Some characters were liked and others were just downright hated. Made for a solid story line if you ask me.
Bad luck follows the main character, Charlene.
The story has some romance, some suspense and enough thrill to keep you reading to the end.

Oh my god, this book has sat on my digital shelf for 11 months, I am so glad I finally got to it because it was an action-packed read that kept me guessing until the end.

When Charlene's father is murdered in front of her it is the catalyst that sets of a series of events that after a while she has no control over, as secrets and lies begin to come unravelled, Charlene throws herself into the path of danger.

While I couldn't even begin to imagine running off to Cuba to hunt down my past, that is exactly what Charlene does. Her only saving grace is that she is lucky enough to have landed sexy ex-naval officer Marshall as her skipper to get her across from the US to Cuba, an illegal and potentially dangerous journey in itself.

These two have an instant connection, but both fight it as they have their own agendas and their own personal issues to deal with.

Charlene was one tough young woman, her father had given her lots of training over the years, and this is the only thing that kept her alive. While I thought some (most) of her decisions were really not the best idea, she was running completely on her emotions and to her, they seemed to be the only decisions to make.

While Marshall is determined not to care about Charlene, when she doesn't make the rendezvous, he is, of course, determined to try and save her.

There is plenty of action, suspense, and chemistry in this fast-paced romantic suspense novel and I am going to try and hunt down the first book in the Maximum Exposure series. I remember reading and enjoying book 2 Out of Mind but it looks like these are being rereleased, so I might have to wait to read book 1 Out of Reach.

Thanks to NetGalley and Kensington Books for a digital copy of this novel in return for an honest review.

Out of Luck is the third in the Maximum Exposure series. Each of these edge of the seat Romantic Suspenses can be read as a stand alone.

The previous two books have taken us to South American Jungle and a blizzard ridden mountain top. Now we’re off to Cuba.

Charlene’s life has not been a normal one. Since her mother died she and her father have been moving every few months, used cash only, and had only those possessions they could carry in bags.

The book opens with her father being stabbed to death in front of her by a woman at a cafe in New Orleans. She finds that her whole life has been lie. To find out who she is she needs to find out who they have been running from, and to do that she needs to go to Cuba. Not easy when you don’t know who you are, have no identification and certainly no passport!

Enter Marshall Crow, ex Navy, recovering alcoholic and now trying to get his life back together by running a fishing charter boat. He is shocked when he is asked to smuggle Charlene into Cuba - her toughness and naivety compels him to help her and together they are plunged into a high energy, deadly adventure as Charlene discovers who her parents are - and proves that sometimes you really shouldn’t go poking in the past.

My only gripe was the stupidity of her decision to go to Cuba undercover - no identity if she got into trouble (which she did) only Marshall knew she was there - and he wasn’t there legally. She didn’t even speak Spanish! Of course it eventually worked out without her, or Marshall, getting killed (though was a close thing) but it really left me a bit concerned as to why she thought that was the way to do it.

Other than that niggle - was another great romantic thriller - and hope there is going to be more soon!

This book's summary caught my eye and I am so glad I requested it. It is a romantic suspense with murder, mysterious identities and pasts. Charlene and her father lead a nomad life, moving every six months for years, never staying in the same city twice and always paying cash. Charlene's father always made sure she had everything she could want and was a loving and doting father. Until the day a woman stabs him to death on the street, shouting in a foreign language and leaving Charlene all alone in the world.. Charlene must find out the truth about her life, her father and secrets long buried in a journey that takes her to Cuba to find answers.
Out of Luck is a great read, full of twists and turns, danger, suspense and dread that keeps the reader engrossed to the end. Charlene is a strong and clever heroine and Marshall is a good match for her. Lots of surprises and a few moments where you wonder why you didn't see it coming. I really enjoyed reading this story and will add her other books to my TBR mountain as well.
Thank you to NetGalley and the author and publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A suspenseful adventure in interesting locations. Life is not what it seemed for Charlene, secrets unraveled upon the death of her father. I read this in our Aussie winter with a dreadful case of flu, I think I want to wait for Summer and read it again. I enjoyed this action packed romance.

Charlene in a strong and smart heroine. Even if she needs some help to get herself out of some dangerous situations, she doesn’t wait twiddling her thumbs but fights to save herself. However she doesn’t hesitate to leave for a country of which she doesn’t speak the language and to follow people who don’t understand English at all; she’s quite TSTL at these times, even if she has second of hesitation while thinking she risks her life. Speaking of language, that’s a point I found illogical: Charlene’s father taught her how to manage in life, how to defend herself, how to live light and disappear in a few hours, but knowing they are from Cuba he didn’t find it useful for her to learn Spanish?

I liked that Marshal isn’t the one saving the heroine each time. Of course he has his moments, but he’s not systematically pushed to the forefront in dangerous situations, and he admires Charlene’s mental force and ability. There are several chapters before they meet but the attraction between them is immediate and the feelings way too fast. However there are a lot of things that happen in the novel so we notice less the short period during which their feelings appear. I also regret their first time is just after the heroine’s brush with death : as she first thinks she’s covered with bruises, I was more thinking about pain with each touch during this scene.

Concerning the plot the story adds up and we go from discovery to discovery. In spite of this there’s a too fast side to the final resolution that left me slightly disappointed. Also it’s too bad the author didn’t feel it necessary to translate the few sentences in Spanish told by the locals when the heroine arrives in Cuba. Not everybody speaks Spanish, as proved by the heroine created by the author, and I felt as lost as Charlene in front of these incomprehensible words. On the positive side some scenes are memorable, like the one where the heroine has to hide from the coastguards by clinging to the hull of the boat.

All in all a romantic suspense with which I had a good reading time in spite of some faults.

Out of Luck by author Kendall Talbot was another great read from the author that keeps your attention to the happenings within the narrative from one chapter to the next.
Review copy received from the publisher via Netgalley

This book felt like Young Adult fiction. I can’t say it was bad but it was really hard to stay interested. The differing chapters focused on characters didn’t add to the story.

Out of Luck by Kendall Talbot
Maximum Exposure #3

Action-packed romantic suspense with mystery, murder and a whole lot more. I have never read a book by this author but hope to read many more of her books in the future!

What I liked:
* Charlene Bailey: She was a loner in many ways but strong, capable and a delight to have as the heroine in this book.
* Marshall Crow: I really liked him for and with Charlene
* Peter: Even though we did not meet him in the story he seemed to be a good man who was a splendid father for Charlene
* The threads of various stories as they overlapped and intertwined and were tied together
* The comeuppance of the bad guy(s)
* That the main characters were good people with simple desires

What I didn’t like:
* Noah: the more I heard about him the more I detested him
* The decision that Charlene made at one point that was so out of character and got her into so much trouble

Did I like this book? Yes
Would I read more by this author? Definitely

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books – Lyrical Press for the ARC – This is my honest review.

4.5 Stars

This was my first book by Talbot, each book in the series is a standalone. Immediately I was drawn into Charlene's world as her father is murdered and she discovers new information about him. Marshall is a boating captain that delivers her to Cuba. Charlene is a mixed bag of tricks, strong physically and mentally but very naive about her adventure and how she was living her life. Great story with tons of suspenseful moments and plot twists. With this kind of story writing I can't wait to read her other books. I received my copy from Netgalley, review was voluntary.

The life she had known ended abruptly when her father Peter was killed. Shocked, grieving, with a feeling of guilt that she hadn’t done anything to stop the killing, Charlene Bailey had no idea what she would do next. But she wasn’t prepared for what Detective Chapel discovered.

For more than twenty years, Charlene and her father had stayed off the grid, moving every six months or so, always paying with cash, carrying very few possessions. Charlene couldn’t remember a time when she hadn’t been happy. Peter had made their lives an adventure but now he was gone, and she was alone, she needed answers. Was her whole life a lie?

Marshall Crow took fishing charters out into the waters around Key West. He mostly enjoyed the lifestyle on his boat, Miss B Hayve, but he missed his old life in the Navy. When unexpectedly faced with a young woman needing to get to Cuba – under the radar - he didn’t hesitate. But he didn’t expect the violence and danger they would be faced with once they landed on Cuban soil…

Out of Luck is the 3rd in the Maximum Exposure series by Aussie author Kendall Talbot. Each able to be read as a standalone, this one was fast paced and violently intense with some great twists, lots of bodies and a strong, kick-ass main character. An enjoyable romantic suspense novel, Out of Luck is one I recommend.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my digital ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.

Guaranteed suspenseful adventure, exotic locals, and characters showing their strength while falling in love! I love traveling the extreme locations with each of these books and, while the locales weren’t extreme in this latest, the situation was. My book passport was stamped and I was primed to be off with a woman nearly Out of Luck.
Review

Out of Luck is the third in a series of standalone romantic suspense tales that work in any order.

Her father is murdered before her eyes and Charlene discovers through the investigation that her life has been a lie. She’s all alone and all she has now is hoping that discovering the truth will give her the answers about herself and her father’s murder. The thin trail of clues lead her out of New Orleans to Key West to hire a boat captain who will smuggle her into Cuba.

Marshall is recovery from a past of losses including his Naval career. He washed up in Key West and now has slowly taken his life back as a boat charter captain. He has some insane stories about the people who charter him and his boat, but this latest might very well take the cake. A women of contrasting naivete who carries herself like a fighter hires him to smuggle her into Cuba. She’s closed-mouthed and self-contained, but he’s determined to get her story. When he does, he finds himself at her side for the adventure of a lifetime.

Out of Luck was the story of a woman who is forced to unravel the mystery of her own past to find closure. What she discovers is an emotional journey that gets dangerous when she kicks over a couple bad ant hills. It felt like a treasure hunt adventure as she followed the clues through her dad’s life and her mind started unlocking her own distant childhood memories.

I was of two minds about this particular adventure romance. I thoroughly enjoyed the clues, the twists, the danger and how they got through it all. I enjoyed the settings of NOLA, Key West, and Cuba. Charlene was one tough gal with her self-defense and martial arts training, always living off grid and kept moving, sure of making her way through life, and all. Marshall was also a fab character with his background in the Navy, his need to get his life back as a recovering alcoholic. He was tough and he knew his way about, but he respected Charlene’s ability and didn’t try to make her decisions for her.

Saying all that and without taking away from my very real enjoyment of this story, I struggled to buy into the heroine’s motivation to go into an illegal, deadly adventure to get answers about her past. She didn’t explore easier methods of getting answers first and she held back clues to the murder investigation because she wanted to track them down herself- on her own, without proper ID or passport, into Cuba, with no research or clue about Cuba including knowing any Spanish. I actually don’t mention several other things she chose that could have got her or Marshall killed because of spoilers. Point is, her motivation and consecutive decisions made little sense to me.

Yep, and still I liked it. Go figure! I wanted the answers, too, I guess, and I love the author’s writing and all the other elements worked together. For those who want great adventures of survival paired with their romance, I can heartily recommend this series.

My thanks to the author via Net Galley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange of an honest review.

Out of Luck
(Maximum Exposure #3)
by Kendall Talbot

Kindle Edition
Expected publication: July 2nd 2019 by Lyrical Liaison




Goodreads synopsis:
A history made of questions—and a future worth answering for . . .

For twenty years, they moved from town to town every few months. They paid in cash. They kept only what they could carry. But 26-year-old Charlene Bailey and her father were a family, complete and happy. Until a woman stabbed him to death in a New Orleans café, right in front of Charlene’s eyes, screaming in a language she didn’t understand. Now the police are claiming that her whole life is a lie. To find out who she is, she’ll have to find out what they were running from. And to discover that, she’ll have to find someone she can trust . . .

As a charter boat captain out of Key West, Marshall Crow has seen his share of reckless tourists. But the fierce young woman asking for passage to Cuba isn’t one of them. He never thought he’d put the skills he learned in the Navy to work smuggling a stranger, but he’s drawn to her the same way she’s drawn to the truth. And through the dark waters of the Florida straits and the narrow streets of Havana, the danger that awaits them is far too vicious to face alone


***

4 Stars

This was the surprise book of 2019. It looked intriguing but I wasn’t certain I would like it. The whole Cuban connection gave me pause. But the more I read the more interesting and intriguing it was. Charlene and her dad Peter were about as off grid as you could get and still get around in the United States. They moved every six months. Lived hand to mouth. Only took paychecks in cash. Didn’t use a bank or have a social security card or identification of any kind. Not sure that is realistic these days but I can over look it for a book plotline.

Marshall comes to Charlene’s aid in order to get to Cuba. Her father had been murdered and the police informed her that according to her DNA he wasn’t her father biologically. This set her out to find the truth. She sort of ran into Cuba just thinking she was going to get information and get out. But we know how these things go and things are just so much more complicated than we realize.

I don’t want to spoil too much but this book was good, Exciting and thrilling. There is a bit of what appears to be insta-love in this book as well. I don’t thinking Marshall and Charlene getting together romantically would have happened so fast.

It is one enjoyable read. Definitely check this one out.

From New Orleans to Havana, Out of Luck is a top notched romantic suspense by Kendall Talbot. This is the third book in the Maximum Exposure Series. Each is well-written with more unexpected twists than you can shake a stick at. Also with surprises that you didn’t expect but afterwards you wondered why you didn’t see it coming.

What begins as seemingly unrelated incidents and insights in characters’ lives it may feel disconnected to some. For me I kept reading to see how it all fit together like a completed puzzle by the conclusion. Which it really does perfectly. With multifaceted, fully fleshed characters especially Charlene’s late father, Charlene and Marshall, the story reeled me like the Blackfin tuna caught in the first glimpse of Marshall and his boat. I was hooked until the very last page.

Romantic suspense is one of my favorite genres especially ones that are high on the suspense and danger, that has a genuine romantic relationship between the hero and heroine. Kendall Talbot delivers in all three books, no instant love or sacrificing the plot to add extra steamy scenes. This is a gem of a writer with Out of Luck being a true shining jewel of a story. She is quickly moving up the list of my favorite authors.

An ARC of the book was given to me by the publisher through Net Galley which I voluntarily chose to read and reviewed. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

4* Decent intro to this author, even though I wasn't entirely convinced about Charlene's need to...

... go on the adventure she did, and eye-rolled over her TSTL moment.

I won't summarise the tale, but I will say that it's a decent book with a stronger female than I expected, who had guts and heart. I felt for how her life fell apart after her father's death, but that she set about finding out as much truth as possible, despite the danger to herself, made for a good adventure.

I did think Marshall coming to her rescue like a knight in shining armour - even though he didn't have a trusty steed, merely a rusty motorbike - was a bit OTT and rushed, but, it showed him as a decent guy. But their relationship was based on adrenaline and a mutual convenience, so I didn't need or buy the love scenes. There was no way, admittedly, to slow the book down for a romance to develop, so...eh. But, I also didn't like her TSTL moment when she met a long lost family member who turned out to be a baddie. As if you couldn't see that coming.

The book did have a fair bit of filler. There wasn't any need to go there with the 50-odd banks when Charlene's father never trusted anything to do with official records, and there wasn't any need to mention her losing her cherry at 21 to a guy she immediately left. The Cuban family also took up too much space, as did some of the Cuban characters at the club, and the club itself. Still, it was a readable book and the plot, in the end, was pretty nicely tied up. I just didn't love the romance, but I did like Hoppa the three-legged dog.

ARC courtesy of Lyrical Liaison, Kensington Books and NetGalley, for my reading pleasure.

First off- not a good idea to smuggle someone into Cuba. Just not. That said, Charlene is on a quest to find out the secrets in her past and she's hired Marshall, who has his own troubles, to do it. You know these two are going to start out picking at one another and then get together, right? It's a fast paced read with good guys, bad guys, and a plot that might make a good movie. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

Out of Luck is the third book in the Maximum Exposure series and can be read as a standalone like its previous installations. While I understand the author’s intentions towards the plot and characters, I’m not the biggest fan of the final outcome.

Our story follows Charlene Bailey, a 26-year-old woman, who is traveling with her father all her life paying in cash and switching places every six months or so. With her father’s murder, Charlene comes face to face with lies, secrets, and enemies she didn’t think of ever having. Marshall Crow is a man she gets to know and finally trust. Both of them try to unravel the mystery engulfing her life.

The biggest problem of this book was that the author didn’t know what information was valuable to the story and what was useless and just… blubbering. I lost count of how many times the story was halted in order for us to get details about the life, personality, and description of people who didn’t matter to the plot. The editor should have cut all the insignificant information and kept the important things that would help the story move forward. That didn’t happen and as a result the pacing was so off that I lost my interest and I couldn’t connect with any of the characters.

The main villain was stereotypical and cringy. He was the typical bad guy/womanizer/sexist with no depth whatsoever. Our main protagonists were likable but pretty much generic as well.


This e-arc was provided to me by NetGalley for review purposes.

Readers are taken on a adventure across the world to find redemption. Maximum Exposure series are all stand alone novels that readers can read out of order and still enjoy the books. The author creates likable characters. Readers will need to suspend their belief and motivation of why Charlene goes against everything to find answers of her past.

The story flows well enough but has moments that stop and start the story but in all if a ok summer beach read.

Thank you to Netgalley for the advance copy of Kendall Talbot Out of Luck

Wow!!!!
This is a great suspense/thriller that grabbed me at page 1 and was a wild ride until the very last sentence!
At 28 years old, Charlene Bailey finds out that her past has been a series of lies.
With no form of personal ID she heads out to find her past with the help of a Navy Vet, Marshall Crow. They head out by boat to Cuba to find her past and find more than she bargained for.
Luckily, Marshall is there to bail her out.
There is a great mystery with lots of twists and turns. Each chapter is a new twist. You will find yourself reading faster and faster to find out what’s going to happen.
I loved this novel and highly recommend it!

This is the first book by this author I have read - it sounded awesome. It is book 3 in the series. And maybe that’s why I couldn’t get into it?!?!? Not sure.
This story was well written, but I did not capture my interest even with me skipping around.