I’m always happy to discover a promising new romance author

Jack Turner and his siblings grew up in the slums of London and they have all worked hard to get out from under the criminal enterprises of their parents. Jack’s sister is a dressmaker, while his brother seems to keep very posh and rarefied company these days. Jack uses some of the skills he’s learned over the years to help women in trouble. He can locate stolen items, deal with blackmail claims, even make an unpleasant husband disappear to somewhere far away – his only rule is that the women who hire him not question his methods, and let him deal with the guilty party, without involving the authorities. His services are not available to gentlemen or nobles of any kind.

So when Oliver Rivington, formerly a captain in his Majesty’s army, shows up in Jack’s offices, convinced that Jack has to be some sort of con artist who has swindled Oliver’s sister out of a large sum of money, Jack wants nothing to do with him. He lets Oliver sit in on an interview with a Mrs Wraxhall, who claims she’s being blackmailed and needs Jack’s help. Still convinced that Jack Turner is a no-good scoundrel, Oliver takes it upon himself to befriend Mr. Wraxhall, to make sure Turner isn’t able to take advantage of the couple, but he soon discovers, like Jack, that there is a lot more to Mrs. Wraxhall’s dilemma than first meets the eye and while Oliver doesn’t initially approve of the man and his methods, he also can’t seem to stay away from him. Jack has no intention of getting involved with some pampered nobleman’s son, but as they start investigating the case together, neither of them can deny their attraction.

This is Cat Sebastian’s debut, and in the last year, I’ve seen so many positive reviews of this and her follow-up books on a number of websites. While there are quite a few authors out there who write M/M romance now, many of them self-publish. That Ms. Sebastian’s books are actually published by Avon intrigued me (even if the covers of the books are usually quite bad) and when I found this and the sequel on sale, I snapped it up immediately. I’ve only now found the time to read one, and based on this book, I’m glad to have more to look forward to.

Full review on my blog.