Review: The Australian (Crime Royalty #2) by Lesley Young

The Australian (Crime Royalty #2) by Leslie Young
Purchase link: Amazon

My rating: 

Heat rating:      

Charlie Sykes takes everything and everyone at face value—and believes life would be a lot easier if everyone else did, too. Aussie Jace Knight, international hotelier and purported playboy, has never met anyone like the absurdly literal and beautiful American who applies for his personal assistant position. The trouble is, how do you pursue a woman whose definition of flirting comes straight out of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary? That, and he’s not the only one after Charlie. Seems Mr. Knight might not be a reformed criminal after all.

Soon, Charlie’s immersed in a whirlwind of international espionage that takes her from the hip streets of Sydney to the majestic Great Barrier Reef and the wild, desolate outback. A dangerous trap’s being set, but how will Charlie protect herself and prevent a tragic betrayal, when she can’t even sort out what her heart’s telling her?

I think that Lesley Young has become a new favorite author for me because she writes such engaging, delightful stories with heroines I love.

This is the second book in the Crime Royalty series and the second book of Ms Young's that I've read and once again, I love her heroine. In fact, Charlie Sykes could rank right up there as one of my favorite heroines. She's so fresh, unique and literal. I love her view of the world, that it's either black or white and she always tells the truth. She reminds me of a female Sheldon who just doesn't understand emotions and misreads all the signals everyone gives off around her. To start, I found her fun and entertaining, then as the story progressed, I found myself feeling so sorry for her from being forced into a very untenable situation that she was emotionally ill-equipped to handle. As my friend, Bambi said, and I agree with her, I felt very protective towards her. I could tell she was incapable of fending for herself and I wanted to step in and shield her from all the bad things that were happening.

You can tell how exactly how ill-equipped Charlie is when handling emotion right here:

"You scare me, Charlie," he said quietly. My eyebrows knitted together, and the speed with which I was thrown from his cave upset me. "How you make me feel, I mean," he clarified. Oh. Was he feeling what I was feeling? Why did that scare him? "Should I be scared too?" He smiled fully. Two of his bottom teeth overlapped slightly, another charming imperfection. "No, Charlie. Never."

Then there's Jace. I loved Jace too. He was so sincere and so caring towards Charlie, and the things that he did to try to protect her from the world which she was oblivious to made my heart melt. I loved how smart and in control he was and yet, he was vulnerable with Charlie and he was not afraid to let that vulnerability show. The true strength of a man is one who is not afraid of his own emotions and knows what he wants. Jace is that sort of a man. Jace is such a self-aware man. I loved that about him.

Here are a few of my favorite Jace quotes:

"People assume wealth's a potion for all kinds of things, like friendship and love. It's actually a pretty nasty poison. Takes and strong heart to withstand read power, Charlie."

"Yours was the first pair of eyes I stared into in a long time, ever really, that I could see straight through to the bottom."

There is a point later in the book where Jace does something that I think some people might not like, however, I think it showed great foresight and insight on his part to do what he did. It illustrates how in control Jace has always been of the circumstances around him and also how well he knows Charlie, likely better than she knows herself in certain aspects.

I've thoroughly enjoyed this book. I'm looking forward to more from Ms Young in the future.

* This book was sent to me for an honest review. All opinions in this review are my own. I received no compensation for reading and reviewing this story.


View all my reviews

---

The Australian
Crime Royalty Romance #2
By: Lesley Young
Releasing March 27, 2015
Self-Published

Buy Links:  Amazon 

Synopsis

Charlie Sykes takes everything and everyone at face value—and believes life would be a lot easier if everyone else did, too. Aussie Jace Knight, international hotelier and purported playboy, has never met anyone like the absurdly literal and beautiful American who applies for his personal assistant position. The trouble is, how do you pursue a woman whose definition of flirting comes straight out of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary? That, and he’s not the only one after Charlie. Seems Mr. Knight might not be a reformed criminal after all.

Soon, Charlie’s immersed in a whirlwind of international espionage that takes her from the hip streets of Sydney to the majestic Great Barrier Reef and the wild, desolate outback. A dangerous trap’s being set, but how will Charlie protect herself and prevent a tragic betrayal, when she can’t even sort out what her heart’s telling her?

---

Excerpt

    I swung my legs around and glanced up into his eyes. Night was just beginning to fall. I had left the window open and a lovely breeze swept across our veranda lifting the curtain behind him. He had added a dress jacket to his dark blue jeans and mauve dress shirt. I picked up the familiar scent of his cologne, sandalwood and lime. His giant gold Rolex glowed in the light. His eyes held nothing but darkness.
    I breathed out, smoothed my hair, and spotting my heels, leaned over to strap them on.
    “Do you know why I hired you, Charlie?”
    What a peculiar question. I was about to answer yes, when I realized, given my lack of hospitality and personal assistance experience, no, actually I could not be sure. I shook my head as I took his hand and rose to stand. His brow was stern and his mouth was flat.
    “Your’s was the first pair of eyes I stared into in a long time, ever really, that I could see straight through to the bottom.”
    Oh. He must be speaking figuratively. Was that a compliment? His thumb rubbed my hand like it was a feather. Perhaps he was practicing pretending to be lovers?
     “Maybe that was wrong of me, to think how I wanted to keep you like that forever. Maybe hiring you, bringing in you close . . . maybe that’ll change you.”
    I stared up at him, hearing my heart pound. Wait. Maybe . . . he was suspicious.
    “Are you saying you regret hiring me, Mr. Knight?” I tugged my hand free.
    I could not meet his eyes.
    “No.” I did not dare look in his eyes. “But I’m worried I will,” he stated flatly. He stepped close after I stepped away. “Look me in the eye, Charlie, and tell me I won’t regret hiring you,” he demanded suddenly, his voice calm, deep and impending.
    I need a glass of water to swallow my heart back down.
    What had happened? Why this sudden strangeness?

---

Follow the tour - Goodreads - Goodreads series


Other books in the series

Book 1 - The Frenchman My Review

Author Info

Lesley Young is an award-winning Canadian journalist by day, and compulsive novelist by night. Her debut novel, Sky’s End (Soulmate Publishing, 2013) hit #9 on Amazon’s sci-fi romance paid best-seller list in its first three months of release. Not too long after that, she started dreaming up quirky heroines who lose their hearts to extremely powerful, imperfect heroes, while on dangerous adventures abroad. She called it the Crime Royalty Romance series, and kicked it off with The Frenchman, which landed her an agent at Spencerhill Associates. Lesley’s never sure who or what will pop up in her imagination next. The Irishman? The Spaniard? The Englishman? She’s taking requests!

Author Links:  Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads


Find Deanna around SOCIAL MEDIA: