BIG EASY TEMPTATION - Shayla Black and Lexi Blake
The Perfect Gentlemen , Book 3
Berkley
ISBN: 978-0-425-27534-4
May 2016
Romantic Suspense

New Orleans, Louisiana - Present Day and Three Years Ago

Since their friend Maddox's death, Dax Spencer and the other Perfect Gentlemen have been trying to uncover the conspiracy that seems to be aimed at their friend, Zach Hayes, also known as the President of the United States.  Their latest clue proves that the death of Zach's wife wasn't a missed attempt to assassinate Zach, instead they'd been aiming at Joy Hayes.  Her name was on a hit list along with Dax's father, Admiral Harold Spencer.  Three years ago, the Admiral apparently committed suicide to avoid the scandal of his being a pedophile, but Dax never believed any of it.  Finally having the proof he needs to have his father's case reopened, he'll show the woman he once loved – the woman who betrayed him – that he was right all along.

Three years ago….
Dax first met Holland Kirk when Zach and Joy were dating, and in the years since, they've circled one another but she's never agreed to be more than friends.  As an investigator with NCIS and friend of his family, Dax hopes he'll be able to convince Holland to look into the suspicious circumstances surrounding his father's death – and finally give him a chance.  From the moment he met her, Dax was certain she was the one woman for him, but once he's piqued her curiosity about his father's death, he's able to get behind the wall she's put between them.  Until the day she shatters his world.

Now, with new evidence, Dax plans to get Holland to admit she was wrong about his father, and force her to help him investigate.  But Holland has been keeping a secret for three years – one that will once again turn Dax Spencer's world on its ear.

Six boys became friends in boarding school and were dubbed the Perfect Gentlemen, even though they were often anything but.  As adults, the men have been power players in the world – Gabe and Maddox in business, Zach and Roman in politics, Dax in the navy and Connor with the CIA.  The death of Maddox brought the remaining men into a mystery and a conspiracy that goes back decades.  BIG EASY TEMPTATION is set in both the past and the present.  We get to see how Holland and Dax initially got together, and what tore them apart.  There's been a connection between them since they first met, but Holland held back, unwilling to give up her career aspirations and to be a military wife, always waiting for her husband to come home.  She watched what that life did to her mother, and doesn't want that for herself.

Through the first two books, Gabe and Everly, then Connor and Lara, have uncovered bits and pieces of several mysteries, and they are starting to put things together into one cohesive picture.  The only things they know for sure are that there's some connection to the Russian mob, and someone is gunning for Zach.  Since much of the book takes place in the past, most of the focus is on the relationship between Dax and Holland.  The switch to present day brings some of the Perfect Gentlemen back into the mix, as they try to fit more of the puzzle pieces into place.

A romance that is sexy and heartbreaking in turns meshes with a complex mystery in the fascinating BIG EASY TEMPTATION.

Jennifer Bishop