Renegade Protector

by Nico Rosso

When intimidation turns to deadly force…

If ruthless developers want Mariana Balducci’s land, they’ll have to kill her for it. And they nearly succeed – until Ty Morrison foils her attacker. The sexy San Francisco also soon realizes that battling bad guys is easier than fighting their sizzling attraction.

Genres: Romance, Romantic Suspense, Contemporary

Kindle Edition

First published November 15, 2018

About the author

Nico Rosso was a writer in search of a genre until his wife, Zoë Archer, brought romance into his life in more ways than one. He’s created sci-fi and post-apocalyptic romance worlds, as well as working with his wife on the steampunk Ether Chronicles series. His paranormal Demon Rock series brought you satyr rock stars and the Muses who fed them. With the romantic suspense Black Ops: Automatik series, he takes you into the deep dark world of secret operations designed to protect the innocent.

Reviews

[Paula Brandon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unbelievably awful on every conceivable level.

I feel bad saying that, because I was interested in reading this! First of all, it's the first category romance from Mills & Boon/Harlequin I've ever encountered in which the author is openly acknowledged as being male! Also, because the hero was African American, as the Intrigue line does tend to lack diversity, in my opinion.

But I really don't have much good to say about it, unfortunately!

Our heroine is Mariana Balducci, and she is being harassed and threatened by the Hanley Group, who are desperate to get hold of her property. In fact, it's reaching the point where they're ready to kill her to get hold of it.

Right off the bat, this made no sense to me. If they kill Mariana, they're not going to get the house. Assuming she has no will, and no relatives anywhere, it would go to the state, wouldn't it? Maybe I'm overthinking a category romance (as I'm apt to do!) but an internet search of no more than 3 minutes gave me an idea of what was involved, so I don't think there's much excuse for plotting being at that sloppy of a level.

The hero is Ty Morrison, a San Francisco police officer who wants to reform a team known as Frontier Justice, which was formed by one of his ancestors and others. They fought for justice for all marginalised people. Mariana's house was where it was founded, and this is how he learns about Hanley Group trying to scare Mariana into selling. He arrives on the scene during the latest attack on Mariana, and vows to help her fight back.

Rosso is at pains to convince us that these two are in deep, emotional love through that old trope of "electric" touching (I see so much of that in this line), but it goes on from there into even more absurd extremes. Mariana owns an orchard, and watching Ty eat one of her apples is like some deep way she can see into his soul. Or something. It left me giggling! Every single thing they do is loaded with some sort of emotional significance to try and portray this deep connection.

It was all so stupid. How about just having Mariana and Ty have a normal conversation? Perhaps one that's not about food. Wow. I thought Carol Ericson overdid it on having her characters talk about food. She's got nothing on Nico Rosso! There are about three gratuitous restaurant visits on top of all the food they natter on about at home. Heck, when sequel bait Frontier Justice members show up, Mariana forges a bond with them through them eating her apples.

And yes, the book itself is full of double entendres involving food and sex. Blech.

When Mariana and Ty aren't talking about food, they're talking about "taking the fight back to Hanley Group." Yeah, yeah, yeah. Get on with already. Their plans never amount to more than going to the various people involved and telling them, "We're coming for you. We're bringing the fight to you!"

Oooooh.

Huh?

Aside from the absurd notion that Hanley Group can somehow get hold of Mariana's land if they kill her, Mariana and Ty's tactics to "bring the fight to them" are ludicrous. One of Ty's Frontier Justice buddies is an FBI agent! Once they learn of Hanley Group's ties to a criminal syndicate, couldn't they just get the FBI onto it? (The local police won't do anything because they're corrupt, but still.)

Heck, if it were me being harassed, I'd be speaking to lawyers, making legal threats, or even just shaming the Hanley Group on their Facebook page! No company likes bad publicity.

The climax involves a couple of run-ins with Hanley and their associated crime syndicate, which once again don't amount to much more than, "Leave us alone!" Along with a badly described shoot-out.

So I didn't connect with anything here. The plot was all levels of stupid. The hot and heavy and emotional romance just made me snicker. Food descriptions and talk is endless. Ty and Mariana and Frontier Justice's fight for justice/vengeance takes their actions so far out from the law that their tactics are barely better than the criminals'! About the only good thing I can say is that Mariana is at least a heroine who can look after herself when in a bind.

Suspense was completely absent. I was utterly, utterly bored from start to finish. I came close to not even finishing this one!

[Julie Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great action/suspense scenes! Mr. Rosso really knows how to keep the pace moving. I also loved the diverse characters--felt real world to me.

For my part, I like a little more romance in my romantic suspense. But I would read more of the Frontier Justice series. (And it'd be cool to read a historical about how Frontier Justice all got started.)

[Anita Reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

[3.5 stars]

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mariana refuses to sell her lands to developers who seems to get increasingly aggressive in their approach to get her to leave. Ty manages to be there for her when some of the developers thugs decides to get a rough. From then on he decides to help her out as things get tougher but there's a reason hes sticking around as well that she doesnt know about.

I enjoyed this book there was so much going on that kept me hooked till the very end. I kept wondering what would happen next, and wondering why the police seemed to not be helping Mariana in the way that they should. I loved seeing how strong willed Mariana was, she loved her business and wanted to keep it going she refused to let others scare her away. Getting a pay off could've made things easier for her but she loved her business and refused to back down. I loved that attraction between the two. Overall this was a pretty good book I really enjoyed it.

[Book Him Danno · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story starts off with a fighting, fire and mystery men saving the life of Mariana. Many times though the story the lead male Ty Morrison talks about how strong Mariana is and how she can change things for the better. The only as the story kept going I felt as a reader I was missing something. Never once did Ty explain why he felt that way.

The story is nothing more than a vigilant story with over the stop action, romance, sex and one over the top Alpha Male that didn't quite make since in this story.



Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy of Nico Rosso Renegade Protector

[Toth Jo-Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Its a first for me to read a male author and he was awesome. It was like seeing things from a different perspective. It was well written and fast paced. I loved meeting Mariana Balducci she had backbone and just when she was running out of juice she meets Ty Morrison. I loved the strength of the characters in this book. You could feel them. I liked the way the story drew you in making you want to turn the page to see what is happening next. I look forward to the next book in this series.

[lisa jung · Rating 4 out of 5]

From Net galley. Ty comes to town and save orchard owner Maresyn . But does he has another notice in doing so and when it comes out will she still except Frontier Justice help and Ty in the newest book. I enjoy this author books and this is another example of a well written book.

[Frankie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another suspenseful love story that while it had nice characters (especially a non-helpless heroine!), it unfortunately didn't draw me in as much as I would have liked. Still a nice story though and would recommend to those that like this genre.

[Danielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are certain things I did not like about this book. Ty kept telling us how strong and impressive and tough Mariana was from the very beginning of the story, but there was nothing at that point to support Ty's strong believe in this. He acted as if she was a superhero from almost page one. That made things feel flat for me. Also, the premise of the book did not sit well with me. Going outside of the law to procure justice makes those seeking it little better than the criminals.

[Jess Holden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Renegade Protector by Nico Rosso is the first book in the Protector's series. This story started off with lots of action but left me unfulfilled throughout. It was a good read just not my exact forte.