Review - To Catch a Bad Guy

Janet Maple's stellar career ended with a lay off and her boyfriend of five years told her that he wants to be just friends. When she lands a job at one of New York’s premier boutique investment firms, Janet begins to hope that her luck is finally turning for the better. Not only is she happy with her new paycheck, but things also seem to be looking up on the personal front, as the company’s handsome attorney expresses keen interest in Janet. However, her euphoria is short-lived, as Janet soon discovers alarming facts about her new employer’s business tactics. When her boss dismisses her suspicions as groundless, Janet finds herself confiding to a cute IT engineer, Dean Snider. The closer she gets to Dean, the more Janet is tempted to break her rule of not dating co-workers, but what she doesn’t realize is that everything she knows about Dean, including his occupation and even his name, is a lie.

Dennis Walker is a top-notch white collar crime investigator who will stop at nothing to put culprits away. When an opportunity for an undercover assignment at one of New York’s premier boutique broker dealers comes up, Dennis jumps at the chance, adopting a persona of geeky IT engineer, Dean Snider. While he may be an ace at his job, years of experience fail him when Dennis meets Janet Maple and finds himself torn between his professional obligations and his personal desires. Will he have to choose between his feelings and duty, or will he find a way to satisfy both?

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My review:

This author is quickly becoming one of my favorites for contemporary romances.  I just really enjoy reading her stories.

In this story we meet Janet, who at the start is a lawyer who is out to help keep people from being taken advantage of.  When she finds out that all the credit for the work she has been doing is taken by another or that her findings are worthless while at the same time being dumped by her boyfriend she realizes its time for a change.

Janet ends up working for one of her former friends at a high end brokerage firm.   What seems like a great job soon turns to boredom as she finds out the company outsources any real legal work to be done.   While doing the grunt work for an audit she starts to question some of the companies practices.  She ends up turning to the cute IT engineer whom she is surprised to learn is there to find just the information she has stumbled upon.

Dean, who is really Dennis, is at the firm to find information about illegal trading the company is under suspicion for.  What he finds is Janet.  Janet is new to the company and thanks to her former job used to investigating when things seem wrong.  Dennis has to figure out if she can possibly be involved or if she is someone he can trust and work with to keep harmless people from losing their life savings.

Its a fun story with Janet's friend trying to set her up with the lawyer the firm uses, but Janet really wanting to get to know Dean (Dennis).  At the same time, Dennis really wants to get to know Janet better, but he is under a time constraint to get the information needed to prove the company is under suspicious practice.   And if he confides in Janet, will she help him or turn him in.  And more importantly will she ever trust him again once she knows his real identity.  

I enjoyed my time with these characters and would love to see them again in the future.  Until then I recommend anyone looking for a fun read with a sense of mystery and romance pick this one up.