Review by Dottie: Rules of Protection by Alison Bliss

Rules of Protection

Author: Alison Bliss

Series: Tangled in Texas (Book 1)

Contemporary Romance 

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Synopsis

It’s rule breaker Emily Foster's birthday, and like everyone at The Jungle Room, she just wants to get some action. Unfortunately, she stumbles on the wrong kind, witnessing a mob hit. To protect her, she’s entered into the Witness Protection Program with by-the-book Special Agent Jake Ward as her chaperone.

When the location of their safe house is compromised, Jake stashes Emily deep in the Texas backwoods. The city-girl might be safe from the Mafia, but she has to contend with a psychotic rooster, a narcoleptic dog, crazy cowboys, and the danger of losing her heart to the one man she can’t have.

Jake's as hot as he is infuriating, and she can't help but push all his buttons to loosen him up. Their mutual, sizzling sexual attraction poses a dilemma: Jake’s determined to keep her safe and out of the wrong hands; she’s determined to get into the right ones—his.

Star Rating

3.5 Stars

Review

Rules of Protection begins with our snarky heroine, Emily, out with her besties celebrating her birthday and hoping to get lucky. As she checks out the men partying at the club, she (against her better judgement) follows a guy she's been doing some serious flirting with and inadvertantly witnesses a mob hit. As is always the case, the bad guys always notice the witness to their crime and chase her down. Emily escapes and then gets herself to the authorities; this is where the story really begins.

While being interviewed by the police, Jake, our hero appears and after interacting with him at the club, Emily is not happy to learn he is with the FBI. He is assigned to the case and since the crime she witnessed is within his jurisdiction, he talks her into joining the Witness Protection Program. While accompanying her to keep her safe, locations are compromised and Jake decides to take matters into his own hands and keep her safe off-radar. He takes her to a place where he can keep her out of harms's way; he takes her to his family's bird farm. There, Emily meets Hank and Floss (Jake's family) and some of his close friends.

Ensconced out in the country, this city girl is completely out of her element. As Emily tries to cope with living on the farm, she also tries to cope with her growing feelings for Jake, the man who is keeping her safe. She learns to adapt to her new environment, and it was a riot reading about her adventures on the farm. She deals with a nasty, overbearing rooster, a wild 500 pound pig determined to kill her, and a pond with its own gator. She learns to shoot a gun, and how to tell when a snake is close-by. Little by little she gains confidence and she wears it well:

"What the hell are you doing?" Jake said, panting and staring at the snake's burning corpse. "You scared the shit out of me! I thought some nutcase was out here shooting."..."But I guess by original assumption was correct. A nutcase was out here shooting."

"Jake, I was..."

Hank and Floss had made it down the back steps and came over to us. "She killed the shit out of that snake," Hank said, laughing. "Chopped off its head, set it on fire, then shot it."
Jake looked at me as if I were crazy. "A little overkill, don't you think?"

"It wouldn't stop moving."

And later:
...the rooster strutted closer, nonchalantly pecking the ground, puffing out his feathers. From previous experience, I knew this behavior was similar to a dog's warning growl before and actual bite.

But I didn't wait for him to charge. Instead, I reached out, grabbed him by the neck, and slung him away. He jumped to his feet and came back for more. I raised the bucket in warning and yelled, "Rooster, I'll fuck you up!"... When I came out of the chicken coop, I realized I had company. Floss gaped at me in shock, Hank snickered, and Jake shook his head in disbelief. "What?" I asked. Hank patted my arm, grinning. "Honey, you may have the face of an angel, but that halo of yours is awfully crooked."

Jake, our hero, is a fairly unconventional FBI guy. He essentially kidnaps a federal witness to keep her safe. But Emily doesn't make it easy on him. This girl does not like rules and he does. He doesn't believe in casual sex, and although he finds himself very attracted to Emily, he also has a job to do. And his witness, well, she challenges his every move. The banter between these two characters is funny at times and over the top from time to time. Add in some crazy local cowboys and this ride gets bumpy.

But feelings begin to grow, for both of them. Emily realizes she's in love with Jake and this just adds to the stress. Jake tries to resist the pull toward her, but he finds his heart is involved too. 

...before I could stop him, Jake ratcheted me into his arms and drew his mouth over mine. I forced my body into rigidity, as if I were a wooden puppet. Unfortunately, my strings were attached to my heart. Jake's tongue demanded my lips to part, and I responded as if he were my master. It was ravenous and indulgent and longer just a kiss. In front of everyone, Jake made love to my mouth...

"Open your eyes," he demanded, unwinding my fingers that were still coiled around the sheets and interlacing them with his. The heavy-lidded, lust-filled gaze I offered lit up his face, and a primal urge took over. He pulled my hips up roughly and grunted as he buried his thick, hot shaft inside, grinding against me fully. He kept scorching eye contact that burned into me, searing me with his flesh as well as his mind. It wasn't fair for a person to have this much power over my emotions, my body, but I had accepted it the moment our clothes hit the floor. 

I enjoyed this debut novel. I am looking forward to seeing what else this author has up her sleeve. I would have liked to see some more character development; both Jake and Emily had histories that was less than ideal and it would have been great to get to know them a bit better, to see what makes them tick. There were times that I felt the hammer was about ready to drop but nothing would happen. Eventually, it all came together and made sense. But for a first-time author, this really hit a lot of the marks!