Mystery – Page 51 – Flippin' Pages Book Reviews

The Bachelor Bargain by
Maddison Michaels is now live!

Bachelors, beware. For those who keep secrets and prey on the innocent, you will be exposed, with all your dirty little secrets laid bare to one and all. You have been warned…

Lady Olivia Haliford has had enough. Tired of seeing women lose their reputations, futures, and sometimes even their lives to scandal while the men walk free, she is ready to take back power and stand up for women everywhere. Along with her two closest friends, she plans to start an anonymous publication dedicated to dishing the dirt and exposing the secrets of society’s most eligible bachelors. But in order to do so, she will have to make a deal with the devil…

Sebastian Colver, known as the Bastard of Baker Street, is feared throughout London as the city’s most notorious gambling den owner and undisputed king of the underground. His life is nothing but darkness and danger, so he is shocked when the petite lady gracing his doorstep seems anything but frightened of him. He agrees to be a silent partner in the publishing of the Gazette if she will use her connections to sponsor his sister and launch her into Society and away from his dark world.

But exposing the secrets of the rich and powerful can be dangerous. Almost as dangerous as a lady falling in love with the king of the underground.

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Meet Maddison

Indoctrinated into a world of dashing rogues and feisty heroines when she was a teenager, Maddison Michaels is a bestselling, award-winning Australian romance author who loves to write sexy history with a dash of mystery! Her debut novel, The Devilish Duke, won the 2019 Romance Writers of Australia Historical Romance Book of the Year. Maddison lives in Sydney with her gorgeous hubby and daughter and always starts her day with a cup of liquid gold…coffee (just quietly, she’s addicted to the stuff)!

Maddison loves hearing from her readers.

Tracy’s Review:

The Bachelor Bargain-1600 The Bachelor Bargain by Maddison Michaels

Tracy’s rating: 4 of 5 stars

Series: Secrets, Scandals, and Spies, #1

Release Date: May 17, 2021

Devastated by the death of her dear friend Alice, Lady Olivia “Livie” Haliford vows to find and punish the man responsible for ruining her and possibly murdering her. To achieve this goal and to protect other women from falling victim to the entitled scoundrels of the ton, Livie, and her two dearest friends, Lady Kaitlyn Montrose and Miss Henrietta Merriweather decide to start a newspaper that will target these men and expose them for the predators they are – but to start a publishing business will require more money than they have, but Livie has the perfect investor in mind – Sebastian Colver, the Bastard of Baker Street or as most of London call him, the King of the Rookeries.

Sebastian is intrigued by the lovely young woman with a cane who stormed his office and uses his biggest secret to try and coerce him into investing in her scandal sheet. He should send her on her way because he has more pressing matters to sort out – like finding out who is trying to take over the Rookeries, but her connections, namely her Godmother the Duchess of Calder, makes her the perfect person to convince the “Dragon Duchess” to sponsor his half-sister Charlotte. He makes a deal if she can convince her Godmother to introduce Charlotte to society, he will be her silent partner.

They strike a bargain, but as they spend time together, two things become clear; one they are attracted to each other, and two whoever is trying to take over the Rookeries has also been hired to kill Olivia. Despite his vow to never love anyone, Sebastian can’t seem to walk away from Livie and will stop at nothing to save her. Can these two let go of past hurts and open their hearts so they can find a way to have HEA or will they let their fears ruin their chance for a love of a lifetime?

This was a very well-written, fast-paced story with a great “whodunit” mystery incorporated into the romance of this unlikely couple. The book has a lot going on, murder, betrayal, revenge, steamy love scenes, some angst, great secondary characters, and finally a HEA complete with an epilogue. I did enjoy this book, but there were some things that kept this from being a five-star read for me, such as formal address/title errors and modern-day idioms and verbiage, and a couple of historical inaccuracies that I simply had a hard time overlooking, that being said, I must stress, these things are personal pet peeves of mine and may not bother other readers. This is the first book in the series that I would happily recommend and will be looking forward to the future installments!

*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an eARC that I requested and was provided to me by NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions in this review are my own. *

Barbara’s rating: 4 of 5 stars

Series: Charlie Parker #19
Publication Date: 2/8/21
Number of Pages: 308
** 3.5 Stars Rounded Up **

Charlie is alone at home and at work because her husband, Drake, is off fighting forest fires and her business partner, her older brother Ron, is on the first vacation he’s had in years. What does an enterprising CPA/detective do with herself while she has all of that aloneness? She gets busy and investigates not one, but two cases.

A teenager named Cassandra (Cassie) Blake entered Charlie’s office and asked to hire Charlie to find her missing mother, Jennifer Blake. Jennifer was reported missing over fifteen years ago and nobody has seen or heard from her since. Cassandra has been raised by her grandmother, Linda Arnold, who is now dying and Cassie wants to find Jennifer – or to learn what happened to her – before her grandmother passes away. Something about the young girl and her history pulls a chord in Charlie because of her own background and she agrees to help – as long as Linda is in agreement.

At the same time, Charlie’s Gram has a friend who is in her eighties but has taken up with a man in his forties. Once Charlie meets him, she is sure he is a charlatan only out for the older lady’s fortune. It seems they won’t be able to stop the marriage because the older lady, Iris, is totally enamored of Jeffrey Lougan and will not listen to anything her friends say. Iris won’t even agree to a prenup. Jeffrey seems very attentive to Iris, but when she starts feeling ill, her friends have to wonder.

Charlie has a time with her missing person case. It is as if Jennifer Blake just dropped off the face of the earth. Nobody remembers seeing her leave her home, but she was missing when Linda arrived to pick Cassie up for a doctor’s appointment. Cassie was in her playpen – all alone. The house was empty. Did Jennifer just walk away from it all? Did she run away with her ex-husband? Did something sinister happen to her because of something her druggie ex-husband did? Is Jennifer even still alive?

I liked the book, but it is not my favorite of the series. While the mystery is a good one, there is just no excitement in the story. It is a bit more like reading a rather dry newspaper account of something rather than actually living that moment in the story. Also, Drake didn’t even make a real appearance. I love those really exciting adventures where Charlie and Drake are tooling around together – in the helicopter or not – and all sorts of exciting things are happening. One other thing I’ll mention is that it keeps changing from one POV to another in the story. This didn’t bother me in the least and I thought it was a good device for telling the past story and the current story. However, I do know that switching POVs and timelines bother some folks, so I thought I’d just mention it.

This is a nice story, and I enjoyed the read, but it didn’t hold my interest enough for me to read it straight through. I honestly didn’t have any trouble putting it down to take a break.

Flippin' Pages Book Reviews

Category: Mystery

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