Hard Justice

Hard Justice (Body Armor #2) - Lori Foster
HQN Books
Release Date: March 21, 2017

Rating (out of 5):
📚📚📚📚📚

Warning: Possible Spoilers!

Synopsis: Justice Wallington knows how to harness his strength and intimidating size—skills he put to good use first in the MMA cage and now as a bodyguard at the Body Armor agency. But no opponent has ever left him feeling as off balance as his new client, heiress Fallon Wade. Far from a spoiled princess, she's sweet and intriguingly innocent. It's a risk-free assignment, until he's required to fake a relationship with her in order to blend in. 

Sheltered from the world after a family tragedy, Fallon longs to experience life—going to bars, dancing, talking to strangers. Not easy with a huge, lethal-looking bodyguard shadowing her every move. Justice seems like her polar opposite, but pretending to be a couple stirs undeniable heat. And when danger strikes again, it's not just her safety in jeopardy, but a passion that's real, raw and absolutely against the rules…

______________________________

Justice Wellington is still figuring out his place at the Body Armor agency when he's assigned to guard Fallon Wade.  Although there are no specific threats against her, her ultra-rich, ultra-protective parents want a body guard with her when she takes some time off work.  Fallon's been mostly hidden from the world after a family tragedy and just wants to experience a little life as a normal young woman: going to bars, dancing, visiting street fairs.  She's not so sure about dragging a heavyweight ex-MMA fighter around with her, but she and Justice hit it off right away.  When seemingly innocent accidents turn into danger impossible to ignore, it will take Justice, Body Armor, and their MMA friends to keep Fallon safe.

Lori Foster hits it out of the park again in her second Body Armor novel.  The attraction between Justice and Fallon is immediate and magnetic.  Fallon is not just sheltered, she has little confidence in herself and it was wonderfully sweet watching Justice help her blossom as a person.  It was also great to get to see Justice in the main role and come into his own.  He tries to learn from watching Leese in Under Pressure and balance to role of body guard with his developing feelings for Fallon, even trying to quit so that he can date her. 

You would think that two such nice and regular people wouldn't have anyone potentially trying to kill them, so the fact that you spend most of the book debating between three or four suspects is a little alarming.  Who's behind the vandalism, Fallon's accidents, and trying to set Justice's car on fire (with him in it)? Should we be worrying about the new MMA fighter that Justice KO'd in his final fight and won't give a rematch?  Fallon's jerk ex-boyfriend?  The jerk ex-boyfriend's creepy "business" partners?  Foster masterfully braids it all together so that any (or all) of them seem like viable suspects until the very end. 

Readers new to the series and Foster's MMA world won't feel lost starting here and Foster devotees will enjoy seeing Leese, Cannon, Armie, and the rest of the fight club again in supporting roles.  From main characters to supporting roles, everyone is believable and multi-layered.  Hard Justice is a wonderfully written, fast-paced mix of romance and adventure that will grab you and not let go until the final page.  

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.