Guests at a dinner party on a yacht in Maine end up in the hospital with food poisoning. The chef blames her carelessness in mushroom scavenging, but then discovers one of the guests was an MI5 agent and a friend of her father, who is a toxicologist in hospital in Britain dying of mushroom poisoning, blamed on his carelessness. Local FBI agents and MI5 colleagues, suspecting foul play, parse their communication, with intermittent inexplicable forthrightness. The constant repetition of characters’ main traits of being government agents blends them together in a brothy soup of spyness. Suddenly, there’s a culprit, with no previous hints or any indication of involvement, so that backstory must be thrust in awkwardly. I received a digital copy through NetGalley, where the synopsis provided no clue that it was 9th in the series, information only to be found at the end of the book. Perhaps if Dear Reader is already invested in these spy characters, this particular story would hold more credibility.

Such a fabulous conundrum featuring Emma Sharpe and Colin Donovan. The final twist is amazing. Must read.

My first book by author Carla Neggers, though ninth in the series, the book was difficult to understand since I had not read the first 8. But I treated it as a lone murder mystery and I could enjoy the story.

The murder mystery had its own intrigue, and the husband and wife duo were great investigators. Not only they had a murderer to seek, they also had to investigate the mystery of disappearing art. The stakes were raised by the author's writing.

The characters were interesting, and the plot fast paced. The action scenes did make me giddy with excitement. Overall, a great read.

A high stakes mystery murder. Will the police be able to handle such a high profile murder laced with mystery and scandal.

Rival's Break by Carla Neggers is the 9th in a series of books featuring the main characters. Be warned, it is very character driven which makes it difficult to follow if you haven't read previous novels in the series, as I hadn't. This alone made it very difficult to go through, which colors my rating.

The story was fine in itself, the setting of New England in the fall was lovely and the author very descriptive. However, because the murder mystery revolves around mushroom poisoning, there is an excessive amount of information about poisonous and non-poisonous mushrooms. I put this book aside at least 3 times and read other novels because it became so tedious.

My suggestion is read at your own risk. If you have read the other novels in the series, you will most likely enjoy this one. If you haven't, I would recommend reading those before jumping to Rival's Break. Thank you to the author, Harlequin and NetGalley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for my review.

This is the 9th book in the "Sharpe And Donovan" Series by this favorite author. .I have read the previous in the series and highly recommend this series and the author for all who enjoy a mysterious action thriller with great strong charcters.

In this next in series Emma and Colin are involved in a gripping new case of international intrigue. I love these two seasoned investigators as Husband and wife and how they work together as a tight team. They are on holiday with friends while Emma recovers from a difficult loss and Colin happens to tag along when a body is discovered on nearby yacht. What he finds is a former British Intelligence office that he knew of has been possibly poisoned. A valuable painting on the yacht disappears at the same time and Colin and Emma are on the case. Soon they realize they are involved with international gangs and much is at stake.

I loved this next in series for the wonderfully drawn settings, the charcters and the mystery. The author has another winning action thriller here with a mysterious touch for just the right blend of intrigue and action. Very well done to the author. Thank you to Net Galley for the opportunity. My review opinions are my own. I highly recommend this wonderful series.

Thank you to NetGalley, Carla Neggers and Harlequin for this ARC.

I've enjoyed all the previous Sharpe and Donovan novels, so I was sure I'd enjoy this one. This series ranks up there with JD Robb's In Death as being THAT GOOD.

Loved it.

Rival’s Break, by Carla Neggers, is the ninth entry in the mystery series, featuring the husband and wife team of Colin Donovan and Emma Sharpe. It was my first introduction to this series, and it is a challenging task to catch up to the wide cast of family and friends that were introduced and developed over the eight preceding novels. Neggers does as well as any author might to introduce new readers to an interesting array of characters; however, I occasionally found myself wondering or actually going back to identify who was who and how they fit in.

While I guessed the antagonist about two-thirds into the book, I am intrigued enough with the characters and the settings in Ireland, England, and the US to want to read the entire series. The characters are nuanced and complex. The settings are beautifully described. I look forward to getting to know both slowly enough to enjoy the unfolding.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Publishing for the opportunity to read the electronic ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I'm new to the Sharpe & Donovan series and this author and jumped in with both feet when offered the chance to read an arc of book #9 in the series. What a terrific opportunity to spend some time on the Maine coast in the fall!

I enjoyed the characters, the setting--both in Maine and Ireland--and found the mystery intriguing. The story, however, is not easily read as a standalone mystery. There's a lot going on here, not only with the plot but with the characters, several of whom are FBI or MI5 agents, and share a great deal of personal history that the first-time reader needs to catch up on. It might be best to visit the author's website, CarlaNeggers.com for more information on the series, as she suggests in her author's note.

I received an arc from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review and I thank them for the opportunity.

Carla Neggers gives us another chapter in the exciting story of one of the best husband/wife investigative teams in print. This one starts as a vacation to enjoy a family wedding and quickly moves into a multi pronged investigation of epic proportions! It's great to see the familiar characters and follow their lives as they make the world a little safer.

I wanted to like this book, but for me there’s just too much mushrooms and special forces (FBI, MI5), to the point it gets annoying at some points. But I see this is part of a series, and maybe it would make more sense if I read other books as well, to better learn about the characters in this story.

Rival's Break is another great addition to the Sharpe & Donovan series by Carla Neggers. I've enjoyed this series from the first book and Rival's Break was just as interesting as the rest.

I love the different characters that make up the Donovan family and it was fun to visit them for a while to catch up. Emma Sharpe and her grandfather have long been favorites of mine and I was happy to see that even though a long time character passed away, it wasn't Emma's grandfather.

This story is fast-paced, taking off almost immediately, and kept me trying to fit all the pieces together. Sometimes I get it right, but not often.

If you're a fan of this series, you should dive right in and enjoy this book. If you are new to the series, I'd suggest reading the books in order because there really is a lot of back story you need to know.

Thanks to Netgalley, the publishers and author for an ARC at my request. All thoughts are my own.

I am a big fan of this series and have really enjoyed the other books. However, I did not find myself enjoying this story like the others. I love the characters, but to me the story did not have the mystery or suspense I’m accustomed to and the reveal was not as thrilling. I do look forward to what comes next as I am invested and will continue to read. I encourage those to give this a chance but do recommend you read the series because all the characters and stories can become confusing if you just start with this book.

I loved this book from start to finish!! This was my first book by Carla Neggers as well as my first title in her Sharp & Donovan series. I loved the characters, the settings and how the mystery was finally solved. I didn't find it difficult to understand this story without having first read other books in the series which was nice. I would definitely read more books in this wonderfully entertaining series!!

Emma lives in a small house on the coast of Maine with her husband. Emma has a office with the FBI.Emma work s with art crimes.Which seems kinda boring to me Her brother in law Andy and his marine biologist fiance Julianne are getting married in rock point,Maine. I prefer harlequin romance books

Rival's Break is part of a series about a husband/wife team of investigators. I have not read any of the author's other books. I will definitely go back and read the previous books in the series. I was somewhat confused at first, trying to keep the recurring characters straight. All in all this was an enjoyable mystery and I will be reading more of them! Thanks to the publisher and Net Galley for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Rival's Break  is #9 in the Sharpe/Donavon  series and I hadn't read the previous books. Of course I prefer to read a series from the beginning but sometimes a later book just invites! There are quite a few characters to take in straight away. However Carla Neggers deftly gives enough information about each of them so that I can enjoy the story.

The setting is delightful - I have a weakness for books set in Maine and we also visit Ireland and its beautiful west coast. The characters themselves are a mixture of Maine and Irish and they mingle very well!

The book has a fun cast, art thief detectives, FBI, MI5 and MI6, an art thief (reformed)  and a priest to name a few of the varied roles. Many of them are either related to each other or married into a family. And half the time they seem to be trying to figure out what the other knows and is up to!

We start out with a stolen painting, a mysterious food poisoning on a yacht and links to some of the characters, makes for a mystery that soon has my brain whirling and wondering and desperately endeavouring to stay away from the back pages to peek! (I refrain - barely!) I did have one person in mind and it turned out I was on the right track, although I didn't know the motivation.

I liked this story mostly for the characters, so varied and loveable. The mystery was interesting. I would have liked a little more action as the book tended to rely on a lot of dialogue rather than fast action. However I think it reads like a cozy mystery.

Would I read more in this series after my first foray into it? Yes I would because I'd want to find out more about the characters and what they have done and will do next.

Rival's Break is part of the Donovan and Sharp series and is better read as part of the series. A familiar cast of characters wander the pages of the book as accidental poisoning, a missing painting, and undercover spies drive a mystery that twists and turns to leave you guessing. Suspenseful and unexpected, the suspense builds for a satisfying mystery that will leave you coming back for more and a little leery of mushrooms. My voluntary, unbiased review is based upon a review copy from Netgalley.

After reading Rival's Break, I think it's safe to say this is not exactly a standalone story. The mystery, such as it is, could probably stand on its own, but the number of characters who pop in and out and have little to absolutely nothing to do with the case is way over the top. And it's not just that those characters are mentioned. Oh no, we get what I felt was a ridiculous number of points of view. I could have safely skipped a number of chapters and not missed a single thing to do with the case, and I felt like I needed to sift through to find the 'gripping novel of international intrigue and suspense' that is promised in the blurb. In the end, I didn't find any of that and was quite underwhelmed with this one. I don't know if this is Carla Neggers' style or if the many points of view used here is something new, so I remain undecided on whether I'll try another book. I'm sure that fans of the series will enjoy this one more than I did, but it clearly wasn't a good fit for me.

Heavily character-driven mystery series in which many of the characters have multiple names or multiple relatives with similar names in similar fields. While this may have developed organically over the course of the series, as a backstory in this book read as a stand-alone, it is all a bit eye-crossing. Everyone is somehow Irish but really American from Maine, or not, they are British MI6 but work regularly with undercover FBI. Those details aside, the mystery is almost a cozy, again, just not quite. I realize there are devoted fans for this series but I should have started reading earlier in it. I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley.