A Dirty Business

Kings of New York

By: Tijan

Narrated by: CJ Bloom, Joe Arden

From New York Times bestselling author Tijan comes a raw, tempestuous romance between the criminal underworld and a parole officer that paints a thin line between right and wrong.

When Jess Montell meets Trace West at a hockey game, she doesn’t know his name or occupation. What she does know is there’s an instant attraction that’s impossible to ignore—or forget. And forgetting is exactly what she wants to do when she learns he’s not just a successful Wall Street suit but the heir to one of New York’s biggest Mafia families.

The last thing Trace needs is a romantic anything with law enforcement, and parole officer Jess has trouble written all over her. Too bad he likes trouble. Especially when it’s a brunette bombshell with attitude and legs for days.

She’s an absolute spitfire, and he wants to stoke that flame.

Trace didn’t ask for the Mafia life. Jess doesn’t want any part of it. They both know it’s safer to stay away, but the temptation is too hard to resist—no matter how great the danger.

©2022 Tijan Meyer (P)2022 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Good story but…

This is a good story but there’s a cliffhanger. I’m invested in this and can’t wait for book 2.

Cliffhanger Ending

A Dirty Business is the first book I have read by the author Tijan. I picked this book up when I discovered the mafia world would be the setting for the story. Yes! Mafia stories are my catnip. It’s my understanding that Tijan is a master at young adult stories. It would seem that A Dirty Business is her first adult romance book and her first venturing into the mafia world. While I cannot make a comparison between her newest release and her backlist, I believe she did a fairly good job with A Dirty Business, which featured a forbidden romance between a parole officer and the heir to a mafia empire.

A Dirty Business introduces readers to parole officer Jess Montell and hedge fund manager and heir to a mafia family Tristian aka Trace West. In addition to her job as a parole officer, Jess also works at a nightclub on the weekends. Unbeknownst to her, the club is owned by Trace and his best friend, Ashton. As parole officer, Jess sees the world through a black and white lens. Meaning a situation or person is either good or bad. For her, a middle ground does not exist.

Trace’s job as a hedge fund manager kept him out of the family business. However, with the failing health of his uncle, the man who raised him, and the threat of the takeover of the West territory, he knew it was a matter of time when he would step up to the helm.

Trace and Jess had an interesting first meeting. Their attraction to each from that moment sizzled and popped. Learning she was a parole officer engaged the brakes on his attempt to have her in his bed. However, this discovery did little quench his desires, and it proved too difficult to stay away from her.Despite sensing the air of danger surrounding Trace, Jess could not stop thinking about him. Then she learns of his connection to the criminal underworld. A discovery which should have the effect a fire extinguisher would have on a blaze. Instead, her attraction to him grew stronger and soon she can no longer stay away. 

Now this story did not possess the darkness and grittiness one would expect from this world. Sure, there was torture and murder, but not a large scale. Neither were the details graphic.

The slow burn romance which developed between Jess and Trace had its share of angst, which came as no surprise given their differing views and affiliation. Yes, there was a lot of back and forth between these two. Then we had Jess trying to maintain a balance with her morals and a relationship with Trace.I enjoyed the Mafia storyline. There were scenes which had me on the edge of my seat. Also, there were some interesting revelations. Now, as much as I enjoyed the story, two things prevented it from being a five star read. First, the pacing was off in some parts of the story. Second, the ending threw me for a loop. Can you believe it? The story ended on a cliffhanger. I never saw it coming. 

Readers who enjoy the forbidden romance trope set and love stories with heat, family ties to traditions and their livelihood, A Dirty Business makes a great addition to your library. 

This book was narrated by the duo of C. J. Bloom and Joe Arden. Joe Arden, I’ve listened to before and really liked - C. J Bloom, was new to me. They complimented each other well, and I really enjoyed listening at 1.5x speed.

Opposites Attract!

3.5 ✨
A Dirty Business was a very apt title. Things definitely got dirty between Trace and Jess and not just in the sexy ways. These two are on opposites sides of the law but their feelings for each other are on one accord. Tijan did great with the push and pull between these two. It created a nice thick tension to match the sizzling chemistry. I do personally think the book itself was way too long. There were a lot of words but it didn’t feel like enough action was going on. That took away from me enjoying Trace and Jess the way I wanted to. I didn’t see their story cliffing the way it did but I still have some interest in seeing what happens next with Trace and Jess I highly recommend the audio. Cj Bloom and Joe Arden did fantastic. Joe with that delicious timbre was a flawless Trace and Cj was a perfectly fierce Jess. Both were an aural joy.

Fabulous

WOW just WOW!! This book is so awesome, it has lots of Spice, and a huge amount of action. I was pulled in as soon as I started listening.

Another Great One

Tijan is one of my favorite authors and she has done it again. Worth the listen

Can’t wait for the second!!!

Great book! ending is a total shocker! I literally gasped! Won’t spoil it for others. Lots of characters to keep track of.

Great story but....

Hated the ending! The story is incomplete with the way the book ended. Hoping the next book with Ashtons story starts where this one left off.

What happens when the Mafia meets a Police?

Wow, how do you make a relationship work when you for for the law and the person you meet and want to bed is Mafia? You duck and deny all your feelings until the day you find out he’s closer than you thought…as in the second bartender job you worked at for years, he is the owner your boss

Great Find!

I found this book on good reads randomly, which is absolutely not like me. I have to know everything about a book before reading. But not this one, I went in completely blind. I regret nothing! this book was a refreshing storyline. twist and turn an internal war inside the main character as well as a litteral war.

Pretty Good!

Okay so I don’t usually read mafia thrillers, but I honestly enjoyed this one. I love Trace and Jess, I think they are such a great couple because you can’t really picture two people like them being together but I’ve always loved the whole law officer and mafia boss lovers kind of thing. I was surprised that the story ended on a cliffhanger, but I was going to read the next book in the series anyway so it didn’t really bother me. I really like Jess as a character she’s tough. She’s strong and I can sympathize with her dysfunctional relationship she has with her mom. I wish that there was a little bit more background on Trace and Jess but overall I really liked the story. The narrators, for this one were great, and they really brought the characters to life for me.