Review: Bend the Rules by Susan Amanda Kelly

Everyone deserves a second chance and Mary Holmes, accountant extraordinaire, is determined to make the most of hers. Sure, she’d love to get her old life back - she used to be thin, well-dressed, engaged-to-be-married, on the corporate ladder and regularly bought three kinds of lettuce. Back then, she could afford the hair products needed to keep her hair sleek. But one unused wedding cake, a regrettable public safety incident and a teensy prison record later, her life goals have shrunk to being able to afford to eat regularly. To do that, she needs to make a success of her second chance… an accounting job with Vetruvious Security.

Everything is proceeding according to Mary’s detailed, color-coded, new-life plan until Vetruvious Security hires a specialist, Crash Coolidge, to work undercover to smash a truck cargo heist ring. Crash is sexy, insolent, sexy, disheveled, sexy and scarily relaxed about the prospect of killing people. Even in a tough-guy company like Vetruvious Security, Crash is the equivalent of a Rottweiler surrounded by Chihuahuas. After Mary is assigned to his team, her life-plan rapidly derails. She is targeted by the sinister and mysterious head of the heist gang and only Crash stands between her and an undignified death.

Mary finds herself doing things that most definitely were not in her employment contract like stripping the shoes from a corpse; adopting a deaf, rank-smelling guard dog; clue-hunting with Crash’s crazy, supermodel sister and lurking in a biker bar to locate a specific tattoo artist. All because Mary ends up wanting a second chance for Crash Coolidge as much as she wants one for herself. And she must find the sinister and mysterious head of the heist gang before Crash does. Because she doesn’t want Crash to do something reckless that lands him in prison. Not when he has become a vital part of her detailed, color-coded, new new-life plan.

Kindle Edition, 352 pages

Published June 26th 2018 by Gomboc Words 

Genre: RomCom

Kristine's Thoughts:

** I received a copy of this book directly from the author in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!**

Bend the Rules is a book that you want to read when you don't want to take life too seriously. It is the second book in a series but it can be read as a stand alone. This was the first book for me and \I was able to follow along.

It was at times over the top and there were some definite laugh out loud moments in Bend the Rules. The absolute highlight of this story was Mary. Her character was what made reading this book worthwhile. The plot itself was average at best but Mary was a joy to read. With her second hand suit and her colour coded systems, she was a fish out of water in almost every situation which made her humorous and enjoyable to follow. She really did make it for me. Without her, I'm not sure I would have enjoyed the plot at all. I was indifferent to Crash and all of the other secondary characters, but I thoroughly enjoyed Mary. Perhaps there was a bit of her that we can all relate to that made her so endearing.

This book came to me right when I needed something not so serious to get lost in. I'm now curious if this author always writes about quirky and unusual characters. I guess there is only one way to find out!

About the Author

Susan Amanda Kelly loves making up stuff in her head. She is easily distracted, inclined to stop mid-conversation and stare off into space. She once spent five hours at sea, on a boat, muttering: "Where would he hide the body?" She hopes the video footage of that trip has been wiped. She finally decided to put the characters that inhabit her head, onto paper. It was like opening the door on a lunatic asylum... glorious bedlam. She hopes her readers come to love her characters as much as she does. She writes high-octane novels packed with romance, crime and humor. They're PG13 because of some strong language and steam (the heroes are hard to resist).

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