Model Bodyguard

Haven Investigations, Book 2

By: Lissa Kasey

Narrated by: Brian Hutchison

If saving your lover’s ex meant revealing your troubled past, would you do it?

The Marine Corps never taught Kade how to deal with his lover’s rock star ex-boyfriend.

Kade has to deal with Jacob, god of rock stars and Ollie’s ex-boyfriend. With the media exploiting Jacob’s personal life, an incompetent security team, and a family with a twisted sense of loyalty, Jacob wants Ollie as his bodyguard for his upcoming tour. What he gets is Kade.

While Jacob’s stalker escalates from toys to murder, Kade and Ollie work together to unravel the web of family secrets, lies, and long-term abuse before someone else is killed. Only they’ve already met the culprit, and he’s determined that none of them will escape with their lives.

Note: This MM romance features an ex-Marine with tattoos, a former model with a passion for solving mysteries, a snarky rock star, a cat known for defying gravity, and too many murders to count. Second Edition.

©2016 Lissa Kasey (P)2017 Dreamspinner Press

4.5 Stars

** Cliffhanger Alert **

"For all those who groaned over the teaser at the end of Model Citizen for being a cliffhanger. This is a cliffhanger." -- Lissa Kasey

Brian Hutchison delivers a nice performance with varied, if sometimes similar, character voices and nice timing and pacing.

Hutchison's voice is well modulated without being monotone, and it was especially easy to get lost in this audio on a couple of long drives and while I was doing chores.

Told entirely from Kade's POV, we get some backstory on how things were for him before he was able to get to Ollie, and it's heartbreaking.

There's more relationship development between Kade and Ollie and their love for one another really shines through - especially in Brian's audio performance. One of my favorite things about this series is how much I absolutely love the relationship between Kade and Ollie.

Kasey absolutely delivers a great story with an interesting plot and mystery, romance, fascinating characters, and suspense, and Hutchison's performance makes it all flow and does the ending service turing it into a real nail biter (and that cliffhanger! Ahh!).

I really enjoyed the mystery, action, romance, and narration. I hope Brian Hutchison will be back for the narration of Model Investigator (Haven Investigations #3).

I need book 3!

The first book, Model Citizen was narrated by Mike Pohlable. I loved that book and I loved Mike's narration I loved how he really captured Ollie. So going into this book I was a bit skeptical and wary to the change in narrator. That was until I realized that the first book was told entirely from Ollie's POV and this one was all Kade, so it really does fit to have two different narrators for the books.

This book kicks off with a flashback to Kade in the hospital, healing from wounds he'd gotten during the war, just finding out about his best friend Nathan's death, wondering and worrying about Ollie. We also get a glimmer of his home life and family. And it's far from a good one. We also find out that Kade might not be as stable as he might seem.

In the present things are moving forward, seemingly smoothly, with Kade and Ollie. The business is making a profit and Ollie is taking on a few modelling gigs. That all changes when another of Ollie's ex boyfriends shows up demanding help with a stalker. To say that neither Ollie nor Kade is thrilled with Jacob turning up is to put it mildly and they refuse to help him - until threats are getting real and Jacob's life might just be at stake. What they unravel is a family that doesn't seem to care for another, it's full of secrets, blackmail and maybe even murder.

Jacob was far from my favourite person in this book. He was on my shitlist from the moment he entered this book and that never really changed all that much - ok so I'll admit to thawing a bit towards him at the end. I also believe there is a chance for him to make amends in future books to come - if given the chance that is.

While Jacob might not be a favourite of mine, there are so many other great characters that I enjoy. The family Ollie and Kade has created is a good one. They are always there with a helping hand, words of wisdom or a kick in the behind. The relationship between Kade and Ollie also solidifies, but at the same time I also feel that it is a bit imbalanced, that everyone is just a little bit too protective of Ollie.

The thing with expectations can be good or bad. From the way the first book ended, I expected more Nathan, more discussions around his death, more investigation to find answers. But he was hardly ever mentioned in anything but in passing. Not that it was bad or made the story lacking, I just expected some more answers in this book. Maybe we'll get answers in future books?

Like I said in the beginning of this review, I was a bit wary of Brian Hutchison narrating this book. But that only lasted a couple of minutes (reading blurbs before starting a book would be helpful at times). Then I really enjoyed it. He was a good fit for Kade's character and captured the essence of the book. However, there was at least one part where the narrator moved around a bit as the sound became a bit distorted, but that's just a minor thing as it was only for a moment.

I really enjoy this series, and I really hope the other two books will be made into audios as well. I'd recommend this book (series) to anyone looking for a good suspense novel, but for the sake of your own sanity, do have book 3 ready to go before finishing this one, because that cliffhanger...

A copy of this book was generously provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review for Love Bytes.

Model Bodyguard

Model Bodyguard is the second book in Lissa Kasey's series, and is not a standalone. This series follows Oliver and Kade and must be read in the appropriate order. The first book is from Oliver's point of view and this one is told in Kade's. With this being Kade's POV, we got more of his history, which just made me like him more.

Kade and Oliver's relationship is going well, as is their business. Oliver is back modeling and Kade is expanding the business. Then Oliver's ex-boyfriend, Jacob, comes back into the picture with the excuse of needing Oliver's help. Only Kade refuses to let Oliver be dragged back into the mess of Jacob's life.

Oliver and Kade's relationship showed a lot of growth and stability. Oliver was trusting Kade and was taking care of himself. But with his ex back in the picture, there were some setbacks in their relationship that they were able to work through. I still really like these characters, and the additional ones in Kade and Oliver's lives. I loved the addition of Newt and really felt this let us see a different, softer side of Oliver.

The focus of this story is really about Jacob's case, and was very convoluted with a lot going on. There are A LOT of characters in the story and a lot of different storylines around him and his family and employees. This mystery was well done, though again I knew who the culprit was going to be. I did not foresee the resulting final scenes with the culprit and I did not foresee that ending.

The narrator is Brian Hutchison and I’m not sure how I felt about his narration. His voice is easy to listen to, he keeps a good pace and has clear diction. But, at times it seemed like the characters had the same voice so it made it hard to distinguish who was speaking which kept me from immersing in the story.

As with the first book, I would have felt completely different with this book if I had not already read the next book in the series. I really enjoyed this story, but absolutely hated the ending. Hated, as in, if I was rating just the ending, I would have given it a -100 stars, hated it. Which means you need to read this series (seriously, have book 3 ready to go immediately after finishing) to find out what could cause such a strong reaction! This is a very well done series!

Needs dual narration

I had trouble adjusting to the narrator of Model Citizen but after hearing Brian Hucthison in Model Bodyguard I realized what the problem was. Brian Hucthison is perfect for all the alpha male voices and Mike Pohlable is perfect for Ollie and lighter voices. They would be awesome together. I was a little disappointed in the story. Ollie is beautiful and damaged. His ex-boyfriend, Jacob, needs protection and only Ollie can help. Jacob hurt Ollie mentally, physically and perhaps sexually but Ollie still helps him. Kade is constantly trying to protect Ollie from getting hurt but it seems to be the constant theme throughout the book. How can he not get hurt when reminded of bad times while on this case. I do enjoy seeing the progression of Ollie and Kade's relationship.

Awesome story

In Book two Kade takes on Ollie's ex-boyfriend as bodyguard though he really wants nothing to do with him. Ollie still struggles with Nathan’s death and the issues form the first book. Now with Jacob back in his life, Ollie must decide if he wants him back or to continue with Kade and Kade worries about what will happen.
This is a great sequel to the first book. However, you need to read in order.
I was surprised that there was a different narrator. I liked the first one’s version of Ollie and understood that this was mostly in Kade’s view and Brian Hutchison is a very good narrator. I liked the pacing and was one the edge of my seat throughout the book.