Title: Witness Protection
Series: N/A
Author: Derek Adams
Genre: Contemporary
Length: Novelette
Publisher: Amber Allure (May 12th, 2013
Heat Level: Moderate
Heart Rating: ♥1 Heart
Reviewer: Thommie
Blurb: Ex-con Tony Bradshaw drops into a convenience store on his way home after work, looking for a loaf of bread. What he finds instead is trouble. Overnight, he becomes the star witness in the murder trial of a major mob enforcer. Death threats quickly follow, and Tony’s life is completely disrupted.
Tony is hustled off to a secluded cabin in the woods with bodyguard Alec Dubinski, a handsome young detective who at first appears to be a complete homophobe. Relations between them start off poorly and soon hit rock bottom during a drunken stupor. But after Alec apologizes for his unacceptable behavior, the sexual chemistry between the men can no longer be ignored. A night of unbridled passion leads to a declaration of their growing affection for one another.
Their idyll in the woods is brought to a halt, however, when their hideout is brutally attacked by mafia henchmen. What sacrifice is Tony willing to make as he attempts to save the man he has come to love?
Product Link: http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/WitnessProtection.html
Review: As I started eagerly reading this short story – cops, witnesses and action is my favorite genre – I was quickly disappointed by the bland boarding to boring plot. You always have a certain idea of what’s about to happen in these types of books, but the predictability in this particular one was too much. The lack of mystery and suspense was felt deeply and it only became harder when the sexual element took place.
As Tony becomes a witness to a cop killing, he is being transferred at a remote spot in the mountains with only one officer to guard him. It was expected that the two of them would eventually hook up, but when their first time was a drunken police officer, forcing himself to his charge in the middle of the night things got weird for me.
Yet I perked up believing that this would be a different type of book, with dark elements in it and deep suffering. Unfortunately, I kept being disappointed. The plot moved on to our forcing –almost rapist- officer repenting deeply for what he did, our witness not only covering him but actually giving him a second chance all too eager to have a chance at that “buff” specimen of a man.
And who can resist a man like that, that for all his charming personality he is also a virgin that had for years been in control until he met Tony whom he instantly fell in lust for. Let’s face it, how can Tony not forgive such a deeply hurting from lust soul.
Yes, I know, I’m being sarcastic and I can’t help it. During these scenes, I kept wondering why. Why would someone write such characters? How am I supposed to care for Detective Dubinski? What part of his personality, what little we were told at least, was supposed to appeal to me. Is a gorgeous body rippled from gym machines enough to fall head over heels with someone? And since Tony does in the end, I’m only finding shallow beside stupid for allowing such a person on him.
So right there when I thought that this book couldn’t get any worse than that, and I should at least finish it and detach myself from the cliché way those fantasies were displayed and the “badies” showed up just for the sake of making some show of action that was quite short and passing, the blood transfusion scene came and I was left jaw-hanging, staring at those letters, slowly as if in some kind of dream making them words out and not quite believing what I was reading. Bland I said this plot was? How very mistaken I was.
The most interesting thing I’ve ever read recently it must have been this scene, right after the “bad” guys came and went leaving behind a wounded cop (of course) our hero is forced to take the guy to town to save him and wonder of wonders there is a guy, not quite a doc but similar enough (how many spoilers you want from me already) how performs blood transfusion in a non-hospital/sterilized area, from Tony to Dubinski just like that. Oh of course he asked if Tony was clean, of course he did and I had the reply on the tip of my tongue, jumping up and down because Tony was NOT clean, he was crawling at some slope earlier in the evening and was also very covered in blood, but I thought at that point it was irrelevant and if it meant that poor Detective Dubinski would die, than by all means, let the men perform that damn transfusion already.
And right after that magnificent stunt I was also granted the satisfaction of cheese lines there after all cleared up with the most sickly-sweet end just because.
So if my irritation and displeasure didn’t manage to quite bleed up there, no, this book did not even come close to an OK rating. I plain and simply did not like a single aspect of this book.