Title: Protective Love
Author: P.J. Belden
Genre: Romance; Suspense
Author: P.J. Belden
Genre: Romance; Suspense
Synopsis
**Due to sexual content, language and violence, this book is only suitable for ages 18 and up**
Everyone has secrets. How far would you go to keep them hidden? What would it take for you to rid yourself of the secret…. to move past it all?
Kayla Williams was stuck in a reoccurring nightmare. The problem was Kayla wasn’t dreaming. This really was her life for the past sixteen years. No matter what, she knew she had to keep this secret, from everyone she knew and loved especially her ten brothers and sisters. It was a secret that would break the family apart. Kayla is the middle child of a large family. Kayla found it all too easy to blend into the background. When her twin sisters have a graduation party, Kayla decides to stop by only to tell them congratulations. She had tried to stay away from her family and her family home as much as she could. Kayla loved her family, but it was hard to face them, knowing the awful secret she was hiding. What Kayla didn’t know was that going to this party would cause the first domino to fall and trigger the next.
Jason Gold, a dutiful son, was a loner all his life. To Jason, honesty and trust were only a figment of people’s imagination but something he believed in. Jason, a police detective is married to the job. When Jason’s sick mother asks him to attend a party on behalf of her, he meets the one girl that he could not ignore or forget.
Secrets are dangerous…. they can cause bonds to break and hearts to shatter…. Will Kayla survive her hidden secret or will it claim her forever? Will Jason come clean on his secrets or let them tear away the only woman he has cared enough about to pursue?
Everyone has secrets. How far would you go to keep them hidden? What would it take for you to rid yourself of the secret…. to move past it all?
Kayla Williams was stuck in a reoccurring nightmare. The problem was Kayla wasn’t dreaming. This really was her life for the past sixteen years. No matter what, she knew she had to keep this secret, from everyone she knew and loved especially her ten brothers and sisters. It was a secret that would break the family apart. Kayla is the middle child of a large family. Kayla found it all too easy to blend into the background. When her twin sisters have a graduation party, Kayla decides to stop by only to tell them congratulations. She had tried to stay away from her family and her family home as much as she could. Kayla loved her family, but it was hard to face them, knowing the awful secret she was hiding. What Kayla didn’t know was that going to this party would cause the first domino to fall and trigger the next.
Jason Gold, a dutiful son, was a loner all his life. To Jason, honesty and trust were only a figment of people’s imagination but something he believed in. Jason, a police detective is married to the job. When Jason’s sick mother asks him to attend a party on behalf of her, he meets the one girl that he could not ignore or forget.
Secrets are dangerous…. they can cause bonds to break and hearts to shatter…. Will Kayla survive her hidden secret or will it claim her forever? Will Jason come clean on his secrets or let them tear away the only woman he has cared enough about to pursue?
My Review
A powerful and emotional journey of abuse, healing, and finding love.
Kayla is twenty eight years old and is a successful veterinarian who comes from a huge family of brothers, sisters, and amazing parents. I absolutely loved a few of her brothers. Carson, Eli and Jake were my favorite. I wish we would have seen more of Jake but we did get more of Carson and has his own book Fantasy Attraction that has already been released.
Kayla has one of the biggest hearts you’ll ever see but she is hiding something. For the past sixteen years she has been abused, both sexually and physically. It started when she was just twelve years old and it completely changed her. A lot of times it happened in her own home but she was too scared to tell anyone. For all the years she lived with her family no one ever noticed what was going on with her. They saw her withdrawal but never really paid attention to why. She kind of holds that against them for not protecting her and she closes herself off from her family and others after that. She cannot stand the touch of another, especially a man.
Jason is a thirty year old detective. He is a good son and a good man. Jason has been hurt in his past which makes it hard for him to trust anyone. While running an errand for his mother, he comes across a beautiful woman running away and almost falling flat on her face. Rushing to break her fall he finds himself with an overwhelming feeling of fulfillment when she is in his arms and Kayla feels the same. It’s the first time she has been able to tolerate any type of touch from a man…even if it was only for a minute. It’s the longest she has let someone hold her in years.
Whenever he was around me, I felt different. My skin tingled, and my heart skipped beats. It almost felt like I couldn’t breathe. This was a reaction to a man I’ve never had before.
Jason is captivated by her beauty and whatever it is about her- he just can’t get her out of his mind. He is determined to know more about her. He can see something painful in the depth of her eyes and he has an overpowering desire to make the light shine from her eyes again.
If I knew she’d accept it, I would have pulled her into my arms and held her until all her worries were gone.
Both Kayla and Jason feel the pull towards each other but are hesitant to have a real relationship because of their pasts. Kayla is still being abused by this man who thinks he owns her and has threatened her and any man she dares to get close to. Kayla tries to avoid Jason to protect him but after her last brutal attack she decides that she has had enough. She is determined to end this no matter the cost and finds herself asking Jason for help. Jason is beyond sickened by what Kayla has had to endure in her past and is determined to do whatever it takes to protect her and take down the man behind her attacks.
Protective Love is a gut-wrenching story of abuse and rape. It goes into extreme detail of the acts and it is heartbreaking. The time Jason spends with Kayla he realizes that she is it for him. He will do whatever he has to do to have her. He knows her past and knows he needs to go slow with her and he is willing to wait as long as he needs to for her.
I swear Jason was so sweet and patient with her, not wanting to go too far have her go running scared. It’s hard for him though, every time he is around her he has an overwhelming desire to just hold her and touch her. Kayla is slowly becoming used to being around Jason. He makes her feel safe and protected but every time he touches her in the slightest way she freaks.
She wants nothing more than to be able to live a normal life and do what normal couples do and she knows that if that is ever possible for her…it is Jason that will be the one to help her do it. She is able to let her guard down in front of him a little and laugh and smile. Actual real laughs and reals smiles. It feels so foreign to her but it feels good. I loved how Jason could sense when Kayla was withdrawing and he would do the craziest things to take her mind off things. He was just so sweet and didn’t care what anyone thought of him as long as it made Kayla happy….it was worth it.
Jason is terrified that Kayla is going to end up associating him with her assaults being that he is so involved. It leaves hesitant to take things further emotionally because he knows she is the one person who can break him.
Everything is piling around Kayla and she feels like no matter what she does she will not get through this. She prays for death. She prays for her assailant to take her to the point where she won’t ever be able to wake up again. Everyone has a breaking point and Kayla may have reached hers. She is done putting others in jeopardy. She sees the pain Jason and her family are in because of things in her life and she just can’t take it anymore. She needs to leave, to cut everyone she cares about from her life. It’s the only way to protect them.
A story of horrific abuse, trust, faith and love will have you on the edge of your seat. There is more to the story than meets the eye and one twist and turn after another will make this a book you will not be able to put down.
There were a couple of things that were kind of weird for me in this book...first being that she lived with all that abuse for so many years and never said anything, but then one day she just decides to come clean??? Also, her family noticed a change but never 'investigated' it??? I agree that it is kind of unlikely but not impossible. Some people just hit a breaking point and decide enough is enough and just need to get it out. I've never been in that situation so I cannot judge someone if that is how they would act. I also think her being so angry at her family is misplaced because it went both ways. She could have told just as they should have asked what was wrong. And as far as the insta-connection...well that doesn't happen to often in real life but in books it happens all the time. Even though I had these 'issues' (if you could call them that) with this book I didn't feel necessary to mark lower for it because non of them are completely impossible to believe...at least for me and I really did enjoy the book. I've a few similar books and found this one to be a lot more believable and better written than some of the others.
This was a first time for me reading P.J. Belden and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised.
Add it to your TBR today.
“I want you to love away all my nightmares and scares. Give me a reason to not fear a touch, a kiss. Show me that when you love someone the act is more of a connection than domination. Make love to me now because you love me. Make love to me know because you need me; long for me.”
★★☆ 4.5 Stars ☆★★
Reviewed By Alissa Evanson
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About the Author
I am a stay at home mom for three kids. They keep the days pretty busy, but at night or when they are at school I can be found sitting at my computer typing away or sitting somewhere curled up reading a book.
I have always wanted to be a writer, but it was put on the back burner for a long while there. Now that my kids are in school and there is a little 'free' time, I put my writing back in the oven and have been cooking since.
Follow the author at these links
I have always wanted to be a writer, but it was put on the back burner for a long while there. Now that my kids are in school and there is a little 'free' time, I put my writing back in the oven and have been cooking since.
Follow the author at these links
