Protecting the Heiress by Nana Malone
This novella is billed as the first of a duology, but it is more properly the first half of a novel as it doesn't wrap up either of the main storylines, the mystery or the romance plots. I chose it from free Kobo books to meet a reading challenge.
It's set in a small fictional European country called the Winston Isles, and follows several characters. The two main characters are Jax and Neela, but it starts with Ariel. Ariel has started her own company after leaving the Royal Guard of . She is putting together a team based on recommendations from friends and former coworkers. The first one she approaches is Jax Reynolds, and she's been following him for a while as he works a case. He's been working in London, but used to be a Royal Guard and would like nothing more than to get back in. He quit for a woman, and when that relationship didn't pan out, he found himself without the job he'd loved.
Jax's first job is to go undercover as a nanny for a woman who recently took custody of a friend's child. There is some uncertainty whether the friend's death was an accident, and her lawyer doesn't want anything to happen to the child.
Neela is a cryptanalyst who looks into security issues for companies. She had started the company with her boyfriend, but that relationship has recently ended and he's been not playing very nice about how the company is being split. When she unexpectedly finds herself the guardian of a baby, she finds herself happy to accept the help the lawyer has arranged for her, unaware that she is also gaining protection for her and Mayzie.
Jax knows better than to act on his attraction for his employer, but the attraction is mutual, and hard to ignore. When Neela gets threatening messages and other dangerous things begin to happen, things get pretty intense in another way.
The cryptology angle of the story is interesting and I liked both the main characters. We see many other side characters, from the King of this small country to Neela's coworkers, but other related series follow them in more depth.
As I said, this book leaves the reader wanting more.
No comments:
Post a Comment