My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

People say I married Paul for the money, but that’s just not true. I married him because I love him, and I love him for all the things he provides. A mortgage-free roof over my head and a belly stuffed with nutritious, organic food… And really, when you think about it, isn’t security just another word for love?

Annalee loves drama, and she loves when others share in hers.

Even if she had Paul when she was a teenager, even if she slept hanging upside down by her ankles every night, there’s no way someone her age— I’ve done the math, and the woman is well into her fifties— looks that good, not without a little help. But either her surgeon is really, really good, or somewhere along the line, Diana Keller made a deal with the devil.

As far as I’m concerned, this part of my life is like Vegas: what happened here stays here, hanging from velvet hangers upstairs in the closet.

Money can’t buy happiness or bravery. It can’t save a marriage or bring a drug dealer back from the dead. But in these United States of America, especially here in the South, it can keep a white man out of prison.

My Review:

This cleverly penned mystery kept my attention rapt and my curiosity sharply honed. This was my first experience with the wily Kimberly Belle and it greedily whetted my appetite for more. Her writing was easy to follow, expertly paced, colorfully descriptive, wittily amusing, and engagingly phrased. I was quickly lured into Ms. Belle’s intriguing yet somewhat smoky vortex where I couldn’t quite grasp who was trustworthy as this was such a slippery bunch. The ones I thought wouldn’t be actually were, and the ones I had higher aspirations for were rather tepid after all. I had hoped for a different ending as I always crave a romantic HEA, but I can accept the one written just as well.