Rescued from jail by the beautiful Vivi Verreau, U.S. Navy SEAL Jazz Zeringue soon discovers that his lovely savior is a covert agent and mistress of disguise who needs Jazz and his men to help her complete her most important and dangerous mission. Original.
Jenn, as everyone calls her, likes to keep things simple. That's why she runs a roofing construction business, teaches, writes and does her own business taxes eight days a week. She considers herself a multi-cultural and well-rounded person. Workers leave her alone when she starts yelling at them in Chinese and Malay. She also studies German and Russian because she can't pronounce French very well. The most boring and interesting thing she ever did was translating documents from various languages into English, giving her an opportunity to see many countries. Having traveled extensively in her twenties, she now spends her thirties quietly with six noisy dogs. Shameless Promotion: Jenn was a RWA contest slut, having finaled in and won a bunch of them including the Marlene, the Merritt, and Indiana's Golden Opportunity. She is also a three-time finalist in the RWA Golden Heart contest before she became published. She would love to hear your comments about her books. She has been known to give away bookmarks and stuff to those who praise her.
AND, if your roof leaks, she can probably give you some advice!
Here are some wonderful writing friends of mine. I love their books!Please visit their sites and give them a try. Be careful. They are HOT WRITERS. Very addictive! Thanks--Jenn
I tried too hard to finish this book that I finally asked myself why? Part of it is that now that I'm rating every book (for my own records, not to give feed back or encourage/warn others) I feel like I really need to give each one more than a fair shot.
But this, I just couldn't do it. I forced my way to 72% before I scrapped it.
The heroine annoyed me. She's supposed to read as tough, but to me she just reads as judge’y, untrusting and a little controlling. She puts a mission at risk by not sharing her team’s plans all in the way of claiming to do it to keep the mission safe.
Also, the writer leads us to believe that she's a victim of sex trafficking when we find out she was really just adopted and sent to America -- HELLO REVISIONIST BACK STORY!
The hero wasn't as bad. Actually, the guys were the only thing of interest in this story.
Between the romance, the getting caught in a sting, the mission, the guys, the secondary story, the battles, the SECOND secondary story, the potential THIRD secondary story... this book was just overloaded with too much going on. I think the author confused "detailed and interesting" with "everything but the kitchen sink" -- what it equals in the end is an adventure book that you have to drag your way through. The pacing in no way matches the genre. I'm really confused by all the "fast-paced" reviews.
In addition, this book hit one of those pet peeves we all have. This one is pretty common and I'm shocked we're not hearing hear it called on it more.
Protector is the first book in Gennita Low's crossfire series. Navy SEAL Zola "Jazz" Zeringue is mistakenly arrested by Interpol during a sting operation headed by GEM operator Vivian Verreau. When Jazz is cleared by his commanding officer, his team of SEALs joins forces with Vivi's team to take down an international arms dealer looking to partner with the local triad gang member. Jam packed with action and suspense, Protector is a great start to a promising series.
I was nervous going into this one because I'd seen so many DNFs and one star ratings for this book, but I'm happy I still went through with reading this. Having said that, I can understand where some readers are coming from. The first half of the book is pretty information heavy and the story isn't as well written as it is in the second half, IMO. The set-up and subject matter may not satisfy everyone, but the welfare of female teenagers in third world countries has and will always be a matter that is close to my heart.
The action when it unfolds, is so bloody amazing. I absolutely loved the action, the operations are amazing and there's a sense of urgency and danger that translates well across the pages. I wasn't too impressed with the game of footsie the heroine plays with the hero (personally, if I had Jazz giving me a look, the panties would be flying off) but when their passion finally erupts, I was rolling in feels.
So, why not five stars? As I mentioned before, the second half of the book is a great improvement from the first, which made the read feel a bit disjointed. And I wasn't too much a fan of Hawk's constant jabs at Jazz about Vivi. Whilst it was pretty clear who Vivi was interested in, I thought it detracted from the sense of camaraderie I would have enjoyed between Jazz and Hawk if it had been left out.
Overall, an enjoyable book. Whilst this book may not be for everyone, it certainly worked for me. If you're a fan of black ops reads that is jam packed with action that is a little soft on the steam factor, you just may enjoy this one.
Character definitions sounded good, but the story and dialogue didn’t bring them out in an interesting way.
STORY BRIEF: Jazz is a Navy SEAL. His covert operations group just finished rescuing hostages in Southeast Asia. They go to a bar for a drink where they meet Vivi who is in disguise. She is working undercover as an “old lady� who collects payments from men for sex with girls. Two unknown men try to force sex on a frightened girl. Jazz comes to her rescue and pays the old lady for the girl’s time. He is not intending sex, but he wants to give the girl some free time without sex. Jazz is arrested for soliciting a prostitute by Vivi’s group. When the truth comes out, Vivi gets him released. Vivi works for GEM, an organization which tries to reduce prostitution by arresting the men. Vivi also uses her personal funds to help the girls. She and Jazz get to know each other. Then their bosses assign their two groups (GEM and the SEALs) to work together on a joint operation to rescue a truckload of girls. More than half the book is leading up to this operation.
A second story happens with Stefan and Alissa. Alissa is related to the brothers running the Triad � a mafia type group. They operate sex slave, drugs, and gun businesses. Stefan is an undercover agent who has gotten close to the Triad by having a sexual relationship with Alissa.
REVIEWER’S OPINION: I had a hard time getting through this book. I kept losing interest. I wanted it to be over. It almost reminded me of non-fiction. A couple of parts were good, but on balance I can’t recommend it. I’m not sure I can explain what was wrong � maybe a lot of details without enough direction and not tied into the plot. Vivi is devoting her life to helping women forced into prostitution. But there is not a good story about that. Sure she’s involved with rescuing women, but I don’t know the victims, and I don’t feel what they are going through. One theme for Vivi’s part of the story is failure � she can’t change what she wants to change.
The first sex scene between Vivi and Jazz was hectic, hot, and really good. It was after they narrowly escaped with their lives. Other sex scenes were ok. Half were with Alissa and Stefan, the other half with Jazz and Vivi.
It seemed to take a long time before anything exciting happened. The second story about Stefan wasn’t fleshed out enough. T sounded interesting but needed more explanation. The author alluded to T’s relationships with Hawk and Jack which felt thrown in and not explained well. The conflict between Vivi and Juliana was not explained well or resolved.
A minor problem at the end: we learn one of Jazz’s SEAL buddies is undercover and may be dead. It was a cliffhanger for a secondary character � I assume to set up a sequel. I prefer not messing with a happy ending. The author could have saved that negative thought for the beginning of the next book.
DATA: Story length: 373 pages. Swearing language: strong, including religious swear words. Sexual language: strong. Number of sex scenes: 6. Estimated number of sex scene pages: 21. Setting: current day Southeast Asia. Copyright: 2005. Genre: romantic suspense.
Think this book may be going into the DNF category...have only been able to get through 5% more in the last week...have tried coming back to it time and again...read another book, try this one again, and just can't get it.
I would have thought with Navy SEALs and strong female character I would have gotten into this more, but somehow just can't do it. Glad it was a free book and I don't feel like I've wasted money on it.
This was hard book to rate, I was more interested in all the other developing side stories more than the two main ppl. I really didn’t care for VIVI... read this for suspense with some steamy times in there...but I won’t really call it good romance. I will try book two and see if that’s better.
I added a 1/2 star to this review now that it has been almost a week since I finished it. I guess it is one of those books you need to marinate on. I was troubled while I was reading it because the beginning is so convoluted. Gennita Low starts scenes without an introduction, names and characters without context. It was a bit jarring, not to mention confusing. Admittedly, I was getting frustrated. However, she has engaging characters, a decent suspense, and plenty of room for more stories (this is the launch of a series).
Jazz Zeringue is a Navy SEAL working a specialize Special Ops assignment. Vivi Vereau is working at a non-profit, who rescues and trying to place girls who have been forced into the white slave trade. But things are not as they seem. Vivi is really an undercover operative for an independent contracting organization, GEM specializing in intelligence gathering AND mostly made up of women agents (nice). Both Jazz and Vivi's group work to bring down not only the local mobsters illegal activities, but also infiltrate an arms dealer's organization. This dealers has global influence and is selling to terrorist organizations.
The best parts of the book are when Jazz and Vivi are together. He is Southern gentleman from Louisiana raised by a single parent and multiple sisters. Vivi grew up an orphan, escape poverty, and returned to her home country to fulfill a long-standing promise. Jazz is the one who has to convince Vivi to open up and give him a chance.
By the end of the book, there are explosions, kidnapping, fight scenes, and a reunion. There are also plenty of interesting side characters who will undoubtedly be back with their own books.
I'm 23% done with Protector: About 3hrs into the book and holy hell i'm bored and uninterested. At this point it's hard to tell if Vivi is interested in Jazz or Hawke. We've already had a few POVs and the hint of a bigger plot but again, nothing interesting enough to keep me eagerly plugging on. As I type this I'm already contemplating looking for another book to start so I can possibly come back to this. **le sigh**
Done!!
I'm not ashamed to admit that I fell asleep through the last 25% of the book and even with drifting in and out of sleep I had NO desire to rewind and see what i missed. Thank goodness I'm done and I have no interest in going on to the next book in this series. There was just too much going on and the sex in the middle of running away was too annoying. the only way to describe this was overwhelming.
NOT MY CUP OF TEA!!
story - 1.5 narrator -
not crazy about the narrator, his accents are not very good. He had ALL of the locals sounding like that vietnamiese chick from full metal jacket. I swear at one point i was waiting for them to say "$5.00 sucky sucky". FO'REAL!!
This was a strage experience. I kinda liked this book at first, then I liked it, and then I liked it no more. Let me explain.
It has good points: The characters are attractive, some good dialogs, the location sound well researched, and the plot is interesting.
Not good: It takes 75% of the book to finally get into the action.
But what bothered me most was the end. It was corny, trite and so at odds with most of the book, it really seems written by another hand.
Yeah, there are three parts: first 75% drags along with the characters preparing, preparing, preparing. It was a little boring, but it was well written. Then, the action unfurls and it is fast-paced, interesting, the characters show passion and insight. And then -*poof*- off we go to the commonplace, banal, unoriginal final.
Uh, sorry, I am not really motivated to read the rest of the series.
I almost could not finish this book and I rarely have a DNF book. This book covered a horrific topic, the book went on and on and then it just ended without resolution on a few storylines. I am just not sure how I feel about this book.
For me this book was hung up on detail that you lost the flow of the storyline. There was also too many side storylines going on that it was difficult to continue reading. That being said, the characters are well written and the action scenes were intense.
While it was good in parts, it felt like hard work most of the time, tons of military references that let you know the author knows her subject matter but this one was not for me
Did not like Vivo at all, she annoyed me. It read like this wasn't book 1 in the series with a whole set of characters and subplots already in play...It was even mentioned that this was "phase two". Where in the world was Phase one of this was the first book in the series? So while not a bad read, for me this was not a good read either.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
A very complex book about spy games and love. I loved it. I love romance and I love spy and conspiracy books. All in one is just perfect. Can't wait to read the next one!
The action never stops in this book. First time I've read this author but definitely not the last. It was intriguing how she kept the twists and turns going and there was romance intertwined thru out. Loved it.
Gennita Low writes compelling love stories that help you reading until the end. Unforgettable with a little education thrown into the mix. This one also shared the horrors of child prostitution in Southeast Asia. Her blend of fact and fiction makes the story realistic.
REVIEW OF AUDIOBOOK; JAN 10, 2015: NARRATION (Kevin Foley): 2 STARS Story 4 stars
This book did not translate well into audio because of the pseudo-French accents the narrator had to do, as well as the Cajun one for Jazz. It was just too much on my ears. Even Stefan (Jed) had a funny accent because I think Foley just got stuck with the other foreign accents and forgot to switch back to regular American. Or maybe Stefan does have an accent in the book? I can't remember. I read this book 10 years ago in paperback.
Whatever the reason, I found the audiobook horrible. I bought the The Hunter in audio recently and it should be okay as there are no foreigners for Foley to manage. -----------------------------------------------------------------------
I loved this book. Loved the tone, loved the team camaraderie, liked Vivi and adored Jazz...but oh boy, it was Stefan who caught my attention and never let go. About a year after I read this book, I found out he was Jed going undercover at the time. So of course I had to go read ALL the Jenn books all over again just to note Jed's appearances.
I'd say The Protector has all the elements I look for in a romantic suspense and it remain one of my favorites until now (2008) though I read it when it was released in '04.
Zola 'Jazz' Zeringue is a bad ass SEAL in the American Military. I loved that Vivi Verreau calls him a sea mammal, so you can tell right away that she isn't impressed with Jazz although she can't deny her sexual lust feelings for the man. Jazz is a good person as well as a buff solder which gets him into trouble right away as the story starts out. This is about military ops, big mafia organizations and sex slavery/sex industry in foreign countries. There is a tough subject covered in this story of how to deal with the pedophiles and the pushers of human flesh, which is touch to prosecute and what to do with the children afterwards? Vivi has childhood memories that push her to help as many of the children being abused, but even she doesn't know how to make a difference. There is lots of action shoot 'em up bang bang in the middle to end of the story which culminates in sexy time for H/h. I did like that it takes time for them to fall in love (not just lust) so this makes the story a true action-romance. I did like the banter between the military groups, the men had different personalities with a family chemistry that made a strong friendship believable to the reader. 356 pages and kindle freebie 2 and a half stars
After the last undercover job, the last thing he wanted was trouble. While trying to do the right thing and save a girl from her fate, he ends up in some forces jail.
He gets saved by the last person he would think, a female case worker!!
What he doesn't know is this case worker is going to leave a lasting impression on his life and that of his team.
Being thrown together to carry out a highly dangerous covert operation will the lines get blurred between doing their jobs, or keeping each other alive?
WOW!! I love me some hot seal action, and this book does not disappoint!!
Extremely well written and descriptive from the beginning this read kept me hooked from start to finish!
Loved all the characters and the underlying joke throughout this read. I am hoping for more of the same type story for the other seals in this group. I also get fascinated by the strong women that are brought into this book and again they do not disappoint and bring some much needed humour to the book too.
Loved the story, loved the ending, which hints at a little of what could come in the next book in the series.
I have started this review three times and finally getting it finished. This story centers on a group of Navy SEALs that stumble upon an INTERPOL sting targeting servicemen who frequent brothels. Hawk and Jazz are co-leaders of this group of SEALs. Hawk, using his ladies man persona to belie his watchful ways. Jazz is a good ole boy from Louisiana, he tries to help a young girl and ends up being arrested. During his detainment, the woman working with INTERPOL on this operation gets called into to work with the SEALs. She is an agent of GEM, and uses her many disguises to do her job. The SEALs camaderie is top notch. Referred to as the Stooges with names like Dirk, Joker(the quiet one), Turner, Mink, Cucumber(enough said I think). You also see into the dark side of undercover agents and things they do to get their information and set up deals. Stefan is particularly interesting agent and he is ruthless in his dealings. This is the first story I have read by Gennita Low. I am very impressed with her writing. They way she enlightens the reader of how the child slave industry is ran over seas and how wide spread the problem is.
The Protector starts out with Jazz, a SEAL, getting arrested when he tries to help a young girl who has been forced into prostitution in Asia. He pays for the girl for two days so he can get her away from the other men but this happens during an Interpol sting set up by GEM operator Vivian Verreau. The sting was targeting servicemen who frequent brothels. It looks like Jazz is paying for her services but he is really just buying her some time away from that life.
Jazz is cleared of the charges by his commanding officer but he and his team of SEALs are told to join forces with Vivi's team to take down an international arms dealer. The dealer is working on partnering with the local Triad gang.
In general I was very uncomfortable reading about the female teenagers in third world countries being treated so badly. I also found the sex scenes in the first part of the book very disturbing.
I liked the blurb and thought it would be entertaining. It really isn't entertaining but a very difficult read.
The setting is very dark, but the pace is fast enough and the interactions between the romantic leads and their support teams is positive enough to make the overall story enjoyable. (Squeamish, yes I am.) Vivi and Jazz are operatives for a contract agency and the Navy SEALs, respectively. They're in a southeast Asian hellhole with the goal of rescuing children caught in the sex trafficking industry while also tracking the moves of an international crime kingpin. If you've seen the anime Black Lagoon, it kind of reminds me of a romantic version of that in a lot of ways. World building was thorough, the linguistic abilities of the author shine, the heroic characters are all enjoyable, the villains are super villainous, and the characters in the gray area are nicely nuanced. I tend to skip over fight scenes, so I don't have much to say about those. Overall, reminds me quite a bit of '90s era Lowell or Howard. I'm looking forward to trying more by this author.
synopsis: jazz and his team have just successfully finished an op overseas, and are celebrating. he notices several men paying attention to a young child and tries to pay some money so that she doesn't have to make money in a distasteful way. the old lady guarding the door tries to stop him from going after them, but can't, and jazz is arrested in a sting op. vivi is the interpol liaison and believes jazz's story that he wasn't trying to buy a child prostitute, and works to set him free. then, vivi is assigned another detail by her real bosses, and has to work with jazz and his team.
what i liked: the premise. jazz was protective and sweet. the interactions between the team members was well written.
what i didn't like: vivi was hard to get a read on; she was a mystery to jazz, and to the reader. as a result, i didn't feel that there was a lot of chemistry between the two characters.