Title: The Protector
Author: Jodi Ellen Malpas
Publisher/Year:  Grand Central Publishing 9/6/16
Length:   330 Pages

Overview

People think they have Camille Logan nailed: daddy’s girl; beautiful, spoiled young woman with her father’s bank balance to fund her lifestyle. But Camille is determined to have a life free from his strings. Out on her own, she’s made mistakes, including one that found her clawing her way back after a stint in rehab and plenty of bad press. Now, after fighting so hard to be independent and happy, she finds her life threatened as a result of her father’s ruthless business dealings. Caught between resentment and fear, Camille prepares herself for the measures her father will take to protect her. But nothing could prepare her for the ex-SAS sniper who crashes into her life.

Jake Sharp resides in his own personal hell. He was distracted from duty once before, and the consequences were devastating–both personally and professionally. He vowed never to let that happen again. Accepting the job of bodyguard to Camille Logan isn’t the kind of distraction from his demons he should take. Women and Jake don’t mix well, yet protecting the heiress seems the lesser of two evils. But Jake soon discovers that she isn’t the woman she’s perceived to be. She’s warm, compassionate, her presence settling, and his duty to protect her soon goes deeper than a well-paid job, no matter how hard he fights it. He needs absolution. He comes to need Camille. But he knows he can’t have both.

My Thoughts

I’m a fairly big fan of all things that Ms Malpas writes so i was happy to come across this one even though it appears that it’s a standalone and not a series.  Maybe it’s better that way right?  Anyhow, we get all of the great bits that i love from our author – really exciting characters who have their own variety of issues and then some of the hottest scenes you can imagine.

Where we go in this story all starts with Jake – he’s ex military and he’s got so much personal baggage and angst going on from his past that things have spiraled out of control for him.  He pushes himself to work more and more so that he doesn’t have time to get wrapped up in his head and we see that it’s not always a good thing for him.  It’s when he gets a job to be a bodyguard for Camille that things really begin to get exciting.

Camille is the daughter of a businessman who may have had his hands in too many things which have led to the need for Camille’s protection.  There’s been a threat against her and that means that Jake’s services are required.  What we get from there on is a tale of lies and people hiding behind what they want to be known vs what is true reality.

Throughout this story, we see the dynamic shift between Cam and Jake as expected. Personally, i knew that it was just a matter of days that we would see them combust and that’s exactly what we got.  While that’s all well and good for my need to get some steamy passion through this story, we know that it’s got to be a big problem for Jake since emotion has clouded his judgement in the past and that’s something that he can’t allow to happen when Cami’s life is in danger.

There are so many characters introduced throughout this story with the intention i believe to throw us off the trail of who’s really behind things.  Camille’s father is really shady and we know that he’s got something to do with it but we can’t quite put our finger on what.

Then there’s TJ – the half brother – he’s always around when it’s curious but he seems to check out.

There’s Sebastian, the ex fresh from rehab that makes you wonder what’s going to happen there and well, he doesn’t let us down.

So all in all, it;s a big question of whether the threat is real or not, how real it is and who’s behind it.  I think that we’re taking on quite a journey, but left with such a nice mix of anxiety and lust to get us through.  Enjoy!