Ellie Ashe

Miranda Vaughn has been through hell lately. She’s been accused and arrested for fraud and her court battle has cost her dearly. She lost her job, her fiance, her financial security, and the trust of friends and colleagues. Now, even with the not guilty verdict, she hasn’t been able to find a job in the financial district. Instead she works at her aunt’s bakery. Miranda becomes convinced that her name won’t be truly clear until she finds who is really behind the fraud. As she digs into details of her own case, she uncovers plenty that makes her think she can catch the real culprit. Bouncing about the globes chasing that elusive dollar, she’s joined by the FBI agent Jake Barnes (who is rather suspicious of her motives).

This was an easy mystery to get caught up in. Right away, we have Miranda who society (and some white collar criminals) has wronged. She’s been set up to take the fall for this financial fraud. I was on her side from the opening scene. As I learned more about her, I liked her even more. She was raised by her aunt who owns that bakery and her aunt loves her dearly. In fact, her aunt’s bakery is on the line in the upcoming civil suits as those who lost their savings try to wring it out of Miranda. She can’t stand for that so she starts digging and each clue leads to another and another. Pretty soon she’s off to Monaco with a half-baked plan.

Enter our hunky main man, FBI agent Jake. He’s the guy who actually arrested Miranda all those months ago, so she’s really not thrilled about him showing up. However, the militant folks with guns seem more threatening in that moment, so an unsteady truce is called. The two join forces even as they shoot skeptical looks at each other. I loved that they didn’t instantly trust each other even as we know there is a spark of interest there.

The mystery remains the center focus of this novel, which I appreciated (not being a Romance genre fan overmuch). Someone put together a clever scheme and had Miranda’s personal info to set her up. She has a list of people who could have done it. Now from the beginning of the book, I did guess who the main bad guy was going to be. I’m going to call it a lucky guess. At any rate, Miranda didn’t figure out who all the bad guys were until the main villain was standing in front of her with a pistol in hand.

When I thought the mystery was wrapped up, I still had perhaps another 2 hours left in the book. The author does a good job of wrapping up any loose ends. I was worried I might be a little bored with such a long wrap up but the author made it pertinent and enjoyable. I look forward to Book 2!

I received a free copy of this book via The Audiobookworm.

The Narration: Teri Schnaubelt did a really good job with Miranda’s emotions. When Miranda was shocked, so was I. When she was feeling all tingly towards Jake, I was right there with her. Schnaubelt has a good range of voices so all the characters were distinct.… (más)

Note: While this is Book 2 in the series, it works fine as a stand alone.

Miranda Vaughn has continued to work for Bob, who was her defense attorney when she was wrongly accused of fraud in Chasing the Dollar. Now she’s helping out on a new financial fraud case, her job being to work closely with Chief Financial Officer Kathryn. Looks like there’s some irregularities and Kathryn thinks there’s another chunk of numbers that her boss doesn’t want her to see, but her name as CFO is on many of the company’s legal documents; this gives her plenty of reasons to worry. Meanwhile, the FBI have been called in, and that means that Miranda has to work with Agent Jake Barnes. There’s still sparks between the two, but is that all it is?

I think this book was even better than the first. The plot felt tighter and the characters better defined. There was some humor as well as personalities clashing or folks accidentally step on toes. Miranda has gotten her legs back under her after the events of Book 1. She’s gainfully employed doing something close to doing what she did before her trial. Many folks have moved on but she does bump into a few peripheral characters that feel she’s guilty no matter what the courts decided.

And speaking of that, enter a new love interest, Quinn. He has a drug conviction under his belt though there’s some mystery surrounding it. He’s also part of a rich family and has a nice ranch complete with horses. Miranda may be swept off her feet by this man if she’s not careful. After all, he can understand better than most Miranda’s myriad of feelings about law enforcement and the justice system in this country.

Now we still have Jake Barnes, as handsome as ever, and he’s clearly still interested in Miranda. The author does a good job of not getting caught up in some silly love triangle drama. Merely, Miranda has choices in her life and she has to decide what, or who, she wants to pursue. Plus, all three of these characters have more than romance going on in their lives and that makes them interesting.

Now the main mystery was a good one. I did not see all the angles and that made it interesting. There’s also Miranda’s added complication of her little breaking & entering that muddies the waters. On the surface, financial fraud seems like dull investigative work. The author makes it exciting by showing how the criminals can gain from it and the lengths they are willing to go to cover it up.

I received a free copy of this book via The Audiobookworm.

The Narration: Teri Schnaubelt continues to be a great Miranda Vaughn. I like how expressive her voice is for Miranda, because Miranda goes through quite a variety of emotions in this book. She also does a good job with the male voices, making Quinn and Jake both sound interesting and sexy (when needed) yet distinct.… (más)