Kiss Kiss Bang by Sidney Halston
Book #3: Iron Clad Security Series
Source: Netgalley and Purchase
My Rating: 5/5 stars

Time for some harsh truth: at the end of the second book in the Iron Clad Security series, I absolutely despised Joey Clad. I found him to be arrogant, somewhat cruel, and completely dismissive of the talents and skills of others. In short, he’s a dick and I didn’t quite care if he ever appeared in a book again.

Then I read this book . . . .

From one book to the next, Joey Clad is a completely different person and I totally loved him in this go ‘round! Joey introduces himself in the opening scenes of Kiss Kiss Bang, and he has nearly totally honorable intentions. Joey sees a woman in line for Geek Squad, and when he sees her begin to melt down, he knows he must step in and help her. Helping her is the honorable part, wanting to meet the hot lady is the not so honorable part, but Joey just can’t seem to help himself. Within minutes, and after some identity confirmation, the hot lady agrees to accompany Joey to his offices so he can fix her computer.

Olivia Monroe isn’t a risk taker. Olivia Monroe plays by the rules, does her research before opening her mouth, and walks a straight and narrow path. She has to! Olivia Monroe is currently running for governor of Florida and she must always present and conduct herself appropriately. Leaving a store in her pajamas with a hot guy after melting down over her dead computer isn’t exactly the image she wants to portray, but, as the saying goes, needs must. For unexplained and very disconcerting reasons, Olivia trusts Joey immediately. For even more unexplained and disconcerting reasons, she also finds herself tremendously attracted to him and attraction to hot, new guy won’t help her campaign image at all.

Meeting Olivia turns Joey’s life upside down and right side up in short order. One encounter is all it takes to have him utterly convinced she is the woman for him. When he meets her completely adorable daughter, the deal is sealed as far as Joey in concerned. Now, he just has to figure out how to convince Olivia of the rightness of their relationship! As it turns out, there’s a crazy person out there hell-bent on hurting Olivia. Joey’s wheelhouse absolutely includes protecting others from such madness which means he gets a great deal of one on one time with Olivia until the mystery is solved.

Even with all of Joey’s incredible skills, hunting down Olivia’s attacker isn’t easy. It requires a great number of twists and turns, and some dredging up of the past. What’s more, with each new attack, Olivia’s opponent takes advantage of the opportunity. Olivia has to creative with her campaigning which means relying on Joey to deal with her protection. The process is as intense as it is scary and both emotions bring Olivia and Joey closer together both physically and emotionally.

The Bottom Line: I want to roll around in this book I enjoyed it so much! The change in Joey from one book to the next was significant for me, and I am so happy with the personality adjustment. Joey is strong, capable, commanding, sexy, loyal, and loving yet never to the point of overshadowing Olivia. Olivia is strong, determined, intelligent, and loyal. She has a mission, a goal, but also the desire to protect herself and her loved ones; she isn’t stupid and knows when she needs to ask for help. Joey’s help 😊 One of the things I particularly appreciated about this book is the connection between Olivia and Joey; once they are together, they are together. There’s no cold-feet, I’m in over my head, we must break up for a bit because of some lame miscommunication. This situation isn’t the norm in romance reads and I was glad for the change of pace that did nothing but increase my liking of this book. Finally, there is the ending of this read. I am a big fan of karma and slimy humans getting exactly what they deserve, and this book offers up a healthy dose of completely satisfying karma; essentially, the perfect ending. ( )

Olivia is a young single mom who is hoping to make her mark and is now running for governor in Florida. Her current bodyguard and security leave a lot to be desired though, and Josef "Joey" Clad from Iron-Clad Securities, has made it his job to see to Olivia's safety and make sure her daughter and herself have all the protection that Iron-Clad can give. Also Joey is strongly attracted to Olivia and he's sure he feels a chemistry between them, he hopes to investigate.
Olivia's situation gets more serious and her security has to be tightened up even more and the attraction explodes.

The story is very entertaining as Olivia and Joey get to know each other and amusing when her daughter Sophie joins in...she was a sweetheart, and the plot became very suspenseful at times, which caused some nail biting on my part I must confess.
I liked the characters, they were interesting and made a good couple.
A good, thrilling read with just the right amount of suspense and plenty of hot chemistry between the sheets. ( )