Hard Justice: Body Armor, Book 2

Everything that made Under Pressure such a winner is missing from Foster’s second Body Armor romantic thriller, in which a tensionless plot is built upon an improbable premise. Former MMA fighter Justice Wallington accepts an assignment as personal bodyguard for 24-year-old Fallon Wade. Fallon’s controlling, overprotective father has kept her under constant guard for only the last five years, but the extent of her naïveté implies she lived on another planet for the first 19. She has no friends, few life experiences, and no depth. What suspense there is ensues as Fallon’s ex and some duplicitous associates from Justice’s former life threaten their blossoming romance and their lives. Forgettable characters caught in an unremarkable story make this a rare lapse in Foster’s otherwise superlative oeuvre. (Apr.)