Friday, January 15, 2016

Review: Risking Ruin by Mae Wood


Genre: Chick-Lit/Contemporary Fiction

Description:

How far can you bend the rules before you break them? Marisa Tanner's most important client, multi-billion dollar family-owned Brannon Company, has been sued by nine of its employees for sexual harassment. Marisa is a pro at handling sexual harassment allegations, but will she be able to handle the CEO's prodigal son as well as she can handle the lawsuits?

Clients are off-limits and Marisa could lose her law license and livelihood, but Memphis playboy Trip keeps making strong plays for her. Their attraction is undeniable and chemistry electric. Can she have her career and Trip, too, or will she have to choose?”

Author:

Mae Wood is a mommy, bookworm, and lawyer (in that order). A while ago Mae decided that she needed to give up the fear that she couldn't write 'great literature' and write what she wants to read. And she wants romance. And laughter. She wants heroines who are brave. Brave enough to be themselves and brave enough to fall in love. She wants men who are strong and kind.

Mae lives in the Southeastern United States and sets her books in hot and steamy Memphis, Tennessee.”

Risking Ruin is her debut novel. Her profile picture on Amazon is a picture of her legs and feet… How could I not love that? To learn more visit her blog or stalk her on Facebook.

Appraisal:

I loved the smart writing style of this story. It’s intelligent, realistic, and will warm your blood. Marisa is smart and very good at her job. She has had a couple of failed serious relationships, but has not closed herself off or built walls around her heart. However, she is a tough one to deal with, her ethics are important to her and her job. She is an excellent role model. I found her easy to like and cheer for. Her lawyer face is straight-forward no games, however her personal life is an open book. What you see is what you get. You can tell by her friends and her parents.

Trip Brannon took some time to get to know though. What Marisa first sees is a trust-fund, immature adult who will eventually take over when his father retires. She has a lot to learn about him and does as Ms. Wood smartly doles out information about this complicated man. I enjoyed the whole process of getting to know him.

The plot of the story includes several legal cases of sexual harassment brought against the family-owned Brannon Company that have been filed in the last several months. It is Marisa’s job to find out if there is an unseen commonality between these cases. She also needs to work out a business relationship with Trip Brannon, who she finds irresistibly charming, good-looking, and it muddles her brain functions when she looks into his blue eyes.

As I said before this is an intelligently written story and the author’s debut novel. I cannot stress enough that if an author sends a copy of their book to be reviewed they need to make sure that the reviewer has the latest copy of the file to review. I am afraid I had to take away a star for editing and proofreading issues. I do believe this is a good enough novel that it deserves another round of professional copyediting and proofreading. I enjoyed reading it and didn’t realize there is now a sequel to follow. I do believe Mae Wood will be an interesting author to follow.

Buy now from:      Amazon US      Amazon UK

FYI:

Risking Ruin is the first book in the Give Me Memphis series, however it can be read as a stand-alone without feeling as though you've been left hanging. There are several adult scenes that may not be appropriate for some audiences. I enjoyed those particular scenes, I didn’t see them as gratuitous but they were graphic.

Format/Typo Issues:

I came across several small editing issues in the copy I was given to review. As in extra words, missing words, or wrong words.

Rating: **** Four stars

Reviewed by: ?wazithinkin

Approximate word count: 70-75,000 words

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