A Cunning Plan Review Tour

Blurb:

Determined to put her family back together, Sloane Harper stalks her ex husband and his annoyingly stunning mistress, Kate Stappleton. But she’s not the only one.

Handsome IRS agent Ethan Cunning is surveying Kate too, but for entirely different reasons. He is attempting to nail Kate’s playboy boss.

Ethan and Sloane decide to help each other, which sends Sloane’s wobbly life spinning out of control. She’ll have to face danger, humiliation, and – scariest of all – the dating scene, to lure her daughters’ father home.

Losing control was the best thing to happen to Sloane…until it turned lethal.

Excerpt:

So far, I have spent more than ten hours this week parked on the exact same street, in front of the exact same building, staking out my husband’s mistress. To be exact, Tom was my ex-husband now, but I was pretty sure he was still my husband when Katherine Stappleton started screwing him.

A sideways glance confirmed Claudia’s eyelids had finally closed, and I sighed in relief. If I had to listen to one more minute of heavy metal, I would hurl myself or my housekeeper extraordinaire out of the car window.

I shot my hand toward the Mini Austin’s radio. But just as the angry voices faded in favor of a monotonous radio show, Claudia’s hand lashed out and slapped my wrist away.

“Go back. I love that song.”

“But I don’t understand Polish,” I said with a pout.

“It’s music, you don’t need to understand it,” she countered, her eyes still closed.

My teeth hurt from the loud screeching she called music. I considered looking for Magic FM again, but Claudia read my mind first. She snapped open one fierce blue eye.

“Don’t,” she warned.

Heavy metal music wasn’t nearly bad enough to risk incurring Claudia’s wrath and chancing her leaving. Listening to any kind of music with her definitely beat sitting in the car alone.

I gave a last, longing stare at the radio then turned my attention to the dashboard’s digital clock. It was 3:43 p.m. according to the flashing orange numbers. Sighing, I thought again of how much time I’d spent here.

The details of my husband’s ‘infidelity’ mattered; they changed the way one perceived things. On one side, you had my ex’s new girlfriend, and on the other, the tramp who stole my husband. Doesn’t have the same ring to it, right?

The same way if you asked Katherine Stappleton, she might have described my endeavor as ‘stalking’ rather than ‘staking out’. If she knew I was hiding in front of her work place, that is, and I was extremely careful not be noticed. Plus, I never left the car or followed her home - the definition of stalking. Legally speaking, I was in the clear. I’d checked on Yahoo Answers.

My Review:

4 stars

I’ll admit, I wasn’t sure I was going to like this book at first. I was annoyed with Sloane just from reading the blurb, not a very good start for a book. However, something drew me to this book and I decided to give it a chance. And it was worth it.

Yes, Sloane is annoying at first. She seems desperate, pathetic, and kinda crazy. Not to mention a total klutz. It took me a while to warm up to her, but by the end of the book, I was rooting for her all the way. She grew throughout the book to become a quirky yet strong female character who was able to find the courage to stand up for herself and go for what she truly wanted. I cannot wait to read future adventures with her just because I want to see what she gets into next. As for the other characters, Claudia was an interesting secondary character who helped me get to like Sloane. As for Ethan…I still have mixed feelings on him. For some reason, I just didn’t really connect a lot with him. Or Gabriel for that matter. All in all though, the characters were all interesting and engaging, even if I only really loved two of them.

As for the plot, I definitely thought this was going to be a more run-of-the-mill cozy mystery, but it definitely lived up to its romantic suspense tag. Once I started reading I couldn’t stop as I wanted to see what was going to happen next. Part of this was also due to the author’s writing style, which was funny and charming. Overall, I would highly recommend this book if you’re looking for a good murder mystery/suspense with a strong female character or if you’re just looking for your next fun beach read.

*I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.*

a Rafflecopter giveaway

August 30: The Reading Addict

August 30: Sharing Links and Wisdom
September 6: Liz Gavin's Blog
September 6: Lilac Reviews
September 13: Two Ends of the Pen
September 13: Hope. Dreams. Life... Love
September 20: EskieMama Reads
September 20: Lampshade Reader
September 20: LibriAmoriMiei

Author Bio and Links:

Astrid Arditi was born from a French father and Swedish mother. She lived in Paris and Rome before moving to London with her husband and daughter back in 2013.

After dabbling in journalism, interning at Glamour magazine, and teaching kindergarten, Arditi returned to her first love: writing.

She now splits her time between raising her kids (a brand new baby boy just joined the family) and making up stories.

A Cunning Plan is Arditi's first published work.

Blog     |     Facebook     |     Twitter

Buy Links:

A Cunning Plan will be Free during the tour.

Amazon UK    |    Amazon US    |    iBooks    |    Nook    |    Kobo