BOOK REVIEW: "The Find" by Gregg Bell

She found a watch. A monster found a plaything. 

Looking for love is the last thing on single mother Phoebe Jackson's mind. She's desperate to find a way to make enough money to help her sick child and will do anything to save her. Finding an expensive bejeweled watch is just the lucky break she needs, and her need to save her child overwhelms her ethics and she decides to take it.
Unbeknownst to her, the watch belongs to the mobster Michael "Fingertips" Contini. Within days Contini discovers she took the watch and confronts her, and soon Phoebe's lured into his world of wealth and power, and finds much much more than she was looking for...
Former cop Brent Greer, Phoebe's ex-husband's best friend, knows Contini's history all too well and knows that Phoebe is blind to how much danger she's really in. Her problems may be none of his business, but he can't stand by and watch her fall in deeper. Extricating her from the vicious gangster is harder every day she spends with him—yet if Brent can't convince Phoebe to get out, a deadly end can't be far off.

I was given a copy of this book by the author in exchange for an honest review.

A story that could've been very (very) predictable, The Find was a...well, a pleasant find! From the very beginning of the story, you feel for Phoebe, a woman whose husband left her and who has to children she loves more than life. One of those kids is ill, and Phoebe's job doesn't give her health insurance.
As a child of a single mom who was always sick, I immediately felt for her, but stopped when I saw her go down the road so many people do: lured by more wealth than she knows what to do with when she gets involved with a mobster.
Brent is a very typical do-gooder ex-cop who probably likes Phoebe as he tries to save her. But, also typical, she doesn't listen and is blinded by shiny things as she falls deeper and deeper into the mobster's trap. I liked Brent, despite his simple facade. He is handsome, honest and a real hero.
The story does not follow the traditional path a romantic suspense novel takes. It doesn't completely deviate from the path, but it veers off-road just enough to have kept me entertained through the end and made me want to know what other ideas there are floating around Mr. Bell's mind!
A great read that many will find entertaining and exciting.

4/5--a dark and exciting story.




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