ARC Review: Sweet Talk by Julie Garwood

Sweet Talk
Author: Julie Garwood
Publication: Dutton Adult (August 7, 2012)


Description: In the new contemporary romance from #1 New York Times bestselling author Julie Garwood, a detective and a lawyer are falling in love— and making a federal case out of it.

When FBI agent Grayson Kincaid first encounters Olivia MacKenzie, she makes quite an impression.

The beautiful, tough, young attorney has stumbled into the middle of an FBI sting operation and has reduced it to chaos. Months of surveillance and careful planning down the drain, Kincaid’s partner is furious and lets Olivia know that she’s ticked off the wrong guy. After all, he’s FBI.

Olivia isn’t intimidated by his partner’s bullying because she’s something even scarier . . . she’s IRS.

And working for the IRS isn’t for the faint of heart. She’s on the trail of an elaborate Ponzi scheme, one that threatens to ruin the lives of naive and unsuspecting victims, and one she has personal reasons to be angry about. But after she asks questions of the wrong people, her life is suddenly endangered. She’s accustomed to fighting for the underdog but being vulnerable herself is a very different story. Smart enough to know when to call for reinforcements, she contacts Grayson Kincaid.

Together they make an excellent team to fight corruption but Olivia is also fighting the immediate and intense attraction she feels for Agent Kincaid, and that may be a battle she is bound to lose. 


My Thoughts: When Olivia was young, she had cancer. She went through the whole chemotherapy and experimental therapy with the support of three girls going through the same thing. He family was too "busy" to offer her support. Her father was busy making money and her mother and sister were busy being supports for her father. Now Olivia is an adult and a lawyer who works for the IRS. She is convinced that her father is a criminal running some sort of Ponzi scheme but hasn't found the evidence yet.

When she goes to a job interview with another financier, she gets in the middle of a FBI sting. Seems Jorguson is suspected of money laundering. When he rips her dress looking for a wire and sics his bodyguard on her, she is saved by FBI agent Grayson Kincaid. Kincaid is smitten with her and becomes very protective when someone shoots her. Grayson and Olivia are busy trying to find out who shot at her. There are lots of suspects.

Is it Jorguson? Is it her father or his slimy lawyer buddy Simmons? Is it someone she came into contact with because she works for the IRS? Is it someone she crossed because she takes cases to protect children in danger? All the while they are investigating, Grayson and Olivia are falling in love. But Olivia doesn't think she has a future. What if the cancer comes back? She saw what it did to her friend's families. She doesn't want to put anyone she loves through that kind of thing. 

This was a great romance with well-developed characters. Even the side characters were fully fleshed out. I was especially fond of Grayson's nephew Henry who hired Olivia to be his personal lawyer. Bullying at his private school made him need one! Olivia is very close to the other girls who were in the hospital with her - Collins who wants to be an FBI agent, Jane who is an artist, and Samantha who graduated from the Air Force Academy and now flies fighter jets. They are her sisters by choice. And Olivia's Aunt Emma and her cook Mary provided the love and family Olivia didn't get from her own parents. 

I recommend this one to romance lovers who like some mystery too. My one caveat is that the FBI procedures were clearly fantasy. There didn't seem to be any sort of bureaucracy or chain of command in place and they were awfully quick to pull out their guns and extraordinary shots when they did. Read this one as a fantasy romance rather than a realistic one.


Favorite Quote:

"I've got to go. You're okay?"

"I'm fine," she told him. "Goodnight."

She disappeared under the covers. He stood there for a minute and then began to laugh. Had he been wanting some praise or a testimonial about their time together, he would have been disappointed. Apparently she wasn't much for sweet talk either. 

I received this ARC from Dutton Adult in exchange for an honest review. You can buy a copy here.