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| A Bargain With the Enemy by Carole Mortimer |
A Bargain with the Enemy is book one of three in The Devilish D'Angelos" mini series. Three brothers who own the infamous and prestigious Archangel Art Galleries in Europe.
Five years ago middle brother Gabriel was the main prosecution witness whose testimony helped imprison a fraudulent art dealer. The fraudster died in jail a few months later and the entire fall out for his family was devastating.
We start the book five years later with older brother Michael pouring over a detailed security report regarding Bryn Jones, an entrant for Archangel's New Comers Gallery which will displays new comers work to their exclusive clientele. Bryn is the daughter of the jailed fraudster but she's completely altered her appearance and changed her name and she's desperately hoping she wont be recognised as an entrant. The last thing she wants is Gabriel to recognise her, wrongly assuming this will cause her entry to be tossed out the window. However, Bryn's art is incredible and she's chosen as one of the final finalists to display her work. Middle brother Raphael doesn't hesiate to tell Gabriel about Bryn and so begins an engaging and exciting story about two people, one trying to hide her identity from her enemy and the other trying to hide his feelings (and failing miserably at it) while both are trying to ignore what the past meant to each of them.
A Bargain with the Enemy is filled with action packed interaction between Gabriel and Bryn. I thought Carole Mortimer did a great job of Gabriel's character. He's clearly a man in charge of his world but when it comes to Bryn, she's his one weakness where he's chosen to stay away because of his involvement of her fathers imprisonment and untimely death. He plays the game until he's had enough of the game because at heart he's as straight up as they come and throws a couple of curve balls Bryn's way where you really hold your breath and go Uh Oh, how's this going to pan out?
Bryn was tough and feisty, although a lil more feisty than I perhaps would have picked her to be given the desperate circumstances she was facing but in saying that if she wasn't feisty and Gabriel hadn't met his match it would make for a boring read wouldn't it!
The only thing I would change if i wrote this book would be the overuse of the word nubbin. Also Gabriel and Bryn also didn't fully consummate their relationship within the story (but got very close a couple of times) but to be honest I didn't actually notice until I finished. It wasn't like you were sitting there waiting for it to happen because there was so much detail packed into the story that it was a fulfilling read regardless because it was a fast paced enjoyable read that I read in one three hour sitting.
I adore linked books and The Devilish D'Angelo's promises to be a great one. It's quite clear through the little parts youngest brother Raphael makes appearances that he is the mischievous will-forever-be-a-fun-loving-bachelor type of guy so I'm looking forward to downloading his story soon.
Published by Mills & Boon / Harlequin February 2014
