ABOUT THE BOOK
Everyone deserves a second chance and Mary Holmes,
accountant extraordinaire, is determined to make the most of hers. Sure, she’d
love to get her old life back - she used to be thin, well-dressed,
engaged-to-be-married, on the corporate ladder and regularly bought three kinds
of lettuce. Back then, she could afford the hair products needed to keep her
hair sleek. But one unused wedding cake, a regrettable public safety incident
and a teensy prison record later, her life goals have shrunk to being able to afford
to eat regularly. To do that, she needs to make a success of her second chance…
an accounting job with Vetruvious Security.
Everything is proceeding according to Mary’s detailed, color-coded, new-life plan until Vetruvious Security hires a specialist, Crash Coolidge, to work undercover to smash a truck cargo heist ring. Crash is sexy, insolent, sexy, disheveled, sexy and scarily relaxed about the prospect of killing people. Even in a tough-guy company like Vetruvious Security, Crash is the equivalent of a Rottweiler surrounded by Chihuahuas. After Mary is assigned to his team, her life-plan rapidly derails. She is targeted by the sinister and mysterious head of the heist gang and only Crash stands between her and an undignified death.
Mary finds herself doing things that most definitely were not in her employment contract like stripping the shoes from a corpse; adopting a deaf, rank-smelling guard dog; clue-hunting with Crash’s crazy, supermodel sister and lurking in a biker bar to locate a specific tattoo artist. All because Mary ends up wanting a second chance for Crash Coolidge as much as she wants one for herself. And she must find the sinister and mysterious head of the heist gang before Crash does. Because she doesn’t want Crash to do something reckless that lands him in prison. Not when he has become a vital part of her detailed, color-coded, new new-life plan.
Everything is proceeding according to Mary’s detailed, color-coded, new-life plan until Vetruvious Security hires a specialist, Crash Coolidge, to work undercover to smash a truck cargo heist ring. Crash is sexy, insolent, sexy, disheveled, sexy and scarily relaxed about the prospect of killing people. Even in a tough-guy company like Vetruvious Security, Crash is the equivalent of a Rottweiler surrounded by Chihuahuas. After Mary is assigned to his team, her life-plan rapidly derails. She is targeted by the sinister and mysterious head of the heist gang and only Crash stands between her and an undignified death.
Mary finds herself doing things that most definitely were not in her employment contract like stripping the shoes from a corpse; adopting a deaf, rank-smelling guard dog; clue-hunting with Crash’s crazy, supermodel sister and lurking in a biker bar to locate a specific tattoo artist. All because Mary ends up wanting a second chance for Crash Coolidge as much as she wants one for herself. And she must find the sinister and mysterious head of the heist gang before Crash does. Because she doesn’t want Crash to do something reckless that lands him in prison. Not when he has become a vital part of her detailed, color-coded, new new-life plan.
MY THOUGHTS
BEND THE RULES by Susan Amanda Kelly was an utterly
delightful read. It offers a quirky mix of romance, crime and plenty of humour
that kept me entertained from start to finish.
I loved the protagonists, Mary Holmes and Crash Coolidge.
Mary’s quite eccentric but beneath it all, she has a soft heart and tries to
think the best of people. When she crosses paths with Crash, an unabashed
criminal, she’s quite disconcerted to realise she’s attracted to him.
Crash makes no apologies for his lifestyle and has no intentions
of changing course. He’s happy to act on his attraction to Mary but he’s
stumped by the fact she brings out feelings beyond the physical in him.
There’s a mystery to solve but as much as they work together,
Crash and Mary’s preferred methodology is poles apart. Mary’s escapades, often
with the help of Crash’s sister Minnie gets them into trouble. Kelly did a
great job in balancing the humour of an amateur sleuth and the grimness of
murder.
Alongside the mystery, there’s a lovely romance. Mary and
Crash are not blind to their individual faults but the feelings between them
are genuine and they’re both prepared to not only show some vulnerability but
to fight for their relationship.
I am so happy this book and I crossed paths because it was
such a pleasure to read. It's funny. It's romantic. It's criminal. It works!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Susan Amanda Kelly loves making up stuff in her head. She
drives her husband to distraction by suddenly stopping, mid-conversation, and
staring off into space. She once spent five hours at sea, on a boat, muttering:
"Where would he hide the body?" She hopes the video footage of that
trip has all been scrubbed. She finally decided to put the characters that
inhabit her head, onto paper. It was like opening the door on a lunatic
asylum... glorious bedlam. She hopes her readers come to love her characters as
much as she does. She writes a warm-hearted mix of romance, mystery and
suspense. And her husband is convinced her male leads are based on him. Not the
body-hiding psychopath, of course.
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