Suspecting Her was an interesting novel, following Erin and Nat as they attempt to display the racism in the real estate field, an intriguing concept however I felt the romance pushed the investigation to the back. The exploration could have been a whole new book, as it was an important subject and would be appealing for me to read, yet Erin's attitude toward the investigation, putting it behind so that she could attempt to have a relationship with someone, was disappointing. In addition, I found Nat (the journalist and Erin's best friend) to be highlighted in a negative light, which I thought was disheartening as the black character was portrayed as the 'bad guy' in a story about racism. I never really clicked with Erin, and thought she seemed extremely selfish for putting her relationships ahead of an incredibly important topic for her best friend, and found her annoying, with silly decisions and very conflicting emotions. Overall, the writing was good, and the concept incredibly important and interesting, however not for me.
Thank you Bold Stokes Books and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I LOVE LONGING RELATIONSHIPS and this was perfect for the craving i had. Slowburn is my shit, okay? and damn I was served!!!

I think the blurb made me have other expectations for this book. The writing is good and it does bring important points with the idea of racism in realty, but I had difficulties with Erin. It was a weird situation having her as part of a journalistic investigation.

I liked this book but I didn't love it and I’m not sure why. The two main protagonists are good friends and their relationship is well written but it felt somewhat uneven to me. At times I wanted to give Erin a good shake and tell her to get a grip of her life…

Erin is an artist in NY who has lost her mojo and is struggling financially. Her friend Nat offers a lifeline to help investigate racist practices in a large Estate Agent practice. I wondered about the newspaper Nat worked for and how it seemed to have lots of money although operating on a shoestring. There were some comments about the “financial journalism arm” making money.

Erin meets Catherine and they have a complicated, messy try at getting together but again it didn’t really work for me. The writing is excellent, the plotting is strong but I just didn’t connect with Erin or Nat although I thought the investigation was an excellent device and allowed good debate around racist practices. I would read another book by this author as she certainly has talent and good ideas.

I was given a copy of this book by Netgalley in return for an honest review

This was a different kind of love story. Erin goes to NYC after being criticized for her paintings at an art show, She has little money and needs to work. Her friend Nat gives Erin a part time job helping her research an articcle for a magazine, Erin is a character who has little self esteem and sleeps around with no commitment. Nat and Kendra are Erin;s friends and she cooks for them. While on the story, Erin meets Catherine and the fun begins. This a story about racial profiling and leads to many twists and turns.
I found this an interesting read once I got into the story. Tbere are many emotions in this story. and Erin is the most emotional.
I recommend this book for romance readers.

I couldn’t connect to this story. I think a little bit of everything could have been improved on: plot, mains, etc. I would read other books by the author but I don’t think I’ll be reading this one again.

I hate leaving negative reviews, but…,

I just did not connect with this book. The premise is incredibly interesting and unique, but I kept forgetting the actual plot while reading. There is a lot of extra commentary and kind of random tid-bits of dialogue that just really threw me off. Like, the part when Erin describes the clear blue sky as a “9/11 sky” bothers me SO much.

I almost feel like there are two different books going on here. Like, Erin’s story could be separate from Nat’s because I felt like her love triangle plot took away from the bigger goal of exposing the racism in the company. Some points the two plots worked well and balanced each other, but the majority of the time it felt choppy.

I wanted to like this book because there were some great sections of writing in it and the story has so much potential, but it just didn’t come together for me in the end. To end on a positive note, I adore the cover and I would read more from this author, just not this particular book again.

Thank you NetGalley and the author for providing me this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I sort of feel ambivalent about this book... The plot was great and engaging, the characters are likable enough, but at points it wasn't delivering like I expected to...

Great writing, and an interesting story. Lesfic tends to follow a real structured plan, particularly for romance. This is different, and I both applaud and welcome it. This is a serious novel, but enjoyable, and intriguing. Thanks to NetGalley and Bold Stroke Books for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

3.5⭐️ – This isn’t an easy book to review. I both liked and disliked it, and it’s the same with the characters.

A few years ago, Erin was an up and coming young painter, whose personal and artistic lives fell apart at the same time. Now she’s struggling to make ends meet. Her best friend Nat, a journalist, offers her a temporary job. She needs help with in the field research for an article on racist practices by a real estate agency.

I liked the premise of the story, yet I wish Nat’s investigation into the real estate agents’ prejudiced practices was at the forefront. The topic deserves to take precedence, not play second fiddle to Erin’s romance. That said, it’s the author’s choice to tell Erin’s story first, and within that choice, I think she managed to show how important Nat’s articles are. Erin is all in, not only for the money she desperately needs but because of her loyalty to Nat, even if she doesn’t understand how vital the investigation is.

Erin is white and aware of racism but she’s not directly affected by it. Her ignorance of the reality shows at time and the author didn’t cut her any slack. Nat is Black and there’s a very poignant scene in which she explains to Erin what daily life is when one’s skin isn’t white. That’s probably my main regret about this book, that Nat’s character wasn’t more developed.

The romance is well-done. Some events are predictable but that’s not unusual in romance. And I like the anticipation of wondering how the characters will be affected by the consequences of their decisions. As in her debut novel, Burns put her main character between two women. In this story though, one is very quickly out of the race when Erin realises how much the other woman has come to matter to her.

I’m usually a very character-driven reader, and I must say I didn’t feel much connection to any of the characters. What’s interesting though is that for once, it didn’t stop me from wanting to know what would happen to them. And I found myself unexpectedly moved when the investigation puts the budding love story in danger.

When I read the author’s debut, I felt there were too many details, too much minutiae. There are still too many descriptions for me, even though they didn’t slow my reading as much.

And kudos to the author for giving the cat-feeling-left-out-during-sex scene a try.

I received a copy from the publisher and I am voluntarily leaving a review.

A fun and quirky book with a serious back story of how racism is both insidious and overt. The plot and the characters were engaging. The background of real estate and the art world was an interesting combination that seemed well researched or maybe well lived. Either way the author wrote with definite authenticity. One of the leads, Catherine, could have done with more depth. She felt a little sketched in at times and I wanted to know more about her. Ok book, with a beautiful cover.

A romance book with a difficult, and very relevant, angle where Erin is a jobless and spiritless artist who stopped creating after a bad incident leading to harsh reviews. Her best friend Nat offers her a job helping out with an investigative journalism piece about segmentation and racism at a top realtor firm.
I find it difficult to write a review...there were some thought provoking paragraphs like when Erin realizes how ingrained white privilege is or how many times Nat is subject to racism without Erin even noticing. The original angle is a big plus for this book. Also Erin's growth from being dejected and slowly opening up, picking up art again and reinventing herself is nicely done.
Yet then there is the execution and at that point it fell short in my opinion. The writing style is not clean and crisp, it took me a long time and rereading several lines to figure out how exactly Erin was going to help Nat with her research. Also, Nat is not written as a very likeable character by putting her article over Erin's happiness, yet in all honesty, as her best friend and with all the eye openers Erin had, she should realize how important the story is to Nat and just wait for a little before pursueing Caroline, a realtor at the company they are investigating.
I think it's the wrong choice in a book that leans heavily on racism to write her black best friend as a sorta bad guy.
Apart from the aforementioned growth when it comes to Erin picking up her art again, the characters are rather flat. I didn't feel a connection with any one of them and even though I did like some of the interactions between Erin and Caroline there was too little of it to make this a great romance.

I will give it 3 stars because of the original subject and the redeeming parts I did like. Thank you Netgalley and Bold Stroke Book for providing an ARC to read and review.

What a surprising read. I did not expect this current and relevant story. Erin O'Connor, artist, financially struggling, hiding from critics, and sadden from relationship betrayal. Natalie Robicheaux, journalist, focused on exposing housing discrimination. Catherine Williams, realtor, loner, financially doing well, and not necessarily looking for a relationship.

This read looks at redlining which is the practice of denying a credit worthy applicant a loan for housing in a certain neighborhood and all of the ugliness that goes with it. This timely and important story was bumpy in some places in regard to word choice and sentence structure. I was confused about some of the points being made because of how the information flowed.

Nat is a passionate character that has a story to tell. At times she came across as being too much. But when you care, you sometimes lose perspective and what is important. Catherine is good at what she does and for the most part keeps to herself. Kendra, Nat's wife is level headed and likable. Erin is gun shy yet looking for a little push to get back out there. This read is about Nat and her drive to tell a story. Yet, Erin is extremely important to the story because she needs help, helps Nat and is working to find herself. In general, a good and current event read.

Not the standard of romance books, in fact the romance was used to amplify to the main story which is about racism and white privilege. I think that Erin’s relationship with Nat is not only better constructed than Erin and Catherine but is the main relationship in this story. All in all a relevant story and a good read.

The blurb for Suspecting Her by Mary P. Burns sounded really interesting. Erin, a down-on-her-luck artist helping out a journalist friend by going undercover to find out if a prominent realty company is using racist practices is intriguing. Falling for one of the realtors adds to the conflict. Setting the story in New York City should have made the tale even better. With all these positives, this could have been a great novel. Unfortunately, for me anyway, it ended up being only an average story.

The tale is not all bad. The writing is good overall. The descriptions of the setting and the characters are probably the best part of the writing. Erin is very well described, and I kind of liked her. The biggest problem I had with the book is that I never really connected with any of the characters, and if I don’t connect with them, I won’t enjoy the story. That is exactly what happened here.
Even though this particular novel was not for me, I do see some potential in this author’s writing, and will look for future books written by her.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books for an honest review.

The story line wasn't bad. I just 'enjoy it. The characters needed to be more developed. I couldn't comprehend the relationship between Nat and Erin. Why do everything to please Nat when in my opinion she's very judgmental and only cares about is her story. The story touches on racism and white privilege. Regardless I will recommend as another reader might find a better connection. 3 stars


Thank you Bold Stokes Books and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was a hard book to read. I did not enjoy the writing style and found the flow very choppy. I felt the author did have some nice lines that were heart warming. I thought the characters were only partially developed. Erin seemed like an okay character but I was not a fan of how dependent she was on Nat. I did not like how selfish Nat appeared and how the author wrote the character. I think it is hard for a white woman to accurately portray a Black woman without flawing her.

This is not your average romance novel. It explores the real world with all its ugliness and chaos and the million hurts we create in interpersonal relationships. I found Suspecting Her to be an intense reading pleasure. It scrutinizes the themes of white privilege, racism and discrimination while also examining self worth and trust in relationships. The style of writing reminds me of novels from Canadian or Scandinavian writers. There is an underlying bleakness and desolation to the main character of Erin O’Connor. It comes from her tortured soul as an artist. Having been at the brink of success in the art world and then self annihilating her career, Erin has fallen to rock bottom. Her best friend and investigative reporter Nat Robicheaux offers Erin a lifeline as a researcher for her article on racial discrimination practices at a local realty company. While attending a showing Erin meets Catherine Williams, the most successful realtor in the company. There is a definite attraction at their first meeting which both are willing to explore.

I enjoyed this novel immensely. I loved the weightiness of the subject matter combined with the slow development of the romance. The dialogue between Erin and Catherine is witty and engaging at times while deep and brutally honest other times.
Much effort is focused on the descriptive narrative in the novel. To me this enriches the story by giving the reader a perspective of the novels landscape as seen by Erin’s artistic eye.
The friendship between Nat and Erin is written from the position of white privilege. As the novel is from Erin’s perspective, this is a conscious decision by Burns to demonstrate Erin’s privileged point of view. It is a subtle and daring move by the author which may be misconstrued by some readers yet it showcases how deep and insidious white privilege runs in even the most well meaning.
This well written novel made me think long and hard to understand my response to each character and the storyline. It challenged me and I loved that it did. I highly recommend this book if you are up for the challenge.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley and the publisher for my honest review.

There are these books out there that in theory are looking like they will be a winner, but in practice just let you down. To me, this is one of those books.

The premise is intriguing, racism in realty that a character is trying to expose. For starters the journalist who is trying to expose the realty company isn't our main, Nat is sort of a pushy and at times annoying secondary character. Our main, Erin, is a broke artist down on her luck. She's been down on her luck ever since her last art show crashed and burned. Scraping by she agrees to help Nat with her expose. Little does she know she will meet Catherine, the charismatic realtor who swore of love. Things get complicated real quick of course and Erin remains a very loyal friend to Nat.

What I don't understand about this book is how Erin goes about life, she is a confusing character for me. She seems like an amazing friend, Nat always comes first, but that is about all I like about her. And honestly, I'm not even sure I like how she blindly follows Nat. Catherine at first seems like a ruthless realtor who might have a soft heart, but she turns out to be just a bit of a gullible woman. I do think Catherine deserves better than Erin, even though Catherine's last relationship ended because she cheated. Mind you, she tells Erin this, we don't "experience" this event.

There are things about this book I just didn't enjoy, I found myself skimming most of the pages and still I had to put it down because it just couldn't hold my attention. I think I just didn't connect with the writing, it's for sure I didn't connect with the characters. This book could have been so good with the racism angle, but I just found it to be a strange choice for a romance catalyst. Anyway, I'm sure there are readers out there who will enjoy this a lot more than I did, 2.5 stars.

Very good slow burn romance with a touch of drama and angst. Erin who's a artist is just getting back to sketching when she catches a glimpse of Catherine the realtor for the first-time in the park while waiting for her friend Nat and this is where the story starts. Erin is trying to get back on her feet after losing her job when her friend Nat gives her a job as her assistant working on a news blog about investigating unlawful practices at several realtor companies practicing systemic racism. I really liked this book it had several different stories going on at once, but this didn't bog the book down in any way just made it more interesting. Erin and Catherine were so sweet and loving together and I loved that it was an age gap romance. I would definitely recommend this book to all my friends and family and I look forward to what this author writes about next.