Book Review: Bidding War

Title: Bidding War
Author: Charlotte Byrd
Genre: Romance, Fiction, Crime

What It’s About: June is at the office and after staring at the IRS document for several hours without making any progress, Garrett tells her to go for a run, so she does exactly that and gets donuts for both Garrett and herself. She runs back all the way to the office, only to be met by her boss, Wallace, who tells her that they’re letting her go. He mentions something about cutting costs, but June does not believe it, and when she mentions Elliot West by asking if he’s the one that’s putting the pressure on this, he clams up, so she knows that it’s his fault. On her way out of the office, she texts Anderson to meet her—they haven’t talked for a while because she wants a break from this and the drama—and later that night they chat, where she tells him that his father had her fired. They have a falling out, and she breaks up with him in the middle of the street. Callie comes by as well with groceries and tells her that she didn’t know—just that she found out about her being fired from Daniel in the last hours, as he had taken her on a Yacht to get her away from the situation at the office.

June isn’t able to land another job, and when she goes to an interview with another firm, the woman in charge loves her, telling her that she will be expecting to hear from them. She then receives a rejection letter from them, and when she calls them, the woman tells her that she’s been basically blackballed from the industry, which pisses June off even more because that means that Elliot is doing everything he can to destroy her. During a run, she runs past the old bar where she used to bartend during college, and talks to Kelsey, the owner, who gives her a job as a bartender—she figures that she can take the role for now, in order to get money in her account, so she’s not dipping all the way through her savings. And at first June loves the job because it’s not stressful, and she doesn’t have to worry about clients and their issues, so she sticks around.

One day at a different cafe, she meets Neil, who then also comes to visit her at the bar. They hit it off really well, and he is very charming in a farmer from Iowa type way, though he tells her that he’s from Nebraska and tells her that he’s a hedge fund manager. She shares her lunch break with him, while Anderson watches them from the other side—having learnt from Moss how to create disguises. That night, she takes Neil back to her apartment, only for him to start choking her when they’re in the lobby waiting for the elevator, and tells her that she’s not telling him what to do; that he will be the one that tells her what to do. Unbeknownst to her, Anderson had followed them, and when she comes to after passing out from Neil squeezing her neck, she watches them fight. Anderson ends up getting the upper hand, and knocks Neil out cold. He checks on her, and then they both check on Neil only to realize that he had died. Anderson tells her that he’s going to call Moss, because it won’t look good that he’s killed someone even in self defense—after all, an ex-boyfriend stalking her and then killing the guy that she was with doesn’t go well in a court of peers.

Moss shows up, helps them out in cleaning up, and then asks Anderson to help him with the body. June goes up to her room and waits for Anderson, after showering. Anderson goes to a lake with Moss, and they drop the body in the water of the lake, before Moss drives him back to June’s apartment. They make up, and June says that she wants to be back with him. They end up having sex and he stays the night. This continues on for a while, as June does not have to be anywhere besides the bar, though she does make it late to the bar shift the first night that he stays over. While on a shift, she gets a message from Andre Moeller, the man who kidnapped her, with a job offer that would give her revenge as well.

At first she decides to ignore it, but then she decides to at least meet him and hear him out. While Anderson goes to the office to meet with his dad, June goes to meet with Andre and he tells her that he is in need of a lawyer, and gives her a salary that beats her old one. She speaks with Anderson later that evening at a restaurant, but it doesn’t go well (as expected) as Anderson doesn’t want her to work for Andre, though she does explain to him that she wants to make her own money. At some point, Anderson raises his voice at her that makes her freeze because of her own trauma with her father. But she tells him that she wants to be respected and use her degree, and that she’s the one that makes the decisions on this, not him.

Anderson gets a phone call from his brother Cole, asking about why his father is pissed off about June, an auction, and something else. Anderson goes to see his father, who in turn tells him that he knows everything because he is on the committee at the Charity House that runs that auction, and that he has his hands in a lot of things, so if Anderson doesn’t do what he tells him to do, then he will be going against Boston. Elliot tells Anderson that he’s forbidden to be with June or to even be in contact with June. Anderson comes home to a worried June as he had never replied to her messages. He tells her what happened with his dad, and tells her that he’s going to do it anyway, because he loves her.

Moss takes Anderson with him on another job, this time to see a CPA who owes Elliot West $100,000.00. The CPA pulls out a gun on them, muttering something about how he should have not been involved, after telling them that he wasn’t able to get his money from the 401k. Moss tries to calm him down, but the CPA does not do well with it, and ends up shooting at Moss. Anderson jumps himself in the line of fire, getting a gunshot wound to his stomach. Moss beats up the CPA, and then kills him, before grabbing Anderson and taking him to a special place—not a hospital.

June doesn’t hear from Anderson for a while, and gets worried. When Callie calls her worrying about Daniel not liking her once he sees the real her, she begins to doubt whether or not Anderson is with her or maybe he has a side chick in his apartment. She goes to visit his apartment, but no one opens the door. Anderson wakes up in a hospital to his mom sitting next to him. She asks him how he is doing, and then his father comes in, telling her to go get some food and drink. He tells Anderson that he shouldn’t have gotten in the way of the help—that he needs to live, not protect the help, and he shouldn’t have ever done that at all, being very condescending about people who work for him. Moss comes by to visit and he vows to help Anderson, swearing an oath that his loyalty is now Anderson’s. Anderson tells him to continue being loyal to his dad because he can’t know as he might send someone else after him, and then asks for a phone as his father had taken his phone and has refused any phones in Anderson’s room—Moss has a burner phone, so he uses that to call June, and to tell her that he will explain to her in person what has happened, but that he will be home in his place the following day.

Moss drops Anderson off in his apartment the next day, and puts groceries in for him. He tells him that he won’t say a word about June being with him, even though it goes against what his father wants. He talks about making him soup with tripe and other things, but then leaves him alone so June can come by, and promises to tell the nurse to go away. June comes by and Anderson tells her the truth of what had happened—And June is happy that he is still alive and doesn’t want to take him for granted. She works from home and focuses on Andre’s request—he sent her some documents from several companies that he wants to buy and thinks that they are cheating on their taxes—while she takes care of Anderson. At some point, Anderson’s mother comes by and June talks with her, but then Anderson wakes up and sees her. His mother tells him that his father is right about June—that he needs to think about his future and that she is not the person who will work for him when he goes and becomes a senator and all that stuff. But Anderson is adamant that she is indeed the one he wants, and that’s the end of it.

Time goes by and Anderson heals. When he’s way better, his father asks him to visit him at the office, and Elliot is extremely nice to him—giving him a smile that usually he reserves for his wife, not his sons, and tells him that he’s been taken off assignments with Moss; that he’s now to do Office work only. He tells Anderson that he wants to meet June at Sunday dinner again, and asks him about how she’s fairing, and he also asks about his own health. June on the other hand goes and makes a presentation in front of Andre and his partners about the companies that Andre asked about. Before the presentation, she had a call from her father—a lawyer who created such a scam that he was sent to jail—and afterwards, her father meets up with her at the lobby of the office she works at, telling her that he has reservations at lunch. He asks her if they could work on their relationship at the end of the lunch, when he walks her back to her office.

Anderson takes June to his parent’s house, and she tells him about her father and his visit. They spend a good time at Anderson’s parents, and his mom tells him that he should take Elliot’s good side for as long as he can, because she doesn’t know how long it will last. She does tell him that it wasn’t difficult to convince him to agree to some of her own demands, but that he still is rattled by nearly losing his own son, and the last time his attitude had adjusted like this was when his own parents had died and that only lasted a year.

They return to Anderson’s apartment, and are drunk on wine, when he mentions about having been cleared for sex, and about proposing, before he takes her to his bed, where they have sex. June tells him not to joke about proposing, but he pulls out a box and actually proposes to her.

The next morning, he gets them coffee after they wake up and June is watching the news, when it comes on that the body of Neil, a hedge-fund manager who has gone missing three months prior, shows up. She looks at him and asks him what they are going to do.

My Thoughts: I really enjoyed the way this story was coming together—there are parts of it where it’s pretty exhausting, especially around the breakup and then the coming back together. I feel like the author could have done away with all of that and just had them not speak for a little while as they sort through their feelings and stuff, and saved the grief of having to deal with accidentally killing someone in self defense—though I guess we wouldn’t have had that to keep the next book going on this story. Overall, I love June (but not the name!) and Anderson together, and I look forward to seeing them have a happy ending. Let’s see what happens in the next book, with the discovery of Neil’s body and how that bites Anderson in the behind—because I’m certain this would, as unless the police in Boston are extremely corrupt, they would not have put him to trial for self defense even if he was stalking his ex-girlfriend—they could have even made up a different story like them being in an open relationship and that Anderson was coming by because he had forgotten something only to see her being choked by this guy. I don’t know, but I feel like there’s something else that they could have done. But now I’m curious to know what will be the outcome of this and how that will play upon June and Anderson’s relationship now that they’re truly engaged.