In the Trenches by Giulia Lagomarsino

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

OPS is a spin-off of the Reed Security series and picks up from book one, Sinner. Some storylines do overlap, but you do not need to read Reed Security to understand this series. 

I stalk my prey, never taking my eyes off the target. 
I’m a sniper by trade, but I’m so much more than that. 
My rifle is an extension of me. 
I am the bullet. 
I am a Hunter of Gunmen. 

I was born a protector and I’d die that way. 
Leaving the military didn’t change that. It’s why I started my business, Owens Protective Services. 
My men are my family, my brothers. 
And the people I protect are my mission. 
As for the tangos…sometimes you have to flush the toilet of humanity. 

But even when protecting clients, I’ve never put myself on the line for anyone like I have for her.
Beth.
She keeps her secrets close to the vest, much like I keep my emotions.
I’ve always been able to compartmentalize a job, but with her, everything’s out of control. I can’t decide if I can trust her or not, especially when she stumbles into the middle of a job. She seems innocent, but aren’t they always?

I see the scared woman backing away from anyone that comes near her. I see the urge to run. But I also see the kitten with claws, ready to come out fighting if anyone dares come after her.

Deep down, I know she’s my destiny.
My reason for fighting.
I will uncover her secrets, and then I’ll do my job, taking out anyone that dares threaten her.

This is book one of the series and ends in a cliffhanger that will wrap up in book two, Nuclear Option.

In The Trenches

Fantastic!

The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: 💙🖤💚💜❤️
Heat/Steam: 🔥🔥
Story/Plot: 📕📗📙📘📔
World building: 🌏🌍🌎🌍🌎
Character development: 😔😃😤🥰😘

The Hero: Cash Owens – he was a sniper in the marines and like Sebastian ‘Cap’ Reed from Reed Security, he started his own security company after he left. He got together with a bunch of former military people and has built his business to be one of the premier security firms in the country. Though unlike Reed, Owens Protective Services (OPS) is located in California. Sinner from Reed Security recently moved to California and is now working for Owens.

The heroine: Beth Williams (a.k.a. Eva James) – she is twenty-seven years old, living in an apartment on the worst side of town and working in a small diner. She has been running for her life from a bad situation and it is caught up to her again when to men beat her up, break her arm and nearly kidnap her from behind the diner. Art, a guy she worked with, saved her and helped her out, paying the ultimate price for it, and now she is on a bus to a new place once again. She was determined to never get close to anyone again because it would only end in tragedy.

The Story: Owens gets a job to find a woman, Vanessa Adams. Sinner knows who she is since Reed Security had worked for her father before. They were supposed to protect Vanessa, but her father left out a bunch of information and one of the Reed guys ended up hurt and nearly paralyzed. Cash finds out from Cap that the father has some enemies trying to use Vanessa as a bargaining chip in a shady business deal, but Vanessa was innocent in all of it. Cash plans to find the girl and send her with Sinner to Reed Security to be protected from her father.

Reed Security series was one of my all-time favorite series. It was like 28 books, and I read and loved every one of them. So, I went into this one hoping that it would be just as good. All the men of Reed Security are over the top possessive, hilarious and you can’t help but love every one of them. I figure if this series is anywhere near as good, I will be reading everything. I was happy to see there are already 16 books in this series. Giulia Lagomarsino writes good and fast. She always includes plenty of steam and romantic suspense.

I could tell from the first few pages where she listed all the employees of Owens Protective Services, that this would be just what I expected. There is a lot of humor in Guilia’s descriptions, and she does a fantastic job at writing supporting characters. Fox is certainly giving me shades of Knight from Reed Security, who was my favorite character. He has a lot of crazy and is lovable too. The heroines are also fierce and funny, and she usually matches them up perfectly for each Hero.

I love the fact that Beth meets Cash at a self defense class. She is very meek and fearful at first and he can see that she has already been through something traumatic. She gets stronger as the story progresses. I like a story like this where the heroine actually needs a Hero, and he is not only her Hero but helps her to become more able to help herself. Though this book was really more of an introduction to the world of Owens Protective Services than strictly a romance. I kinda liked the way it was formatted even though Beth and Cash still had only met once for a few minutes by the time half the book was over. I liked the mysteries that both characters were involved in, and I loved getting to know all the employees at OPS.

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