REVIEWED BY CINDY
TITLE: Broken Protocol 
SERIES: Smoke and Bullets Book 2
AUTHOR: A.R. Barely
PUBLISHER: Carina Press
LENGTH: 202 Pages
RELEASE DATE: March 5th, 2018
BLURB:
Dante Green’s a police officer with a solid career—a career that for the past ten years has kept him far away from the one temptation he won’t let himself give in to: his younger foster brother. But when he bumps into the now-out-and-proud firefighter at Smoke & Bullets, he finds himself wrestling with fantasies and desires he thought were long behind him.
Luke Parsons fell in lust with Dante when he was thirteen years old, but he’s not a kid anymore. He’s a New York City firefighter, and he’s done chasing after things he can’t have. Until he and Dante witness a hate crime, and it becomes clear that Dante might not be as straight as Luke always thought.
With Luke to introduce him to the local gay scene, Dante dives into an unsanctioned investigation as the attraction between them grows. Unfortunately, Luke is completely and totally off-limits. Dating him would be a betrayal of their foster father’s trust. But Luke isn’t about to let anything get in the way of their happily-ever-after—even Dante’s fear of commitment.
REVIEW:
Dante Green is a good man who’s doing his best to make the world a better place. His life didn’t start out so great but an unexpected foster family made all the difference. That’s why he can’t let his feelings for his foster-brother get out of hand.
Luke is tired of hiding how he feels and can’t help how he pokes at his “brother” Dante,
trying to get some sort of reaction out of him. Being ignored is getting old, and it hurts a lot too.
I loved both of these men. They are decent human beings who are constantly putting other’s first and it makes them both endearing. Watching them circle around each other is a lot of fun and makes their eventual coming together all the more explosive.
Oh and the sex is hot as hell. I enjoyed every single minute of it.
This is a new to me author and I haven’t read the first book in this series but this story has me very interested in seeing what it has to offer. Troy and Alex are good friends to Luke and I’m interested to find out how they got together.
We see a bit of Dante’s partner Finn and that’s about all for side characters and that’s okay because this story really is driven by the main players.
My only issue with this story is Dante’s about-face when it comes to Luke. I felt like it needed a little more catalyst for him to overcome his self-indoctrination that he spent half his life on. The abrupt u-turn left me feeling a little cold.
Other than that, this story is a great read and I have no qualms recommending it to everyone who likes heroes who need a little saving themselves.
RATING: 
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