I couldn’t put this one down!

By the Book is the first book I’ve read by G.B. Gordon even though I have several in my eBook library. I must now make time to read more of this author’s work!

I was captivated right from the get-go. I love solving a good puzzle myself so I found Ben’s character to be extremely interesting as he tried to figure out why certain company accounts didn’t reconcile. There is so much action and suspense in this story and that is why I was glued to my eReader from start to finish.

This book ends with a satisfying HFN but I know there is more coming for this couple and I’m looking forward to reading book two.

A review copy was provided by the publisher via NetGalley but this did not influence my opinion or rating of the book.

p.s. I really don’t understand why there are so many negative reviews on Goodreads. I think that this is a great romantic suspense story.

Quick easy read. Good story but also sadly a bit forgettable after the fact. I didn't do my review right away and it took me a bit to recap the story in my memory after the fact.

This book is for everyone out there that can't leave a question unanswered. Ben is a junior accountant at a successful import/export company. When the numbers on the accounts don't match up and his boss is murdered, leaving him the primary suspect - things go sideways in his life very quickly. Nick is an FBI agent with a trust fund and some major trust issues. He is assigned to protect Ben - and that leads to complicated feelings for both of them.

This book is definitely a very slow burn - and it really worked. Nick was very much a professional - and I was totally here for it. He did not want to start anything physical with Ben or really delve into relationship-land until they had the case figured out. Even with the feelings he caught very quickly for Ben. I also loved Ben for all his nerdy numbers love - and how he definitely seemed to be on the ACE side of things and likely on the autism spectrum.

The book was really good - but felt like we were just getting started when the mystery was solved. My three star rating is probably based more on the fact that I felt like this was the start of the series and really didn't realize that going in.

Overall - I recommend and hopefully we'll see more of these two.

I received this as an ARC via NetGalley, but these opinions are all my own.

2 1/2 stars

I did not like the MCs at all. I started out ambivalent about Ben. Then, Nick came along and I felt very strongly about him. He'was mean and entitled and just off-putting. The more I got to see of Ben, the more I started not liking him either. Ben was weird in not a fun way.

The plot wasn't bad, and I think I would have enjoyed the book more with different MCs. For me, George was the one redeeming character.

***Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.***

On the surface, this is the ideal book for me. But I struggled with the writing. I found the characters lacking emotional depth. The mystery elements also didn't grip me the way I would have liked.

I had to go back and look, but the only books I’ve read by G.B. Gordon were from the Bluewater Bay series, which was written by various authors. Although I loved pretty much all the books in that series, romantic suspense is among one of my favorite genres, so I was looking forward to this series. I most definitely was not disappointed. 😉

This was a great beginning to what promises to be an interesting series. I can’t wait to get to know these characters even better, especially now that they’re passed the whole agent/suspect barrier. That doesn’t mean that the added tension between Nick and Ben didn’t keep things interesting. So yeah, I can’t wait for this series to continue.

Original review at Smexy Books:
I love books that cross genres, but when genre expectations conflict, not all readers will be happy and I’m afraid that may be the case with this novel. By the Book is a m/m romance and a thriller – the tale of a novice accountant, Ben Coyne, and Nick Marshall, a playboy FBI agent coming up against his 40th birthday. Ben has discovered a massive accounting incongruity in his first job out of college. Upon alerting his superior, the man is found shot through the head in the parking garage. Nick Marshall’s team is sent to investigate. In classic thriller form, Ben is unable to let go of the accounting problem – he recognizes patterns that look like money laundering – and he continues to examine the files in his own time, painting a target on himself as the novel progresses.

There is a delicious frustration that occurs between Ben and Nick. They both resist their feelings of attraction, and at the same time they develop a begrudging respect for one another. Ben is unafraid to speak up for himself, which both drives Nick nuts and impresses him. But the case puts so many restrictions on them – it’s sort of the reverse of the hotel room with one bed: the case keeps them apart. For one, although Ben is not a suspect, he is not altogether in the clear. As the evidence mounts, the watertightness of the case relies on Ben and Nick maintaining a professional distance.

Readers of thrillers will be used to be protagonists being drawn in an almost telegraphic style, but that doesn’t work as well for romance. Both Ben and Nick are sketched out in a way that would work well for a book resting on the intricacies of the investigation into a money laundering enterprise, but at times I thought their development wasn’t sufficient for connecting with them as two romance heroes. This is not to say that they don’t have enough going on under the hood – just that it remains underexplored in the novel. I definitely wanted them to get together, but I also wanted to know more.

Early in the book, Ben breaks it off with Andy, his friend with benefits. He makes the decision shortly after meeting Nick, so we can surmise that is a relationship between the two events, and I kind of like that Ben is oblivious to that but also decisive. However, subsequent scenes with Andy reveal him to be a manipulative grifter. Don’t get me wrong, I was glad to see the opportunistic wanker hit the road, but his presence in Ben’s life is a bit of a mystery, one that Ben’s perspective sheds no light on. Overall, Ben seems sometimes improbably naïve, including about his workplace, sometimes savvy. Certainly, people can be inconsistent: smart in some ways, rube-like in others. But for me Nick seemed like the more believable character, which is saying a lot: the rich commitment-phobe FBI agent who boxes on the wrong side of town and secretly has a heart of gold.

Halfway through By the Book, Ben learns the answer to a question that has plagued him for much of his life regarding his father. It’s pretty significant for Ben and his mother and concerns a cold case that even Nick is aware of. With all of this swirling in the midst of the tensest part of the book, you might think it would come up again, but it is dropped like a hot potato. That, and the partial resolution of the main case in the book make me think a sequel is planned, but it was dissatisfying to have certain tensions strummed on for half the book and then just disappear.

The blurb for this book sounded great so I requested a copy from Netgalley. This is my first read by this author and I have to say I was left feeling confict in how to review. The story was ok however I found the characters hard to connect with and the balance of romance to story a bit uneven. Will I read more by this author, yes, not connecting with one story means nothing, Will I recommend, well I would like to think readers would read this story and make their own opinion as I am sure many people will enjoyed it.

By The Book is a delightful tale about an FBI agent who is guarding a witness to a major crime. Nick Marshall, the agent, is also quite rich. He gets what he wants, but he can't get Ben Coyne, the witness, as that could bring up suggestions of impropriety and witness tampering.
Ben wants Nick too. Can they wait out the case to the end without violating the rules? You guess!
Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

In G.B. Gordon’s By the Book, a young accountant becomes a target when he stumbles across a money laundering operation, and ends up in the protective custody of a gorgeous FBI agent. Although I suspect some of the procedural elements are off, that’s not unusual for the genre; many movies and TV shows condense or make stuff up in order to enhance the drama, and I suppose the degree to which you enjoy – or don’t – this story will depend on your knowledge of such things and how far you’re willing to suspend your disbelief. I found the premise a bit wobbly, but on the whole By the Book is a quick and entertaining read.

Twenty-five-year-old Bennett Coyne works for a successful import/export company as a junior accountant. He’s been there for about six months and it’s his first real job, so he’s keen to prove himself; he’s scrupulous and hard-working, and when he comes across a serious accounting error, alarm bells start ringing. There is more money in the bank than there should be – a LOT more – and he immediately takes the problem to his boss, who doesn’t seem to be at all bothered by it and tells Ben to leave it with him. Ben worries afterwards – it’s as likely Henderson will throw Ben under the bus as give him the credit for finding the discrepancy – and he spends the rest of the week on tenterhooks, wondering if he’s going to be shown the door. The call comes last thing on Friday afternoon – but instead of being invited in to the office for a discussion, Henderson gives Ben a list of files he wants from storage and tells him to bring them down to his car in the garage. Perplexed, Ben does as asked – only to find his boss face down in a pool of blood next to his car.

Having been born with a silver spoon in his mouth, FBI Special Agent Nick Marshall worked hard to prove himself and is damn good at his job, but despite all that, he’s been unable to shake the trust-fund-baby/playboy label… and has given up trying. It’s not something that’s bothered him all that much until recently; it must be turning forty that’s given him a fit of the glooms. He’s relieved when his boss calls him away from the birthday party he most definitely did NOT want to tell him that he’s just received word of a homicide that took place the day before in which the bullet came from the same gun used in an execution-style murder from six years earlier that has never been solved. Intrigued, Nick goes to interview the guy who found the body.

From here, the story proceeds along expected lines; it’s somewhat formulaic, but the formula works, and the pairing of an FBI agent with someone outside law enforcement is a refreshing change. The investigation held my interest and the author does a good job of building the tension and keeping things moving as Ben decides to do some digging of his own and then becomes a target of whoever is behind the murder and the money-laundering scheme he’s uncovered. At times, he seems to be following moves from the Amateur Sleuth Handbook; I got a bit annoyed with him for holding back important information and being careless of his own safety, for instance – but I liked his determination to get to the truth. Nick is a bit more developed as a character; he’s fifteen years older than Ben (I found it odd that the age difference isn’t mentioned once) and privileged, and would seem to have it all worked out, but really he’s a bit of a mess. He’s snarky and flirtatious, but can also be standoffish and snippy, usually when he’s feeling vulnerable or like he’s on the back foot – which is how he feels around Ben a lot of the time. The two of them are attracted to each other from the get go even though Nick doesn’t want to be, recognising that there’s something about Ben that could spell big trouble for him and his carefree lifestyle. The romance is secondary to the suspense plot and is a bit underdeveloped, but there’s enough chemistry and interaction between Nick and Ben to keep it bubbling along to a firm HFN. I liked the author’s decision not to have the pair become imtimately involved until after the case is concluded; so often in stories of this type, the LEO and the witness begin a relationship during the investigation, which must surely be a conflict of interest or something that could ultimately be damaging to the case.

There are a couple of great secondary characters in the story. Duncan Reid, Nick’s partner, is a great foil for him, and George, his financial adviser, best friend and next-door neighbour is da bomb – she has his number and doesn’t let him get away with anything.

As I said at the outset, procedural dramas are often inaccurate when it comes to the actual procedure and I can mostly go with the flow on that, provided there’s nothing so obviously wrong that it takes me out of the story. But there are other things that did bother me here, the main one being – how come Ben was the only one who discovered the accounting error? When I mentioned this to the accountant in the family, she said that was plausible depending on circumstances – it’s the fact there’s such a large sum sitting unnoticed in the bank account that is the real issue! Also problematic – the fact that Ben apparently takes his own laptop to the office and uses it for work. I had to stop reading and go back to make sure I’d read that correctly; surely that’s a massive no-no? (It is here in the UK). Ben is also given a backstory that feels slightly superfluous, and his characterisation is inconsistent; he feels like a different person at the end of the book to the one we first met. I didn’t like his propensity for nicknames; almost every time he thinks of Nick, it’s as “Agent something” – Agent Prince Charming. Agent Know-it-All. Agent Suit Porn. Agent Dark-and-Handsome… The first few times it was amusing, then it just came off as contrived and gimmicky.

Then there’s the big question I was left with at the end – what happened to the connection between Henderson’s murder and the one six years earlier? That thread is forgotten never to be seen again – although this is the first in a series, so perhaps it will be picked up later? But it that’s the case, there’s no real groundwork for that here.

The thing is, this ended up being one of those times where a book worked for me in spite of its faults. The story is well-paced, the writing is accomplished and very readable, and I liked the characters (in spite of Ben’s coming a bit close to TSTL once or twice). By the Book is the first in the Follow the Money series and I liked it enough to be interested in reading the next instalment when it comes out.

This was more of a mystery than a romance, but I still enjoyed it! Ben was a fun character to follow, but I struggled to enjoy Nick's POV as much. I did like his relationship with his partner, Duncan.

I didn't realize this was the first in a series, so I thought the ending was a little abrupt. But I would probably check out the next book!

I'm conflicted about this one! Let's see. I did like the characters. Ben and Nick had a lot of chemistry and it was fun. The pacing was a bit off for me... in that things moved really slowly at first. In the final pages the pace was so fast I felt a bit cheated.

I can't speak to the accuracy of the accounting - but some of it seemed a bit wonky to me. I've only taken basic accounting but I found it hard to believe that Ben would have been able to figure out a lot of things the FBI couldn't. But then... I'm not in the FBI either :)

I liked the relationship.. and the mystery was decent. I'm guessing as this is a series there will be more coming... there were a few unresolved storylines at the end.

Thanks for letting me read this!

Sometimes the hardest books to review are those that had great potential but didn't quite accomplish what they set out to do. This story is one such book.

As a police procedural the story works for the most part. The overall setup of the story is an interesting one but there are some plot threads that frustrated me to no end as they were left dangling and not revisited by the author. The story of Ben's past, in particular, points to a possible connection to events in the present plot but is never tied in, just hinted at. Nick seems confident enough as an FBI agent but there are several different points in the story that didn't make sense as Nick and Ben alternated between making brilliant deductions or decisions that were breathtakingly stupid. And their romance felt shoehorned into the story - it was just a bit difficult for me to buy their chemistry. The book, in my opinion, probably would have been better off being left as a straight adventure story.

Anyway, the writing style was light and breezy. With this book presenting some interesting characters I'd be interested in seeing what this author comes up with in the future (with some work on plotting, of course).

This is a fast paced mystery that I found I was loathe to put down. I found myself making all the excuses to keep reading.

Ben is more than a junior accountant, and his growth through the story is developed well. He seems earnest and geeky, but he actually quite domineering and like a dog with a bone in terms of solving the crime. He survives a few attempts on his life, and I appreciate a good mystery that makes it seem like they characters are in real danger.

Nick, the trust fund kid turned special agent has to fight his immediate attraction to Ben (the whole conflict of interest thing). This can only be described a slow burn book because nothing happens between the love interests until almost the end of the novel. That seemed more real -- who has time between chasing, hiding and fighting to get between the sheets.

I really enjoyed all the side characters and the story was intricate and interesting. I see now they are calling this number one in a series. Yay, I am here for more.

Thanks to Netgalley and Carina Press for advanced copy. I recommend it if you like a strong mystery and two well developed characters. By the Book is out June 14.

[I received a digital arc for an honest review]

By the Book by G.B. Gordon is the first book in the Following the Money series. Ben Coyne stumbles upon some inconsistencies in the accounting files he’s checking at this first job out of college. He never expects that his find would lead to murder, mystery and him finding himself under the protection of the FBI. Special Agent Nick Marshall is placed on this case due to its similarities with a case he had previously worked on. He is immediately drawn to Ben but knows he must keep professional distance. As the circumstances get more dangerous with each attempt to keep Ben safe Nick is forced to mix work with his private life. Can Nick keep Ben safe while still maintaining the professional boundaries or will Ben find himself too much temptation for the senior agent.

I regularly read and enjoy suspenseful romances. This book failed to balance the suspense with the romance. I understand that Nick was trying to maintain a professional stance and keep Ben safe but the back and forth became too much. It was frustrating because although the case seemed pretty straight forward it just seemed to take way too long for anything to happen.

I didn’t become attached to either character which is a big red flag for me. I appreciated that Nick enjoyed being controlled by the younger man but his constant letting his guard down and then immediately backing away or becoming cold was just too aggressive. Ben was interesting in the sense that I enjoyed his internal dialogue at the start but all the nicknames and comments became repetitive.

2.5 stars

I was attracted ted to the premise of this story. I, unfortunately, didn't feel like satisfied with the story once I finished it.

Heat Factor: Somehow the second time is more explicit and elaborate than the first time? (What?) But not by much - it’s very much a just the highlights situation
Character Chemistry: Did not work for me
Plot: Ben discovers a quarter million accounting error at his company, tells his boss, and then his boss gets murdered
Overall: The characterizations were so muddy I eventually got a headache

Sometimes I think that how I feel when I end a book becomes the whole feeling for the book. This book is a suspense book, so I've decided to break my thoughts down by quarters. Let's see what happens.


25%
So far, we've met the protagonists. Ben has discovered an accounting error at work and Nick has grumpily celebrated his 40th birthday. There's been a murder. Nick gets the case and meets Ben. They both think the other is scrumptiously attractive.

In terms of the plot, I'm totally engaged. What's going on with what is clearly a large crime operation? Is Ben safe? I will say I got a bit frustrated by Ben's lack of imagination regarding financial crimes, but I texted Holly and Ingrid the bones of what Ben knows, and they weren't like, "Obviously that dude is bad so definitely don't talk to him." In fact, the opposite, so from a realism standpoint I guess it works? The benefit of a single POV is that we wouldn't know what Nick knows and maybe wouldn't be frustrated Ben is being somewhat naive, but this is a dual POV so it is what it is.

In terms of romance, I'm not quite sold yet, but I'm willing to be persuaded. It's a lot of the reader being told that Ben and Nick think the other is hot and that they're drawn to each other, but I'm not getting a lot of the underlying reasons for them feeling that way. Hoping this improves, TBH.


50%
Early on, we’re given to understand that this isn’t the first murder Ben has witnessed. By this point, we learn just what that means. Is it connected to these murders, or is it simply that Ben is spectacularly unlucky? There’s been a lot of time in between. Ben also gets beaten pretty badly, but the most gruesome parts that we learn about after the fact are off page.

I am still super invested in the crime mystery. It’s not very fast-paced, but the breadcrumbs are doled out in such a way that I want to keep reading to find out what’s going to happen next. Probably our learning about what exactly happened in Ben’s past helps to keep the momentum going, because it's an added mystery, even if we’re not totally sure that it’s related to the current crime. Also, for all his naivete earlier, Ben is being cleverer.

Romance-wise, well, I’m not getting a ton. I think I’m still invested in the romance because they spend very little time together and want more of each other, so I also want more of them together, but most of what exists when they are together is based on “I’m very physically attracted” with very slight hints of burgeoning emotional investment, as summarized by this line from Ben’s POV:

How the fuck could one be so physically attracted to a person one felt otherwise so ambiguous about?

Which is something that simply doesn’t work for me. There are more actions and interactions that indicate something is growing between them than in the first quarter, so I guess we’ll see what happens.


75%
Well, the action has taken a back seat to the character and romance development, so I've had plenty of time to speculate as to why I'm struggling, and I think it boils down to the characterizations. Also there were a couple things going on that made me think, "REALLY?!" which admittedly did not help.

I've been feeling like my sense of the characters is not jiving with what they’ve been presented as, and that's definitely emphasized in this quarter. There's a mismatch between what is actually behavior on the page and what we're told about their personalities or feelings. Nick is supposedly not having a midlife crisis, and yet most of his behavior screams that he's a hot mess. Maybe he is a hot mess, but if so, how did he get to be a field agent who's well respected enough to get a surprise birthday party from his colleagues and to have his boss personally assign him a case that looks like one of his cold cases? Ben is supposed to be this smart guy who is also assertive or something, but he does not make straightforward connections while in the middle of a criminal investigation, and the first time we meet him, he's too weak willed to kick to the curb the guy who's been using him since college.

Beyond that, there's this underlying D/s energy that doesn't seem to match the characters. And I've read plenty of age gap romances where the younger guy is more assertive, so I'm not saying the power dynamics that come with an age gap can't be played with, or that all subs or all Doms are a certain way. Everything about these characters is just all a jumble. I don't have a good sense of these them at all. So, by extension, I don't really have any investment in their relationship. They've finally kissed, and that moment should have been built up with tension breadcrumbs since the moment they met, but it just…wasn't. I felt nothing.

The whole thing is kind of like this excerpt:
Ben bristled at the command, but now wasn’t the time, and here wasn’t the place to make a scene. He’d managed to thoroughly piss Marshall off. So, what else was new? He found it harder and harder to care.

So he's both bristling and doesn't care? How does that even work?


The End
Y’all.

Things did not improve.

How—please tell me HOW—does one plan to hook up with someone, with a six-month prep time, mind you, and not buy unexpired condoms? I still can’t wrap my head around it. Like. Even if the plan goes south and the person ends up saying no, you’d still be prepared, right?

Okay, aside from that and other WTF moments (which were a non-zero number), the characterization situation was still giving me whiplash, and it would be very much a stretch to call the ending a HFN. Very much.

Like. Stretch Armstrong stretch.

So.

It was a strong start. It got messy. It did not get unmessy by the end.

I voluntarily read and reviewed a complimentary copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. We disclose this in accordance with 16 CFR §255.

This review is also available at The Smut Report.

I voluntarily read and reviewed a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I have received this book by NetGalley and Carina Press (Harlequin), and I am voluntarily leaving an honest review. The Pub date of the book is 14th June.

The idea of the story seemed interesting to me, but there were some things that didn't work out while reading the book.

I don't know anything about business accounting, even more foreign, so the topic itself wasn't something I had explored or understood a lot - which wasn't the problem - but even then, there was always something that left me feeling that something wasn't right in the story about the numbers and laws.

Passing this ahead, I felt a very strange and quick difference in the Ben who starts the book and the Ben who came to be at the end of the book - not by the maturing, but in parts, he seemed another completely different character. It wasn't very easy to like him. Nick's equally, I didn't feel much real connection between the two and that's missing from a story where the rest no longer make total sense.

The investigation is interesting, and I really liked Duncan Reid and the friendship relationship between Nick and George. Ben mentions friends and gets annoyed when Nick tries to protect him, but at any time or part of the book, Ben mentioned or interacted with friends - just the mother and a useless, idiotic ex-boyfriend. So, I don't know if it was strategy or forgetting.

In general, the story entertains those who do not give importance to great details, but for the ones who have some knowledge, it may not be the most interesting.

For me, it made me curious about some points and it seems that it has made room for upcoming books, so I was interested to know what comes and if there will be improvements in the story. But it's not a book I'm interested in reading again.

3.5* Decent intro to the author. Thankfully, NOT a romance, but a decent police procedural.

This was my first read by the author and I was hoping for a solid tale, and it didn't matter if there was a romance or not. There wasn't, in my book, no pun intended, but there were some glances, a kiss, a little bit of slow burn tension, and a decent storyline for the most.

The tale stood on its own as a credible police procedural, though the bad guy was not at all masked and his collaborator was pretty obvious, and the 'victim' lead did have a couple of TSTL moments, but hey, it was credible as he had recently been concussed and bashed (and later on, bashed some more). The other lead was bigged-up as having issues with his lifestyle at 40yo, with his moneyed background, but there was a little too much filler - we didn't get to find out enough about George and how she'd continue to feature in his life. We saw his dad but didn't see his activist, absentee mother and there was no explanation of why. And the other lead's mother, who dropped a whopper of a reveal, exited the tale without us finding out if she and her son repaired their relationship or not.

The romance felt as if it were added because the tale is published by a publisher that does romance mainly, not because it felt integral to the tale. The glances, the abortive kiss, the slight can-we-no-we-can't wasn't really part of the tale and I could have done without it. The leads only got together in the epilogue in a sex scene, and there was no mention of anything going anywhere, so for me, this could have entirely been left out of the tale and I would have just enjoyed the tale without.

ARC courtesy of Carina Publishing and NetGalley, for my reading pleasure.

It was a decent intro to the author but a bit more tying up of threads would have made this a good tale.

“Ben wondered idly why Agent Marshall hadn’t been here today. Maybe it was his day off. Not that it made any difference. To anyone”

“You want me, and you can’t stop. But you want me to stop?”
I really liked it !!
Mystery, murder, secrets, investigation and a forbidden attraction that can’t be explored !!!!
There was a forced proximity, a working together and an age gap trope … honestly it was really good !!! It’s even LGBTQIA so … definitely a plus !!!!
I liked following the investigation and even reading about the twist and turns of the two main characters’ relationship !!! And the spice, though short, was really good too !!!!
And honestly … I also felt a bit of a grumpy / sunshine trope in here that made it all more thrilling !!!
Definitely check this series out !!
“He needed to remember that Marshall had been grumpy and snappy earlier, not the way he had melted into the almost-kiss”
“Eyes up, Benny Boy”