Until four years ago, Charlotte "Charlie" Finch was a police
officer, but after being betrayed by her NYPD colleagues,
she now works the poker tables in a bar. She still has a
score to settle with Dmitri Romanov, the New York Russian
mafia boss, who had a hand in her fall from grace. So when
Aiden O'Malley enters the bar to make her an offer, she
reluctantly listens. Aiden, head of the infamous O'Malleys
from the Boston underworld, and Charlie had met a year
before and sparks flew briefly; Charlie didn't give Aiden a
second thought, but Aiden might have found a way for them
both to get their revenge on Romanov: Charlie will have to
convince everyone that she is Aiden's fiancée.
I had expected the follow-up to FORBIDDEN
PROMISES to be about Keira and Dmitri, alas it was not
to be. However, Aiden had seemed a pretty fascinating
character, and I'm not quite sure what happened, but I never
became invested in UNDERCOVER ATTRACTION. There were no
major problems per se, but there were many improbable little
things that in the end added up, and the result was not
particularly satisfactory, for this reader anyway. The other
books in The O'Malleys have great characters are
very fast-paced, with terrific action sequences, and the
romantic interests share incendiary chemistry, all of which
were notably absent here. At the beginning of their fake
relationship, Charlie has no qualms about them having sex,
she acknowledges the attraction, and yet for a good while it
was mostly Aiden who did the work, orally or manually; I
wondered if it was the author's way of telling us that Aiden
was a caring man; still, it felt odd. Although told in the
third person, there was quite a bit of internal dialogue,
but very little was actually going on. I have read every
book in this series, and I must say that the villains, who
seemed to have appeared previously, did not ring a bell. I
don't really know why they were brought in, as they were a
tad too over the top to be believable.
On the other hand, the cop/criminal angle within the romance
was expertly handled, as were the tenuous family
relationships. Liam O'Malley played a tiny role, and I
wished we had seen a bit more of him, because he seemed to
liven things up, for reasons that entirely escape me. I felt
the romance was rather lackluster, apart from a few moments,
but Keira and Dmitri were their usual entertaining selves,
so yet again, I am waiting for Dmitri.
Scandal. Wealth. Power. Seduction. Welcome to the world
of the O'Malleys.
Ex-cop Charlotte Finch used to think there was a clear line
between right and wrong. Then her fellow officers betrayed
her, and the world is no longer so black and white.
Especially when it's Aiden O'Malley, one of the most
dangerous men in Boston, who offers her a chance for
justice. The only catch: she'll have to pretend to be his
fiancée for his plan to work.
Aiden can't afford to let anyone see the man behind the
mask. To run the O'Malley empire, he has to be cool and
controlled at all times. But the moment he meets Charlie,
they're playing with fire. Her slightest touch is enough to
send him over the edge. At first their "engagement" was a
way to eliminate his enemies. Now he'll do whatever it takes
to keep her safe-- even if he has to destroy his own family
to do it.
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