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Review: Scandal Never Sleeps

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Review: Scandal Never SleepsScandal Never Sleeps (The Perfect Gentlemen, #1) by Shayla Black, Lexi Blake
Series: The Perfect Gentlemen #1
Published by Berkley on August 18th 2015
Genres: Contemporary
Pages: 400
Goodreads
five-stars

“Gabriel Bond really wanted to murder his best friend.”

FINAL DECISION:  How did I miss this series?  I absolutely loved this book which has funny, sexy and likeable characters, complex issues, an intriguing mystery and is hot, hot, hot!  I totally fell in love with the characters and flew through this book.

THE STORY: Gabriel Bond, one of the six “Perfect Gentlemen” of Creighton Academy, is left adrift after the death of one of his best friends Maddox Crawford.  Grieving and angry and a little lost, Gabriel seeks some forgetfulness with a woman he meets in a bar.  Everly Parker isn’t a woman who engages in one night stands, but the handsome and sexy Gabriel is an opportunity that she doesn’t want to pass up.  Things become complicated, however, when Everly and Gabriel meet again and find out that Gabriel is Everly’s new boss and Gabriel finds out that Everly is the woman he believes was Maddox’s mistress.  Then Gabriel becomes a suspect in Maddox’s murder.

OPINION: This book just sucked me in and wouldn’t let go. The Perfect Gentlemen are sexy, dominant men who have a funny and even somewhat sweet relationship.  They call one another brothers and their relationship is the central pivot point in the overarching story. The men needle, tease, taunt, challenge one another and are devoted to one another.  Without this foundation in the book, it would be impossible to understand or believe what these men are willing to do for one another.  The unshakable relationship between these men also serves to show how important the relationship between Gabriel and Everly becomes as she dislodges the other Perfect Gentlemen as most important to Gabriel.

Some readers might grumble about the fact that the overarching mystery that begins in this book with Maddox Crawford’s death is not resolved in this book.  I like my series to be closely connected and prefer that there be overarching issues which thread through all the books in the series.  This book is just about perfect in that regard.  Some questions are answered in this book and some questions linger on and is picked up by the next book in the series.  The romance itself is complete.

Before I began reading romances, I was an avid mystery reader and I still really enjoy a good romantic suspense or romance/mystery book.  My complaint is often that either there is too much suspense and little romance or the mystery is no real mystery but rather nothing more than an excuse to create drama for the hero and heroine.  Not so here.  The mystery seems organic and vital to the story and yet never overshadows the romance between Gabriel and Everly.  I was satisfied with the answers I got in this book even as I wonder about the bigger questions left unanswered.  Obviously, I don’t know what the ultimate answers are but the writers have earned my trust by creating a clever and intelligent beginning.

While Gabriel is definitely a yummy hero.  Unapologetically a highly sexed man, I loved how Gabriel doesn’t apologize for his sex life and doesn’t ask Everly to apologize for hers.  Powerful and yet willing to listen to Everly (after some initial misunderstandings). He treats her as an equal to him intellectually and sexually.  He’s funny and sexy and has some darkness in his past — what’s not to love?

I adored Everly as well.  She is smart and capable.  And can she handle Gabriel!  I especially like that Everly has a profession that is not usually given to women in books.  She is head of information security and is a hacker.  Her particular skills are especially useful in the mystery.  Loved, loved that Everly is not a damsel in distress but an active participant in the story and in the mystery.

This book just hit me in the right spot.  In fact, the hardest decision for me was whether to read the next book right away or re-read my favorite parts of this book.  My decision was to continue with the series and then re-read.  The best of both worlds.

WORTH MENTIONING:  The books in this series all deal with one overarching mystery that begins with the death of Maddox Crawford in this book. The overarching mystery is not resolved here even though the immediate issues raised in the book are resolved.

CONNECTED BOOKS:  SCANDAL NEVER SLEEPS is the first book in The Perfect Gentlemen series.

STAR RATING:  I give this book 5 stars.

NOTE: I received a free paperback copy of this book at the RT Booklovers Convention. There was no request or requirement that I write a review or that I say positive things about this book.  All opinions contained herein are my own.

five-stars

Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

Top 10 New to Me Books I Want to Read After RT Booklovers Convention

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by Alice Clayton, Alyssa Cole, Donna Grant, Elle Kennedy, Em Shotwell, Julie Murphy, Katherine Reay, Leigh Bardugo, Lexi Blake, Savannah J. Frierson, Shayla Black

In April, I attended the RT Booklovers Convention in Las Vegas. It was a fantastic experience.  The parties were fun, the panels were usually very interesting and I came home with bags full of free books, but what I loved most was standing around talking with people about the books that they love.

The convention opened my eyes to authors, genres and all kinds of books that I never knew were out there.  I made a commitment that I would pick 10 books by authors that I haven’t really read before and try them out in the next year.

There is no method in the books I chose other than my limitation that they not be from authors that I regularly read. I ended up with dozens of possible books to read, and decided to just chose 10 that sparked my interest in some way.

What follows are my list of books in no particular order:

Blackbird Summer

Blackbird Summer by Em Shotwell: This might be the most shallow reason for choosing a book — I was walking around the book fair and loved the cover of this book.  I spoke with the author who gave a good pitch for the book.  It features a heroine with supernatural powers and takes place in the rural South. It happened to be on sale on Kindle so I bought it right then. The cover looks like a pictures I’d like to have on my wall.

Mixed Signals (Off the Grid, #3)

Mixed Signals by Alyssa Cole:  I saw the author speak at one of the panels and was impressed by how articulate and funny she was.  I really like clever books so I have hopes that this author’s personality will transfer to what she writes. The book is part of a post-apocalyptic series and I’m going to have to decide whether or not to read from the beginning of the series or start here.

Being Plumville

Being Plumville by Savannah J. Frierson:  I met this author at the Book Fair.  I was wandering around talking to different authors and approached her table.  I asked what her book was about.  When she told me that the story was about an interracial couple in the 1960s, I was hooked.  I know I haven’t read this book before so I was determined that it would make my list of books to read.

Scandal Never Sleeps (The Perfect Gentlemen, #1)

Scandal Never Sleeps by Shayla Black and Lexi Blake: One of my favorite events at the RT Convention was the Perfect Gentlemen event.  Lots of cool swag and a free copy of this book along with a signing by the authors.  As we waited in line for the signing, the group of women I was with laughed and drank the pink champagne.  It was a fun time. The entirety of the event plus the blurb on the back made me put this book in the read really soon pile.  A group of powerful and really sexy men finding strong women while investigating the death of one of their members is definitely my type of catnip.

Dumplin'

Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy: This book was chosen as Book of the Year at the RT Reviewers’ Choice Awards.  I love the idea that all people deserve a happy ending.  Once again, I was impressed with the author as she accepted her awards that night.  Her remarks were touching and I knew I would have to read this book.

Wallbanger (Cocktail, #1)

Wallbanger by Alice Clayton: Lot of buzz about this author and series at the convention.  Someone else had recommended the book to me a while ago, Sarah MacLean has recommended it several times, and the repeated recommendations at the convention finally moved it to my list.

Dear Mr. Knightley

Dear Mr. Knightley by Katherine Reay:  I went to the Sweet Romance Morning Coffee Break event and this author was in attendance.  One of the attendees at my table recommended reading this book and I was intrigued by the letter writing involved in the book and its connection to Pride and Prejudice.

Claimed (Outlaws, #1)

Claimed by Elle Kennedy: Another of those post-apocalyptic books, I received and ARC of the second book in this series at a blogger event and decided I had to look at this book to decide if I had to read it first.  I read the blurb “Her best chance at survival is Connor Mackenzie, an aggressively sensual fugitive who opens her eyes to the wicked possibilities of a world without rules.” and I had to add it to my list.

Smoke and Fire (Dark Kings, #9)

Smoke and Fire by Donna Grant: Dragon Shapeshifters.  Nothing else needed except I do need to decide where I want to start with this series.

Shadow and Bone (The Grisha, #1)

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo: I talked to many people able YA books and two different people suggested this book to me.  I know that it was on sale on Kindle not long ago so I decided I would give it a try.

Over the next year, I’m going to read these books.  Stay tuned to read my reviews.

Do you create book challenges for yourself? If so, what is on your challenge list?

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