Pain is a relentless master. After ravaging my childhood, it destroyed my Naval career, sending me into a downward spiral of pills and self-loathing. Now, fresh out of rehab with a biker club of veterans at my back, I’m fighting for my emancipation. Then she shows up seeking sanctuary and a reprieve from her own torment.Mila.A gorgeous, wounded outcast, she’ll either be my kryptonite or my … she’ll either be my kryptonite or my motivation to keep breathing, but I will do everything in my power to keep her safe.
Even if it breaks me for good.
18+ for language and sexual situations.
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Wow, what an amazing book and series, I just finished binging on the whole series in two days. Two flawed characters end up with each other, love fiercely, loyal to each other and most of all both are crazy over each other.
Hound and Mila this book touched on so many emotions and so much was going on. Hound is a retired. medical discharge Navy man that was injured and is now enduring daily pain as a result of those injuries. He has come back from rock bottom having dealt with addiction . Pills and alcohol were his way to numb the pain but it also took away his every day life. The Dead Presidents took him in, got him the help he needed desperately and now he is working for them.
Mila has so much in her past that it may have finally caught up to her. Mila escaped the live of a cult family. They kept her sheltered from the real world as a young girl/teenager .If they only could have kept her safe from the cult minister and abuse. She escaped that life, received her GED, finally received her teaching degree but to continue pay the bills and have a huge nest egg she moonlighted as a high end escort. When the people close to her in the escort world begin to die and she is receiving biblical message via text she knows it is time to run and find help. Mila finds herself on the doorstep problems in hand of the Dead Presidents and her cousin . This couple has so many hurdles and insecurities to overcome . They each feel as though they are not worthy of a real love, good friends and a happy life. Working together they soon realize with the support of others anything can be possible !
~~Michele McMullen ~~
Unleashing Hound by Harley Stone is book 8 in the Dead Presidents MC Series. This is the story of Mila and Hound. I thought this could be a standalone book if you wish to do so. Mila is a young women who escaped the Cult she has been living in when she was younger. Now she lives in Canada working as a school teacher but also has a second job that is more dangerous working as an escort. Mila starts to feel threaten when two people are killed related to the escort service and she gets a strange email. Scared and worried she head to her cousin Morse who is the only real family she has. Morse is part of the Dead Presidents MC Club and of course takes her in to keep her safe. Mila meets Hound who is the newest member to the club. Hound a Navy veteran who was severely hurt which lead him to be a drug addict. But now he is out of rehab and taken up with the Dead Presidents MC that takes in troubled veterans to get them back to the living, giving them self-worth and a purpose. Both are very attracted to each other but both have a dark and troubled history, but sometimes love can solve anything. Enjoyed their story.
4 stars
Unleashing Hound is the eighth book in Stone’s Dead Presidents MC series. So far I’ve loved everything the DP’s stand for and I’m always eager for the next installment!
Unleashing Hound focuses on a medically discharged Navy veteran and recovering addict and Mila, an enigmatic woman running from danger and maybe even from herself. Both are plagued by pain, Hound with debilitating physical and mental pain and Mila from traumatic emotional pain and abuse. When Mila arrives in Seattle seeking help from her long lost cousin, Houbd’s boss, Hound tries to keep to himself but can’t help but be drawn to the mystery woman but somehow he knows she’s hiding something. As a recovering addict, Hound can’t let anything jeopardize his recovery, especially not a gorgeous woman who lies and tries his admirable patience.
Hound and Mila were both great characters and both were struggling through things that would’ve broken lesser people. The book was definitely a slow burn for me and I did find that a little frustrating but their individual struggles felt all too real and I appreciated the author not sugarcoating them to give them their happy ending. Great job!
AnnMarie – Alphas Do It Better Book Blog
A True Hero
Hound has just come through a very dark part of his past when he was given a medical discharge from the Navy that he loved so much. It was due to the extreme pain he dealt with from his back injury that led him down that slippery slope of prescription meds and booze. Now he is a prospect for the Undead Presidents MC made up of veterans who are out to help other veterans with Hound being one of them. His only requirement is not to use.
Mila was living two very different lives one being a third grade teacher and the other being a high priced escort. She didn’t even know who she was and with her past of growing up in a religious cult shaped her into the two people she now was. She began receiving disturbing religious emails and her best friend and then one the men who was using her services were killed. That sent Mila heading for her cousin who was a member of the Undead Presidents MC.
Meeting Hound was affecting her but Mila didn’t want anyone close to her. Hound was breaking down those walls around Mila’s heart but would it be enough? And who was it that was after Mila and how many more people might die? For me this book took me on an emotional rollercoaster ride and was a book I couldn’t put down.
Hound & Mia… Oh goodness, how do I even begin?? Well, I guess with the beginning of this story. For Hound, the things he’s going through I completely could empathize with him, as I have horrible chronic pain issues. My heart broke for him, and I just wanted to wrap him up in a (gentle) hug!
For Mia, it starts out w/ one of my hard no’s – which had me a little worried about how I would feel about the rest of the story. This is one of my favorite series, with some of my favorite characters, and I’m not going to lie – for a bit there, I didn’t like Mia. I didn’t understand how she could do what she did.
As the story progressed, and I got to know her, that understanding was heartbreaking & I wanted to wrap her up in a hug, as well!
The romance isn’t easy. But the story is well-written & kept me on the edge of my seat w/ the intrigue! Overall, Hound & Mia’s story is full of FEELS and beauty, healing and LOVE. And as always with this series, the underlying theme of the deep love of family – blood or not – is alive and well.
: )
I just love this series – if you haven’t started it, it’s a total Must Read Series (IMHO). The Dead Presidents MC, is made up of former Military Men that came together to help other servicemen who needed a helping hand, in one form or another, once their military careers were over. Their cause is awesome and the work the MC does both in house and in the community is amazing. Don’t get me wrong, the storylines still have action and suspense, it’s just the helping hands of the brothers that grab you in. This is all very apparent in Unleashing Hound. A great read where the storyline and the characters are well developed and believable.
Hound was wounded in the war. Lost, alone and relying on painkillers to just get through the day he found himself broke, homeless and addicted to pain meds. At one of his lowest points in life he remembered a former friend in the Navy that told him about the Dead Presidents, so he made his way to Seattle. He is now a prospect for the MC and trying to keep himself clean, even through the debilitating pain he suffers daily
Mila is one of Hound’s MC brother’s cousins. She is a strong independent woman. Yet she lives her life as a loner. Due to her tragic past she is afraid to let others in. She is like a chameleon, she adapts her personality and lifestyle to fit the situation. She has done this for so long, she has lost her true self. When she starts receiving strange email messages and her best friend and a client are both murdered, she runs to her cousin and the Dead Presidents MC for help. Hound vows to keep the beautiful Mila safe while the club searches for the killer but with his physical limitations and the walls they have both put around themselves is there any way he can keep his promise?
This is a great story in an awesome series. I can’t recommend Hound or the Dead Presidents, MC series enough. While reading them in order is not a must, doing so will make for a much better reading experience as the storylines and characters do overlap. 2 Thumbs Up and 5+ Stars.
This is the 8th book in this phenomenal series and is Hound and Mila’s story. Hound is ex-navy is broken and a recovering addict who has finally found a place when he belongs within the MC. Mila is also broken and does whatever she has to in order to survive but when she finds herself in danger she seeks out her cousin Morse to help. This is a beautifully written story which is filled with drama, secrets, danger, heartbreak, and undeniable attraction, which all had me enthralled throughout this epic tale. I highly recommend this thrilling story for all.
UNLEASHING HOUND begins and ends with pain….Physical for Hound…Emotional for Mila…This story really spoke to me, because I deal with physical pain every single day of my life,….Harley Stone did a good job describing everyday pain…Not “fixing” it for a happier story, made the story more real for me…Pain is the third character in a relationship, and she’s written exactly that…
So..Hound is a Navy veteran with severe back and leg injuries and a recovering addict…Fresh out of rehab, Hound has been welcomed and accepted as a brother in the Dead Presidents MC….But, he doesn’t feel like he’s making a contribution to society in general or, specifically, the club, because of his debilitating pain…Morse puts him to work with him doing “IT work” for the club….It changes his life in more ways than one…
Mila is teaching 3rd grade in Canada…After growing up in a cult, she has….issues…Besides being a school teacher, Mila is also a detached, unemotional, highly paid call girl…..When her best friend and fellow working girl, and her first client are both killed, and Mila receives some threatening messages, she leaves Canada and comes to Seattle for help from her cousin, Morse…He moves her into the club house/fire station where she connects with Hound…and the feelings he’s generating is messing with her head…
Hound and Mila are good characters, individually, and a complicated couple with lots of deep issues, hot chemistry and a really good story…..With #8 in her Dead Presidents MC series, Harley Stone just keeps proving who she is as an author…and why she’s quickly become one of my favorites….
This was a interesting book. It took me a while to like lead lady. But once I started i needed to know what will happen next.
I liked Hound and Mila together, they may of had loads of boundaries to overcome. But they managed to.
Harley Stone did a good job of this book.
Unleashing Hound is book 8 in the Dead Presidents MC by Harley Stone. It focuses on the charcaters Mila and Hound. Hound is ex-Navy, but has been left broken, is a recovering addict and has very low self esteem and worth. He is just starting off with the Dead Presidents MC, a club which helps former military people get back on the right path, gives them a sense of self and a brotherhood, all of the things which Hound needs. He is just starting to find his place as a prospect when out of the blue Mila turns up.
Mila is an enigma and not what she seems. She has two very different persona’s which she has worked hard at: the school teacher and the escort. But that isn’t everything she is and she yearns to find a place to fit and who she is. As she distrusts everyone, when she starts getting random biblical email messages and people around her start dying, she runs to the only family member that she has left, Morse, her cousin.
This story is really different from the other books in this series in the fact that it mainly focuses on the two characters who keep flitting around each other, not wanting to get close but not wanting to stay away either. There is a lot of back history for the two and they are both coming to terms with how their life has turned out and the choices they have made. Mila’s story is deceptive as at the beginning you don’t really get to know too much about her other than a basic background, but as the story develops, you actually get to see how messed up she is and how that was caused. Her relationship with her cousin is interesting as he can dish it out, but so can she and nothing hurts worse than the truth.
We also have hound’s story, of his struggles and his lack of family support other than his sisters. It takes him becoming part of the MC to realise that other people have his back. He has an instant attraction to Mila, but he knows that she is hiding secrets and when those secrets come to light, they may be a little bit more than he can handle.
This felt like a slow burn book for me as even though the two characters were attracted to each other, it was a slow build up, mainly due to the fact that neither wanted to get hurt or believed that they could invest in the relationship. That being said they do eventually get there but there are a lot of twists and turns throughout the book to keep you going and you never quite know what is going to happen.
Harley Stone for me, is a must-read author and this book was no exception. A really good read!
ARC received for a fair, honest and sometimes long review
More of my reviews can be found on my blog: https://thehotmesslibrary.blogspot.com
I seriously adore all the characters in this series and Hound and Mila are no different.
Two broken people, one physically, one mentally and emotionally, doing whatever they need to, to survive. Both Hound and Mila are filled with self-doubt, they’ve both overcome things from their past and have learned to keep people at arm’s length as a self-preservation tactic. Something happens though, the more they are around one another, the more they want to be. Until….they don’t.
This story will pull at your heart, the things that these two have survived would have broken others. When the past resurfaces, Morse and Tap are against the clock to solve the puzzle before there are bodies. Will the pieces fall into place in time, will Hound and Mila be able to get past the past, or will they all be just a little too late?
A slow burn that cranks up the heat amid the suspense. A great addition to the series.
Hound and Mila’s story was so amazing! While my heart hurts for them both, and what they each have endured, their story is absolutely perfect! There was just enough drama, just enough danger, to make the story exciting, without overshadowing the internal struggle they were both dealing with.
Hound gave his everything to the Military, and was left a broken man, trying to cope, unsuccessfully, on his own. He tried everything, and was spiraling in a world of addiction, and pain. His brothers, his MC pulled him out, and he is just beginning to see the light at the end of his journey, when a brother’s cousin comes in and turns his life upside down!
Mila is a very confused young lady! A horrific childhood, rejection, and betrayal has led to a distrust of everyone. She doesn’t let any one get close, but when a tragic loss leaves her feeling like her life is in danger, she runs to the only family that she has left. This leads her to Hound, who catches her attention, like no one else ever has, but she still feels the need to keep to herself.
Hound and Mila are both hurting, both struggling. Their story is full of family, support, and two people trying to find their way out of the ashes of their past. While it began with a lot of hurt and pain, it ended full of hope and happiness. I don’t think I can fully express how much I enjoyed their story without giving too much away, so I will just say that it was just as amazing, just as inspiring as all of the other Dead President’s MC books, and a total must read!
From the first chapter, you’re pulled into the pain that Hound lives with daily. He feels useless because of the limitations of his broken body. When Mila arrives at the Dead President’s clubhouse hoping her cousin can help her keep her safe, she helps Hound start to see he still has plenty to offer.
Both are keeping secrets, but when all is revealed will they come out of it safely?
Such an emotional story, I really felt Hound’s pain and Mila gave us a different way to look at escorts. A book I really enjoyed, and one I would recommend.
From the first chapter, you’re pulled into the pain that Hound lives with daily. He feels useless because of the limitations of his broken body. When Mila arrives at the Dead President’s clubhouse hoping her cousin can help her keep her safe, she helps Hound start to see he still has plenty to offer.
Both are keeping secrets, but when all is revealed will they come out of it safely?
Such an emotional story, I really felt Hound’s pain and Mila gave us a different way to look at escorts. A book I really enjoyed, and one I would recommend.
Hmm, where do I start with this one. I enjoyed this story but I wanted more of their relationship to unfold. So we have Hound who got help from the Dead Presidents when he really needed it. He was at his lowest point in life and has his daily struggles. But since he found a family that is willing to help him better himself he grabs the leash and hangs on. I am definitely proud of what he is doing and his story will captivate you for sure. Then we have Mila who walks in and one look at her and he definitely wants to make himself better. Only he does not think he is good enough for her. Now Mila has her own demons and she hides behind many masks. She really has no idea who she is. She can make herself into anyone practically. This is intriguing because we want to know what happened to her to make her feel as if she needs to hide behind mask. Well when Hound and her are together he sees the person she is when she isn’t hiding. He wants to get to know her but with his issues flaring up he does not want her to think that he is not a capable person. They help each other and don’t realize it until it is almost too late. So what happens when she finally tells him about herself? What happens when both demons are released? The story builds with a lot of mystery so when we get to the end, it gets explosive. How will it end? Will there be a happily ever after? Pick up your copy to read what happens.
Hound is an inspiration.
The brief glimpse we had of Hound in the previous books was of him at his worst. He had been reduced to drug and alcohol addiction to try and cope with pain management.
This book looks at not long after he gets out of rehab and is trying to do his best prospecting for the club. Its clear he is still struggling and that doesn’t really feel he fits in. In that respect I really found it to be unique as all the others had there quirks but weren’t really shown like this.
Having pain issues myself I found great character details throughout this book. Also in awe of Harley Stone for her writing, there are so many injured soldiers out there and this looked at one that even though wasn’t through battle still had to struggle.
There is also very telling note of how getting painkillers that didn’t necessarily help much was so much easier and covered by the insurance. Where as CBD oil wasn’t covered and was non addictive so was better for him which is a real struggle for so many people.
Morses Cousin Mila is in trouble and has come for help. She’s another strong woman who is used to life alone and looking after herself. There was some amazing details into her and Morses history as children I would love to know more about!
I found the pair completely fit together despite their differences and that’s why I think I have enjoyed this series so much. Even at book 8 I am still interested in what is to come. This series is a must read and looking forward to the next book.
This book was okay, but I just couldn’t connect with the characters. Hound and Mila both suffer daily after a debilitating injury for him, and a very hard childhood for her. They are each just trying to survive as life keeps kicking them down. Will they be able to work through their demons and find their way to each other? The mystery was very predictable, and I had it figured out pretty much from the get go. Some of the inner dialogue when everything came to a crescendo, I found kind of ridiculous. So I give this book between 3 and 3.5 stars.
Mila and Hound are two opposites but when she comes home to get help she gets more than she planned on. This is another great book in this series. I love the way Harley Stone tells a story and I can’t wait for the next one.
4 1/2 Stars! Book eight in the Dead Presidents MC series. Can be read and enjoyed as stand-alone. Full length told in dual POV with HEA. The Dead Presidents are a motorcycle club where all members are military vets. Each book is about a different member and secondary characters are the same throughout the series. Hound was someone I loved immediately, but Mila was hard to like for a lot of the story. There isn’t a lot of MC drama in this book just two lonely broken adults. Sweet & emotional!