To Hold and Protect by Sandra Owens, narrated by Patrick Zeller. Not enough of the dog!
To Hold and Protect is the third book in the K-9 Defenders series set in the fictional town of Marsville, North Carolina and which tracks the romances and HEAs of the Church brothers. Parker Church is, somewhat surprisingly, all things considered, both a highly successful artist (known as “Park C”) and the full time Fire Chief in Marsville. He’s also the single dad of a nearly-6-year-old daughter, Everly. (When does the man sleep??)
I first met Parker and Everly in the first book, In His Protection (about the oldest brother, Tristan and his HEA with Skyler) which I also reviewed here at AudioGals.
Children’s book author, Willow Landry, has inherited the house next door to Parker from an uncle with whom she had no meaningful relationship. After a breakup with a man she was living with and, as it turned out, didn’t love all that much, she decided to move to the house, renovate and sell it and with the proceeds, move to the beach* (*exact beach to be decided).
Parker tends to fall in love easily and quickly and every time it gets him into trouble. The last time, he had a disastrous relationship but he ended up with Everly so he’s calling that good. He dearly loves his daughter. All the Church brothers do. But since becoming a parent, Parker has been very careful to provide a consistent and safe home life for Everly. So, when he first encounters Willow, he’s dismayed to find himself both disturbed by and deeply attracted to her. Initially, he plans to ignore the attraction but proximity and a daughter whose fondest wish is to have a mother soon show that to be an impossible ask.
For her part, Willow couldn’t help but notice Parker is the most handsome man she’s ever met and she quickly falls in love with Everly. She’s a little slower to fall for Parker – but only a little. However, Willow is not planning on staying in Marsville. Parker doesn’t want Everly to get attached to Willow if she’s just going to leave. How can they have a HEA? (Don’t worry – they work it out in the end of course!)
Meanwhile, there’s an arsonist at work in Marsville. The arsonist is leaving messages for Parker which indicate there’s some kind of personal motivation to the fires. Over the course of the book, as Parker and Willow fall deeper and deeper in love (albeit denying it for most of the way there), the investigation into who is setting the fires continues. The fires get closer and closer to home until everything Parker loves is put at risk.
Parker’s red Labrador, Ember, assists him to investigate as she is trained to sniff out accelerant. Sadly there wasn’t enough Ember in the story for me. (I’m a firm believer that a series called “K-9 Defenders” should have much more dog.)
I have previously enjoyed Patrick Zeller’s narration and there was a lot to like here too. I like the way he uses the character voice which applies to whoever’s POV he’s in. Any narration that’s not dialogue as well as the dialogue from the POV character is in that same voice. It’s a clear signal to the listener of a change and it helped me orient myself in the story. He’s also good with emotion – although… ultimately here I thought it was just a bit too much. For me it needed to be pulled back a little. It seemed overacted and at times, overwrought.
When a character is excited – anxious or scared for example, Mr. Zeller speeds his voice up quite a bit. Now, this is a true reflection of how things work in real life but in this listen, it was just a little too fast, a little too much.
If he’d pulled it back about 20% the narration would have been in the A range for me.
I wasn’t surprised by the reveal of the arsonist (I picked who it was very early on) and there were aspects of the story which were a little overwrought too, but overall the listen was enjoyable and entertaining.
Grade: B
