Rook to King by Carina Taylor: Book Review

 *Book received for consideration. All thoughts are my own.

A romantic adventure

Bodie King

My entire life revolves around convincing people to do what I want. Some people call me a con man. Some people call me…other things. I prefer to call myself a broker. (I even made business cards, so it must be official.)

Charming someone into helping me has never been a problem—until now.

The Bennetto chess set is rumored to lead to a priceless fortune. Who better to find it than me? I need an authenticator to help me buy the missing pieces of the chess set. The problem is finding someone who knows the set but is still honest—a quality I lack.

Enter Gracen Winthrop. She’s knowledgeable. Annoyingly trustworthy. And, most importantly, available.

After some persuasion, she seems to catch the treasure hunting bug as well. Unfortunately, I don’t actually want to share.

Now Gracen refuses to be left behind, despite a homicidal, grudge-holding ex-employee of mine chasing after us. I can’t protect her…but turns out she can handle herself just fine.

The closer we get to the chess set, the slower I want to find it. Because once I find the missing pieces? I’m going to disappear into the sunset, never to see Gracen again.

But Gracen has her own secrets…and how could I expect her to ever love a con?

USA Today Bestselling author Carina Taylor writes zany romantic comedies that make you ugly laugh.

When she's not writing, you can find Carina ignoring her laundry pile (she's hit expert level), pretending to work out, eating cheese, (pretending to workout WHILE eating cheese) and dreaming up the next story.

You can follow her on Facebook and Instagram: @carinataylorauthor or sign up for her newsletter here: https://sendfox.com/cjtaylorauthor

Oh. My. Goodness.

That was... not at all what I was expecting!

Even before I sat down to read Rook to King, I knew this was going to be a little different that the sweet romantic comedies that I typically read. I mean, when you have a male lead who is a con man? Well, that doesn't typically go along with what we think about in sweet/clean romances. You shouldn't want to root for the con man to get the girl... and yet, here we are. I was hooked from the very start, and literally could not put it down... and as strong as the start was, the last 25% or so of the story is even better. There are so many twists and turns that I didn't see coming, and I enjoyed every single minute! 

Honestly, this book isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea. Again, we're dealing with criminals and morally gray characters here, and that's definitely not for every reader. Usually, it's not my go-to either. Had I not read and enjoyed previous books by the author, I might have passed it up. And yet, this book was just pure fun... and it is fiction after all! 

The romance in this story is clean, with nothing beyond some kisses and maybe some mild innuendos. There is some mild language and mentions of giving someone the finger, but it's minimal. While I generally prefer no language at all, this didn't take away my enjoyment of the story (and really, felt genuine with who the characters are anyway). 

This book is quite different than expected, but even better than I could have imagined. This is definitely a favorite so far this month, and it'll be pretty hard to top!