Sworn to Protect by Jo Davis (Sugarland Blue #1)
Romantic Suspense
May 7, 2013
Signet

Reviewed by Helyce

When Detective Shane Ford’s best friend, Brad Cooper, dies unexpectedly he becomes the guardian of Brad’s son, 16 year old Drew. Shane has been a part of Drew’s life since he was a baby, but the closeness they’ve always shared is tested when it appears that Brad died of a drug overdose. Shane is shocked to learn this and doesn’t want to believe it. He also senses that Drew is hiding something but strikes it up to teenage angst and the horror of finding his father dead.

Detective Daisy Callahan and Shane had a brief affair that ended badly when Shane called it off with no explanation. Their work relationship is strained, but when Daisy hears the news about Brad, she knows that Shane will be devastated and puts aside all her bad feelings to be his friend and be there for him and Drew at this time. Daisy is still very much in love with Shane and even though he hurt her, she’ll do whatever she can to help, even with her heart at risk.

When another dead body turns up and there are remnants of the drug that was found in Brad’s system on this body, Shane and his fellow detectives start putting the pieces together to try and find a connection. When danger comes knocking on Shane’s front door he’ll do whatever he has to do to keep his new family safe.

I really enjoyed Jo Davis’s Firefighters of Station Five series, so I had high expectations for this book. I was thrilled to see that there was a crossover when characters from the firefighter series started to pop up in this story. I had felt that the firefighter’s series had ended rather abruptly, so it was a real plus that this felt like a continuation of sorts. While the suspense part of this story worked for me, there were parts of the romance that just did not.

Shane moves Drew into his home, so on top losing his dad, Drew has to change schools. For a teenager, this is a very difficult thing and I thought the way the author wrote Drew’s character and his response to these changes was realistic. Shane may have been a part of Drew’s life since his childhood, but no matter what, the loss of a parent is immeasurably difficult. Drew does some typical teenage things, acting out, cutting class and befriending a boy named Ty, who would not be any parent’s first choice in a friend. Ty, however, cannot be judged by his exterior look and I knew that the façade he portrayed was just him surviving the best way he knew how. Their friendship becomes a pivotal part of the suspense plot. As a reader, I was able to connect the dots pretty quickly, but it didn’t lessen my enjoyment of that part of the story.

As for Shane and Daisy, I liked parts of their story and disliked others. Right off the bat we know that Shane and Daisy had an affair and Shane breaks it off leaving Daisy confused and hurt. Shane knows this, but rather then make amends, Shane does nothing and their relationship had been reduced to a barely civilized work only relationship. They’ve still got it bad for each other though. When Brad dies, Daisy puts all her hurt feelings aside and is there for Shane and Drew. I was okay with this because I knew she still loved him. She was the bigger person providing friendship and comfort to both Shane and Drew. But when their relationship gets physical again, I thought Daisy gave in too easily. I was never clear on why Shane broke it off to begin with, but Daisy moves forward after very little apology on Shane’s part. I know that tragedies can often bring people together and make them closer and I guess that’s what the author used here.

That aside, there were two things that didn’t work for me with their relationship. On the physical side, the author has these two engage in a sex act on two occasions when one of them has been injured and has just come home from the hospital. Yes, sex is fun, and we love the smexy time in our romances; but if you need a hand job that bad when your girlfriend has just come home from the hospital grab some lube and do it yourself. Concurrently, later in the book when Shane has been shot, they “find a way” to have sex because it’s been a whole week and Shane’s just gotta have it. Secondly, the dialogue between these two was too corny for my taste. After about the third eye roll on my part, I’d had enough.

While Shane and Daisy’s romance didn’t blow me away, I like how they handled the ready-made family theme here with Shane’s guardianship of Drew. It wasn’t forced and Drew’s teenage angst and poor choices were believable. Not on par with the previous Firefighter’s series in my opinion, but I’ll probably read book 2.

Rating: C

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