All's Fair in Love and Law by K M Daughters

Story: 8
Presentation: 9
Total: 17
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Spicy Contemporary Suspense
To Purchase

Blurb: The enchantress on stage at an amusement park review captivates new Chicago Police Department Captain Patrick Sullivan. Stunned to learn she’s the infamous defense attorney, Charlie Demarco, who substituted for her twin at the performance, Pat battles Charlie in and out of the courtroom. With CPD cutbacks and a serial murderer to apprehend, Pat struggles to uphold the law and his reputation, while Charlie seems determined to undermine him. Chained to her job to restore her family’s finances, Charlie has no choice but to defend the criminals Pat wants behind bars. Her biggest battle yet involves defending her heart against Patrick Sullivan.


Review: The cover definitely caught my eye. The old frame house with broken windows and a baseball bat at the bottom of the cover made me want to read the story to find out if it was kids mischief or.......

This is book four of a series and I usually don't like to start a series in the middle because I feel like I am missing some of the events that that would fill me in when things are mentioned that happened previously. I read the "Kudos for K M Daughters before I started reading the story and wondered if they were build-ups. When I finished reading the story, I went back to the "kudos" page and agreed with the descriptions there. Romantic Suspense, crisp dialogue, believable characters, hard to put down, balance of action and drama are some of the comments and I agree with all of them. It is a well written story.

The prologue sets the stage describing a man with big problems, Wow, is he a psycho or what?

Patrick Sullivan is a policeman who meets Charlie and is immediately attracted to her; the feeling is returned. Instant hot, filled with lust, attraction describes them. Then he finds out she is a defense attorney for the "most prestigious law firm in Illinois". Uh oh he's a cop and she is a defense attorney, they are on opposite sides in the courtroom. Overcoming their differences adds a lot of conflict to their relationship.

Italicized portions keep interrupting what is happening between Patrick and Charlie. These descriptions get more and more intense and sadistic. The serial killer likes baseball bats. You can read for yourself why he likes them. It makes me gag just to think about him and the bats. UGH. Oh, and talking about the ugh factor; the description of Charlie eating her rare hamburger "blood tinged, juices leaking onto her hands" totally grossed me out.

The descriptions in this story of food, of the Chicago scenes, and others made me feel like I was part of the story. Food descriptions made me ravenous (well not the hamburger description) I had to get up and go to the refrigerator and find a snack.

Other characters are described in almost as much detail as Pat and Charlie. Senator Morgan needs to have some manners slapped into him. Shirlee, the hooker who escapes the murderer, and her son Lincoln become more than victims, they are 'real' people, not just secondary characters in a story.

I am not a reader of this kind of suspense usually, but once I started, I just had to continue. I don't know that I would read All's Fair again, its violence is more graphic than I care for, especially as late night reading; but I do want to read the three earlier books in this series.