Book Description:
All Lexi wants to do is get through the day at her boring temp job with Green Hand Insurance. That’s until she discovers the vice president, Martin Dean, in a pool of blood and herself at the center of an investigation into insurance fraud.
Millions of dollars are missing, the chief suspect is dead and her mysterious, sexy, new boss is not what he seems.
Recruited by the joint task force working on the case, all Lexi has to do is work out who killed Dean and where the missing millions are. That’s easier said than done when her sister insists upon the baby shower to end all baby showers, her wise-ass cop family just wants to keep her safe, someone keeps leaving her creepy gifts, and all the clues point to a seedy sex club on the wrong side of town.
As the bodies start to pile up, Lexi is on a race against time to find the killer and the money, before she’s the next one in the murderer’s sights. (from amazon.com)
Review:
Prior to finding this book on a list of free books, I had never heard of this author. I read a lot of indie authors or not really very well-known authors and sometimes they are good and sometimes, eh, not-so-good. This book was one of the really good ones.
Lexi is the youngest of 5, born into a family of police officers. She is smart and capable, though she hides this well, personable, but has no place to really direct her energies, so she works as a temp.
Adam and Solomon are on the task force with her and provide an interesting love triangle. I hope the author doesn’t drag that aspect out too much. I enjoy a little love triangle as much as the next person, but they can be drawn out too much. Adam is the good-guy cop, boy scout-ish, Solomon is the bad-boy, dangerous. Another reviewer compared this series to Stephanie Plum by Janet Evanovich and that’s a pretty accurate assessment. Adam=Joe Morelli, Solomon=Ranger. At least it seems that way from the first book.
Things I really enjoyed about the book:
1. Lexi’s friendship with Lily. I love that the author didn’t throw the best friend under the bus because some hot guys were around.
2. The dialogue/inner monologue was great. The humor was fantastic (I laughed out loud many times). There was only one time I felt it was over-done.
3. Believable sexual tension build-up between Lexi and both Adam and Solomon.
4. I Loved her family. The protective older brothers and the too-perfect older sister provided some comic relief as well as some genuine displays of caring. The author did a fantastic job portraying family commitment and exposing faults (and setting up future books).
5. I enjoyed the mystery aspect of the book quite a lot and was a little surprised at the ending. The author did a good job building the tension.
Things I didn’t care about:
1. I would have liked a bit more information about her past. I realize the author is stretching the story out a bit over a few books, but darn it, I want answers now! (just kidding). Specifically, I want to know about “the army incident” and why she can’t be a police officer. I have a feeling the 2 are related.
That’s it for what I didn’t enjoy about the book. Seriously. It was a great book. Well-edited, dialogue great, pacing great, believable characters and actions.
If you like funny mysteries with a similarity to the Stephanie Plum novels, you will probably enjoy this as well. I’m looking forward to reading the next book in the series (I’ll be buying the next installment as soon as I post this review) and highly recommend this book.
Sensuality: a few kisses and some sexual tension, references to sex. It would fine for a teenager to read.
Rating: 5 stars