Protected

by Lexi Blake

[Eve1972]

To begin, I have to admit I only read this book because my friend Sabrina made me. That's right; she bullied me into it. She's a bully...boo! -- I am just kidding. I love her. Seriously though, second chance romances can go either way for me. There are ones that are fantastic, and the plots work. Then we have the ones that have these unbelievable long separations that just don't work on any level. Such was the case with this book.





So first off, I couldn't stand Wade AT ALL. Here we have a guy who "claims" to be in love with a girl. They plan on marrying. They plan on being together forever. He gets a letter while he is away at boot camp. A letter that he knew was totally out of character for the heroine, and what does he do? Does he take the first opportunity to get home and see what has happened? NO. Does he call her to ask what the fuck? No. You know what he does? He thinks the absolute worst of her and almost immediately starts partying and fucking everything that walks for FIFTEEN STRAIGHT YEARS. Not ONCE in fifteen years does he think "hey maybe I should look Genny up and talk to her." Not ONCE does he wonder why the love if his life, his soulmate, dumped him via a letter and was marrying a guy she had NO interest in??!! Wade was a fucking douche and didn't deserve Genny.

And don't even get me started on the fact that he was so OTT butthurt and mean to her in chapter one, then BAM it takes ONE conversation...O-N-E, and he is all "I have always loved you. I want you back" blah...blah...blah. No dude, because if you loved her, REALLY loved her, you would have moved mountains to figure out what happened. You most certainly wouldn't have thought the worst of her and then went off to fuck and party for fifteen LONG years.





He could have saved himself fifteen years of being a bitter betty by having said conversation when he first received her letter. Or you know, at ANY other point in the previous fifteen fucking years. Twatwaffle...Next up, let us talk about the thirteen-year-old kid that acted like a thirty-year-old. The swearing. The talk about his ass in jeans. It was so ridiculous the things this kid would do and say. He was like some weird old Yoda stuck in a kids body. He even DRUGGED his mother for crying out loud. --- Like WTF? Although, this shouldn't have surprised me as this author struggles to write age appropriate dialogue for kids (IMO). I still remember the short story with the three-year-old (?) twins that started fires by breaking up furniture and loading adult sized crossbows.





NOW, I will say it wasn't ALL bad. I did really like Genny. I thought she should never have taken Wade back, but hey, it is a romance book, so c'est la vie. She wasn't a doormat though. She had spunk. I also loved seeing Ian and Charlotte, and a lot of the older gang again. There were also some humorous parts, so I gave the book an extra star for that. Plus, even though I never liked Wade, he did provide some good grovel. Finally, the ending was solid, and probably the best part of the book. AND...now I am dying to know what the hell happened in Munich!