🔖 REVIEW 🔖 Blackmail by Amelia Wilde

Blackmail by Amelia Wilde 

Release Date: August 2nd 2022

Series: Controlling Interest #1

Pages: 224

Genres: Romance, Contemporary

Bristol Anderson will do anything to protect her younger siblings. Even if it means embezzling from the company where she’s a temp. No one will find out. And the wealthy owner of the investment firm will never notice.

Except Will LeBlanc doesn’t miss a thing.

He could call the police, but he has more interesting plans for her. In the copy room. On the conference table. Under his desk.

The coldhearted venture capitalist will make her pay back every last cent.

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Review:

Wilde delivers an intriguing start to the first book in the Controlling Interest Trilogy with Blackmail. This sizzling read had me hooked from beginning to end.

At the beginning of the story we get to meet Will Leblanc, a venture capitalist who has worked really hard to make his private equity firm a success. So much so that he is in talks of merging with a large organization, The Hughes Financial Services, who have offered him even more wealth and an executive title as well. But while Will should be focusing on the merger, his focus now is on trying to keep a secretary from leaving the job. He has gotten the reputation of not being able to keep his secretaries with his temper and demands.

Until one day that changes as a beautiful woman walks in having been sent from the temp agency ready to make his job a lot easier. Bristol is efficient and does her job really well. Yet, there is something about her that keeps him drawn to her. Will knows better than to get emotionally attached to her, but when Bristol confides in him about her con artist father, he knows that he has to find a way to protect her. He is shocked to discover that Bristol has con him and he vows to make her pay, by making her his. Little by little, she starts to shatter the walls around him and it frightens him to know that she will see the monster in him and never want anything to do with him again.

Bristol Anderson has always been protective over her siblings as they moved from place to place growing up. It’s her jobs throughout the years that have been able to help them financially. But it’s not enough and that results in her dad “borrowing money” to help them move around. When a man comes to collect the money her dad owes, things turn from bad to worse when he threatens her siblings’ lives if he is not paid back soon. Bristol doesn’t know what to do, her new temp job is not going to cover everything. She needs to think of something fast and that’s when her dad asks her to do what he has always done in order to protect those she loves. Bristol must steal from same company that has given her the job while she figures out a way to pay them back as well. It’s only supposed to be temporary, but Will is not one to mess with and she knows that she has been caught. But Will isn’t interested in firing her or calling the police, he has a plan of his own. One that could change the course of their lives forever.

There is so much to unpack from this book, from the storyline to the characters. Their chemistry is what kept me reading and as we got to learn more of their background stories, the more hooked I was with the story. We have a tortured hero who has been through a traumatic past and he is afraid of getting emotionally attached to Bristol. Her story and wanting to protect her at all costs is what drives him to want to keep her for himself. On the other hand, Bristol loves her family and will do anything to protect him, including the very same thing that she hates about dad. They are able to lean on each other and start to trust in one another. Until a turn of events threatens a potential future together. The story does end with a cliffhanger and I cannot wait to read what happens next. I would highly recommend checking it out as well as other works by the author as well. :)

***I received an advanced copy from the publisher. All opinions are my own.***

Rating:

AUTHOR BIO:

Amelia Wilde is a USA TODAY bestselling author of steamy contemporary romance and loves it a little too much. She lives in Michigan with her husband and daughters. She spends most of her time typing furiously on an iPad and appreciating the natural splendor of her home state from where she likes it best: inside.

Amelia is a USA Today best selling author from northern Michigan. Be her friend!

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