When Maggie was young, her abusive stepfather mined her attraction to the rich tycoon, Caleb Cameron, by forcing her to seduce him so he could ruin him. I'm not 100% clear how this was going to work, but Caleb figured out the plan and brutally humiliated Maggie before sending her back home, broken-hearted, to her cruel stepfather.
Years later, stepfather dies, and Maggie thinks she's home-free. Except, oh whoops, Caleb is still angry about the whole seduction thing: he's bought up all her stepfather's properties and the house she shares with her mother. As one last stake in the humiliation coffin, he'll let her mother live in the house, but only if she sleeps with him.
For a blackmail romance, this is actually pretty gentle and not-too-dubconny, which will be nice for people who want a book with the themes of dark romance but not the brutality. I actually liked Caleb, who was just cruel enough to be hot, but not cruel enough to be irredeemable. This is also one of the few big misunderstanding romances that actually worked, and I could see where both the hero and the heroine were coming from, which was quite refreshing.
I wish there had been more blackmail and that the heroine had been allowed to pocket her riches, rather than leaving with her head held high as she returned to her third-act breakup noble poverty. But I'm awarding bonus points for not having the heroine be a virgin and some genuinely spicy dialogue.
I would read more from Abby Green!
3.5 out of 5 stars
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