PROTECTED (Masters and Mercenaries # 16.5: 1001 Dark Nights) by Lexi Blake-Review & Excerpt tour
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About the book: Release Date July 31, 2018
A second chance at first love
Years before Wade Rycroft fell in love with Geneva Harris, the smartest girl in his class. The rodeo star and the shy academic made for an odd pair but their chemistry was undeniable. They made plans to get married after high school but when Genny left him standing in the rain, he joined the Army and vowed to leave that life behind. Genny married the town’s golden boy, and Wade knew that he couldn’t go home again.
Could become the promise of a lifetime
Fifteen years later, Wade returns to Broken Bend, Texas for his brother’s wedding and walks into a storm of scandal. Genny’s marriage has dissolved and the town has turned against her. But when someone tries to kill his old love, Wade can’t refuse to help her. In his years after the Army, he’s found his place in the world. His job at McKay-Taggart keeps happy and busy but something is missing. When he takes the job watching over Genny, he realizes what it is.
As danger presses in, Wade must decide if he can forgive past sins or let the woman of his dreams walk into a nightmare….
••••••••
REVIEW: PROTECTED by Lexi Blake is instalment 16.5 in the author’s contemporary, adult MASTERS AND MERCENARIES erotic, romantic, suspense series, and the latest addition to the multi-authored 1001 Dark Nights series. This is thirty-three year old, security specialist Wade Rycroft, and Geneva Harris’ story line. PROTECTED can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story lines is revealed where necessary.
Told from dual third person perspectives (Wade and Geneva) PROTECTED follows the second chance romance between security specialist Wade Rycroft, and his high school sweetheart Geneva Harris. Fifteen years earlier Geneva Harris destroyed Wade Rycroft’s heart; obliterated his soul when she sent him a ‘Dear John’ letter stating he wasn’t the man she was going to marry. Fast forward to present day wherein Wade will come face to face with the woman he despises more than anything else, a woman whose past is mired in betrayal, abuse, secrets and lies. What ensues is the rekindling romance between Geneva and Wade, and the potential fall-out as Geneva’s past threatens everyone she loves, including the man whose heart she broke.
Geneva has never stopped loving Wade Rycroft but in order to protect the people she loved, Geneva was force into a marriage that all but destroyed her life. Now a divorced, single mother of a thirteen year-old son, Geneva is desperate enough to make contact with Wade Rycroft, knowing Wade’s feels nothing by contempt and hatred for our story line heroine. Wade Rycroft’s actions and attitude towards Geneva Harris is nothing short of acrimonious and wrong but Wade is unaware of the truth about what happened fifteen years earlier, a truth his brother Clint kept hidden from them all.
The relationship between Geneva and Wade is a second chance romance that continues to struggle with demons from the past. From the outset Wade is unable to forgive and forget until his brother Clint forces an increasingly agitated Wade to listen to the truth. Geneva battles between her head and her heart including her first priority of protecting her son. The $ex scenes are passionate and seductive with some light D/s scenarios.
There is a large ensemble cast of colorful and familiar secondary and supporting characters including a number of security specialists who have worked or are currently working for McKay-Taggart, as well as referencing the upcoming characters in the author’s new Lost Boys spin-off series. We are introduced to Geneva’s thirteen year old son Asher, a boy who has experienced more than most children his age.
PROTECTED is a heart breaking, emotional and engaging story line. The premise is sensitive; the romance is tender and breath-taking; the characters are broken, flawed but healing. PROTECTED is an electrifying, spirited and encouraging story of second chances, and happily ever afters.
Copy supplied for review
Reviewed by Sandy
“It helps to admit that we were all children back then.”
“My mother wasn’t.” He needed to talk about this with her.
“No, but she wasn’t the same after your dad died. She was lost and I’ve forgiven her,” she replied quietly. “You can’t spend your life being angry.”
“You’re angry with me.”
For a moment he thought she would ignore him. Then she turned to him, her eyes shining in the moonlight. “Maybe. It’s hard to figure out how I feel about you. For a long time, I dreamed about you at night. You were the only man I ever loved. Brock killed that. I think he might have killed the part of me that can love someone other than my son. I didn’t feel a lot when my father passed. But then he was the one who told me to suck it up. I went to him after Brock hit me the first time. He told me to not make my husband mad.”
“Genny, he should have killed him. I would have. God, I should have.” That sorrow that had been building inside him threatened to spill over. Anger was there, but it was overshadowed by the terrible pain he felt at the thought of her being alone and afraid.
“It’s funny,” she said, studying him in the silvery light. “I went over pretty much every possible scenario I could, and this wasn’t the way I thought you would handle it. It’s why it took forever for me to talk to you. I thought you would either not care at all or that you would be so angry you went after everyone. I hesitated because I thought I might unleash a beast.”
He could give her this. Since the moment he’d learned the truth, he’d genuinely forced himself to think about how he reacted. It would be selfish to act out in anger when she needed him to be calm, to think about what was best for her. The drive from Broken Bend to Dallas with Ash had made that clear to him. They needed someone who would thoughtfully protect them, not a raging animal who fed his own needs. “You’ve had enough anger in your life. It’s there. God, it’s there, but I swear I won’t act on it because I won’t do anything that could hurt you. I’ll try to handle him in every legal way I can and if I have to take him out, I’ll do it in a way that can never come back on any of us. You don’t need my rage. You do need me though.”
“I don’t want to.”
“Because you think I’ll let you down again.” It wasn’t a question.
“Because I don’t want to love anyone again,” she admitted.
NY Times and USA Today bestselling author Lexi Blake lives in North Texas with her husband, three kids, and the laziest rescue dog in the world. She began writing at a young age, concentrating on plays and journalism. It wasn’t until she started writing romance and urban fantasy that she found the stories of her heart. She likes to find humor in the strangest places and believes in happy endings no matter how odd the couple, threesome, or foursome may seem.
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