Lesley Young (1)

I wasn't sure what to expect, but I love France and all things French, so decided to give it a try. I was a little bit worried that the "crime" part of the title would be more of a focus to the novel than it turned out to be, so I was delighted by that. I found the humor laced through the narrative quite refreshing. It helped me believe in Fleur and Louis as characters and not as props for the numerous explicit sex scenes--yes, I was expecting sex, and lots of it, but it always helps when there are people involved in the scenes that you actually care about. I sort of felt like I was plunged in the middle of the story with little background at first, but it made me want to keep turning pages to find out what the heck was going on!… (més)

I wasn't sure what to expect, but I love France and all things French, so decided to give it a try. I was a little bit worried that the "crime" part of the title would be more of a focus to the novel than it turned out to be, so I was delighted by that. I found the humor laced through the narrative quite refreshing. It helped me believe in Fleur and Louis as characters and not as props for the numerous explicit sex scenes--yes, I was expecting sex, and lots of it, but it always helps when there are people involved in the scenes that you actually care about. I sort of felt like I was plunged in the middle of the story with little background at first, but it made me want to keep turning pages to find out what the heck was going on!… (més)

3.5⭐/3 flames.

I am not a francophile, so this is the only frenchy book I have read (at least where the main setting and characters were France/French). I think I liked it enough to read more frenchy books in the future - assuming the male characters are big handsome broody bastards like Louis. I don't care for the frenchmen that are characterized as effeminate. Once Louis was described as the dark and handsome rugby player, I could not help but envision him as Stuart Reardon. So that certainly helped along with the reading of this book. It may have even prevented Fleur, who was ridiculously and unbelievably naive, from getting on my nerves quite so much. I mean seriously, there is only so much willful blindness I could take.

This book was told in first person from Fleur's POV. The writing was very flowery, which I usually do not like. However it seemed to fit in to this story and made me think of the French as melodramatic and over-the-top. There was some mystery, family drama, relationship drama, slight mob-type activity, and reasonably steamy sex. It was a good read, but I would have liked it to be more detailed I think. We got mainly surface facts without learning anything too deep about any of the characters. I didn't feel like actions were fully explained... particularly the situation where Fleur sent Louis packing. I didnt get it. The book would have also benefited nicely from an epilogue.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.… (més)

5 stars / 3 flames

I don't give many 5-star reviews (only 5 out of 125 books to date this year). So you know when I do give a 5-star, I really enjoyed the book. And I really really enjoyed this book, mainly due to our quirky female lead character, Charlie Sykes. She is my favorite female character of the year so far.

Charlie suffers from Pervasive Development Disorder... which seems a bit like Asperger's to me. She has trouble with social clues and deciphering emotions. This makes Charlie a very literal, logical and straight-forward person. I loved the way her mind worked - and I think we would get along very well. I felt very protective of her throughout the whole book, so I was absolutely livid at these law enforcement officers who were putting her through the ringer. I wanted to throttle them! And since I work in the same field, that is saying something. Charlie was obviously not equipped to deal with the situations they were putting her in - and they knew it. She is such a different sort of lead character than we usually see in contemporary romance, it was refreshing to have someone so unique and endearing.

I do not believe it is appropriate or professional to engage in coitus with one's employer.

Arousal was not a mental disorder.

Jace Knight (great name) is our anti-hero, a rich bad boy trying to go straight and doing that the best way he knew how. You can tell that Jace has never met anyone like Charlie, and he is captivated by her from their first meeting. He was also very protective of her, and I loved him for that (even though he did trick her a couple times). I could not fault anything with their relationship - the pacing worked well with the story and Jace seemed to honestly care about Charlie.

The "villains" in the story are who we usually think of as good guys - intelligence agents and international law enforcement. Working in this field, I cringed at the actions these people were taking. I can only hope people in my agency would never conduct themselves in this fashion.

Overall, The Australian was a breath of fresh air. I recommend it to fans of contemporary romance who are in a reading slump, or are looking for something different than the standard, often annoying, new adult heroines pervading the genre at the moment.

See full review at http://bambi-unbridled.blogspot.com.… (més)