Under the Surface

Three and a half stars. I read a teaser of this book at the end of Anne Calhoun's last book and I was sufficiently intrigued to request this book when it came up on NetGalley. Eve Webber is the owner of a bar/club called Eye Candy which predominantly caters for women. She has been approached by an old school friend/ acquaintance who wants her to launder drug money through the club. She immediately informs the police but someone sees her or suspects her and the rumours are that a local gang is gunning for her. The police have been informed by the FBI that Eve's contact may lead them to the source of the drugs - the FBI wants Eve to act as an informant and get as much information about the drugs as possible. The chief detective on the case also went to school with Eve and decides to put an undercover detective in her club as a barman. Matt Dorchester is the undercover cop in question, a man driven by duty he commits totally to his role but he knows he has to walk a tightrope between getting Eve to trust him and not crossing the line. Something that he finds increasingly difficult to do. Eve is the daughter of a preacher and her parents are constantly urging her to get a 'real' job, owning a club is tantamount to owning a brothel as far as they are concerned. She is teetering on the brink of financial ruin, metaphorically betting on the regeneration of the Southie area to bolster her business. If you like romantic suspense stories then I think you will really enjoy this. The plot was well thought through and believable. Eve was a likeable woman, fighting for Southie and her right to have a job that absorbs her against her family and the criminal elements. She is upfront about how she feels and doesn't hesitate to come on to Matt, when he backs off one too many times she also tells him SHE has needs and she WILL fulfil them elsewhere if he continues to play coy. Funnily enough I half applauded her for her balls and half wondered how I would feel if a male character uttered the same ultimatum. I was less enthused by Matt, I really don't get these self-sacrificing characters who feel they aren't good enough/ entitled and I really didn't understand WHY he felt that way. I also had an issue about the sheer number of times that he referred to Eve in his own mind as a "the City's sexiest cocktail waitress". Searching my Kindle it appears that I may have imagined that she was an award-winning cocktail-maker rather than simply a cocktail waitress but even so it grated every time I read it, as though mentally he had to put her down from a successful bar/ club owner to a waitress. But otherwise, I really enjoyed this novel, sexier than the Alpha Ops books I have read with a strong plot and believable characters with a good cast of secondary characters. I'm shipping a Caleb/ Sorenson book soon. I received a free copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.