Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Special Operations #1

John Henry's Beautiful Charlie

Rate this book
[Siren Classic Erotic Alternative Romance, M/M, HEA] Sheriff John Henry Harrison didn't even know the old McAdams place had been sold, so when he receives a disturbance call, he rushes right out there, positive it's just a bunch of kids causing a ruckus. What he discovers there changes his life in ways he never could have imagined. After losing his wife to cancer, Charlie Pennington was just trying to find a peaceful place to settle down with his young kids. He never imagined that buying the old McAdams homestead would bring the sexiest lawman he had ever seen into his life. When trouble arrives at Charlie's door in the form of a custody battle for his kids and a drug lord bent on revenge, Charlie is shocked when John Henry steps right in to help. But even with his former marine buddies at his side, Charlie isn't sure he can keep everyone he loves alive. Sending them to safety seems like the best choice, until John Henry refuses to go. ** A Siren Erotic Romance

162 pages, ebook

First published July 3, 2012

About the author

Stormy Glenn

313 books1,683 followers
About Me
I believes the only thing sexier than a man in cowboy boots is two, or three men in cowboy boots. I also believes in love at first sight, soul mates, true love, and happy endings.

I live in the great Northwest region of the USA, with my gorgeous husband and soul mate, two boxer/collie puppies, one old biddy cats, and three fish. When I'm not being a mother to my six teenagers or cleaning up after my two 70 pound lap puppies, you can usually find me cuddled in bed with a book in my hand and a puppy in my lap. Or on my laptop, creating the next sexy man for one of my stories.

I welcomes comments from readers, so drop me a line. stormyglenn@hotmail.com

What do I do ?
I'm a writer of erotic, paranormal, werewolf, futuristic, contemporary, gay, and Ménage a Trois romances. I'm currently published with Siren Publishing, Torquere Press, and Noble Ellora's Cave.

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
223 (33%)
4 stars
237 (35%)
3 stars
151 (22%)
2 stars
39 (5%)
1 star
9 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
Profile Image for Barbara➰.
1,626 reviews429 followers
April 22, 2019
This one started out pretty good and I thought it was different than SG's normal guys. But, then it crossed over into OTT drama and mushy cheesiness. But as I said before, I don't read these for some in depth realistic drama. They give me the gooeyness and sweet toothache inducing mushiness that I like sometimes.

Some of the others in this series look pretty good. I actually wanted Robby & Wren's story...that's why I started this series after reading about them in the Cade Creek series. So, on to book two...
Profile Image for Denise H..
3,119 reviews251 followers
May 18, 2019
**** Wow, I got so much more than I expected !****
He's from the Marine Corps to Sheriff, John Henry Harrison

gets a call from dispatch about a disturbance on a farm. When he arrives there's a man with a rifle, holding off four people yelling at him. With Charlie's calm demeanor and strength, he draws John Henry's attention.
A Marine Commander, Charlie, blonde

and green eyed is beautiful; he's making a home for himself and two small children, plus a few of his Special Ops men. This is a tender love story that happens quickly. There is lots of sizzling sexiness and an action packed twisty tale that will keep you attention.
The two men are drawn together, they fit, and their needs are mutual. They're opposites; dark hair to light, big muscles to lean and toned. After a break in, the men are together more as John Henry and Charlie's Unit are remodeling the house so it's ready when the kids arrive. We see a car chase, a sniper, murder attempts, a drug lord and tons of excitement.


There is snark, wit, and smirks, along with toughness, stealth, secret passages and hidden rooms, and much more.
This was so much more than I expected. We get grown up men, very little angst and games; solid men who know what they want and need. Loved the cast of amazing characters, each different and each with a tale to be told.


This is book #1 and I'll be reading about these men throughout the series.
Highly recommend ! ENJOY !
========================
Profile Image for Serena Yates.
Author 97 books769 followers
April 23, 2019
This book proves that Stormy Glenn can come up with a pretty crazy and tension-filled storyline and some awesome characters without setting a single foot in paranormal land. While I sort of knew that, it was good fun to have it reconfirmed. As for the main characters, a sheriff and an ex-Marine, what can I say? Hot, hot, hot, both inside and out of bed.


Please find my full review on Rainbow Book Reviews.
Profile Image for Gigi.
2,148 reviews1,033 followers
December 15, 2012
For all you olds like me who grew up on Dynasty, Dallas, Falcon Crest and Knots Landing, you will appreciate this one. This was a soap lover's delight! Family members stabbing each other in the back and making appearances at the most opportune times! I was just sorry there weren't any death-bed confessions of paternity. That would have bumped it up to five stars for sure!

A guilty pleasure with hot man-on-man sex. Just don't look at the cover.
Profile Image for Jackie Mckenzie.
35 reviews7 followers
July 4, 2012
Ok, first of all this book is one of my dreams come true, all kinds of deadly sexy marine black ops guys running around. Then you add in a superhot sheriff and a couple of kids and WOW it's a hit. I loved the premise of this book and even though Ms Stormy says it is a stand alone I see the makings of a truly HOT series. Wren and Robby, and ofcourse the rest of the team and Tyler are most likely gay right? This book has a great combo of hot M/M love, family, friendship and lots of action and adventure. As much as I like all Ms. Stormy's work, this is one of the best in a long while, I like this series as much or more than Alpha Squad. I really hope this turns into a series. I feel all the bases were covered in this book and it can only get better from here, plus I can't wait to watch those two precious little ones grow up surrounded by some big scary black op marines. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who likes Ms. Stormy's work, this is one her best ever.
Profile Image for Phaney.
1,248 reviews22 followers
March 31, 2013
Picking this up for a re-read (since more books have come out for the series) I was curious about whether my favourable memories were deceiving me. After all this is the author of the dual personalities. With this book I lucked out.
Since, yeah. I’m pretty much on board with what I wrote, uh… Oh. Okay, less than a year ago. Stands to reason I wouldn’t have changed my mind much. I thought it had been longer. ^^;

Once again, I especially enjoyed the protagonists’ names. XD Kind of unexpected, but there you go.

I loved the interactions between John Henry and Charlie off the bat. It’s such a delight to watch sensible, calm men dealing reasonably with issues. The matter of the shotgun? Just low-key enough. Instantly won me over. Again.

When the romantic interactions begin, of course they’re oversexed, but it could be worse.
We have independent, strong characters feeling their way into a balanced relationship without being similar to one another. Certainly no waif and no victim, nor an obvious top or bottom. I did pity poor John Henry at first for the way Charlie is pushing and pulling him around every which way. However, I do appreciate that, while still bossy, Charlie does get extremely attached very fast and suffers some anxiety of his own over the possibility of losing John Henry. The dynamics between them made for some sweet moments.

I know I’m talking this to death here, but I can get excited about a book with two guys that do not fall into any of the usual categories. Or maybe they’d both be the “alpha” type in the usual stories, except there is no power struggle. They’re just men, and strangely enough that’s somehow rare in gay romance of a certain type.

As last time, the time jumps are disorienting since inevitably we’re only informed that time has passed, and how much, after we’re way past half point of the next scene. At least the skipping ahead spared us lots of potentially repetitive sex scenes, yay!

Possibly thanks to that we get a pretty solid romance, not much overplayed, no unnecessary sex scenes, an interesting (if unlikely) action plot, and a pretty good setup for future volumes. When I first read this it claimed to be a standalone book, but all the series signs are there with huge, blinking neon letters.

Now for the nitpicking.

Minor name flubs. I am not going to detail such errors here. Nor will I comment on the sadly common awkwardness of “the handsome sheriff” or “the sexy Marine” or whatnot. Maybe someday authors will realize how clichéd and distancing such descriptors are when a simple “he” or the person’s name would work so much better. Context matters. Descriptors are not interchangeable. They need to be meaningful in that particular sentence, that thought, that situation.

I’ll just put the rest of my complaining into spoiler tags, since it’s huge, boring and does indeed contain plenty of spoilers. You can easily skip this.



XD With all of that, you’d think I did not like this book. I did. Yeah, the writing is by no means perfect and the plot is unlikely, but who cares? The relationship dynamics are still interesting, and several of the scenes between Charlie and John Henry (but also those with others) had some really impressive exchanges. <3

The irony, of course, lies in the fact that if this were another author I'd probably not be quite as enthusiastic. I've simply come to expect a certain kind of book from certain authors and when they do much better than that, I'm excited.
Profile Image for Kinny.
295 reviews10 followers
July 3, 2012
The drama and confrontation with the culprits were pretty over the top it was ridiculous. I liked all the covert macho stuff and the hot sex scenes. There is also the potential next book of Wren and Robby which I am dying to read.

There was not enough interaction between John Henry and the kids so I am kind of disappointed. 3.5 stars.
Profile Image for Mandi.
695 reviews42 followers
July 22, 2012
2.5 stars. I would of liked this a bit more if I didn't have to read John Henry's whole name throughout the entire book! Couldn't someone give the poor man a nickname??
Profile Image for Emily.
403 reviews53 followers
September 13, 2012
I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. It had romance, suspense, action, and the sex scenes were both sexy and fun. You could see the love John Henry and Charlie had for each other. I love that the sex scenes weren’t all heavy and intense, but some were lighthearted and fun, which you don’t always get in books. Sometimes, people overlook that aspect of sex, and think that the only good sex is intense sex. I love all the Marines in this book and I can’t wait to learn more about what they do and what they are like. I love the surprising ending that I was not expecting. In fact, I loved pretty much everything about this book. My only regret is that it ended. I also enjoyed this book because it’s not your usual series. I don’t know yet if this will turn into a series, but I sincerely hope so. It wasn’t corny like some series can be and it didn’t overreach in the first book. It laid the groundwork for a very interesting potential series, and I can’t wait to read more. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for a military romance or a good read, and if you are a fan of Ms. Glenn’s work, you should not miss out on this one.
Profile Image for Christy.
4,000 reviews118 followers
April 15, 2018
I was all geared up to fall madly in love with this book and all of the characters. Well, the characters turned out to be easy to love, and I certainly enjoyed the plot. However, my horrible anal-retentive brain just couldn’t seem to look past some of the inconsistencies, particularly with police and military procedure. I know, I know, Stormy released this book a number of years ago and she has certainly gotten better in those departments but it bugged me reading it here. There were also a number of other inconsistencies that I struggled with.

But, this definitely set the scene for the future books in the series and I’m going to read them all, no matter what. And just because I struggled with these things doesn’t mean everyone would - these are just my opinions, after all.

Now I’m looking forward to Wren and Robby’s story!
Profile Image for Heather♥.
782 reviews6 followers
July 4, 2012
One retired marine commander + one sheriff/former marine = Oorah!

I thought John Henry and Charlie made a great couple. Both were strong alpha males with such big hearts for their families and loved ones. Just one smoldering look between them and they couldn't keep their hands off each other. Charlie's former marine unit members and John Henry's brothers added some nice variety to the storyline and I am hopeful that there will be another book to follow about Wren and Robby. I must admit though that the plot did get a bit crazy at times, like it was right out of a soap opera. But did I still enjoy it? Yes, yes I did :)
Profile Image for Michi Rosa.
384 reviews11 followers
July 11, 2012
Great reading but by the middle of it I was almost hoping John Henry would 1-Say "Please call me John", 2-Change his fucking name, 3-Die so we wouldn't have to read his obnoxious name again.

The story is great but reading all those "John Henrys" makes it tiring and headachingly annoying. So much that it would be a 5 stars to me otherwise.
78 reviews
January 14, 2015
Disappointed

Had the making s of a good read but the writing was juvenile. Not enough details or plot. Too simplistic.
Profile Image for Perpetua.
210 reviews1 follower
July 8, 2012
John Henry seriously! The saying of both names was just weird!
Profile Image for Lioness7.
563 reviews8 followers
October 1, 2019
I really am not surprised that I liked this book. I don't know if I have found a Stormy Glenn book that I didn't like. I just loved how the plot of this book was so fast moving and full of something happening. Yet it still had parts that had you grinning. I know reading this has made me want to see what else this series has to offer.
Profile Image for Gabbi.
395 reviews2 followers
March 4, 2013
http://top2bottomreviews.wordpress.com/

4.25 Kisses!

When I’m in the mood for a hot and steamy easy-reading romance, Stormy Glenn is always a great choice for me. She writes erotically charged, action filled stories with interesting heroes that always give me a couple of hours of reading pleasure.

The blurb does an outstanding job at describing the story, so I won’t rehash it. What I will say is: I really enjoyed watching the steamy attraction and hot chemistry between Charlie and John Henry sizzle and burn as the story progresses. I liked the banter the two men had together as well as the way each man really learned to trust in each other. Both men could be tough as nails one moment and sweet and tender towards each other the next. I liked how they formed a true friendship between them and enjoyed watching them fall in love.

There is also a lot of action in this book. Because Charlie is an ex-Marine whose duty was being head over a team of Special Ops, he’s made some dangerous enemies. I enjoyed watching him and his ex-team of Marines as well as John Henry and his crew come together to fight the bad guy. All in all it was a quick and fun read and I highly enjoyed it.

John Henry’s Beautiful Charlie is an action filled, erotic and fast-paced read from start to finish. It is the first book in the Special Operations series, and I can’t wait to read the next book! Recommended!

Profile Image for Mirella.
14 reviews53 followers
July 5, 2012
I wasn't expecting much, and even though there was a lot of sex again, every and each scene of them were hot, super hot. So I can forgive the writer for writing them :)

What I liked about this story was the way that things flowed and the problems and worries made sense, something that unfortunately not always happen in some of this author other works. I liked the way they felt about each other, and how it didn't happened in matter of days.

But to be honest, I guess I should say that I am head over heels in love with the side characters, especially Manny and Wren. They were so interesting, and I'm dying to see their story too. Bill, Robby and Tyler too, even though didn't appear much, each of them had just something that called for a story of their own.

However, I saw in Stormy Glenn's website that this book is a single title not part of a series, and I think this story so deserves to become one. We already have the characters, so why not the stories, right? ˆˆ
Profile Image for Candice.
2,922 reviews132 followers
April 27, 2020
2nd read April 2020
Same thoughts as the first time

1st read 2-10-14
This will be short and sweet. Okay, so Charlie and his crew are part of this special ops, but yet it takes a village for them to do anything?

Charlie and John Henry were sweet. Kind of wish we saw more of them as a couple, without the chaos. Maybe John Henry with the kiddos?

Overall, it was a fun/light read.
Profile Image for Kerry  sullivan.
957 reviews71 followers
October 3, 2012
This book was reviewed for Musings of a bookworm

Yum Yum Yum and again I say YUM, this book was chock full of alpha male scrumminess and had a great story to boot. It was thrilling and hot and I wanted more, I would have liked it to be longer or maybe the start of a series because I want Wren's story, Oh who an I kidding I want all their stories. I feel an email to the author coming on.....

To see the full review come along to Musings of a bookworm on 12th October 2012.
Profile Image for Sara Murillo ♥.
121 reviews3 followers
February 1, 2016
¡ES PERFECTO!

Cuando vi que estaban disponibles no dudé en comenzar a leerlos. Siendo sincera es la primera vez que leo a la autora y debo decir que me he enamorado de su forma de escribir y de esta serie.

Creo que la pareja es perfecta, supo manejarlos realmente bien y la forma en la que se desarrolló la historia me mató.

Al principio hubo algunas cosas que me hicieron sentir medio mal, como por ejemplo cuando John Henry le cocina a Charlie y este tuvo una mala reacción cuando entró a su casa... incluso sentí ganas de llorar por la reacción de John, pero el desarrollo del libro me hizo feliz así que valió la pena.

La historia de Charlie es hermosa, a pesar de la muerte de su pareja.

¿Qué puedo decir? Amé todo del libro, sin duda estaré pegada a la serie un buen rato.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for L-D.
1,478 reviews65 followers
July 11, 2012
Although I wasn't too keen on the book cover and the title was strange, I gave this book a shot. Although it was a little short, I really enjoyed the overall story. What's not to love about spec ops marines, a good ol' boy sheriff, and assassination and intrigue? Good stuff.

There was nothing specifically mind-blowing about this book, it just came together in a very nice package and I really liked all of the characters. I would love to see this book turned into a series because I'm interested to find out if anything comes of some of the other secondary characters' interest in each other.

A fun read! Oooh-RAH! Semper FI!
51 reviews
September 10, 2013
Really? This is a Stormy Glenn book? What happened to the diminutive guy being run over by the big strong alpha? So, I have times when I enjoy reading Stormy's books, but typically know what to expect. This book blew a bit of my Stormy mold away. I would probably rate this book a solid C, but the fact that it was different (to a degree) and that it involved such a ... Nice ... Pairing, just made me go higher. I would say this book is worth reading. Just make sure you can ignore the overuse of "John Henry". I just read it as Johnny each time.
Profile Image for Ivka_s_knihou.
1,657 reviews29 followers
November 8, 2013
i had a few issues with this book. don't know why but the name John Henry really bothered me. i had a feeling it was written on one page so many times, it was really annoying.

don't get me wrong i love Stormy Glenn and her books. especially her Cowboy series. but this thing had such an unbelievable plot i just sit for a few minutes and decided i will read it as a parody.

the supportive characters were good and they have a potential for good book. i will definitely read the rest of the series. but i was a little bit disappointed with this story.
Profile Image for Meggie.
5,104 reviews
July 6, 2012
This story was interesting and enjoyable. Sure the main storyline wasn't much in this book, but Charlie and his team will, for sure, pull us in other new crazy stories. John Henry was an interesting character and he was crazy for Charlie. The reader gets what he wants, HEA at the end. What do would we want more.
144 reviews1 follower
February 13, 2013
3.75 stars
For me this book went from a 4.5 stars down to a 3.75 because of the unbelievable amount of times 'John Henry' could be used per page.
I loved the storyline and I'm looking forward to more, but I really expected 'The Waltons' and the family from Petticoat Junction to make an appearance!
Profile Image for CB.
3,182 reviews6 followers
January 5, 2015
A very entertaining story and the first in a series. Charismatic characters, hot sex and some drama.

There are 5 books total in the series so far but there is definitely room for more. What I like is that each book is a full story based on 2 characters with a beginning, middle and end but, you get to see other characters from the other stories throughout.
Profile Image for Tj.
2,225 reviews67 followers
September 6, 2015
Fun read. Lots of action. The characters fall for each other fast and the name, John Henry, being constantly said that way was a little annoying. I still enjoyed the action and characters and would love to see a continuation of this book into a series.
Profile Image for Julie Dalglish.
110 reviews10 followers
August 21, 2012
Stormy Glenn does it again. I think its her best yet, hot marines, a sheriff and babies what more do you need oh yeah blazing hot sex and it has that too. I really hope to hear more about these sexy men.
1,413 reviews4 followers
August 23, 2016
John Henr's Beautiful Charlie

This was great I Loved it and can't wait to read the next one in this series and I'm trying to read all the old books and catch up I'm glad I chose this one first...
Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.