Safe by the marshal's side

Repetitive. Repetitive. Repetitive.

I have no clue how many times the dude had to remind Annie that she needed to follow the rules, but I was definitely the one beaten over the head with it. One would think that after a year in protective custody, she would be very well aware of the rules and would gladly follow them, especially considering how close the court date was—which, of course, signaled the nearing end of her isolation. She seemed to follow the rules just fine except for once (and that time was completely understandable, considering how oppressive and bossy the leading man had been toward her leading up to that point), so I don't understand why Hunter chose to remind her ad nauseum that she better be a good little girl and mind her manners. This lady was old enough to have a two-year-old of her own; she certainly didn't need to be treated like one. Besides that, she'd acted with nothing but respect toward the team and the rules, which showed me she was well beyond needing the reminders.

Because of the above reason, I found the romance improbable. Why would a lady purposely choose to date or fall in love with a man who belittled her and treated her like a very young child with an attention deficit disorder, needing constant reminders of how to follow rules? Personally, I don't want to be involved in such a controlling relationship.

Another thing that bugged me: The team of marshals was unprofessional and immature. I wouldn't trust them to protect a dead duck let alone a woman and her young daughter. In front of the clients, they bickered amongst themselves over breakfast, stared daggers at one another while moving the clients to a new locale, one of the marshals flirted with the client, and the team leader lectured the client about not falling in love with his partner BEFORE he even approached the partner about acting with professionalism and not flirting with clients. This team was a hot mess, and I'm not sure how they'd had a 100% success rate prior to this, considering they didn't get along very well or know how to behave while on the job. This team was incompetence personified and not a realistic representation of the United States marshals service.

The only realistic character was the two-year-old child. Her moods, tantrums, joy, and energy levels were absolutely normal to a lot of kids that age. She was adorable, and I wish the story had fully focused on her, as she was definitely the showstopper. I liked that her mom was trying so hard to create a normal routine for her amid the chaos of being in witness protection and just how unsettling that whole experience can be.

This book also wasn't as action packed as I'm used to from Love Inspired Suspense, though what little action was there was pretty good. However, the plot didn't all make sense, especially the revelation in the final chapter. For obvious reasons, I can't really discuss that one. Suffice it to say, I think Sophia would have been in much greater danger throughout the story had this shock-and-awe turn of events really been a thing through the full story. It was a non-factor, so I'm not sure why it even came into play in the final chapter. That felt way too late in the game to be pertinent to the outcome of the entire story.

While I wanted to enjoy this book, it turned out to be a miss for me.

Content: gambling addiction mentioned