Expected publication date: November 27, 2017
Cover blurb:
Deputy Marshal Garrett McKendrick does not get involved with witnesses he’s tasked to protect. Especially when his boss has a very personal reason for keeping Samantha Hutchinson alive. Can you say off limits?
But as Garrett battles to keep Sam safe from the powerful and influential people out to silence her—permanently—he finds she’s strong, feisty, and willing to risk everything to tell the truth. And totally irresistible.
Losing everything you know and love might just be worth it to meet an amazing man like Garrett. But when Sam learns he has been keeping secrets from her—big ones—she’s convinced his affectionate words were all for the sake of the job. She sends him packing. But can her new protective detail be trusted? The last team betrayed her to the enemy…
Garrett isn’t about to take any chances. Not with the woman who has stolen his heart.
**
Allison is a relatively new author for me; I had read ‘Help Wanted’ and really enjoyed it, but we all know that romantic suspense is my jam. And I ADORED Witness! I’m calling Garrett here and now before WW tries to get her claws into him. (I *know* her tactics, trust me!) But honestly, I might have a girl crush on Sam, because she was just so awesome!
Sam is in the unenviable position of having been dumped her boyfriend (over the phone no less) when she witnesses a murder. While she is shocked initially she soon realizes that the murderer is a well-connected politician and soon she is running for her life when her identity is leaked. Garrett is the Marshal tasked to get her out of town and to her first stop in WITSEC.
While they are interested in each other, Garrett has to turn her over to other agents for further protection as he is only the initial step. Unfortunately, this turns out to be a huge error but Sam keeps her wits about her and is able to escape. They are able to reconnect and go into hiding together…which of course leads to nookie…eventually! But since we’re talking romantic suspense, that means danger soon follows…which leads to a kickass action scene I’m still thinking about!
The one thing that sets apart this heroine from many of the others I’ve read is that Sam doesn’t start out with awesome skills, able to kick the baddies on their asses and handle guns like a pro. But Garrett requires her to practice while in hiding, and she holds her own-even against a spider! (Got to give her props there, because I’m of the ‘flail hands wildly while trying to figure out how to kill them without touching them’ school. Yep, I’m a wimp, though fortunately my kitten LOVES to eat them!) And while some of it is a wee bit unrealistic, I really enjoyed the fact that it wasn’t easy for her, she had to work for it and that’s not all that common in RS novels.
I will admit I did see one big plot twist/reveal coming, but that didn’t lessen the impact when it did happen. Oh, and angst! Be still my beating heart!! (All I will say is the apartment scenes-they totally slayed me!)
So I guess now you’re wondering if I’m recommending this book…uh, yeah! This definitely hit my sweet spot, and I will admit to minor author-stalking on social media to get hints of when the next book is going to come out but I can’t find any info, sob! But the next book in her ‘On the Job’ series is out in December (‘Getting Down to Business’) and there are some older books of hers that I’m going to read, so I guess I’ll just have to be patient for now, ugh…
HUGE thanks to Netgalley and Entangled Amara for the chance to read this early…y’all are like totally my favorite publisher right now, hint hint!