In an opening note to the reader, Stephanie Doyle describes how she’d written Her Secret Service Agent early in her career, unearthed, dusted off, rewrote and gave us the present volume in the Superromance category (which, sadly, will soon be defunct). In retrospect, having spent a few days reading Doyle’s Vivian and Joe, Doyle might as well have left Her Secret Service Agent moldering. This book is a right mess, a wrong mess, and every kind of mess in between. BUT, you’ll rightly ask, “Why did you keep reading?” Goodness knows I never hesitate to DNF, but Her Secret Service Agent reminded me of early Linda Howard, not category Linda Howard, but early romantic suspense Linda Howard and I used to love her. *pouts* Doyle’s Secret Service Agent is Howard with vertiginous character about-faces, a mystery resolution so obvious it sits down and has coffee with you, some dubious suggestions about violence and mental illness, and a hero and heroine who inspire citing of Bea Arthur’s immortal words to her golden girl companions, “Which one of you has custody of the brain?”. Why’d I keep reading? Well, the banter was amusing, in places, and the plot pacing kind of clipped along and, of course, the mirror it held up to my Linda-Howard nostalgia.

What is this smorgasbord of dubious goodness about? Ten years before the present action, the American president’s daughter, Vivian Bennett, had a secret service agent assigned to her protection detail while she attended GeorgetownU. Joe Hunt was young, sexy, disciplined, devoted, and best friend to a Vivian overprotected and isolated. Vivian fell in love with Joe. Joe didn’t even want to consider his feelings when his duty called. But, one night, when Joe was protecting Vivian at a party, Vivian resolved to tell Joe how she felt and kiss him. She did. He balked. She ran. Ta-dum! Running out of the party, she was knocked unconscious and kidnapped by a unhinged sort, who beat her and called her “Sugarplum”. Joe was blamed. Joe rescued Viv, the president-father fired him, Joe waked away in shame, and they warmed themselves, for ten years, by sadly-lit torches for each other until Viv, in D.C. to launch her interior design business, receives threatening letters referring to “Sugarplum.” She contacts Joe, now of Hunt Investigations, to protect her. There is banter and sly, sexy looks, left-over hurt, regret, and resentment. Joe behaves like an overprotective nut-bar, Viv swoons over his manly physique and my eyeballs spent a lot of time defying gravity.

Frankly, I was embarrassed for this book, with lines like:

“Not a one-night-stand kind of guy, huh?” She didn’t know why she was asking. She wasn’t a one-night-stand kind of woman. “Not a one-night-stand kind of guy with you. If I take you, if I have you … it’s not going to be for one night.”

Cringe. Though Viv was in therapy post-kidnapping, her “suffering” was compounded when her therapist seduced her. She found a new therapist, but is still plagued by insomnia. Until she and Joe do the beast with two backs. His magic wand beats the powers of Sleepytime tea: “Apparently, he was the cure for her insomnia.” Cue loud reader guffawing.

The crazysauce continues, with Joe and Viv having a lot of wild monkey sex, alternating crude love scenes with closed-bedroom door, when the author obviously couldn’t be bothered. Once in a while, Joe remembers his protector-investigator duties with lines as dismissively brilliant as this one: “They had the stalker business they needed to get through, but then maybe they could actually have a new start.” Taking care of a stalker? Like brushing lint from his manly-Henley-clad shoulders and he and Viv could return to their life of nincompoopery. In the midst of oh-the-minor-matter-of-The-Stalker, Joe agonizes over how he’ll get Viv’s now ex-president dad to accept him as a son-in-law. True to his severely-limited-braino, our Joe has an a-ha moment: “How the hell was he going to convince her father he was the best man for his daughter? Give him a granddaughter … ” Stalker, baby-making-win-dad-over-strategy, and Viv’s concern with finding Joe the right throw pillow, I couldn’t NOT read to the end of this, if only to see how bad it could get. I was not disappointed.

I can’t even claim Miss Austen’s companionship, but I can cite one of her great lines, “rubs and disappointments everywhere,” Mansfield Park.

Stephanie Doyle’s Her Secret Service Agent is published by Harlequin Books. It was released on July 4th, 2017 and may be procured at your preferred vendor. Miss Bates received an e-ARC from Harlequin Books, via Netgalley.

<B> DNFing at 15%</b>


I'm trying to work through some of my old ARCs, and this one came up next on my list. But after only 15%, I'm calling it quits. Other than the hero being a bit of an asshole, there's nothing *wrong* with this one. But I didn't much care to stick around and see what was going to happen between these two. And when that happens, it's best to just drop the book and walk away.

Note: I don't rate DNFs, but since NG requires a star rating before it'll accept a review, 1 star -- here -- it is. :/

I loved this book. It had great characters and an intriguing plot. There were other aspects that were completely unexpected but seamlessly woven into the main story and added a lot of emotional depth to the main characters.

Overall this is one of the better books I've read this year. I read this in one very late-night sitting, but I couldn't stop until I was done. It was that good.

It's a pretty tough gig being First Daughter. The eyes of a nation are on you at all times; as plenty of other president's children have discovered, messing up carries serious consequences.

Vivian Bennett's youthful mistake cost her the man she loved and very nearly her life when she ran straight into the claws of a kidnapper. Ten years later, turning to Joe, the man who saved her back then and the only person who ever made her feel truly safe, is the most natural thing in the world for her to do.

I enjoyed the romance in this book. Vivian and Joe had a terrific chemistry and a Past to deal with; Vivian's PTSD was delicately dealt with, though Joe's mere presence curing her insomnia was something I found a little hard to swallow being an insomniac myself. A lot of people, Joe included, treat Vivian like she's helpless. The way she pushed back and insisted on making her own decisions was really inspirational.

The villain was pretty obvious; there weren't so much delicately dropped clues as honking great neon signs saying BAD GUY HERE. The plot hung together pretty well, though, and I liked the way all the threads were neatly tied off at the ending.

I was a little bit put off by literally every single character in the book being white, too. Really? In the modern USA? Joe being black or Latinx would have added another fascinating layer of discrimination he had to face... and to be honest, Vivian being described as other than a beautiful blonde might have helped me to envision her differently to another beautiful blonde thirty-something First Daughter businesswoman - who I don't like.

It's almost certainly not the author's fault because this book was probably written and picked up for publication long before the current president achieved office. I just think I'd have liked Vivian a lot better if she'd had red hair or been Latina.

I can't bring myself to give the book five stars because of the issues mentioned above, but it's certainly a solid four.

4 1/2 STARS!

Heart tugging awaits you as you start this book! A rash decision in college has haunted her for the remainder of her life ... and the man who had to stand by and watch has worn his own set of scars on his heart. Great characters, a really interesting back story and full out intrigue of trying to figure out the new threat! The only weakness in the plot was the lack of development on his family that was mentioned, but overall a really great read!

Former first daughter Vivian Bennett has lived a satisfying life since she grew up and moved forward with her life, but she has never forgotten the incident that changed her whole life ... or the man she lost because of it. Now she's back in DC, and threatening letters have her running towards the only man she ever trusted to keep her safe!

Private Investigator Joe Hunt heard she was back in town, but he never expected her to show up demanding he be her bodyguard against a new crackpot! A night ten years ago changed their entire lives and futures. He had been her Secret Service Agent ... until the worst happened during his watch. After rescuing her from a deranged kidnapper, he was fired and sent packing ... but he never forgot her. Will reconnecting allow them the freedom to finally hash out how they felt about each other all those years ago ... and still?

Honestly, I wanted to shake both of these characters. Talk about immature! And then the whole resolution was ridiculous.

I can't really say much positive except that the story had a good premise (hence the two star rating). Utterly forgettable, I'm afraid.