Defended by the Bodyguard by Caridad Piñeiro is the second book in the series. Narrated by Marisa Blake. This is a romantic suspense. Fast paced. Thank you to #NetGalley and #https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/227850895 Audio for this arc. This is my honest review. Released July 29,2025

Defended by the Bodyguard by Caridad Pineiro
Crooked Pass Security series #2. Harlequin Intrigue. Spin off from South Beach Security multiple series. Best read in series order since characters and conversations about the prior case and why they are in Colorado are talked about but not in any detail.
Robbie Whitaker is in Colorado wrapping up a previous case. When he finds out Selene Reilly is being threatened, he jumps in to protect her.

🎧 I listened to an audiobook narrated by Marisa Blake who did the first in this series as well. The performance was great with specific voices for Robbie and Selene as well as a few of the secondary characters. Emotions such as fear and anxiety came through clearly. Spanish phrases were fluent.
I listened at 1.5 and slightly higher to more closely match my reading speed.

Fast action and suspense as Robbie falls quickly for the lovely Selene.

I received a copy of this from NetGalley and Harlequin Audio.

Hot on the heels of events in Cliffside Kidnapping, Robbie Whitaker believes the masked assailant who attacked him may have something to do with the money laundering scheme he and his sister helped uncover. But soon it becomes clear the target is Selene Reilly, the beautiful musician he was serving as an informal bodyguard for. Who is her stalker? Could it be someone she trusts?

Selene Reilly survived an abusive husband and a kidnapping. She's not ready to open up and let a man back into her life, especially not when an unknown stalker could put them both in danger. But the attraction is undeniable. Can she open up her heart and love again?

The book drops the listener right in the middle of events from the previous book, so readers who have not read book 1 may be a little lost. But the threads from book 1 quickly wrap up within the first few chapters and the rest of the story focuses on Robbie and Selene trying to uncover the stalker. While at first Robbie tries to treat Selene with kid gloves due to her trauma, I appreciated that Selene called him out on it and told him how she wanted to be treated. I also appreciated that while Selene was working through her trauma, she refused to let it define her or let others define her by it.

Lucy the pittie mix was also a lovable addition. While this was an open door (to the reader) romance, I chuckled at Selene closing the bedroom door on Lucy because she didn't want her to know what mom and dad were doing. Poor Lucy was left wondering why they were wrestling without her. 😂

The narrator did an excellent job with both male and female voices and with the Spanish sprinkled throughout.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the review copy.

Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Readability: 📖📖📖
Feels: 🦋🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔 (I really felt like I should have read book 1 to get the heroine’s (and possibly the hero’s) full story)
Tension: ⚡⚡ (this one is pretty low angst)
Romance: 💞💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋💋 (These scenes are pretty short and not a ton of details)
Intimate Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑 (some are even shorter)
Steam Scale (Number of Scenes): 🔥🔥ish. There’s a light scene I decided not to count so it might feel hotter to you
Humor: Just a touch, it’s more suspenseful and serious
Perspective: third person from both hero and heroine
More character focused or plot focused? plot
How did the speed of the story feel? medium to fast
When mains are first on page together: immediately
Cliffhanger: No, this ends with a happily ever after
Epilogue: No

Should I read in order?
I think you should. I didn’t….and I wish I had started there. There’s quite a bit of references to events that occurred in the last book, including the trauma this heroine went through. It’s not totally necessary – like this romance does stand alone, but I think there’d be better understanding of the plot and character depth starting there. (Cliffside Kidnapping is book 1)

Basic plot:
Robbie is ready to protect Selene – she has threats made against her and he’s determined to defend her and defeat the threat.

Give this a try if you want:
- contemporary romance
- Denver, Colorado setting
- suspenseful elements – the heroine has a stalker and has been kidnapped in the past
- heroine is a musician
- hero works in cyber technology and is protecting the heroine
- pets – heroine adopts a dog
- lower steam – There’s 2-3 full scenes (I counted 2, one was pretty light) and they are shorter

My thoughts:
I knew this one was going to have suspenseful elements, but I was really hoping for more tension and romance. I felt like this was so low angst and gentle and easy in the relationship department and I wasn’t really interested in the mystery/suspense elements so it was just boring to me.

I think I should have read book 1 – it really seems to pick up on the heels of that story with character crossover and events discussed from that book. And I struggle when someone is in danger or being blackmailed, etc and they just hide it. They hide it to ‘protect others’ or because they don’t want to bother anyone or they think they can handle it or it’s not a big deal. It always puts others in danger, bothers everyone, they can’t handle it and it is a big deal 😂

This relationship was just so easy and low angst and he was content to let her know he wanted her and wait for her and there just wasn’t much tension for me. I get it – the stakes were high in regards to the plot and the suspense, but for me it just wasn’t a favorite.

For those that want an easy relationship with some suspenseful elements and a touch of ‘whodunit’ mystery, you should give this one a go!

As for the narration, I overall liked Marisa Blake. She was fine – I liked her pacing – she was faster which really matched the suspenseful tone of the book. I wouldn’t necessarily seek her out purposefully like I do other narrators but wouldn’t avoid either.

Now to start please read book 1 before reading this one because you will not fully understand the full story. But this book also was a bit all over the place and confusing. The plot and idea of this book was great but it felt like there was a lot of backstory missing through the book.

This is book 2 in the series and I highly recommend reading the series in order. It will make more sense that way! I enjoyed how the narrator brought the story to life! A romantic suspense not to be missed!

I received an audio ARC through Netgalley and all opinions are my own.

This is a Romantic Suspense, and this is the second book in the Crooked Pass Security Book series. I have not read the first book in this series. I read this book by listening to the audiobook. I am not sure if it is because I did not read the first book in this series, but I felt I was put into the middle of a book when I started this book. I never felt completely found in this book. I also did not connect to the characters in this book. I received an ARC of this book. This review is my own honest opinion about the book like all my reviews are.

This was a cute romance. I like how to fmc had gone through trauma but didnt expect to be coddled. Also that the mmc wasn't trying to be overly protective and not let her do anything. Definitely didnt see the twist about who it was about. That was well played. I really enjoyed this book

Thank you for the ACL.

The narrator has a nice voice but not distinct enough between characters.

As a side note, when I signed up for this ACL, I didn’t realize this was part of multiple different series.

This was a DNF at 13%. I was lost. It felt like I was thrown into the middle of a story. The FMC’s back story sounded interesting. I did some digging. Turns out this is like book 2 of ANOTHER series’ book 2! (But the title on goodreads makes it sound like this is book 2 of a different series??) And that other series has different authors??? So bizarre.
I’m not opposed to a series written by different authors, but I feel like they need to be all in 1 book. I read a trilogy like 20 years ago where each book was written by a different author, but they were all in the same book and I enjoyed that. But this… It was very unclear. This should not be considered a stand alone.

After I got over the above, I tried continuing the story, but there was no chemistry or angst between the MCs. I get the impression this is a book about healing, and I may have enjoyed it if I had read the other books before this one (so book 2 of the cold case series, but I probably would have needed to read book 1 of that series first, who knows, and then book 1 of this series, which isn’t even about these 2 MCs??)

If I could’ve found the book that actually has these 2 MCs’ back stories, then I probably would have read that one and then tried this one again, but it is so convoluted, I got a headache just trying to figure it out.

By 13%, I was too frustrated to continue.

My review for book one complained about feeling lost from the beginning- that I was missing backstory. Well, I felt that much, maybe more, for this book.

This almost overlaps with book 1, and again, there is so much that I don't know due to the series being spun off of another. (Or, I assume the answers are there.)

To make it worse, the characters from book 1 make appearances, but there is a whole new set of people introduced. TOO MUCH with not enough to support it!!!!!!!

I admittedly get annoyed in series when author's recap the previous books. But, when the books belong to a completely different series, it is kind of necessary.

Basically, if you've read other books by this author, go for it. If you are new to her, this is not where you start. You will just end up frustrated and unable to connect to the book.

Marisa Blake narrates the audiobook.

I received an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.