Reviewed by Vicki

TITLE: Love’s Design

SERIES: Bodyguards Inc. #5

AUTHOR: R.J. Scott

PUBLISHER: Love Lane Books

LENGTH: 54,600 words

BLURB:

Can Christmas be the time when Kirby finally stops running and allows himself to fall in love with the man who saves his life?

CIA Agent Stefan Mortimer is cooling his heels in the UK until he can go home. Taking on easy assignments with Bodyguards Inc. seems like a good solution to keep him sane. He’s used to life throwing him curveballs, and it’s just another day at the office when he rescues Kirby Devlin and his niece and nephew. Now he has to keep Kirby and the kids alive and stay professional.

Kirby Devlin has one priority; keeping his small family safe. On the run, and facing danger at every turn, Kirby finally runs out of places to hide on a snowy December day at an Edinburgh train station. Stefan comes to the rescue, saves him and the children. Is it possible that Kirby finally has someone to trust?

Now, if only it would be as easy for Kirby to trust Stefan with his heart.

REVIEW:

I have to say I was a little concerned when I saw this book was about Stefan. Not that I didn’t like him in the last book, but I wasn’t sure I was happy about a character being featured that wasn’t part of the BI family. But it turns out he is part of the family and I really liked him!

Stefan is CIA, hanging out with the BI guys in England after a job went funky and he can’t go home yet. He and Kyle go way back, so he’s picking up a little work here and there for Kyle while he’s waiting for the dust to settle back home. While finishing a job hanging out in a train station, he observes something nasty going down in a restroom…. he goes to investigate and finds a man being beaten. He rescues the guy and gets pulled in to his story.

Kirby has some issues… he was kicked out at 16, did some things he shouldn’t to keep himself fed, and has been surviving under the radar working a couple of odd jobs. He is found by a PI, with information that his younger brother Robbie is looking for him. He finds Robbie, who had a drug addiction, two small kids, a dead wife, and a debt to the wrong man. Robbie gets stabbed, Kirby takes the kids and runs. They make it to the train station when the bad guys catch up. Robbie hides the kids and faces the bad guys, only to be rescued by a strange man.

Stefan convinces Kirby to take the kids to safety, and takes them straight to Kyle’s mansion, the closest source of help he knows.

So I don’t always like kids in my romance stories, but this time it was ok. I liked the kids and they added emotion to the story without detracting from the main romance. I liked Kirby, he was stubborn and proud, but eventually accepts he needs help. I liked Stefan, he turned out to be a pretty cool guy. We also saw quite a bit of Kyle and Ross in this story. I liked how they accepted these two little kids in their home and lives.

The emotional connection between Stefan and Kirby was slow to build, but once they get it together they are a good couple. There isn’t a lot of sex in this book, as there hasn’t been in the other books in this series, but what there is works. Kirby has to build a bit of trust in Stefan, and that comes across in their physical relationship. I liked that.

Overall this was an enjoyable story. It could have used a little more action, once the drama at the start is over it was pretty mild. But it was very sweet and had a nice holiday connection as well. I liked the main characters and was happy to see the guys from previous books show up. The sex wasn’t plentiful but was very sweet. The kids added to the story and didn’t distract me from the main storyline. If you have read the other books in this series you’ll like this one. If you haven’t tried this series, I would. Some are more exciting than others, but I have liked all of them. RJ Scott is always a good source of stories for me, I enjoy her writing and her characters.

I’m curious to see if we’ll get more from this series!

RATING: 

BUY LINKS:

Love Lane Books

Amazon