Sweet Talk definitely has a lot of things going for it.  Drawing you in from page one, this novel is full of adventure and action.  It is plot-driven and will keep you on your toes.  Olivia is strongwilled and independent—she has to be, as she’s been through a lot and has no support from family, on top of the fact that she works for the IRS.  Grayson is also strongwilled and egotistical, but that goes with his job at the FBI.  From the first moment these two meet, there are fireworks that never lessen throughout the entire book.  But lots of people are out to get Olivia and Grayson is supposed to protect her—will their budding romance get in the way of Grayson’s instincts and intuition?

While Sweet talk is a very plot-driven page turner, sometimes the plot overrides the characters to make them very two dimensional.  The beginning is very fun and lighthearted, but it is frittered away as the focus shifts from all the plots and subplots over to the development of the relationship between Olivia and Grayson, and then back to more multiple plots of death and embezzlement.  While it was fun to run from one death threat and attempted murder to another, by the end a few more were thrown in that seemed to just be in there because they wanted a few more quickies before it ended.

Out of all the characters, my personal favorite was Henry, Grayson’s 9 year old nephew.  What a character!  He is the plucky comic relief who breathes life into a story that bogged down with murder plots (there are LOTS of them!), fraud, and a whole lot of love-making.

Overall, though, this is a fun book.  Sweet Talk is the kind of book you’d pick up as a light read for the beach or on an airplane and then pass on. 
This book was sent to Compass Book Ratings for review by Penguin Group

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language: 40 religious exclamations; 77 mild obscenities; 29 derogatory names; 6 anatomical terms.

Violence/Gore: Some children in scary and harmful circumstances; a character receives many death threats and angry remarks over the phone; Many references to people wanting a character to die; a character is beat up by a bully (punch in nose, kicked, thrown against a locker, etc.–4 pages); a character gets stitches (has a head covered in blood); a character is shot 3 times (8 pages); a group of characters surround a house–gunshots are heard and 2 characters die (3 pages); a character is attacked and choked (no death–1 page); a character discovers they are being poisoned (1 page); a character is almost kidnapped and the would-be kidnappers confess the whole plan under duress and threats (includes overdosing of tranquilizer medications and death–7 pages); characters look at pictures with copious amounts of blood; a character is attacked by two others in a public place–they try to strangle and shoot the character (4 pages); Some characters jump on others to keep them from harming people.

Sex/Nudity: Many instances of kissing; Some of the kisses are very descriptive and lengthy; many instances of harassment, leering, creepy comments from other characters, ogling; many descriptions of how clothing looks and fits; many innuendoes and thoughts; many references to past times of being together; an attempted rape with no details; 2 scenes of nudity; 2 mature discussions about sex (one is 3 pages); many references to having sex; 5 very descriptuve sexual encounters, 2 of them are extended (8 pages and 5 pages).

Mature Subject Matter:

Terminal Illness, Gambling, Family Issues, Life threatening Situations, Action Violence, Fraud, Relationships (Family/Friends/Partners).

Alcohol / Drug Use:

A character is constantly in rehab due to extreme drug addiction and alcohol use; there are many instances of drinking alcohol (wine, beer, etc.) throughout; A reference to characters who want to start a Meth Lab in their basement.