Title: Man In Love
Author:  Laurelin Paige
Publisher/Year:  Paige Press 11/24/20
Length:  304 Pages
Series: Man in Charge Duet #2

Overview

Scott Sebastian is a liar.

Fitting, since I’m a liar too.

Yet there’s no place for me in his glittering world of half-truths.

With all our secrets in the open, I should stop trying. What I’ve learned should send me running far away. I can’t keep pining for a man in love if I’m not the woman he’s in love with.

But it’s not that easy to escape the Sebastians. I already knew they owned this city.

Now I’ll find out if they also own their son.

My Thoughts

Well, I think that we all expected that Kendra would be the undoing of Tess, yet the way that it comes about is completely different than the path we were on. The assumption is that at some point K would come back from her ‘vacation’ and get the intel on what Tessa did to get DRF funded via the Sebastians and fire Tessa. What we didn’t know though is that there was more to the story there as to why she wouldn’t pitch the Sebastians before. Her fiance. Scott.

While i’m surprised, i’m not really, given the context of what he shared about himself to Tessa and how he evaded all questions tied to his past with Kendra. I was happy to see though that there wasn’t really anything malicious or evil going on, and that perhaps the surprise confirmation of an engagement was a surprise to scott at the same time as Tess.

Throughout this second book, we watch the truths unfold, and at the same time we watch the need to keep some lies going, even to the detriment of whatever happiness could be had. Scott has to stay with Kendra because of an agreement that he made with his father to get out of the role in the family business that he’s in now. He has to marry Kendra, but ironically, they probably both don’t want to get married for similar reasons.

Henry, Scott’s father is evil and vindictive, however we meet the elder Sebastian, Scott’s grandfather Irving who started the business and we get to see that there is something good at the core of the family and we start to see reason. Irving knows that Scott is a good guy, and wants to see him happy an would love nothing more than to see him out from under the thumb of his father, but clearly it’s more complex than that.

While that fight’s being fought, Kendra is beyond angry at what Tess did while she was away and has now threatened her livelihood, although Tess is at the point where perhaps she wants to move on anyway. All she really wants is to make sure that Teyana has the care that she needs which she would get through the DRF, and alas hands are tied.

The saucy and hot parts of this story though are around Tess and Scott. They have this insane chemistry and attraction that leaps off the pages and it’s truly entertaining watching Scott try to dive into her kinkier side all the time. At the same time, where there’s usually a gap in life styles given their background, they fall into a comfortable routine that works for them. When Tess decides that she needs more though, even though she loves him and he loves her, there’s still the engagement that’s looming, she walks away and we watch what that means to Scott and his world.

I think that there’s a lot to be said about standing up to your family and your heritage, but given that this family has endless personalities and branches, we can only hope that good can come of it. Brett as always is there to be a voice of reason, and Teyana is as well. (she’s got an interesting twist involved in this story as well). So on that note, i’m done with this duet but I believe we get Brett’s story in a few months – so i’m on the look out for that one. Enjoy!