The Rules

by Mark Troy

Personal Protection specialist Ava Rome follows three A professional never calls attention to herself or her principal; a professional never leaves her principal; and, the most important rule, a professional never gets involved with her principal. To break the rules is to die.

Paul, her principal, comes from a powerful family with many enemies. Murder and kidnapping are just means of business in Paul's family. Ava believes he is not like the rest of them. Good looking, intelligent, he has everything women want. And many women want him, which makes Ava's job harder. Does she want him too? She recognizes that the greatest threat comes not from the outside, but from her own growing desire. In order to save them both, Ava must leave Paul, against his wishes and in violation of one of her rules.

Ava was wrong. A greater threat lurks outside Paul's secure compound. Two threats, in fact. One human and the other a hurricane. Ava focuses on the hurricane. She and Paul make preparations to ride out the storm. It arrives and so does the intruder. Now Ava is in a fight for her life as nature's fury assaults the house from the outside and a serial rapist stalks her on the inside.

Audible Audio

First published September 1, 2013

Reviews

[Wanda Hartzenberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Rules by Mark Troy narrated by Julie Hoverson.

Ok, so the more I read or listen to books with the double tap horror / surprise endings the less I personally like it. This is a short read at a bit over an hour and although the narrator did a very good job with the main protagonists voice and even to a degree with the second main protagonists she does not have the range to pull off more voices and a lot of the story got lost due to my irritation with the narrators inability to make the surprise guest to the house sound anything else other than a person not good at imitating voices. Then the surprise double horror tap ending showing nothing is as it appears…the first such a surprise would have done fine.

The second one simply annoyed. Well it annoyed me personally. I would have preferred if these double tap endings were replaced by a truly surprising twist.

WaAr

[Chrizette · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review and more can be found at http://justreadingforfun.blogspot.com


Ava Rome is a professional. She knows the rules. And up until now, she has followed them religiously. But Paul is making it all very difficult for her to remember them every minute of every day. He does not want to take no for an answer. And sometimes Ava does not want him to.

I really enjoyed Ava. She is a strong leading lady and she can definitely take care of herself and her principal. She takes charge of every situation and her training kicks in before she actively thinks about it. Loved that! She is a kickass heroine.
Paul, on the other hand, did not sit well with me from the first sentences. He was sleek, rich and . . . well, slippery. I just could not put my finger on it but I mistrusted him immediately. And boy, was I right!

I do not like to read about love triangles, or abuse of any kind and definitely not rape. Yes, I
do read crime novels and all of those can be part of the plot but it is usually told in the past tense and in broad strokes. The Rules makes us part of this terrible event and we are inside Ava's head all the way. The blurb did warn me but I did not pick up on it. My fault. By the time the climax of the book started, I was already invested in the story. I admit that I considered not going any further but I wanted Ava to survive. And looking back, it was not as “in-your-face-awful” as it could have been. I think Mark handled it with a lot of sensitivity.

In the end, this is a brutal story where we cheer Ava on and she gives us the ending we want. I definitely want to read more about her and luckily this is only the prequel. Look out for The Splintered Paddle, the first in the The Ava Rome Mysteries series, coming later in 2014.

I loved the narration by Julie Hoverson. I have read a bit of her facebook page and it looks like she is not actively doing a lot of narration. But what a job she did in the novella. She has a strong voice and she quickly became Ava for me. She does change her voice somewhat for the other characters but it was easy on my ear and did not distract from the story at all. I hope that she will be narrating the upcoming series as I loved her voice flowing into my ears.

[Kevintipple · Rating 5 out of 5]

In The Rules Ava Rome is a protection specialist. She keeps her clients alive while doing whatever is necessary to stop the threat. To protect her clients she has to know everything about them up front. The fact that she knows her latest client, “Paul” is lying about his name and possibly other things is not a good sign. The issue with the name could be for good reason. According to the father, a wealthy and powerful businessman most likely from somewhere in South America, the threat against his son is very real and he is willing to pay top dollar for someone of Ava’s skills.

All Ava Rome has to do is attend classes and other functions with Paul while he works on his master’s degree in renewable natural resources. Paul only needs one semester in Hawaii and then he goes back home. Ava will be paid very well for the job with half now and half at the end of the semester if Paul is still alive. All she has to do is keep him alive and not break any of her rules.

Much easier said than done.

Readers familiar with the work of Texas author Mark Troy and specifically the excellent Pilikia Is My Business and other books will recognize Ava Rome as very similar to Private Investigator Val Lyon. Both women are very good at their jobs while dealing with the occasional personal temptation as well as men who don’t take them seriously. While the former can generate internal conflict, the answer to the latter is often a simple hands on demonstration of reality. Ava Rome is not about to forget her gun in the cookie jar at 3 AM and she certainly isn’t about to trust everything she is told.

Featuring plenty of action, interesting characters, and a heroine readers will love, The Rules is a powerful mystery packed into a short story. It also gives readers a glimpse of Ava Rome who will be back next summer in the mystery novel The Splintered Paddle from Five Star Publishing.

The Rules
Mark Troy
http://www.marktroy.net/
Ilium Books
September 2013
ISBN# 978-0-98480813-7
E-Book
50 Pages (estimated)
$0.99


Material supplied by the author in exchange for my objective review.


Kevin R. Tipple ©2013

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Action, Well Written Characters, and a Likable Female Lead..

Ava, the female lead, is a protection specialist. Her job is to keeps her clients alive.
Her new client, Paul, is lying about his name which makes Ava wonder what else he is lying
about.

The threat against Paul is real, so,
Ava has to attend classes and other functions with Paul while he works on his degree.
He only needs Ava's help for one semester, however, its not going to be as easy as it sounds.

The story takes place in Hawaii which is a great setting for the story to take place.


Overall, this book was a Good Read filled Action, Well Written Characters, and a Likable Female Lead

As usual, Julie Hoverson did well with the narration.

Note:
"This audio book was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review."