**Courtesy of CK2S Kwips & Kritiques**

Ex-marine Joel Wilde can’t say no to his old buddy when Zach calls in a favor. After all, you don’t turn away the man who saved your life, at no small risk to his own. Once Joel scopes his new mission, he knows it will be much more difficult than he originally anticipated. Oh, he has no doubt about his ability to keep his friend’s sister safe from the thugs threatening her, but he is pretty sure that he will have tremendous trouble keeping things on a totally impersonal level.

The beautiful Lora Marshall stirs feelings in Joel that the confirmed bachelor never expected to feel. Even still, he knows his life and career don’t allow for long-term relationships, and Lora has forever written all over her.

Born to be Wilde is the sixth book in Janelle Denison’s Wilde Series, but speaking as a reader who has never read any of the other stories in this saga, Born to be Wilde definitely works as a standalone novel. This was my first read by this author, but I had no trouble at all understanding this story, never once feeling as if I were missing key information from the other books.

Joel Wilde is the kind of hero who wants everyone to believe he is a bad boy and has somehow managed to convince himself that he isn’t cut out for love and marriage – until he meets the love of his life. Once he sets eyes on Lora, the fun starts as we watch Joel begin to unravel when she effortlessly gets under his skin.

Lora is a wonderful heroine, with a big heart and a determination to help those she loves that wins the reader’s heart from the first chapter. It is no wonder that Joel can’t help falling in love with her.

I enjoyed Denison’s characters in Born to be Wilde immensely, but was a bit disappointed in the lack of action in this story. Casting the hero as an ex-marine who is now a security specialist acting as a bodyguard to the heroine sets expectations for a certain level of action, but there really was only one scene that might qualify as action, and Joel wasn’t a part of it. In fact, it was simply a scene where the heroine was directly threatened by the bad guys, with no fighting at all. I would have appreciated a few scenes that give Joel the chance to defend Lora against the bad guys and show his military training.

That said, this was a good read, and I was very impressed by Janelle Denison’s talent. Fans of Denison’s work will surely appreciate this new installment in her Wilde Series!

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