CLAIM & PROTECT – Rhenna Morgan
Men of Haven , Book 3
Carina Press
ISBN-13: 978-1-48-80244-81
June 2017
Contemporary Romance

Dallas, Texas – Present Day

The Haven is a group of six men who, while not being brothers by blood, have become brothers by spirit. They live by their own rules and always have each other's backs.

Trevor Raines runs a bar in Dallas called The Den and is a member of the Haven Brotherhood.  After his father killed his mother, Trevor was adopted by another family, and despite his fear of inheriting his father's deadly anger, Frank and Bonnie, his adopted parents, believed in his goodness.  However, Trevor stays away from serious relationships with women, not trusting himself to have control at all times.

Trevor's new waitress, Natalie Jordan, seems to be doing very well and is a hustler handing out drinks, but she's always looking at her phone, something Trevor told her was not allowed.  When he catches Natalie outside on the telephone, he finds out her ex-husband is at her house with her mother and son, Levi, banging on the door and threatening them, and he tells her to go home.  On a whim he follows her home and has to confront Wyatt, the rich plastic surgeon.  Trevor always is ready to use his fists on anyone, but he has been trying to control his temper, and this time it works.  After Wyatt hit Natalie, and then Levi, her mother sold everything and moved to be with Natalie and take care of Levi while Natalie works a day job and then nights at the bar.  Natalie used to be a nurse, but after Wyatt encouraged her to let her license lapse, she has to go back and spend a lot of money to get it back, and every spare dollar goes to redoing a mistake she made years ago by trusting Wyatt.  It's hard, but she and Levi and her mother manage to get by, despite Wyatt always being up to something, especially since his family's money and reputation gave him joint custody.

As Trevor gets to know Natalie and Levi, strictly to keep them safe you know, he starts to admire her and her tenaciousness to protect her son, even when it's her ex's week to have custody and it tears her apart.  But the intersection between Natalie's ex-husband Wyatt and Trevor's side business of bringing in unapproved drugs will lead to an explosion of gigantic proportions.

Rhenna Morgan continues with the Haven Brotherhood, a group of men with bad backgrounds, who have banded together to be each other's brothers, supporting each other.  Adding a woman to their group is fraught with questions; can she handle the brothers and the way they live their lives?  Trevor has a charter airplane company and sometimes goes to Europe to bring home medicine for people that is not FDA approved and can't be obtained in this country.  It isn't strictly legal, but saving the lives of people is more important to him and the Brotherhood.  Natalie has paid many times over and over for marrying a man who was so bad for her, except her son, Levi, is the one shining star in her life.  There aren't many nine-year-old boys with his heart and ability to save her from many beatings when he was younger.  Can Natalie trust another man with her heart and her son's life?

Secondary characters are the other men of Haven:  Jace, Zeke, Knox, Beckett and Axel.  The Brotherhood is their life, and if breaking the law saves someone's life, they have no regrets.  And Natalie's mother and Trevor's widowed father Frank seem to get along very well.

CLAIM & PROTECT is an action packed story about crazy ex-husbands, the group of brothers protecting their own, and the love of Trevor for Natalie, though they both cannot trust their own instincts.  Trevor is afraid that his violent side will come out, and Natalie doesn't believe she can find a man who loves her and loves her son.  Following ROUGH & TUMBLE (February 2017), WILD & SWEET (April 2017), and CLAIM & PROTECT will be Knox's story in TEMPTED & TAKEN.  Rhenna Morgan knows how to pick a sensitive topic and provide the characters with everything they need to triumph and accept each other's love.  CLAIM & PROTECT will give you a great reading experience this month.

Carolyn Crisher