Order of Protection

3.75 stars--engaging, entertaining, edgy

3.75 stars--ORDER OF PROTECTION is the first installment in Lexi Blake’s contemporary, adult COURTING JUSTICE romantic, suspense series, a spin-off from the author’s LAWLESS series. This is thirty-seven year old, high-powered, defense attorney aka The Monster of Manhattan, Henry Garrison, and twenty-nine year old, former reality TV star/heiress Taylor Winston-Hughes aka Win Hughes’ story line. There is a slight cross-over with the author’s Masters and Mercenaries series with the inclusion of several security experts from McKay-Taggart.

Told from dual third person perspectives (Win and Henry) ORDER OF PROTECTION follows the acrimonious relationship between thirty-seven year old, high-powered, defense attorney Henry Garrison, and twenty-nine year old, former reality TV star/heiress Win Hughes, and the search for the truth. A month earlier, hiding from scandals that had become their lives, Henry Garrison and Win Hughes would spend several glorious weeks together on Chappaquiddick with the knowledge that their relationship was only temporary, and no-strings attached. Never having revealed to Henry the true identity about her past and reality TV, Win would return to civilization, only to be charged with the murder of her co-star Brie while attending a fund-raiser set up by her Uncle Bel. Enter Henry Garrison, who has been hired to defend our story –line heroine. What ensues is the caustic relationship between our leading couple as everyone struggles to uncover the truth.

Approximately twenty-seven years earlier, an infant Taylor Winston-Hughes was the lone survivor of an explosion at sea wherein her billionaire parents were killed leaving their only child the heir to a fortune but her personal life would become fodder for the news media naming her the Billion-Dollar Baby, that followed her the rest of her life. Quiet, shy, determined and beautiful Win is a recovering anorexic whose time spent on the gossip beleaguered, reality television show brought with it the demands of perfection and more. Working with Henry to solve the murder meant working with a spiteful, angry, and demeaning man whose inability to forgive and forget found our heroine on the receiving end of acidic barbs and accusations of murder from the man hired to work on her defense.

From the outset, recovering alcoholic and scandal plagued Henry Garrison finds himself attracted to his temporary neighbour, and his relationship and sexual attraction is palpable and sweet, but murder charges against, and the revelation of our heroine’s true identity turn Henry into a caustic, monster of epic proportions. Cynical and untrusting Henry is unable to move beyond the scandal that plagued his marriage to actress Alicia Kingman, a disastrous and fraudulent marriage that has blinded our hero to love and a happily ever after. For all intents and purposes Henry became the nightmare our heroine was trying to avoid.

The relationship between Henry and Win is plagued by Henry’s intolerance of the lies of omission, and secrets about our heroine’s past. Henry’s bitter comments and scathing treatment of Win Hughes borders on mental and emotional abuse for a woman already haunted by the events of the past. Win is a sweet, sassy and intelligent heroine whose reactions to our hero’s abusive treatment are rather calm and emotionless under the circumstances. The $ex scenes are intimate, erotic and impassioned.

There is a large ensemble cast of colorful and dynamic secondary and supporting characters including several cast members of the reality TV show Kendalmire’s Way-Brie Westerhaven, Hoover Kendalmire, and Kipton Keever; Win’s uncle Bellamy Hughes, her cousin Trevor, and nanny Mary Hannigan; an assortment of security and investigation specialists from McKay-Taggart; attorney Margarita Reyes, and Henry’s legal partners David Cormack, and Noah Lawless of Garrison, Cormack and Lawless.

ORDER OF PROTECTION is a detailed and complex story line with a couple of twists revealed at the very end. The premise is engaging, entertaining and edgy; the romance is dramatic and provocative; the characters are spirited, startling and animated but saying that Henry’s abrasive, antagonizing and ill-tempered treatment of our story line heroine is offensive until the very end; the character portrayal of Henry is questionable-he is not a likeable hero but more of an anti-hero; redemption is difficult. ORDER OF PROTECTION is a well written, thought-out story of suspense with an energetic cast of characters.