Review: The Legal Affair

The Legal Affair by Nisha Sharma
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. 

It was her blinding confidence, and a woman that confident pressed all his buttons. 

Before you start this one, you'll want to read the first in the series (The Takeover Effect) as this picks up right where that one left off. The Singh family company, Bharat Inc., is still dealing with the fallout of some corporate espionage from WTA, a business trying to do a hostile buyout takeover. Ajay is the middle Singh brother and the one picked to takeover as CEO of Bharat when his father retires, which is soon. He's seen as more easygoing but with his new responsibilities, he's confidently stepping up to the plate. When he meets Rajneet Kaur Hothi at a Gen One Foundation gala, he's instantly drawn to her. Raj is bestfriends with Ajay's older brother Hem's girlfriend Mina (book 1) but also the one who alerted them to the corporate espionage that could have lost them the company because Raj's soon-to-be ex-husband Robert was the leak. Ajay's younger brother Zail blames Raj for getting one of their coders fired, a woman he seems to be in love with, and threatens to pull his support for Ajay's nomination to CEO if Ajay pursues a working relationship with Raj. If you couldn't tell, the Singh Family series is full of high-stakes family and business drama. 

“Soni,” he said, knowing that the Punjabi word for beautiful fit her more perfectly than any English endearment could. 

You're going to have to like some corporate world drama to like this series, it's about half of the story. I like how it gives the setting a sleek contemporary feel with high-level drama with all the power and money at stake. It also gives our characters something to do and provides a way for all our characters to interact. Raj was a fantastic strong character and I loved how it started off showing her arriving in America alone at eighteen, getting scammed, having to take those first steps alone, and then thriving and in charge with her own security business, RKH Collective. Her relationship with Robert is already on the outs when readers come in, remember he was part of the corporate espionage in book one, and they are getting a divorce. It also helps to put that relationship in the distance when Raj discusses how it was more of a partnership where they both benefited from each other's business connections, instead of a romance. This is also an Avon Impulse, so it leans more on the steamy side and my oh my is there a couple hot scenes in this. Raj owns her sexuality and a membership at an exclusive club, which leads to a possessive Ajay and some voyeurism. 

Ajay grinned as he rolled his sleeves to his elbows. “You’ve made things more interesting since you’ve showed up, Rajneet Kaur Hothi. I’ll give you that.” 

Ajay wasn't quite as captivating a character as Raj, he gets shadowed a lot by the business plot and I missed more scenes with his brothers, we get some battles with him and Zail over Raj but I wanted more of their loving bond. Raj has a little bit of her own family drama, we get introduced to her brother Guru, who turned her family against her when she refused to want to associate with their opium drug trading business or go back to Punjab and marry who they wanted. I liked the filling out of her character with this background but Guru just kind of hangs around getting ignored by Raj and then just leaves? The ending to Raj not going back to see her sick mother felt dropped off/open ended enough to feel very dissatisfying. Maybe Guru will show up in a spin-off series? Raj's family servant Kaka also didn't get enough scenes with her to solidify or satisfy me with the bond that could have provided some great emotions. The family connections laid out in the first book were there but not strengthen with emotional scenes in this one for me. 

He grinned, pulling her close. “Soni, basa tusi itaraza karo.” Just you wait. 

By 50% Ajay seems to already be all-in with Raj, he says a couple lines that allude to her being it for him and then at 60% when Raj gets scared, Ajay says she has to be the one to start things back up. Their separation doesn't last long and then they're working together again as Raj decides selling her business to Ajay will help him secure CEO and she can focus more on philanthropy work, which she has always wanted to do. The espionage is revealed to not quite be over as wrongly identified and yet to be identified moles are still a problem for Bharat, Inc. Raj takes care of business though, when her ex-husband, with some help from some of those Bharat, Inc. problems, gets a hit piece published on her. It was great how she handled it but also put Ajay more in the shadows as his character and their romance didn't shine as bright. 

This was a glossy contemporary that had a lot of corporate espionage and a quick but steamy romance. The younger brother Zail looks to have some groveling to do with the misidentified mole and their cousin Bhram seems to have a tumultuous relationship with Ajay's assistant Rafael, the Singh family looks to have plenty of family, romance, and business drama on the horizon.

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