The Firstborn Sons mini-series continues with a strong installment from Virginia Kantra. Each of the books in this series features the first-born son of a group of men who served together in Vietnam. The protector of this title is a former Navy SEAL chosen to be the bodyguard of a princess longing for independence and normalcy.

Jack Dalton is not happy. For medical reasons, he is now retired from the Navy SEALS. His current job is a bodyguarding position that feels more like babysitting than the dangerous missions he has been used to. The person he must protect is Princess Christina Sebastiani of Montebello, who feels she needs no protection since she has moved to Montana and is therefore away from the limelight. Jack knows different, and although it’s clear soon enough that he and “Princess Cupcake” don’t get along, he finds that access to her is way too easy and she is in very real danger.

Christina, on the other hand, refuses to see the very real danger in the tensions surrounding her family and the rival kingdom of Tamir, tensions that include missing heirs and her sister Julia getting pregnant by the heir to the throne of Tamir. Christina has spent years studying and working as a microbial ecologist – trying to have a life of her own as far away from the palace golden cage as possible. Having Jack following her around is a vivid reminder of the royal restrictions she wants to leave behind. Jack is also making her very uncomfortable. He seems to see the real Christina, not the royal persona she presents to the world. What Jack sees is the princess and the scientist, the cool, distant woman and the one who laughs with kids, and it all adds up to someone he could never be good enough for.

The danger Christina faces is real, but she can’t put her life and her work on hold because of it. Jack is well aware that he alone can’t protect Christina when she goes to a professional conference in San Diego, and he’s forced to face the past (the reason why he’s no longer a Navy SEAL) when he calls on his old team for help. When a photographer takes a photo that’s proof of the relationship between Christina and Jack, an interview is arranged for Christina as damage control, but it has results that Jack didn’t quite expect.

The exchanges between Jack and Christina are priceless, and the dialogue and their thoughts shape the characters and their relationship from the beginning. The recurring theme of photographs is used to illustrate what Jack and Christina mean to each other and what they reveal about their personalities. Both have baggage they carry, but it doesn’t overwhelm the story or make it drag. Some of that baggage is resolved perhaps too quickly; Jack’s troubled relationship with his father Jonathan morphs too easily into a future partnership. And, a minor nit to pick is Christina’s childhood nickname, which is almost the same as an infamous nickname given to a real-life princess.

I enjoyed Ms. Kantra’s Mad Dog and Annie and The Temptation of Sean MacNeill, so after reading Born to Protect, I can say I’m definitely looking forward to her next book.