276 p.
Source: From Kismet Book Touring for review
Fleur Smithers rarely veers off the straight and (excruciatingly) narrow. So moving to the seaport town of Toulon to live with her newfound biological mother—an inspector with the French National Police—for one year is a pretty major detour.
Son of France’s crime royalty family and international rugby star, Louis Messette, is devoted to his sport, famille and nothing else. But the saucy American he meets one night changes everything. She sparks a desire in him like no other. Possession takes root. She will do as he commands.
Bit by bit Fleur slips into the Frenchman’s realm of wanton pleasure agreeing to his one condition: that she keep their affair secret. She serves up her heart without reservation in the hub of the glittering Côte d’Azur, and the along the soulful Seine in Paris, unaware of the danger she is in. For her new lover’s “family business” will pit her against her mother, the police woman sworn to bring down the Messettes. And by then, far more than Fleur’s heart will be on the line.My thoughts:
I knew I was in for a bad boy story considering the series title. So, it did not surprise me that several times I wanted to throttle the man, Louis. Yes, this set up the tension well especially when Fleur, our innocent young lady meets Louis.
I have to say that several times throughout the book I was yelling at Fleur to "wake up" and see all the red flags waving in her face. All those things that told me this would be an abusive relationship. It bothered me that she ignored them all and continued to pursue this bad man. I mean he actually TOLD her he was bad but she still made excuses for his behavior. I honestly would have put the book down except for one thing... she acknowledged the red flags. Granted she pushed them aside, made excuses for them, but she kept seeing them. That made me think growth and so I continued on with the story.
Even though I convinced myself to continue... I admit I did throw the book down more than once. However my curiosity got the better of me and I continued on and was rewarded in the end. She finally stood up for herself and demanded her right to be given love not just have love taken from her. I cheered! There is a HEA and honestly I could have done without the romantic HEA, but it was acceptable to me and it did make me smile. :)
I give the book 3 stars. I actually had fun being so frustrated with the book. Of course if I was left upset I wouldn't have liked it, but I was rewarded in the end by Fleur.
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Lesley Young is an award-winning Canadian journalist by day, and obsessive novelist by night. Her debut novel, Sky’s End (Soulmate Publishing, 2013) hit #9 on Amazon’s sci-fi romance paid best-seller list in its first three months of release.
Not too long after that, she started dreaming up quirky heroines who lose their hearts to extremely powerful, flawed heroes, only to find out what love really is while on a dangerous adventure abroad. She called it the Crime Royalty Romance series, and landed herself a pretty big agent at Spencerhill Associates. Never one to take the obvious path, Lesley ultimately decided to self-publish. She’s never sure who or what will pop up in her imagination next. The Irishman? The Spaniard? The Hawaiian? Anything’s possible, and she loves suggestions (or recommendations of really hot, er, talented, actors to work as a muses).
Stay in touch with her and feel free to forward on decent options at Facebook.com/LesleyYoungBooks and @LesleyYoungBks (note: Charlie Hunnam’s already taken the lead role of The American—#3 Crime Royalty Romance...coming soon!).
Giveaway!
Lesley has provided a fantastic giveaway, including a $25 Amazon gift card and 20 ebook copies of The Frenchman! To enter, please fill out the Rafflecopter form.
Tour Schedule:
Monday, March 9th - BOOKS REVIEWS ETC & Lite-rate-ture
Tuesday, March 10th - Living In Our Own Story
Wednesday, March 11th - Book Swoon
Thursday, March 12th - Pretty Sassy Cool
Friday, March 13th - Curling Up With A Good Book
Monday, March 16th - Total Book Geek & Obsessed by Books
Tuesday, March 17th - Mythical Books
Wednesday, March 18th - My Favorite Things & Books and Things
Thursday, March 19th - Margay Leah Justice
Friday, March 20th - A Lick Of Romance
Monday, March 23rd - The Golden Mantle & Bewitched Bookworms
Tuesday, March 24th - Books Glorious Books
Wednesday, March 25th - Seeing Night Reviews
Thursday, March 26th - The Mama Games
Friday, March 27th - Sultry, Steamy Reading
Hmm... I don't think this one is for me. I would be annoyed and frustrated as well. I also don't like the new cover as well as the original one that Jenny designed.
ReplyDeleteYea, I could see you just as frustrated. At lest the ending gave me what I needed. :)
DeleteLOL and see this sounds like one I'd want to read. And that cover so makes me growly. Love it. Totally makes me want the book.
ReplyDeleteYes, I do think you'd love it more than I did. :)
DeleteIt that's Louis on the cover, I need to start looking at the bad boys a little more.
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear she stands up for herself in the end. Sometimes it takes a little bit of time. ;) Thanks!
ReplyDeletethis looks and sounds fantastic :) thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI can see you throwing the kindle/book in disgust, yelling at the characters and then cheering her own. Even though it made you cray-cray I love that you became caught up
ReplyDeleteAh yes lol I often want to shake the characters like that! terrible thing, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you enjoyed it for the most part despite wanting to throttle Louis and throw the book. We've all been there! I'm curious to read this to see if I have a similar throttle/book throwing impulse. :-)
ReplyDeleteSo glad you had the fun kind of frustration while reading this one Melissa! Thanks for being a part of the tour:)
ReplyDeleteNo, put off straight away by the cover and I'm afraid your review, as good as it is, does nothing to change my mind.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great read.
ReplyDeleteLOL - oh boy, sometimes I love a book that drives me crazy like this. It gets my blood pumping.
ReplyDeleteThis promises to be a most interesting read.
ReplyDelete