A sweet romantic suspense if that's even possible. With an hero who's willing to do whatever if takes to protect the two kids left in his care.

I don't often read LIS title pre-publication, but I loved when I occasionally get the chance to. This one introduced a new-to-me author, and I am glad I was able to read this fun mystery!

Talking about unraveled, this story pulled me into two directions when it comes to my opinion of it. I enjoyed the people in the tale and the relationships between them. I loved the spirit of the small town and how they all pulled together. The complexity of the criminal cases was fascinating, and the HEA was something the protagonists had work for, it wasn't an automatic solution for their feels and emotions.
I loved the characters in the story, how they were drawn and how they interacted with each other, it realistic, it was honest, nothing came easy to them, and they had to put the effort in to make things work. Travis Stone was not a perfect man, he had his failings and faults, but he had worked on them, he had gone to therapy, and by the grace of God, he was a changed, improved man today, still working on himself.
The connection Travis had with Detective Jessica Eddington was undeniable and strong. There's not much that we learn about Jessica outside her career and her aspirations with it, but she is suitable with Travis, as they work together to catch the culprits, they are like two halves of a whole.
I loved the connection Travis had with the kids, it was heartfelt and sweet. And I adored the relationship Noah, the hacker from Jessica's team, developed with the children.
The action is fastpaced and thrilling. At times it moved so fast, the details got lost, while other times I ended up questioning the bagatelle events. My biggest issue with the story was the fact that Travis was in the WITSEC program, yet his former partner was still part of his life, and apparently knew the whole time where she could find him. How is that possible not to mention supposed to be believable?!
When Travis left the law enforcement and entered the WITSEC program he went to rehab for his coffee addiction, and quit consuming everything caffeine-related yet when Jessica was near him she could 'smell the familiar scent of coffee' of him. Since quitting coffee was made into rather significant detail about him my OCD brain got super frustrated about that blunder.
This is a tough one to review since on one hand there were so many elements that I truly enjoyed, even adored, and I was immensely entertained while reading the book, and I read it till the end, and I would read more books by this author. Yet there were also negative points that in my mind carry a rather significant amount of weight... leaving me unraveled.
~ Two Spoons with a teaspoon on the side

I love books with suspense and romance and this one brings the right dose of suspense, romance and tension.

Travis was an undercover agent, after breaking up a dangerous gang called Chimera, he had to go into hiding and became part of the government's protection program. After some strange events involving a Shiny Man, he will have to re-engage in investigations to find out if there is a correlation between these mysterious men and the Chimera. For that he will count on Seth, an internet specialist and his former partner and love of his life, Jess, a tough and strong detective who does everything to fight organized crime.

The plot is so very good and well stitched. I loved the participation of the children Dominic and Willow so much, they bring a lot of cuteness to the story. The ending is wonderful and I'm sighing so far.

Thank you Net-Galley for a copy of this book. I love finding new authors to enjoy. I love the witness protection theme as I don't see very many books with this storyline.

Travis was a great character, I loved him, how he was with his landlords grandkids.

Jess seeks Travis's help with a case but he isn't interested in that life again but when things started to get crazy and he admits that he has strong feelings he did what any strong, loyal person would do.

Will there be a happy ending for Travis? One click to find out.

Travis is under witness protection and has pretty much established a new life helping out a grandmother and her orphaned grandchildren. Now with the grandmother out of commission the children rely on him but its only a matter of time before he has to go back to his old life. Jessica his former partner shows up out of the blue for his help and it seems things come crashing down.

I enjoyed this book. There was so much going on to keep me hooked. Plenty of twists and turns to keep the readers wanting more. There was things going on where it was hard to tell if it was one person or two making themselves known that there was something up. Him and Jessica are undercover and lived dangerously and maybe its only a matter of times before things started to go down and its a wonder if their past of the case Jess was working on would come to get them. Plus there was the thing about the Shiny man that one of the children was talking about could it be in connection to Jess and Travis or something different entirely. Regardless there is so much about this book to enjoy and if you like a mystery suspense novel you'll like this book.

Who are Jessica and Travis? How do they know one another? What is happening on this particular day at the start surprised me! Who are Seth and the Chimera? Who is Alvin? How do Jess and Seth meet him, Chloe, and Patricia? Man, once I started this book I could almost not put it down. It kept me sitting in my recliner with my elbows on my thighs as I read!!! I loved the way it ended! I loved almost all of the characters. Read and see why I had a really hard time pausing in my reading to do things at the house I needed to do!

RECEIVED THIS BOOK AS A GIFT from Netgalley FOR A FAIR/HONEST REVIEW and REVIEWER FOR Bloggin' With M. Brennan.

In the Love Inspired Suspense line, balancing the romance, suspense and spiritual elements in a relatively short book must be tough for an author. In Witness Protection Unraveled, Maggie K. Black shows us how that balance can be achieved. This novel is the third in the author’s Protected Identities series showcasing the witness protection program of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The books in the series are written as separate stories, and I read this novel with complete enjoyment without having read the other two.

Four years ago, Travis Stone did not exist. In his former life as a detective in the RCMP, he took on a dangerous undercover assignment to expose and stop a major crime lord called the Chimera. The operation was a success in that Chimera’s organization was dismantled, but the Chimera escaped. As the only policeman  alive who had seen the Chimera’s face, Travis was hidden in the RCMP’s Witness Protection Program and now lives in the small town of Kilpatrick, Ontario, working as a part-time landscaper, pitching in as a volunteer firefighter, and helping Patricia, a grandmother raising her two young grandchildren. When he enters Patricia’s bookstore ready to watch five-year-old Willow and her infant brother, Travis finds the store empty and hears the unmistakable sound of a bullet fired through a silencer. Patricia lies stunned at the bottom of a ladder, and after calling the authorities, Travis runs upstairs to find the children.

Detective Jess Eddington has been trying to reach Travis for days. The recent theft and sale of precious witness protection files have led the Chimera to surface on the dark web as a buyer, and with the help of her colleague Seth, a genius illegal-hacker-turned-policeman, Jess is preparing to go undercover at the Chimera’s current residence to put him away for good. In the past, she and Travis had worked over fifty cases together as partners, and she trusts no one more to have her back, which is why she travels six hours to convince Travis to work as her handler in this risky enterprise. Before she can request Travis’ help, however, Jess is thrust into the investigation of Patricia’s assault, perpetrated by someone Willow calls “The Shiny Man”. Not knowing if the assault is connected to the Chimera, but feeling it necessary to assume so, Travis and Jess agree to work both cases in parallel. Jess moves forward, assuming Travis will not mind moving on if either investigation blows his cover, but she soon realizes Travis has strong community ties, would protect the children with his life - and he refuses to return permanently to police work, even as a consultant. His life is here now.  As Travis and Jess work together on the two cases, hoping for a good outcome in both, the sparks that smoldered through their past working relationship are, in the present, flaring into a romance, for which neither is prepared but they wish they could pursue.

I hadn’t read Maggie K. Black before; now I’m on my way to becoming a fan. The writing here is tight, emotional, and precise. The opening sentence tells us exactly the kind of experience ahead.

“Travis Stone sprinted down Main Street in the small town of Kilpatrick, Ontario, ignoring the fact that Detective Jessica Eddington, the one and only woman his damaged heart ever really cared about, was now relentlessly calling his cell phone.”

And… I’m in. All in. From the action and romance hints of the opening, the story forges ahead, presenting two baffling cases, the threat of identity exposure, the effort to protect those near and dear to Travis, and the ever-growing love between Travis and Jess. Every word is important, and as we read, each paragraph holds information that will be relevant later.

The author smoothly weaves the backstory between Travis and Jess among internal dialogue, memories, and external conversation. Light relief is provided by the perspectives of five-year-old Willow - who fractures English with the regularity expected of a child - and Seth, Jess’s hacker partner, whose teasing covers his caring and a mind like a steel trap.  From the local sheriff to grandmother Patricia, each character is unique and readily identifiable.

Ms. Black also makes a solid decision about introducing the spiritual element, and that element is prayer. Travis and Jess use prayer regularly - for help, for protection, in gratitude. But in all their reliance on God’s presence, neither Jess not Travis avoids personal responsibility for using the skills and knowledge with which God has gifted each of them to nudge the circumstances toward a positive outcome. Prayer becomes part of the word weaving, always reminding the reader that God is never far from these two and the situations they face.

I enjoy Harlequin series romances because I can rely on a certain level of good writing and an expected experience. And once in a while, I find a true gem that stands out as a prime example of the best that series romance can offer. Witness Protection Unraveled is one of those gems. Excellent writing, a strong romance, suspenseful situations, memorable characters, and a solid spiritual connection - this book has it all.

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Witness Protection Unraveled was a nice change from typical Love Inspired reads. I liked how the hero was in WITSEC and, even though it might put him at risk, he helps protect two children whose grandmother was attacked.

He was a nice main character and I really liked his former partner, Jessica. She was tough and nearly fearless.

All in all, this was a good read. I liked it and look forward to more stories from Black.

*Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention/review it on my blog. I was not required to give a positive review, only my honest opinion - which I've done. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own and I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.*

Overall, a pleasant jaunt through the characters’ unpleasant week. This one is from the Protected Identities series, and it’s interesting to see the difference with witness protection in Canada vs. the US (instead of marshals, they have RCMP, etc).

Travis has settled in and been living in peace with rooms over his landlady’s bookshop. Nothing seems to have gone amiss until his former partner calls to ask for his help—and before anything else can happen, before Jessica can even reach town, a man in a puffy protective suit attacks his landlady and then him. Is it connected?

I enjoyed the read and didn’t lose interest. I found a number of things that happened stretched the realm of possibility (jumping out of a helicopter and tossing kids out of a helicopter, etc) but at times the action moved so fast it felt like the author forgot to include details to describe the scene very well. Also there were some inconsistencies that pulled me out of the story, such as the hero having literally gone to therapy over a coffee addiction and pledged never to drink it again, but then the heroine smelling his “familiar coffee scent.”

I’ll definitely be reading more of this series.

Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for a free reading copy. A favorable review was not required.

I will leave a review on Amazon or B&N on May 5, 2020

Witness Protection Unraveled is the first book that I have read by this author. This is a romantic suspense book that in my opinion is a very clean read. Travis and Jessica are former partner, but the past four years he has been in the witness protection program. He has made another life for himself, and become close to his landlady and her grandchildren. Little does he know his life is getting ready to change drastically. This book was very well written, and action packed. I throughly enjoyed it, and would recommend it to others.

I received an Advanced Readers Copy from NetGalley and the publisher, I am under no obligation for a positive review. This is my fair and honest review of the book.

Witness Protection Unraveled by Maggie Black is a Christian romantic suspense with tons of action. The book is part of a series and can be read alone but you will get more out of the series if you read the in order.

Travis has been in the witness protection program for several years after he worked undercover and could identify a criminal that is trying to kill him. I found it interesting that Travis although a great cop found that it was not his calling and enjoys civilian life.
Jessica his former partner is coming to ask him for help on a case to catch the criminal who he is hiding from. Before they can get started Travis has his own issues in the small town he is living. Jessica and her team try to help without breaking his cover.
Seth, part of Jessica’s team was a great addition and I hope he gets his own book.
You can tell that Jessica and Travis had feelings for each other previously and they are trying to figure out how to work through the with the complications of life and witness protection.
I really enjoyed this action packed romantic suspense. Maggie is an author I have come to trust to keep entertained and on the edge of my seat.
Sexual content – kiss
Violence – nothing disturbing, but plenty of action, shots fired, kidnapping, the grandmother ends up in the hospital,

I received this book from Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review.
You can see my full review at More Than a Review dot com where I rate the level of sex, violence, language and drug/alcohol use in books.

Travis Stone has been living in Witness Protection for 4 years, after an undercover case went wrong. Now that that Witness Protection database has been breached, he jumps into action to protect those he loves, which has come to include two young orphans and their grandmother who have taken him in.



He is reunited with his former partner, Jessica, and is introduced to her teammate Seth who is a tech whiz, as they work together in a race against time to put away the man for good who forced him into Witness Protection.



There is a lot going on in this book, with the past and present colliding for Travis who was settling into civilian life, and finding peace in his small town life. There were many well developed characters, and I loved the children, Willow, Donovan, and their grandmother Patricia, who help him find a new normal after his former high tension life. Seth is a really fun guy, who is a genius, with a heart of gold, and is like one big kid, he was a great character who just made me happy. Jessica is very honest, committed to her convictions. Jessica is passionate about helping others, with courage and faith.



Overall this book had it all, faith, family, friendship, with not one but two suspenseful plotlines, and fantastic, well developed characters. All around a terrific read, with a great balance of suspense, faith, and family. There was so much going on, and this book was pretty much impossible to put down. Well-paced, and well balanced, I loved everything about it. Highly recommend this fantastic, highly engaging, and entertaining read!



I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

"Witness Protection Unraveled" is a Christian romantic suspense novel. I believe it's the third in a series, but it works as a stand-alone. Travis was once an undercover detective, but now he's in witness protection and has built a life which includes helping care for two orphaned children. His former partner arrives to tell him that she's going undercover to stop the man who put a price on his head so that Travis can leave witness protection. Will he help her? He doesn't want to leave the life he's built for himself, but someone attacks the children's grandmother and targets the children. Travis and Jess work together to solve the case while trying to not blow their cover.

Travis and Jess respected each other, and they worked well together. Jess had to get used to the idea that he's not going to be a detective in the future even if she nabs the bad guy. They've loved each other for a long time, but they don't see how a relationship can work out. The suspense came from the bad guys targeting the children and attacking Travis and Jess. There was no sex or bad language. Overall, I'd recommend this exciting novel.