{Review} of The Australian by Lesley Young

The Australian by Lesley Young
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

GENRE: Romance
THEME: Erotica, Contemporary
RECEIVED: Author

BLURB:

Imagine leaving behind all that you know and starting over halfway around the world. Imagine you’ve got no gut instinct to rely on, no natural-born ability to read people or sort out lies from truth. Imagine your heart goes haywire every time you stare into a certain pair of deeply mesmerizing dark eyes. Now you’re in Charlie Sykes’ (highly sensible) shoes . . .

Charlie Sykes takes everything and everyone at face value, and believes life would be a lot easier if everyone else did, too. Jace Knight, international Aussie hotelier and purported playboy, has never met anyone like the absurdly literal and obliviously beautiful American who applies to his personal assistant position.

The trouble is, how do you seduce a woman whose definition of flirting comes straight out of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary? That, and he’s not the only one after Charlie. Seems Mr. Knight may not be a reformed criminal after all.

Charlie soon finds herself caught up in a whirlwind of dangerous international espionage that takes her from the hip streets of Sydney to the majestic Great Barrier Reef and the wild, desolate outback. A terrible trap’s being laid, but how will Charlie protect herself and prevent a devastating betrayal when she can’t even sort out what her heart’s telling her?

REVIEW:

After reading The Frenchman I couldn’t wait to dig into the next installment. Lesley Young has a way of creating intense bad alpha males and making the readers fall for the guy. Yes, they are normally overbearing and secretive but they are sexy as hell and have a soft spot for sweet girls. This bad boy is even more intense than the first and in all the right ways.

The Australian follows quirky Charlie Sykes, a young woman who is looking to start over in Australia after the death of her mother. Socially awkward and truthful, Charlie stands out among the other interviewees for Jace Knight. He is charmed by how literal she is and knows she can be of great value to him. But Charlie isnt prepared for stepping into Jaces’ world, his past is known to have many criminal connection and it seems Charlie is now apart of it.

Charlie is cringe worthy awkward sometimes, but I found it hilarious how literal she was about every darn thing. She was a tough one to understand sometimes and I did get frustrated with her because she just didn’t understand a lot of normal conversations. But her literal sense made for some funny moments with Jace because he was shocked half the time with her comments. Charlie is super innocent, she grew up in a tough environment and her social life has never been great except for her one friend back in the states. I adored her devotion to not allowing to be given things as gifts and wanting to earn her way. She starts to mature more threw the story, learning from Jace, wanting to understand his way of thinking and learning about their connection. In the end she grew on me and her trust in Jaces’ innocents, even though she was being told he was the enemy, had me liking her more and more.

Jace has quite the reputation, being a criminal and ladies man makes it hard for him to trust people. When he meets the very unusual Charlie there is something about her that sparks something in him. He wants to trust her and can see she is running from something. He’s living a life with criminal connections but wants to put that in the past and move forward with his company. Unfortunately his past isn’t easy to get rid of and he has “allies” and the government who are after him. Charlie is innocent in all of this but he needs her for many reasons. I loved how sweet he was with her even in the craziest of situations. Charlie is put in a tough spot and he needs to see where her trust lies and hes hoping its with him.

Overall this was an intense rollercoaster of espionage and romance, I loved the steaminess of the couple but also the secrets that were all revealed slowly throughout. I wasn’t sure how it was all going to unfold and I hoped that Charlie would make the right decision in the end. The story was fast paced through and though, never a moment of dullness but all humor, smoking hot romance and surprising twist and turns. I cant wait to see what young comes up with next in this addicting series.

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