Hi there! Today I’m sharing a review for BENTLEY, a new contemporary romance from Melanie Moreland. BENTLEY is the first book in the Vested Interest series and features an odd-couple romance between a wealthy real estate mogul and the orphaned art student who turns his head.

About the book:
Bentley.
The leader of the group. He is uptight, formal, and cold. Rigid and set in his ways, always following the same path. Until the day, he stumbles upon her.

Emmy.
She brings with her spontaneity and light. The world she lives in is so different from his, yet he cannot control the draw to her. Nor can he explain the way she makes him feel.
Happy.
Protective.
Loved.

My Review:
Bentley is a wealthy man in his early thirties. He owns his own real estate development company and is planning his next big endeavor, but someone keeps buying the properties he wants right out from under him. He’s frustrated, and wary due to threatening messages he’s begun receiving. His two best friends, Maddox and Aiden, have joined him in the business, but none of them have found lifelong partners. They make a great team, but each man is missing love.

Bentley meets Emmy when he trips over her knapsack in a crowded cafe. She’s irreverent and uncowed by his surliness. That intrigues him, and he’s interested enough to seek out further meetings, and a date. Emmy is an orphan and is struggling her way through art school; something to which Bentley can relate. He’s charmed by Emmy from the start, and their romance blossoms quickly, with Aiden and Maddox making fast “friends” with Emmy’s close pals. But, the threats soon extend to Emmy, and Bentley’s unwilling to let her fall into danger on his account.

There’s a bit of suspense here, and the sexytimes are rather mellow. Not a lot of extended sweaty business. I liked the connection, and how sweet it was from the start. While there’s an attraction, it’s not overwhelming the focus. They enjoy their building camaraderie and it grows into the physical. I had the mystery solved before the first chapter ended, I think, but that was okay, too. I still liked how it unfolded, and I’m looking forward to reading the next books in this series.

Interested? You can find BENTLEY on Goodreads, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble, iBooks, and Kobo.

About the Author:
New York Times/USA Today bestselling author Melanie Moreland, lives a happy and content life in a quiet area of Ontario with her beloved husband of twenty-seven-plus years and their rescue cat Amber. Nothing means more to her than her friends and family, and she cherishes every moment spent with them.

While seriously addicted to coffee, and highly challenged with all things computer-related and technical, she relishes baking, cooking, and trying new recipes for people to sample. She loves to throw dinner parties, and also enjoys travelling, here and abroad, but finds coming home is always the best part of any trip.

Melanie loves stories, especially paired with a good wine, and enjoys skydiving (free falling over a fleck of dust) extreme snowboarding (falling down stairs) and piloting her own helicopter (tripping over her own feet.) She’s learned happily ever afters, even bumpy ones, are all in how you tell the story.

You can catch up with Melanie on her Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, or sign up for her Newsletter.