Review: Felice (Bayou Bad Boys #1) by Kathleen Bittner Roth

Print Length: 384 pages

Publisher: Zebra (April 28, 2020)

From Goodreads.com:  When beautiful shipping heiress Felicité Marielle Christiane Andrews finally returns to New Orleans after two years abroad, she does not expect to come face to face with the man she cannot forget—or to find him more captivating than ever. Now she must remind herself that she:

Lives a fabulous life in England
Is engaged to marry a fine man of nobility
Cannot allow the wicked Cajun back into her life. . .

...But indeed, she does.

Charismatic René Thibodeaux, illegitimate son of a voodoo witch, has worked hard to rise above his poverty-stricken bayou youth. He's put his thieving and womanizing days behind him and earned a high-ranking position at Felice's father's company. Seeing her again only intensifies his longing for her—and his deep remorse for his past foolishness. But despite his success, he must remind himself:

He is unworthy of Felice in every way
She is forbidden fruit
He will do anything to win her—even risk his life. . .

                                                         *******************

My Rating: 3 stars out of 5

While I strongly believe that other people will enjoy this novel, I just wasn't feeling it. 

To begin with, Felice was such an interesting character. Being raised around all men, she has grown into a feisty young woman who not only knows her own mind, but isn’t afraid to speak it either. So why on Earth did she put up with a prig like Ainsworth who belittled her friends and family? From nearly the first time we meet him, you can tell there is something off about the man, but then he goes to dinner with his fiancé’s family, and proceeds to complain about them to her and then act surprised when she becomes offended. As the story continues, his character just seems to get worse and worse until as a reader, I must wonder what the point of him was at all. Sure, he is a nasty piece of work, but I would have thought someone as smart as Felice is purported to be, it wouldn’t have taken her so long to put the pieces together. He serves no purpose other than a potential scapegoat.

And speaking of scapegoats, that whole who murdered character X and the following courtroom scene was just preposterous. The way the judge allowed people to just hop up and say whatever they wanted turned me off to begin with, but then it just became so unbelievably out there that I was having trouble believing it.

Now Rene and Felice? They had all the makings of a great story. A history with each other,  tension so thick you could feel it, and a sharp wit that made nearly all of their exchanges fun. I enjoyed it whenever they were on the page together. I do think her brother Michael was a bit overbearing when it came to both Felice and Rene as people, occasionally acting in a manner that was entirely too presumptuous (for example with the way dangled a carrot of a partnership in front of Rene, and then threatened to blacklist him entirely if he touched Felice).

Overall, as I said in the beginning, I do believe this book will appeal to a lot of other people. Those who enjoy second chance romances, those who like their females with a bit of a backbone, and those who enjoy a setting we don’t often see in historical romances will likely enjoy this story very much. I would read more from this author.

DISCLAIMER: I received a complimentary copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review. This has not affected my review in any way. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own.

                                                         *******************

                                
                                     Felice is available from Amazon.com