Title: Blackmail
Author: Amelia Wilde
Publisher/Year:  Skye Warren 2/7/23
Length:  152 pages
Series: controlling Interest #1

Overview

Bristol Anderson will do anything to protect her younger siblings. Even if it means embezzling from the company where she’s a temp. No one will find out. And the wealthy owner of the venture capitalist firm will never notice.

Except Will LeBlanc doesn’t miss a thing.

He could call the police, but he has more interesting plans for her. In the copy room. On the conference table. Under his desk.

The coldhearted capitalist will make her pay back every last cent.

My Thoughts

We have a first book in this series that is Hughes adjacent as well as Morelli adjacent, so i’m a fan. We have a woman who knows her worth, but who’s living under circumstances that are not idea. Then we have a man who is powerful, but troubled, and a brother of Emerson, a man that we’ve met before and who has his own darkness.

This story takes us on the journey first starting with Will and then joining up with Bristol.

Will has built a successful firm, he’s made the right investments and is now looking to be acquired by Hughes. This means that he’ll get a lot of money but may lose control. There’s also some sort of power struggle dynamic with him and Finn and that means that we have to watch out in the future.

Will is precise and uncompromising – and that’s where Bristol comes in. She’s coming in as a temp secretary as he’s fired his all within weeks of starting. She comes in with confidence, ability and does what no one else can. Intrigues him. He not only appreciates her skill and what she interprets from him, but he’s also drawn to her in ways that compromise his beliefs. He wants her even though he knows he can’t have her. He’s a monster.

We watch how these two swirl around each other at first – knowing that there’s an attraction but neither acting on it. It’s not until Bristol is put into a position where she steals money from him to pay off her father’s debt, and that Will discovers it that the tables turn. He chooses to use his power and authority to work her debt off and what happens is unexpected.

They catch feelings that they’re not willing to admit. They’re protective of one another even though they know that there’s no good that either can contribute to the others’ life. What happens at the end of this installment is expected.

The merger goes through

Bristol’s temp job is over

and they are uncertain as to where they stand.

so…i’m off to find the next book in this series and see what mess they can continue to make in their lives – while also somehow being steamy and naughty. Enjoy!