BLACKMAILING THE BAD GIRL
Series: Cutting Loose #2
Author: Nina Croft
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: June 12, 2017
Cynical CEO, Nik Masterton, believes he’s finally met a woman who isn’t interested in his money…until she vanishes with a hefty amount of it. He’s been searching for her ever since and has finally found her doing a stint in Holloway prison for stealing…from someone else. Clearly, he’s just one of many. Now she’s coming out, and it’s time for a little payback.
After two years in prison, Summer Delaney is determined she’s never going back. While she had good reasons for doing what she did, it’s time to move on to a new life and earn an honest living. Unfortunately, there’s a glitch in her plan, and he’s waiting at the gate as she comes out.
Nik isn’t above using blackmail to make Summer work for him until he decides just how he’ll get his revenge. But this time they’re both determined to keep their distance. Right until the inconvenient attraction explodes between them…
Each book in the Cutting Loose series is a standalone story that can be enjoyed out of order.
Series Order:
Book #1 Falling for the Bad Girl
Book #2 Blackmailing the Bad Girl
What do you want, Summer?”
“I want you to be my coming-out present.” She placed her empty wineglass on the floor and straightened. “After all, you’ve been my coming-out nightmare. Let’s balance the books. Let’s pretend I’m not a thief. Let’s go back three years to when I kissed you.”
I was immediately hooked on this series when I first met the “bad girls” in Falling for the Bad Girl. I was thrilled to get my grabby little hands on Summer’s book (and I’m seriously salivating for Darcy’s story). The premise of the story immediately grabbed me. Three years ago, Summer and Nik shared a passionate kiss that could have led to so much more…until she disappeared, taking a large amount of Nik’s money with her. He never ceased looking for her and he’s finally got her. Summer is about to be released from prison and Nik has plans in mind for her.
Still bitter from an ugly divorce, Nik thought he finally found a woman that was interested in him and not his money. After all, Summer believed that he was part of the maintenance staff when she worked at his company. It isn’t until she disappears with a hefty amount of his money that her lies truly hit him. He’ll make her earn it the honest way now, by making her work for his company as his personal assistant. He’ll just have to ignore that aggravating attraction that never ceased brewing between them.
Not everything is as it seems with Summer, but her secrets are her own. She’s not about to share her reasons with a man that’s basically blackmailing her into working for him. But maybe if she can work out their annoying sexual chemistry out of her system, she can finally move from the ghost of the memory of the kiss they shared. But nothing ever works out as it’s planned and things soon begin to get deliciously complicated between them.
While I loved the chemistry between Nik and Summer, I couldn’t help feeling like something was missing for me. There wasn’t anything about the story that truly grabbed me and I struggled to truly connect to the characters. They both had a great backstory but it just wasn’t enough. I couldn’t place my finger on what it was exactly that was missing, but it was. It was an enjoyable read, but not my favorite from this author.
FALLING FOR THE BAD GIRL
I love a refreshing change of pace, and this book certainly delivered. I have plenty of bad boys in my reading repertoire, so the blurb to this book immediately hooked because what’s that? No bad boy but a bad girl instead? Bring it on, I say!
He was addictive. Which was a problem, because he was also bossy, and a loner, and a total commitment-phobe.
But while I loved the set up, I had a hard time believing that Josh spent 5 years being celibate because he was “married”. Considering their arrangement, I just couldn’t wrap my mind around that. I connected to Alexia and her reasons, but Josh’s seemed a bit extreme.
Nothing like floating on a life raft with your buddies after escaping a sinking ship and puking off the side to reflect on one’s life. But that’s exactly what Logan McCabe finds himself doing. When the discussion leads to the one thing they’d go back in time to change, there’s only one thing floating in Logan’s mind. The sizzling one night stand he shared with a woman eleven years ago that rocked his world. So what’s a man to do? Look her up, track her down, and proposition her for more, of course.
Logan is an ex-con with an aversion to cops, and the Abby eleven years later just happens to be a detective. A match made in heaven they are not. I absolutely loved these two together. Abby may be a touch prissy, but she sure gives as good as she gets. Logan is everything I’ve come to love in a Brazen hero, totally alpha and a dirty talking god. Add in a secret pregnancy trope, and watch the sparks fly! My only quibble is what I felt was a little too much cheese with the ending. 
