Bought for Revenge, Bedded for Pleasure by Emma Darcy

Another surprisingly sweet blackmail romance. Jack Maguire has good reason to despise his two stepsisters, Sally and Jane. Their mother, Lady Ellen, has turned his father's head and convinced him to banish him from the house. Turned away from the very gates, his last image of his childhood home is his stepsister, Sally, riding a thoroughbred. Even though she's only fourteen, he's very attracted to her, and as he walks away, he vows revenge.

This could have been gross, but Jack doesn't get his revenge for like ten years. When they meet again, she's twenty-four and their father is dead. As it turns out, his father's business practices were super sus, and Jack has been quietly buying him out of debt for years, to the point where his father's vast billions are all his, and his trophy wife stepmother and her two daughters "only" have four million to their name, thanks to some changes to the will.

In exchange for her precious horses and the ability to remain in the house, Sally agrees to become her stepbrother's mistress. What makes this kind of a refreshing take on the trope is that she's actually into the blackmail. She finds her brother attractive, she wants what he's offering, and the fact that he's patient and not cruel about taking what he wants makes her feel not-awful about giving into him.

A lot of romance readers complain, "Just take the money, girl!" when it comes to heroines dragging their feet with their billionaire partners, so all of those readers should read this book. Sally's only concern is that Jack might think she's trying to trap him into marriage, and please her mother. There also isn't a third-act breakup or big misunderstanding. Jane, Sally's sister, confronts Jack about his intentions and there's a showdown with the awful mother, but apart from that this book is... sweet?

I just read another blackmail romance where the hero was surprisingly nice, but this hero was even nicer. And I, like the heroine, was actually super into it. I also liked how the author took care to make the age-gap way less creepy than it could have been. I appreciated that.

4 to 4.5 out of 5 stars