REVIEW: Got It Bad by Christi Barth

In Got It Bad by Christi Barth, Kieran Mullaney no longer exists. He is now Kellan Maguire, forced into the Witness Protection Program because his two older brothers had, unbeknownst to him, been working for the mob and turned on them. Now he lives from town to town where he and his brothers are shipped, and his plan on becoming a lawyer is gone. The only bright spot is their handler, U.S. Marshal Delaney Evans. Delaney has felt for Kellan since his world was turned upside down, and she wants nothing more than to make it right. The only problem is the rules say she can’t have a romantic relationship with someone she is protecting. Is she willing to put it all on the line?

I’ll start off by saying I haven’t read the two previous books, so I can only go by what I saw in this one. And from what I read, I didn’t care for Kellan’s brothers. For years they kept what they were doing from him, until he was blindsided outside of class one day. The reason they had to keep being relocated was because they kept getting into trouble, not Kellan. They didn’t, at least in this book, seem to even realize that Kellan was genuinely upset about having gone from planning to be a lawyer to working in the cranberry plant. They didn’t take the time to really consider how their actions left Kellan feeling.

As for the romance between Kellan and Delaney, I didn’t really feel it. Yes, they were attracted to one another, but other than that I didn’t think they worked. There’s a lot of should we-shouldn’t we, but little in the development of their romantic relationship. When Kellan admits to his brothers they were together, Delaney’s reaction was completely over the top. And honestly, having spent so much time with him, she should have known that he was the only brother who wouldn’t keep secrets from his family. It was something she should have expected.

The whole book was the build-up to the trial of the main mobster, the trail that would finally be able to free the brothers from having to constantly look over their shoulders. So I was expecting to see something from the trial. Maybe even some courtroom drama between the brothers and the mobster. Only, there wasn’t. All there was was a mention of the sentence the man received, and even that was quickly glossed over. I don’t know if it was covered in the previous books, but I was disappointed that it was covered so quickly and without any detail in this one.

I had a hard time getting into this book, and, unfortunately, that continued throughout the book. I didn’t care for the characters. Kellan was probably my favorite character, and even I had enough of him holding in his feelings about his situation under some misguided notion that he didn’t want to upset his brothers, when they had lied to him for years and caused his life to be upended. I wonder if I had read the previous books if I would have enjoyed this more.

If you’ve read the previous books in the series and enjoyed them, you’ll probably want to read this one to see how the journey of the three brothers ends. Unfortunately, this book just wasn’t for me.
 

Book Info:

Publication: September 18, 2018 | Avon Impulse | Bad Boys Gone Good #3

Kellan Maguire’s on the run from the mob, living a secret life. The only bright spot is his U.S. Marshal handler. Yeah, he wants to handle her….a lot. And in spite of all the rules it would break, Federal Marshal Delaney Evans secretly fears she’d risk everything for one night with Kellan. Even though Delaney’s career, her entire world, could implode if she admits how important he is to her. And all that is before the biggest complication of all hits…