Until four years ago, Charlotte "Charlie" Finch was a police officer, but after being betrayed by her NYPD colleagues, she now works the poker tables in a bar. She still has a score to settle with Dmitri Romanov, the New York Russian mafia boss, who had a hand in her fall from grace. So when Aiden O'Malley enters the bar to make her an offer, she reluctantly listens. Aiden, head of the infamous O'Malleys from the Boston underworld, and Charlie had met a year before and sparks flew briefly; Charlie didn't give Aiden a second thought, but Aiden might have found a way for them both to get their revenge on Romanov: Charlie will have to convince everyone that she is Aiden's fiancée.

I had expected the follow-up to FORBIDDEN PROMISES to be about Keira and Dmitri, alas it was not to be. However, Aiden had seemed a pretty fascinating character, and I'm not quite sure what happened, but I never became invested in UNDERCOVER ATTRACTION. There were no major problems per se, but there were many improbable little things that in the end added up, and the result was not particularly satisfactory, for this reader anyway. The other books in The O'Malleys have great characters are very fast-paced, with terrific action sequences, and the romantic interests share incendiary chemistry, all of which were notably absent here. At the beginning of their fake relationship, Charlie has no qualms about them having sex, she acknowledges the attraction, and yet for a good while it was mostly Aiden who did the work, orally or manually; I wondered if it was the author's way of telling us that Aiden was a caring man; still, it felt odd. Although told in the third person, there was quite a bit of internal dialogue, but very little was actually going on. I have read every book in this series, and I must say that the villains, who seemed to have appeared previously, did not ring a bell. I don't really know why they were brought in, as they were a tad too over the top to be believable.

On the other hand, the cop/criminal angle within the romance was expertly handled, as were the tenuous family relationships. Liam O'Malley played a tiny role, and I wished we had seen a bit more of him, because he seemed to liven things up, for reasons that entirely escape me. I felt the romance was rather lackluster, apart from a few moments, but Keira and Dmitri were their usual entertaining selves, so yet again, I am waiting for Dmitri.

Book Summary

Scandal. Wealth. Power. Seduction. Welcome to the world of the O'Malleys.

Ex-cop Charlotte Finch used to think there was a clear line between right and wrong. Then her fellow officers betrayed her, and the world is no longer so black and white. Especially when it's Aiden O'Malley, one of the most dangerous men in Boston, who offers her a chance for justice. The only catch: she'll have to pretend to be his fiancée for his plan to work.

Aiden can't afford to let anyone see the man behind the mask. To run the O'Malley empire, he has to be cool and controlled at all times. But the moment he meets Charlie, they're playing with fire. Her slightest touch is enough to send him over the edge. At first their "engagement" was a way to eliminate his enemies. Now he'll do whatever it takes to keep her safe-- even if he has to destroy his own family to do it.