embattled home j.m. madden

Lost and Found # 3
Embattled Home  by J.M. Madden His Marine training taught him that failure is never an option regardless of circumstances. That certainly applies to Chad's need to stop Lost and Found's deranged client from using the information he gathered to stalk and abuse his ex. Falling in love with the broken woman and her sweet daughter in the middle of rescuing them is definitely not the best timing. But it's also inevitable. In Book 3 of this heart-warming military romance series, Chad will discover that protecting Lora is a much easier task than proving he’s the one man she can finally trust with her heart.
Weeks of no incriminating evidence should have clued him in sooner about who was the real victim. Now Chad Lowell is wracked with guilt after the woman he’s assigned to investigate is attacked by her abusive ex-husband right under his nose. Lora and her little girl are in incredible danger, and he vows to protect them at all costs, whether the angry and hurt woman wants him to or not. His Marine training makes the protecting part easy, but nothing he does seems to make Lora want to take a chance on him or his love.
Lora O’Neil left a life of abuse to make a new start for herself and her daughter. When her ex hires Lost and Found Investigative Service to track her down, she’s left reeling both physically and emotionally. The private detective that had been watching her for the past couple of months did finally come to her rescue, but does that mean she should now trust him to help her turn their lives around? The sexy former Marine makes her body feel things she thought she’d never feel for a man again, but she just can’t imagine what it would take for her to heal enough to ever say yes.

In this book we get to see a different side to the always cheerful Chad, more vulnerable, a bit insecure, because of his past dealings with women and his injuries.
Lora is struggling with her abusive ex of a two years, who attacks her brutally at her home. The relationship develops, when Chad is providing security to Lora and her daughter Mercy.
Because of the abusive background of Lora, the relationship develops 'slow' (in three or so weeks) despite the strong, electric attraction between them. The 'play-time' sure is steamy, as well as tender and sweet.
With the constant wait for a new attack from the ex, the tension is building . The showdown at the end happens fast, a lot is resolved in a very short time.
In this tale, I missed the brotherhood, team work. The were some instances I would have like to have more information, that the situations would have been resolved. For example why Flynn was acting as he was.
I hope there is more books coming out in this series, since I felt there's still more to the story. But for this one, three *.

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