Momma Says: To Read or Not to Read: ✱✱Book Review✱✱ Protecting Everleigh by PJ Fiala

Monday, October 2, 2023

✱✱Book Review✱✱ Protecting Everleigh by PJ Fiala

USAT author PJ Fiala, brings you the next generation of GHOST operatives set in the small-town of Glen Hollow, Kentucky, where a long-standing rivalry is brewing into an all out war, and love comes calling even in the worst of times.

When the job can only be handled by a team that doesn’t exist, you call GHOST.

He was raised to be a GHOST operative.

She's an Army-trained, skilled negotiator.

Together they play a game of push and pull—until she finds herself in need of his protection.

Henry Delany inherited his father’s muscular frame and his mother’s penchant for the law. Working for GHOST gives him the opportunity to use both while doing what he loves—protecting the lives of others. Determined to bring tranquility and harmony to Glen Hollow, the small-town he now calls home, he has agreed to work with a closed-off, government liaison in an effort to broker a peace deal. But Protecting Everleigh just might be Henry’s most challenging mission to date .

Everleigh Hayes was raised to be a negotiator, and Glen Hollow, Kentucky is a small town in need of a truce. She is just the woman to make that happen. Like her previous assignments, she approaches this one with her finely-tuned grace and finesse. But when Everleigh comes face to face with the undercurrent of darkness permeating this little town, she finds herself ensnared by more danger than she’s ever faced. Needing Henry and falling in love with him is a development she’s never negotiated before.

***

USA Today bestselling author PJ Fiala brings you the GHOST Legacy series—heroes willing to sacrifice everything in service to their country, and for the men and women they love. A novel with no cliffhanger, no cheating, and a happily-ever-after guaranteed.

Momma Says: 4 stars⭐⭐⭐⭐

Being Kentucky born and raised, I'm usually quick to pick up books by Kentucky authors or with a Kentucky setting. Yet, somehow, PJ Fiala escaped my notice. Until now! Protecting Everleigh gave me a taste of Fiala's talent, and my TBR just got a whole lot bigger.

I'm from a small town and now live in an even smaller town, and this may be a work of fiction, but the characters and their motivations feel real. So many of the people of Glen Hollow feel like neighbors I'd run into at the grocery store or pass on my way into the tiny little post office. It's pretty easy to get invested in the characters and the town when it feels so familiar, which is what happened before I even started rooting for the romantic couple - although that didn't take long either.

Everleigh and Henry have great chemistry. I love that they seem to genuinely like each other's company. Of course, it's not all fun and games for this pair. They have some tense and dangerous circumstances to get through before they can get to their HEA.

So, I'm not gonna get into specifics to avoid spoilers, but the writing is very good, the storyline is a nice balance between the romance and suspense, and, well, I'm kind of partial to the setting. As I understand it, this is book 4 in a spin-off series, so I'm behind. I do plan to remedy that, and I plan to spend much more time in Glen Hollow, plus any other towns PJ Fiala has set her stories in. I will add that I didn't feel lost at any point in Protecting Everleigh. Fiala gives us everything we need to follow the story and any of the characters.