In a world gripped by organized crime, family dysfunction, and dim hopes of redemption, can true love persevere? For Sophie Taylor, a beautiful psychologist who lost everything when she violated an ethical boundary, and Grant Madsen, a handsome naval officer who sacrificed everything to protect a loved one, finding that love may carry an unbearable cost.Starting their lives over in Chicago, both are fighting influences from their family and running as fast as they can to escape the past. When their paths cross outside the parole officer's door, the attraction is instantaneous. But a hidden connection may not only shatter their fledgling love, but prove deadly to them both.
With Good Behavior totally caught me by surprise. By now everyone knows that I have a love-hate relationship with Romantic Suspense novels. I want to love them, but they normally don't love me back. I usually end up figuring out the mystery half way through the book and get bored and never finish them. Or the heroines are so wishy washy that they make me want to pull my hair out and scream at them.
However, this book was the exception to the rule. The heroine wasn't wishy washy, and there were enough twists and turns that I was surprised by the ending. Just when I thought I had everything figured out something would happen to make me scratch my head and go: "I didn't see that coming." I fell in love with both Sophie and Grant.
The charm of this book was that it was totally different then most romances because the heroine and heroine have both been in jail. They meet at their parole officers office and of course are attracted with each other. The relationship between Sophie and Grant happened over time, and I loved that there was an actual romance between them and that she didn't spend all but the last 50 pages of the book hating him.
Sophie and Grant are both vulnerable and it made me love them that much more because of it. Both of them were sent to jail for trying to do the right thing the wrong way. I didn't think it was possible for me to feel for both of them, but I did. Early on we learn that Grant has a connection to Sophie that neither of them know about and I couldn't wait to for them to connect the dots and figure out the connection they had to each other. I thought I had the reveal scene all figured out and loved how wrong I was about how they figured out their connection to each other was.
One of the things that made this book special were the secondary characters. I loved them all, even the bad guys. There was Grant's Uncle Joe, Sophie and Grant's boss Roger, Officer Stone, the parole officer and a host of others that made me laugh out loud. I loved how tough they all were, but all had a soft spot for Grant and Sophie that made them super lovable and not so tough as they would like us to think they were. The bad guys in this book were great because they all had reasons for being bad that were understandable, but it didn't change the fact that they went the wrong way in life. I take that back-I did feel bad for Grants brother Logan, because he tried so hard to change, but just couldn't. He wanted to protect his family but went about it the wrong way.
With Good Behavior will have you cheering for Grant and Sophie and wanting to see justice served for those who turned their lives upside down. A big thank you to Jennifer Lane for giving me hope that this genre might be for me after all!
Favorite Quotes:
"Who were you telling "I'm Sorry?" You, he thought. I'm sorry you ever met me outside the parole office. I;m sorry I ever dragged your beautiful spirit into my wretched, worthless life. I'm sorry you've become such an essential part of my world, when obviously I should let you go.
"Of course I'm still here. I could never leave my McSailor."
Curran Crush Meter: Medium
Barrons Hero Hotness Meter: Medium
Martini Sigh Meter: High
Sizzle Meter: Medium
Finn Sidekick Meter: High
The Conduct Blog Tour is being kind enough to give away one ebook copy of With Good Behavior, or the sequel to it Bad Behavior to one lucky commenter. There is also a tour wide giveaway of a $25 gift card to Barnes & Noble or Amazon to one lucky person. In order to be eligible you must comment on every blog participating in the tour. The books will be sent to the winners after December 15th. To enter to win either With Good Behavior or Bad Behavior just state which one you would like to win in the comments and leave a way for me to contact you. Either a twitter handle or email address works fine. The giveaway is open until December 10th @ 11:00pm.
