5.0 out of 5 stars
many glimpses into what it really means to be a woman and a mother, February 28, 2009
This review is from: Safe By His Side (Silhouette Romantic Suspense) (Mass Market Paperback)
Courtesy of CK2S Kwips and Kritiques
Blythe Cooper is getting scared. Her young charge, child star Ashley Nicole Davis, has been receiving threatening letters and the latest was sent from inside their house! Nowhere else to turn, Blythe is glad to have a new bodyguard Ethan Ryan to protect her beloved Ashley, even if he does have some rather unusual means of protection.
Ethan, a former secret service agent, has made it his mission to protect those who can't protect themselves, the children. Since a witch's curse has made it impossible for him to ever have children of his own, his new career will have to be enough. Protecting Ashley is supposed to be just another mission but from the moment he meets her and her guardian, Ethan starts to wonder if it's enough. As the stalker grows more daring, Ethan finds there's nothing he'd like more than to keep Blythe Safe by His Side.
Ashley is a charming little girl who while she is famous for her career and responsibility, she is still just a little girl who longs to have fun and dreams of what it would be like to have the real freedoms of childhood. She is such a mature young woman for her age, but when she has her moments of pure childlike glee, we can't help but be even more endeared to her than we already are.
Throughout Safe by His Side, we get many glimpses into what it really means to be a woman and a mother. Blythe adores Ashley, and wants nothing more than to love her and keep her safe, preparing for the day looming when Melisa, Ashley's mother succumbs to her disease and Blythe must step into the role of mother. But being a mother is so much more than loving the child... it requires strength, bravery, and a commitment to protect the child no matter what, even when very hard choices must be made.
Ethan struggles with his duty and desire. He knows his job is to do whatever it takes to protect Ashley yet he believes the only way to do that is to keep his emotional distance because of his family's magic and the curse bestowed upon them by an angry black magic witch. The more time he spends in the company of these two wonderful women, the more he finds the emotional distance is shrinking, which makes him fight even harder. Watching him finally come to understand what being a family really means and accept Blythe into his heart is a beautiful thing.
The second installment in The Safe Keepers trilogy, Safe by His Side, is another winner from the mind of Linda Conrad. The primary plot is that of the stalker threatening Ashley, but this book is so much deeper than that. The stalker scenes are incredibly creepy, especially when we get glimpses into the mind of the villain and they get more desperate to succeed. Additionally though, we delve deep into the life of a child celebrity and find out just how hard of a life that really is, especially when their parents are more driven than the children, and dying on top of that. Then there is the concept of the sins of the fathers being visited upon the children through the Ryan family curse, and if that really should be the case. I can't wait for book three, Maggie's story, to find how the curse may be broken, if it can be broken.
© Kelley A. Hartsell, February 2009. All rights reserved.
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