, everything happening too fast to actually give me the chance to feel a connection with the characters or understand their feelings for each other. It wasn't until the last few pages that I felt I got that opportunity, but it was a nice way to while away this cold afternoon.
February 19, 2011
I don't have much to say about this story. The plot was developed weirdly, and the couple came together in a forced way. There was no chemistry between them, non at all, blah.
And the plot is just bad in my mind. In general I didn't like it.
And the plot is just bad in my mind. In general I didn't like it.
January 13, 2011
"Die Hard" meets Barbara Cartland with a touch of Cameron Dane.
September 23, 2011
3.5 stars
I had some of the same problems that others mentioned, but overall it was still a fun, exciting read.
I had some of the same problems that others mentioned, but overall it was still a fun, exciting read.
January 20, 2011
It wasn't good but it wasn't bad either. I found the way the author kept referring to Victor as 'the minder', even when the paragraph was Victor's POV and I was in Victor's head. Several times, at first, I'd be pulled out of the story thinking the author was referring to some other character then, reading the passage again, realize it was Victor.
I can't quite get a feel for this book either. On one hand it's like an MM erotic fairytale complete with prince and fairytale kingdom except the prince is more a spoilt princess and the bodyguard is the prince riding to the rescue. Yes, I agree - rather early Harlequinesque but I'd say an early Harlequin is easier to read.
There is a two-year separation between the time Victor saves Kasha and when they meet again. There is no lead-up to the sudden end of their brief relationship and suddenly, we're in the next chapter and it's two years later. Victor is now the CEO of Paladin Security and Kasha has ascended the throne upon the death of his father. The two men pick up where they left off and after some meaningless, rambling pages, it's a sweet, perfect, fairytale HEA. I didn't even mind that but I am perplexed by the abrupt stop to their relationship and the blank space between their reunion . There was no goodbye, no 'I'll send for you', no tears or tantrums even. And it suddenly picks up again.
Victor was also rather bland and Kasha was a bit of a caricature. I liked Brendan, his best friend and partner, though.
I can't quite get a feel for this book either. On one hand it's like an MM erotic fairytale complete with prince and fairytale kingdom except the prince is more a spoilt princess and the bodyguard is the prince riding to the rescue. Yes, I agree - rather early Harlequinesque but I'd say an early Harlequin is easier to read.
There is a two-year separation between the time Victor saves Kasha and when they meet again. There is no lead-up to the sudden end of their brief relationship and suddenly, we're in the next chapter and it's two years later. Victor is now the CEO of Paladin Security and Kasha has ascended the throne upon the death of his father. The two men pick up where they left off and after some meaningless, rambling pages, it's a sweet, perfect, fairytale HEA. I didn't even mind that but I am perplexed by the abrupt stop to their relationship and the blank space between their reunion . There was no goodbye, no 'I'll send for you', no tears or tantrums even. And it suddenly picks up again.
Victor was also rather bland and Kasha was a bit of a caricature. I liked Brendan, his best friend and partner, though.
February 15, 2011
This is a fab little tale with great characters, an action plot that isn't based on gratuitous sex and plenty of romance. I loved the whole 'Randy, will he won't he' thing.
The end was a little twee - the last paragraph too much.
I liked the last scenes but for more punch it could have ended a few pages earlier. Personally I liked the extras and it was just what I needed after being caught up in some really heavy reading lately.
It's a romance through and through, not erotica (which I usually read) but the sex in it is good.
Recommended light reading for those wanting a little slush that still has action qualities.
I was toying with giving this 4 stars because it was such fun - but settled on 3.5.
The end was a little twee - the last paragraph too much.
I liked the last scenes but for more punch it could have ended a few pages earlier. Personally I liked the extras and it was just what I needed after being caught up in some really heavy reading lately.
It's a romance through and through, not erotica (which I usually read) but the sex in it is good.
Recommended light reading for those wanting a little slush that still has action qualities.
I was toying with giving this 4 stars because it was such fun - but settled on 3.5.
November 30, 2011
I thought the plot was interesting but unfortunetely the writing just didn't hold my interest. Pity really. I can't say exactly but the narrative wasn't flowing and the characters seemed a little too emotionless. I might Try reading it again and re assess my opinonf of it .
May 18, 2011
it was weird at first but the 2nd part of the book was better. the violence is a little hard on the stomach though.
December 29, 2011
It was ok. Read a bit like an action film that went on for 15 minutes too long.
February 16, 2016
Short, fast-paced ~ great daydream material!
I think a full length novel from this author would be worth trying but can't find any...
Part of the "Dreamspinner Press Connie Bailey Bundle".
I think a full length novel from this author would be worth trying but can't find any...
Part of the "Dreamspinner Press Connie Bailey Bundle".
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews