The Sweetheart Racket by Cheryl Ann Smith

Publisher: Lyrical Shine, Kensington Publishing

Publication Date: September 13, 2016

Every once in a while you come across a book that just works on every level. The writing is good, the characters engaging, and the plot is a twisting turning roller coaster instead of a carousel. This describes The Sweetheart Racket to a T.

Taryn Hall and her best friends, Summer and Jess, have just lost their jobs as professional football cheerleaders because Taryn refused to let the team owner pimp them out. Left in the middle of nowhere, they start walking. A car pulls up and an older gentleman refers to them as “Angels” a la Charlie’s. Thus begins the trios’ lives as Private Investigators.

Taryn takes on the case of locating a man who habitually marries, defrauds, and then abandons vulnerable women. The case is brought to her by the son of one of the defrauded women. Rick Silva’s a DEA agent with tats, a motorcycle, and bad boy written all over him.

“You think I’m not perky?”

“You are perky’s brooding Goth sister.”

Right off the bat, the repartee between Taryn and Rick is flaming. It’s full of playfulness and innuendo and so very much fun to read. They are combustible and the energy and sizzle continues throughout the well-paced novel.

Both characters are different from the norm. They have idiosyncracies. When Rick asks Taryn, “Is there anything about you that’s normal?” You can’t help but think, thank goodness no! Except she does have normal parents. Despite Taryn’s penchant for fantastic but crazy driving, being a good heart, she’s far from perfect as evidenced by a laugh-out-loud funny karaoke scene.

And, Rick is pretty much the perfect hero. Arrogance, swagger, all of the interminable BS that goes hand-in-hand with a lot of romance heroes is not present. Rick is engaging, funny, smart, and has a smart mouth, and is good-looking and sexy to boot. The seeming anti-hero and DEA agent juxtaposition works fantastically well.

The Sweetheart Racket is the first book (yay! a first book in a series, yay!) in the Brash and Brazen series; Brash and Brazen is also the name of the detective agency. Summer and Jess will be the heroines in those books. Already, from what I’ve gleaned from both of those characters in The Sweetheart Racket, I imagine the subsequent books will be just as entertaining. Summer is blonde and beautiful in the Marilyn Monroe-vein of smart and ditzy and Jess is the tough girl. I look forward to reading both of those stories!

A lot goes on in The Sweetheart Racket. It falls into the category of romantic suspense. There are lots of twists at the end, lots of unexpected fun. Looking for some laughs, romance, and mystery? Read The Sweetheart Racket!

I received an ARC from NetGalley and Kensington Books in exchange for an honest review.

From Amazon: The Sweetheart Racket

rating:  (5 out of 5 butterflies)