Reviewed by Vicki
TITLE: Corkscrewed
AUTHOR: M.J. O’Shea
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 200 pages
BLURB:
Cary Talbot has found the perfect mark. Marigold Shelley is filthy rich, and her newly found grandson, Isaac Shelley, is poised to inherit her huge estate, complete with a priceless wine collection. Cary concocts a plan to con both of them into selling the crown jewel of that collection to him at a bargain price. Since Isaac is young, single, and gay, part of Cary’s scheme to get close to the Shelleys includes seduction.
But Isaac isn’t the sheep he appears to be. He isn’t even the grandson he appears to be. Isaac is, in fact, running quite the con of his own.
These two masters of the confidence game are pitted against each other, and both are after the ultimate prize—a chunk of the huge Shelley fortune. It’s only when a third cunning player comes in and is ready to outwit them both that they must band together and beat their opponent or see all they’ve worked for slip from their grasp one ruby-red drop at a time.
REVIEW:
What a fun story! I love the cover, the characters, and the plot!
Isaac is the apprentice of Roman, a long time con man, who is heading out of the country and sets Isaac up for the con of his life time. Roman has found a perfect way for Isaac to be set up, he looks remarkable like a the missing grandson of Marigold Shelley, wealthy wine collector and vineyard owner. Isaac makes his move and gets a job at a restaurant that Marigold likes to eat at, and there we go! She sees him and says he’s her lost grandson. Now he just has to stick with it until she signs over the grandson’s trust.
Cary is an experienced con man, who with the help of Jules, his computer chick, sets up a plan to go to a lovely vineyard in Sonoma and con an old lady out of nine bottles of priceless wine. Yup, you guessed it, Marigold Shelley! He’s going in as an insurance evaluator, sent in to check out and authenticate the expensive wine collection she has, and convince her that a specific group of bottles is not what it appears to be. Even though they have been authenticated mutliple times. So he and Jules set up this elaborate plan, including using Isaac, the newly discovered grandson to help convince Marigold of his authenticity.
Neither knows the other is there to con Marigold, but they are both drawn to the other. Marigold sees this and encourages their attraction, to the point of asking Cary if he’d like to stay in her guesthouse! Cary jumps at the chance, getting closer to the wine and Marigold is good, but closer to the very attractive grandson is a bonus. The two spend a fair amount of time in the wine cellar “working”, and slowly develop some feelings for each other.
So we obviously know what’s going on, and I found it quite fun to watch as each of them questions their own motivations in their schemes. Both come to care for not only each other, but for Marigold as well, and the vineyard. It all starts to fall apart around them, as there appears to be a third party involved in some sort of nefarious plan as well.
Isaac and Cary are great characters, Isaac is young and a bit naive, considering he’s a grifter, Cary much more experienced in all ways. Sometimes they are sweet, other times not, depending on they are in “con” mode, or being real with each other. Their sex is yummy, they are young and hot, but also gentle and sweet with each other. The other characters are good too, Jules is funny, and I loved Marigold. This story had good details, the house, the wine, the horse names, things like that all added to my enjoyment of the story. I can’t say it was the most realistic plot that I have read, but in this story, in this book, it all worked very well for me!
I’ve read four or five books by M.J. now, and I’ve enjoyed all of them. She writes good character driven stories, with great plots. This is another great book from her!
RATING:
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