OnlineBookClub.org

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Protecting You" by Amanda Siegrist.]

Protecting You by Amanda Siegrist is the story of Ava Rainer and her relationship with the McCord brothers. Ava, a supervisor for the crime lab in New York City, is a strong, hard-working woman. She takes Officer Jimmy McCord, a farm kid from Minnesota, under her wing and they become the best of friends. Jimmy is happy fulfilling his lifelong dream of becoming a police officer in New York City. Unfortunately, in order to follow his own dream, Jimmy had to leave his two older brothers back in Minnesota to manage the family farm on their own. His hotheaded brother Zane does not support his decision to leave the farm, and is constantly trying to get Jimmy to come home. A blowout between Ava and Zane causes a rift between the brothers, and before they have a chance to make-up, tragedy strikes. Ava and the McCord brothers are brought together to heal, forcing Ava and Zane into each other’s lives whether they like it or not. This book is filled with sadness, hope, and anticipation. Amanda Siegrist keeps you on your toes until the very end.

I am giving this book a rating of 3 out of 4 stars. I really enjoyed the story, and I had the hardest time putting it down! I would say that the only thing holding me back from giving a 4 star rating was that the book had grammatical errors throughout. I did not find the errors distracting, but I did feel like they should be considered in the overall rating of the book. Despite the errors, I do highly recommend this book! It is Amanda Siegrist’s first novel, and from her website, it looks like she has at least three others in the works. I think fans of romance novels should definitely check her out!

The thing that I liked least about this book was Zane’s attitude. I think that at times he was way too over-the-top, and it bordered on being unrealistic. I read his outbursts, especially those toward people he didn’t even know, and had a hard time remembering that Zane is supposed to be a good guy underneath his tough exterior. I think his harsh anger versus his softer, sweeter moments were too much of a contrast. I would have liked to see his anger toned down just a little bit, so it came off as being more realistic.

The aspect of this book that I enjoyed the most was the way that we learned about the characters on an ongoing basis. In this book you learned the bare minimum about the characters before the story just took right off. As the book progressed the characters had memories, or flashbacks that helped you understand them better as the story went along. At first I thought I would be bothered by the memories, but once I realized their value in understanding the characters better, I was glad that they were there.

Protecting You is a great first novel from Amanda Siegrist. It tugs at the heartstrings, but will also make you smile. I highly recommend it, and hope that you will enjoy the story as much as I did!

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Protecting You
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Like spalisoul's review? Post a comment saying so!

You had me at crime lab. The whole brotherly conflict thing, on a farm setting, makes this book sound really interesting. I've reviewed a romance novel earlier with a similar character like Zane, so I know what you mean. Tough, loud-mouth, take-no-nonsense type of characters should have their limits. Otherwise they become really unlikable. As for your review, I see that it's flawless (no grammatical errors), and I truly enjoyed it.