Book Review: Code of Conduct by April White

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Sharp writing, layered characters, and wonderful tension flow through this book, along with a super-swoon-worthy hero and a kick ass heroine I just love.” — Elizabeth Hunter, USA Today bestselling author

Code of Conduct, the first in the romantic suspense Cipher Security series of standalones, from April White is available now!

 

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There are three things you need to know about Shane P.I.

1) P.I. is not her last name, it’s her job title,

2) Her specialty is catching cheaters, and

3) She’s a superhuman – kind of.

Gabriel is a security expert for Cipher Security, and a former UN Peacekeeper with a fierce protective streak that finds its focus on the beautiful P.I.

Their attraction is like an elephant in a room full of breakable things, and figuring out how to trust each other with their hearts, and maybe their lives, is the most fragile thing of all.

‘Code of Conduct’ is a full-length romantic suspense novel, can be read as a standalone, and is book#1 in the Cipher Security series, Knitting in the City World, Penny Reid Universe.

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Excerpt

I pulled up the audio version of the newest Iron Druid book, turned my phone on speaker, and when the tub was full, I sank into the hot water with a sigh. Luke Daniels could read a shampoo bottle and I’d listen, but my mind kept drifting off of Atticus’ and Oberon’s adventures, and was instead hopping from rock to rock in the garden of ADDATA, the Quimbys, and Gabriel. I wasn’t even annoyed when the phone rang and interrupted the story, because I knew I’d have to go back to the beginning of the chapter anyway.

It was on its fourth ring when I finally dried off my hand and reached to answer it, so I hit the speaker button just as I looked at the screen.

Gabriel’s name startled me so much I didn’t say anything – I just sat up in the tub and stared at the phone.

“Please say you’re not in the bath.” Gabriel’s voice was quiet, deep, and had a note of pleading in it.

“What do you want, Gabriel?” I moved again, and the water sloshed around me. I knew he could hear it because he groaned softly.

“Where to begin.” It was almost a whisper, and the words sent a shiver through me. He cleared his throat and continued in his normal, beautiful voice. “We had a call from Quimby. He said he’d found you and wondered what we were going to do about it.” I didn’t say anything, and the silence lasted two long heartbeats. “Are you okay?” he finally asked, quietly.

“He saw me turn from Bryn Mawr onto Sheridan. I lost him in the alleys.”

Gabriel exhaled. “Good.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be finding his money? Or his wife? Or something else he misplaced?”

“Do you have his money or his wife?” he asked

“No.”

“Okay.”

“Okay? What exactly do you want from me, Gabriel?” I sat forward and the water sloshed again. I traced the ripples with my fingers as I heard his sigh.

“I don’t know. I just know that every time you move, I hear the water in your bath, and I imagine …” He exhaled sharply. “Be careful, darling. I don’t trust Quimby not to try to hurt you if he can. Don’t let him catch you.”

“You haven’t caught me yet, and you’re far more resourceful than that little man.”

He chuckled softly. “Yet.” He hung up the phone without saying goodbye, and Luke Daniels’ voice returned, continuing the story as I sank down in the water and let its heat lap over the chills on my skin.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

“You must wonder what attracted me to you,” Dane said with a knowing smile. Actually, I was mentally calculating my billable hours and hoping to be done here in less than thirty minutes because … round numbers. “You read my mind,” I said with a low, breathy voice. To my own ears I sounded asthmatic, but experience had taught me that horny guys dug breathless women.

 

I looked at his phone. “Can I see your profile? I’ve been trying to decide if I want to join.” … “Go ahead. Just don’t swipe right on any ugly chicks.” Just for that I’d be swiping right on the biggest, most redneck, Deliverance-looking guy I could find.

 

I cook with wine. Sometimes I even add it to the food.

 

The women of my family all believed that secrets were just lies waiting to happen, and problems were to be aired out like musty rooms with the dust covers ripped off for everyone to see the state of your furniture.

 

I crave you. You’re like the air when I’m underwater, or like fire when I’m frostbitten.

My Review:

 

Before picking up this captivating book, April White was a completely unknown entity to me as I don’t often read paranormal or historical tales, but she has leapt far and away from her typical genres with this cleverly penned Romantic Suspense entry into Penny Reid’s Universe of Smartypants Romance.   Ms. White’s volume was a seamless insertion using several of Ms. Reid’s established characters from a previous series, some I was familiar with, many I was not as I haven’t read the Knitting in the City series, although that didn’t seem to matter at all.

 

Ms. White’s nimble writing quickly drew me into the story and held my interest and curiosity throughout. The storylines and writing style were unfailingly engaging and well-balanced between heart-squeezing insights and cleverly amusing levity.   The characters were enticing, charismatic, uncommonly quirky, and highly likable. I do loves me a kickass chick and my new gal-pal Shane pulled that off with breath to spare. Shane was a striking female who deserves Superhero status given her cool bravado and sleek wardrobe of tricked-out prosthetic legs with badass gadgets hidden inside. I adored her and her new partner Gabriel as they stumbled into an intriguing case that kept mushrooming from the cheating husband scenario it started out to be. Their adventure was well-crafted and highly entertaining and sets the bar high for subsequent volumes.

About the Author

April White has been a film producer, private investigator, bouncer, teacher and screenwriter. She has climbed in the Himalayas, survived a shipwreck, and lived on a gold mine in the Yukon. She and her husband share their home in Southern California with two extraordinary boys and a lifetime collection of books.

Her first novel, Marking Time is the 2016 winner of the Library Journal Indie E-Book Award for YA Literature, and all five books in the Immortal Descendants series are on the Amazon Top 100 lists in Time Travel Romance and Historical Fantasy.

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