Release Day REVIEW: Protector- Gifted Book #3- R.L. Merrill

Title: Protecto
Series: Gifted Book #3
Author: R.L. Merrill
Genre: Occult, Witch Romance, Witches & Wizards, Psychic Romance
Publisher: Celle Bay Publications LLC
Release Date: Nov 13, 2023
Format: Kindle
Pages: 164
Source: Amazon

From the author of Healer and Connection, a 2023 Daphne Du Maurier Award Finalist, comes a tale of supernatural suspense where two souls with opposing world views must work together to save victims of human trafficking from the clutches of those wielding darkness for their personal gain.

Retired Navy SEAL James Morton is an expert in security and protection. When his cousin asks him to provide his services to the staff at Havenhart Academy—a boarding school for child victims of trauma—he doesn’t count on working alongside folks who don’t operate in his reality, like librarian Morgan Forrester. She’s gorgeous, funny…and a witch? James deals solely in facts, science, and rules of engagement. There is no room for woo-woo in his life, but she knows things about his missing daughters. When he receives a mysterious phone call about his eldest, he’ll have to look past his beliefs and accept that even a natural-born Protector needs to ask for and accept help, and that sometimes opening yourself to new possibilities can bring about great rewards...and love.

This book is part of the Gifted Series, and the action overlaps the storylines in both Healer and Connection. It can be read as a standalone, but for more details on this world of supernatural suspense, you may wish to read those books first. Protector was originally released as part of the Happily Ever After Collective.

Reviewed by Linda Tonis

Member of the Paranormal Romance Guild Review Team

Another amazing addition to The Gifted series, a series if you are not familiar with, I highly recommend getting started. The books are standalone but reading the first two books will introduce to the gifted world. Havenhart Academy is a school specializing in children who are victims of trauma. A school that not just helps them deal with any psychological issues they have but also encourages and helps them with their special gifts.

James Morton is a retired Navy SEAL who with the help of his cousin Delaney has gotten a job as the new security specialist and is teaching survivor training for kids who want it. He happens to be a non-believer when it comes to the so-called gifts everyone talks about, he believes in science and what his eyes can see and that has put him in the doghouse when it comes to Morgan Forrester, who runs the library and media center.

Morgan is a Seer who can’t convince James that there is more in Heaven and Earth than meets the eye. Her powers are strong like her mother before her, but that power brings a physical toll, it was that toll that brought about her mother’s death. Now Morgan is getting visions of James’ three daughters, daughters that his ex-wife ran off with and he has been unable to find. Her visions show that his girls are in danger but how does she explain that to a non-believer like James.

A vision shows his oldest daughter in a hospital alone, his middle daughter is with the mom and his youngest Darby has been chosen as the One, the one that will be sacrificed. Tiffany is fourteen and with Morgan’s power she sees her and where she is. Unfortunately, the visions have caused her severe pain and weakness in her leg, making the use of a cane necessary. When James gets a call from a doctor at the hospital which Morgan saw in her vision, she knows she must accompany James because despite his hatred of the unknown he will need a witch.

James begins to believe a little in Morgan’s gift when she has a vision featuring a man named Delbert Ford, a name James knows all too well. This was a man who had no honor or feelings especially for women and a name he never mentioned to anyone. She also knows his daughter’s names, names he also never revealed to her. The truth is knocking him on the head, but he still can’t seem to open to the possibility of magic yet.

While the search for the girls brings Morgan and James into a town filled with evil nothing will stop them. Morgan keeps getting visions and they are putting her health at risk, but they are showing the information necessary for her and James to succeed in finding his three little girls who are going through hell and who will not come out in a mentally good place. Havenhart Academy would be the perfect place for them once they are found and get to a place where they are safe and loved.

It was hard to read the horrible things that are inflicted on the innocent, by an entirely different species of monster. While working together James begins to be having feelings for Morgan and he tries to push the fact that she is a witch out of his mind. Morgan knows that he will have to face surprises from his kids but when they are found she will be there to help them.

I love this series, they are filled with amazing characters, surprises, secrets and romance.