Review of PROTECTED by Cindy M. Hogan & Giveaway

PROTECTED by Cindy M. Hogan

Series: Book 2 in the Watched series

Blurb via Goodreads:

She has the guy. The terrorists have been taken care of. She has a shot at becoming popular.
Life is great!
Until they find her.
Now she must run and leave behind everything she knows, including herself.

My Review: 5 Stars
*Warning:  Spoilerish, only if you haven't read Watched*
Christy imagined she'd get back to her life at school and be accepted by the 'in' crowd - since she did it in Washington D.C., why not?  She couldn't be more wrong.

Although Christy has been forever changed by her ordeal on the field trip - having witnessed an actual murder and been shot at and barely survived - it's hard to change the perception kids at school have of her.  Especially, when she can't breathe a word of what she's been through to anyone, not even her parents.  Since she feels so different, when she shows up to school and nothing has changed, it comes as a bit of a shock to her.  She's still being bullied by some and overlooked by the rest.

Until . . .

She gets an unexpected visitor.  Alex.  He shows up one day in a convertible - almost as smokin' as he is - and saunters his way up to her in front of the cheerleaders, and whoever else happens to be in front of the school, and plants a kiss on her guaranteed to make her, and all witnesses, weak in the knees.  Actually, let's let Christy describe it:

"Then the unthinkable happened.  He kissed me.  It wasn't just a little kiss, either.  It was one that makes you feel like you could die today and it wouldn't matter.  When he finally released me, he said, 'At last.'"

It's that perfect moment we've all imagined as teenagers.  That EVENT that finally makes the popular kids realize you're not insignificant.  It wakes them up to your existence and proclaims that you have something they should envy.  Gorgeous Alex has put Christy on the map.  Problem is, her heart says one thing and her mind says something else.  She can't seem to get them to reconcile. *Sigh*  Who among us hasn't struggled with this, am I right?

Before Christy has the chance to see what Alex's display of affection has done for her social status, they find themselves in mortal danger, once again.  This time, there's no coming back.  She's forced to leave everything she knows and loves behind and enter Witness Protection.  It's the only option if she's going to protect her family and keep herself alive.

Her life becomes unlike anything she could've ever dreamed up or imagined it would be.  She's pushed to the extremes and finds that she is capable of so much more than she thought possible.  It's a rollercoaster ride an adult would have a hard time digesting, let alone a 16 yr. old.

Cindy Hogan wrote an incredible sequel to a great book.  With Protected, she hit it so far out of the park, that ball won't be recovered anytime soon!  I was so hooked on this book, I actually kept pressing the 'next page' button on my Kindle begging it to give me more story at the end.  Christy is practically unrecognizable in this book, which is the point of Witness Protection, right?  Just as it happened in Watched, the supporting characters won me over with equal intensity as the story's heroine.

I'm recommending this series to EVERYONE.  It's a very clean read infused with action, intensity, romance and intrigue.  The profusion of twists and turns, up and downs, left me breathless.  I guarantee you will be hooked on this series by the end of Protected, if you weren't already with Watched.

I feel so lucky to be part of this blog tour.  This is a sequel that I stand firmly behind as one of the best YA books out there.  Watched was a great read. but it's sequel, Protected, surpasses it in action, adventure, suspense, romance and breathtaking moments. I'm ready to lie, cheat or steal to get my hands on the third book.  Luckily you won't have to succumb to that kind of abhorrent behavior because you can enter to win either 1 of 2 e-copies of her book or a signed paperback of both Watched AND Protected!  My review of WATCHED is here.

E-books *open international

Paperbacks *U.S. only (due to shipping costs)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Where to find Cindy M. Hogan:

Website

Twitter 

Facebook

Blog
*Kathleen over at Writing, Reading and Life is part of today's blog tour, too!  Stop by, leave her a comment.

I caught up with Cindy at one of her book signings!  She's so nice and cheerful, I really enjoyed meeting her and getting a set of signed paperbacks for myself.  If you look closely at the contents on the table, you can see a stack of papers in the middle.  She told me it was CREATED, book 3 in the series - she'd brought it along to work on.  I was SO close, people!  Way to torture me, Cindy ;)