Clean Break by Abby Vegas Published by Indie on May 16, 2016
Pages: 230
Genres: Chick Lit, Contemporary, Romance, Suspense
Review Copy Provided By: Author
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Reading Challenges: Read New Authors
Lane Haviland can’t seem to catch a break. She’s dead broke, barely functioning as an adult, and completely alone in New York City. Her so-called “apartment” is a six-by-nine cell in a Brooklyn basement. And her new boss hasn’t ever met a personal or professional boundary she can’t bulldoze through.
Still, Lane’s determined to at least attempt to claw her way back to respectability. But she can’t seem to get her mysterious handyman, Viktor, out of her apartment – or her headspace. Maybe that’s a good thing: Viktor’s easy on the eyes, and that deep-voiced Russian accent is beyond sexy. But as he and Lane grow closer, he can no longer hide his connections with a dangerous criminal underworld – where secrets can be deadly.
Have you ever been glad you took a chance on something? You know what I mean. When you thought, okay, I’m going with my gut and trust my instincts. Well, about 6 weeks ago I received a message about a new book called ‘Clean Break’, from a new author, Abby Vegas. She enclosed a short excerpt with her review request. It didn’t take me long to email her back that I was intrigued. (I think those were my exact words even.)
Once I started reading this book, I was completely taken by surprise that this is her debut book. The writing is strong. I mean really strong.
I would classify this as Chick-lit with a hint of suspense. There is a romantic angle, but it isn’t necessarily a contemporary romance that most of you have come to know. The reason I am prefacing this is I don’t want any disappointed readers looking for the romance (which comes later in the book, with fade-to-black sex scenes).
When the story starts, we learn Lane has just spent almost all of her money in a spending spree. She needed a “clean break” from the past, we don’t know why just yet, only that she needed to move forward. Now she is virtually penniless, her part-time job won’t pay the bills and she doesn’t have a home or family. To make matters worse, she just got scammed out of a large sum of money from what was supposed to be a downpayment for an apartment, which she no longer has either. After filing a police report, the detective makes some calls to the manager of the apartment complex, a deal is struck and Lane finds she has an apartment thanks to the help of the detective.
The basement apartment isn’t the greatest, but it is at least somewhere to sleep that’s relatively safe. She only has her suitcases, so on her agenda is getting another job so she can furnish it, hopefully with a bed. Of the people she first meets, are the building’s handymen. One of them is a sleazeball, the other, is Viktor, who proves to be quite helpful in a number of ways.
Lane ends up finding a job as an assistant to a spoiled wealthy woman with two kids and a husband who works too much. She has nothing to do, but try and loose weight, keep up with other rich folks and drown herself in charity work.
‘Clean Break’ takes us on a heartwarming, at times funny, journey of our protagonist, Lane Haviland as she navigates adulthood. She is a strong woman who never lets her circumstances dictate her future. There is a suspense element with our hero, Viktor as he is seemingly tangled with the Russian crime element in the neighborhood.
As I mentioned before, I really enjoyed this book, the writing and the story. I only have a few criticisms; I felt at times, the story tended to get wordy in a few places and I was confused as to why Lane went on the spending spree. That is all and really, these are very small.
If there was an award for breakthrough author, I would nominate Abby Vegas. I truly believe she is one to watch in the future!
The Author is giving away a kindle copy of Clean Break on my Facebook Page!
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- Read New Authors
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