“There was a long hard time when I kept far from me the remembrance of what I had thrown away when I was quite ignorant of its worth.” ― Charles Dickens
Title: Hostile Takeover
Author: EM Lynley
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Pages/Word Count: 320 Pages
Rating: 4 Stars
Blurb: Years ago, Chase Richards and Mathias Tobler fell in love while training for the US Olympic fencing team. Afterward, they even attended the same business school so they could be together. Then Chase left Mathias alone and heartbroken in Italy. But all of that is ancient history by the time Chase thunders back into Mathias’s safe, settled life with a business deal.
There’s no way Mathias is going to do business with Chase. He spent nine years picking up the pieces and has moved on in life—and love. But Chase won’t give up without a fight: he concocts a scheme to manipulate the market and take over the Tobler family business. If Mathias wants to save it, he’ll have to face off against Chase over crossed sabers.
Chase has a reputation as an unscrupulous corporate raider, but the Tobler business holds little interest for him. In reality, he wants Mathias. Chase must win him back—by any means necessary—before Mathias gives his heart to someone else. But how does a cold-blooded corporate raider convince the man he loves that his heart really isn’t made of stone?
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Review:
Chase Richards has regrets.
Years ago, in order to please his father, Chase broke off his relationship with Mathias Tobler to join the family business, RichardCorp. Chase has become known throughout the Texas corporate world as a ruthless businessman, and has everything a man could ever want. Except for one thing: Mathias. Chase is still in love with Mathias and would do anything to get him back in his life.
So when Chase sees in the paper one Saturday morning that Mathias is engaged to be married to Miss Texas, Brooke Collier, he sets in motion a chain of events that will either bring them back together or forever make them enemies and keep them apart.
This should have been a 5 Star read, and probably was for a lot of other readers. The writing style flowed evenly, the plot and the characters were interesting, but sometimes I wish authors would write their stories in the order of events rather than rely on flashbacks, which can lead to confusion for the reader—me, in particular. I’d get to an interesting part of the story, then flashback! Again, I would reach another good part of the story that had me riveted. Flashback! This happened over and over to the point of frustration for me, and I started to skim-read those scenes in order to get back to what had really caught my attention. Which wasn’t fair, since some of them explained why things were happening the way they were in the present. Hence, the grumble about writing in the order of events instead of time-hopping.
I would highly recommend Hostile Takeover to anyone who can handle the back and forth style of storytelling, because it really was a great book, so it’s with regret I’m giving this a 4 Star rating.
You can buy Hostile Takeover here:
