This book was so good! This is a new to me author so I wasn't sure what it would be like. I'm so glad I took a chance on it. I highly recommend you do the same, you won't be sorry.

4⭐️s
Defending the Witness by Sharee Stover is a fast-paced suspense. Ayla is the eyewitness to the murder of a man she considered family. Currently under Witsec protection, she is compromised and doesn’t know who she can trust.

I really enjoyed the quick pacing of this book. The characters didn’t take chapters to develop and their backstories unfold rather quickly. I especially love the look into the K-9 task force and K-9 Destiny was an enjoyable character in her own right. I highly recommend this book if you’re looking for a fun suspense that keeps your attention and has you wondering who can be truly trusted and who is in it for themselves.

Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin Love Inspired Suspense for an advanced ecopy to honestly read and review. All opinions are my own. Release date is scheduled for July 25,2023.

(4.5) I loved this one! Ayla becomes a strong woman while still maintaining her compassion and her faith. It hit the nail on the head with the conflicting emotions of a Christian and a doubting Thomas. It delivered on intrigue and suspense. Like others I knew who the perp was, but I was surprised at the connection that we find out at the end. Besides Ayla being my nieces name, lol this just made my heart feel good, and took me on a suspenseful journey. Thank you so much for the arc! I freely and happily volunteer my thoughts and opinions. #DefendingTheWitness #ShareeStover #LoveInsiredSuspense #Harlequin #NetGalley

"Defending the Witness" is a Christian romantic suspense novel. Ayla's handler manages to warn her to run right before he's killed. He's taught her many skills for protecting herself, and she's determined to use them to stay alive. Chance has to track her down using his K9 partner Destiny and then convince her to trust him. He failed to keep his little brother safe when they were kids, though, so he doesn't want to be tasked with bodyguard duty. He wants to use his skills to track down the escaped killer gang leader. He basically got to do both as the killer thinks Ayla knows were 'the list' is, and she's forced to figure out where it might be.

The suspense was high throughout as Ayla was repeatedly targeted and she had to think quick and use her new skills to survive. The main characters were likable and reacted realistically to events, though I felt like the evidence should have made them a little more suspicious of one person. There was some Christian discussion about why bother to pray (or trust God) if you don't always get what you want and how God can redeem bad events to bring about good. There was no sex or bad language. Overall, I'd recommend this enjoyable suspense.

Defending the Witness by Sharee Stover is a captivating tale. The action and suspense start at the very beginning and continue throughout the story. I like the characters the author created for this story. They are realistic and developed. I like that they were Christians. The characters have realistic struggles with their faith. These struggles helped them to grow in their faith and as individuals. It also helped the characters support each other. I like how the mystery is revealed a little at a time. There are twists and turns along the way. Depending on how many mysteries you have read, you can anticipate some of the reveals and identify one of the bad guys. I enjoyed getting to know Ayla and Chance as well as Destiny (such a smart and sweet dog). I also liked Marissa Walsh and her brother, Commander Beckham Walsh. The Walsh’s have a very special ranch. I like the author’s writing style which made the story easy to read (I breezed right through it). The story had a good flow and moved at a quick pace. The ending left me smiling. This is the first book that I have read by Sharee Stover, and I am looking forward to reading more. Defending the Witness is a page turner with a gritty gang leader, buzzing bullets, healing horses, a lethal leak, a defending dog, and an indomitable U.S. Marshall.

This is the 2nd book I have read by this author. The characters were captivating and the storyline suspenseful. Definitely kept me guessing the outcome of book.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Harlequin Love Inspired Suspense and NetGalley for my honest opinion. All words are my own and this book is scheduled to be released July 25, 2023.

Ayla's in witness protection and they find her. Her safety once again up in the air, she goes on the run. Marshall Tavalla and his K-9 partner locate her but the team struggles to keep her safe. Until they can pin down more evidence to find the ones after her.

A short, action packed story where they both learn to trust God and grow a deeper faith.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review.

I love the K-9 Love Inspired Suspense stories, and this one was a blast to read! Ah, I adored meeting the characters in this one, and the romance and suspense were both wonderfully balanced and well written.

This was a quick-paced clean romantic suspense. I liked the plot and the use of K-9 dogs in the story. The secondary characters were interesting as well. Real struggles the characters had with their Faith is portrayed very well and I liked seeing the characters grow in their faith. I liked how they learned to trust and support each other as well as the team members. Suspenseful til the end. I recommend to those who enjoy Christian fiction and suspense.

Reviews to be posted on release day to comfychairbooks.com, social media pages, and Amazon

This is the first time I have read this author, but I love books with Police procedurals suspense, and romance, all tied together. There are not a whole lot of authors that write in this genre, so I was pleased to see this one.

I have to say, I really enjoyed the plot and the characters. Especially the dogs!

Being in witness protection isn’t ever perfect and this plot develops plenty of suspense along the chase. The badassery of both of the main characters keeps you on the edge of your seat many times during the story. Some things you do expect, but there are several surprises along the way.

The main characters worked great together and I love how the author incorporated the dogs into the story. Stover also developed other secondary characters that were strong and well-rounded to create a depth and flow that made it very tough to stop reading.

I’m definitely going to check out Stover for more books in this genre as it is one of my favorites. Defending the Witness is a really good read with a lot of detail and excitement that will have you holding your breath for a time or two. It offers loads of suspense, great twists, clean romance, and a lovely ending. But Heads Up - there is some violence that may be a bit gruesome!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This was a quick-paced romantic suspense with so much heart. I loved the realistic struggles the characters had with their Faith and how they used that to grow and support each other as well as their team members. This was page turner to the very end. A great summer read?

"I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own." eARC provided NetGalley and Harlequin.

Defending the Witness is a well written romantic suspense. An edge of your seat page turning plot. I definitely recommend this book. My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my ebook. This is my unbiased review.

Ultimately, I was a disappointed. Not just with the cover where I got excited for about ten seconds at the idea of a woman protecting a man. Then I read the synopsis (not the case).

I give it 2.5 stars.

I know of the author and I really wanted to try another of her books because the last book of hers I read had good writing but a bad plot. This one seems to have the opposite problem, great plot, poor writing.

It's hard to explain the issue with the writing. It's just...awkward I think is the best word for it. Some places it's fine. Some places it's not fine. The first half was great. But after nearing the halfway point the author had bouts of smoothly written text, then all the sudden here and there it feels like during an edit the author went back in a dropped some additional text in without really taking time to see how it interacted with the surrounding text. It interrupts the flow of the reader because it doesn't quite match up with the mood of the words around it. And sometimes the author just completely omits details that should have to be there to make any sort of realistic sense.

examples of this are:

124 p. - The sight of her new friend lying helpless in the grass made her heart ache.
This woman who had given so much to care for abused and mistreated animals lay unconscious ...

126 p. - A gasp for air got their full attention.
Chance fell to his knees and felt for a pulse. "No.No. No." He knelt over her and started CPR.

126 p. - -the ambulance screeched to a halt beside them and the paramedics jumped out. In a flurry of activity, they took over Marissa's care, and Ayla wrapped her arms around her torso.
They moved Marissa onto a stretcher, then loaded her into the back of the rig and sped from the property.
"Let's head to the house," Chance offered-

This last one bothers me the most, because paramedics should be making sure she's stabilized and administer additional first aid while asking Chance, her first aider, questions about what happened, what he'd done, etc. Then they should be loading her. This reads more like a stop and scoop of a kidnapping, complete with screeching tires, on gravel no less, than a paramedic assessment and then transportation to a hospital.

She's got a severely burned hand and smoke inhalation. You don't scoop and go that. And it's not even mentioned until 2 pages later that Chance talked to the paramedics at all. When did that happen? Apparently somewhere within those three sentences but the author forgot to mention it. This is basically a case of, told later, not at all shown because none of this is mentioned in the book while it was supposedly happening and it should have been mentioned. Those are some important details.

Another writing problem is how starting around page 100 the subtle and pleasant religious beliefs of the characters are ramped up by about 1000% to batter you in the face for a bit. I enjoy the ones that are more...lead by example. So, at the start when Ayla was silently praying and the characters occasionally running scripture in their heads, that was fine. Realistic even. But pray chanting thank you God together, having a page, or more, long discussion about God's plans for people and everything else suddenly appearing out of nowhere is a bit over the top after the initial starting tone of the book. It's not a deal breaker, cause it's Christian romance, it's just more noticeable than I like.

And I guess the relationship also felt problematic. It's probably the writing, again, but I felt zero chemistry between the two of them. I don't care if Chance is having random thoughts about being single all his life and whatever else. These people don't have chemistry and the fact they are almost kissing after only knowing of each other's existence for 36-48 hours, at best, is kinda not great for a Christian romance.

Conclusion

It's just such a shame, because, omitting the poor writing, the plot on this was pretty darn solid. You have a murder, you have a witness, you know who did what and who is sending people to try and kill the witness, but the mystery part is what were they looking for? Where is it now? How are they going to try and kill her next? Will the 'protector' get to her in time?