A Dirty Business by Tijan

Narrated by CJ Bloom and Joe Arden

Mafia Romance. First in a Duet.

I have always wanted to read Tijan because I know how popular she is, but most of her books are High School or College aged and that’s just not my thing. When I saw the audio for A Dirty Business was part of the Kindle Unlimited program, and the characters were older, I decided I’d read my first Tijan book (and my first official mafia book).

It didn’t start out well. Jess Montell is a New York parole officer. She wears her badge everywhere and her job is mentioned like a gazillion times. This trained officer was looking for a bathroom at a hockey game and ended up getting trapped in a stairwell that she walked into thinking it was the bathroom. 🙄

While in that stairwell, she meets and immediately wants Trace West. They have an instant connection…until he sees her badge and closes down and walks away. Jess can’t stop thinking about him, even after finding out that he is the heir to one of New York’s biggest mafia families.

Trace can’t stop thinking of Jess either. They had a two minute conversation in a stairwell and she’s a parole officer, he’s a criminal. That doesn’t stop him from stalking her and having investigators follow her. And Jess thinks with her vagina, because she does some stupid shit like get in a car with the stranger she just met and knows is a killer.

I know it sounds like I hated the book. I didn’t. The story was interesting, Trace’s family and business situation was the best part of the book. The second half was much better than the first, but A Dirty Business was over 11 ½ hours and it felt like there was a lot of filler.

I never felt like I really got to know either character beyond the superficial, and I never saw the connection between the couple, especially not enough for them both to risk their careers for each other. They were both just immediately obsessed.

“Because when it comes to you, I have absolutely no fucking control over myself.”

I saw there was a second book in the series, but it was about another character, especially as Jess and Trace seem to be headed towards a happily ever after. There were lots of loose ends, but it seemed as if the book would end with a HFN (Happy for Now) until BAM: Surprise cliffhanger. It just wasn’t enough of one to make me grab the next book. I might come back one day, but I doubt it.

Likes:

I liked the forbidden aspects of a cop and a mobster.
Loved the mystery.
Good side characters.
Kept me engaged and listening.
The family/mob stuff was good.
I loved that Jess was a female parole officer, that was a unique job I have never read about in a book.

Dislikes:

Surprise cliffhanger.
I never understood why they were obsessed with each other.
We were never explained why Jess’s family was the way it was.
I know she’s a PO. I felt like we were hit over the head with it.

The Narration:

CJ Bloom and Joe Arden are both amazing narrators and I think they enhanced the book. Their voices were perfect for the characters.

The Down & Dirty:

I liked A Dirty Business by Tijan. I liked the actual storyline a lot, but I had a hard time with the character and relationship development. The instalust that made them both risk everything just didn’t make sense to me. During the epilogue I had mostly gotten over it and was happy with the happy for now ending until the cliffhanger. I just wasn’t invested in the couple enough to pick up the next book. But I may come back one day.