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    Sweet Talk
    Sweet Talk
    Sweet Talk
    Audiobook (abridged)5 hours

    Sweet Talk

    Written by Julie Garwood

    Narrated by Angela Dawe

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    When FBI agent Grayson Kincaid first encounters Olivia MacKenzie, she makes quite an impression.

    The beautiful, tough young attorney has stumbled into the middle of an FBI sting operation and reduced it to chaos. Months of surveillance and careful planning down the drain, Kincaid’s partner is furious and lets Olivia know that she’s ticked off the wrong guy. After all, he’s FBI.

    But Olivia isn’t intimidated by his partner’s bullying because she’s something even scarier…she’s IRS.

    And working for the IRS is no picnic. She’s on the trail of an elaborate Ponzi scheme, one that threatens to ruin the lives of naive and unsuspecting victims, and one she has personal reasons to be angry about. But after she asks the wrong people questions, her life is suddenly endangered. She’s accustomed to looking out for others who are weak, but being vulnerable herself makes her realize she needs help. In desperation, she calls Grayson Kincaid.

    Together they join forces to fight corruption, but Olivia is also fighting the immediate and intense attraction she feels for Agent Kincaid, and that may be a battle she is bound to lose.

    “As always, Ms. Garwood creates engaging characters who come alive page after page. The banter and interaction between Ellie and Max is beyond charming. Ellie is a spirited and strong heroine, and Max is charming in a stoic, gruff sort of way.” —New York Journal of Books on The Ideal Man

    “Julie Garwood creates masterpieces every time she writes a book. Indeed, she is the Rembrandt of romance novels.” —The Kansas City Star

    “Julie Garwood has become a trusted brand name in romantic fiction.” —People

    “It’s [Garwood’s] timely subjects set against a timeless background that attract so many modern readers.” —USA Today

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateAug 7, 2012
    ISBN9781441882769
    Sweet Talk
    Author

    Julie Garwood

    Julie Garwood (1944--2023) was the author of numerous New York Times bestsellers, including Fire and Ice, Shadow Music, Shadow Dance, Murder List, Killjoy, Mercy, Heartbreaker, Ransom, and Come the Spring. There are more than thirty-six million copies of her books in print.

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    Reviews for Sweet Talk

    3.5/5

    154 ratings15 reviews

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    • 4/5
      When Olivia was young, she had cancer. She went through the whole chemotherapy and experimental therapy with the support of three girls going through the same thing. He family was too "busy" to offer her support. Her father was busy making money and her mother and sister were busy being supports for her father. Now Olivia is an adult and a lawyer who works for the IRS. She is convinced that her father is a criminal running some sort of Ponzi scheme but hasn't found the evidence yet.When she goes to a job interview with another financier, she gets in the middle of a FBI sting. Seems Jorguson is suspected of money laundering. When he rips her dress looking for a wire and sics his bodyguard on her, she is saved by FBI agent Grayson Kincaid. Kincaid is smitten with her and becomes very protective when someone shoots her. Grayson and Olivia are busy trying to find out who shot at her. There are lots of suspects.Is it her father or his slimy lawyer buddy Simmons? Is it someone she came into contact with because she works for the IRS? Is it someone who she crossed as she takes cases to protect children in danger? All the while, Grayson and Olivia are falling in love. But Olivia doesn't think she has a future. What if the cancer comes back? She saw what it did to her friend's families. She doesn't want to put anyone she loves through that kind of thing. This was a great romance with well-developed characters. Even the side characters were fully fleshed out. I was especially fond of Grayson's nephew Henry who hired Olivia to be his personal lawyer. Bullying at his private school made him need one! And Olivia's Aunt Emma and her cook Mary provided the love and family Olivia didn't get from her own parents. I recommend this one to romance lovers who like some mystery too.
    • 2/5
      I read some reviews that were favourable and thought perhaps ms. Garwood finally brought back her good stories. Alas this was not the case for me. I made it halfway and put the book down for a month out of boredom. . Picked it back up made it to 75% and skimmed the rest. I found no chemistry between the characters and the plot was not interesting. If you are a fan of Garwoods older books like me, I feel you would find this book a large disappointment.
    • 3/5
      It was okay but no where near as good as some of her other books.
    • 2/5
      Started off good but the romance seems too high-school-ish and the writing is a little to simple. And easy read and some of it was good but I'm not all that interested in reading any more Julie Garwood
    • 3/5
      I enjoyed this book, but was really confused about the series. This is number 10 in the Buchanan-Renard series and not one character was named Buchanan or Renard that I noticed. I'd love to see Goodreads add more information about series to its offerings.

      I liked the characters, though I didn't like the way Grayson calling Olivia 'sweetheart'. It didn't read as loving as I think the author intended. the story was pretty good, though I would have liked a few scenes with the family when Olivia was in the hospital to add context to the way they treated Olivia. I hope to see these characters again.
    • 2/5
      Only read this book if you are stuck at an airport and you brought nothing but electronic amusement and you have to buy something. On second thought, buy a magazine or take a nap -- you'll get more out of it than reading this.
    • 2/5
      The story line wasn't bad but I don't like all the explicit sex scenes. I just skipped over those parts but I don't think I'll be reading any more of Julie Garwood's books.
    • 1/5
      Originally posted at Romance Around the Corner

      I’m a huge fan of Julie Garwood. She’s one of my favorite historical romance authors and I also like her contemporaries. I thoroughly enjoyed her last book, The Ideal Man, and I was anxiously waiting for Sweet Spot. I regret to say that I was very disappointed.

      Olivia is an IRS agent and an attorney that works with children in danger. She’s investigating a Ponzi scheme to bring her father down. In the middle of a job interview, she interrupts an FBI investigation. Grayson Kinkaid, the agent in charge, is equal parts pissed and attracted to Olivia. He doesn’t want a serious relationship so they flirt a bit and leave at that. But when she is attacked, he realizes that keeping her safe means keeping her close.

      This book started so well. It opens with a flashback that gives us some insight into Olivia’s childhood as well as her friends’. When she was a kid she suffered from what I assume was cancer and went through a series of brutal treatments. She bonded with three girls that were going through the same and they remained best friends. Then there’s the scene where she confronts one of the bad guys, it made me feel like it would be a fun, interesting story with a strong heroine. But it all fell apart in a mess of unnecessary subplots and an underdeveloped, boring main story.

      The romance was weak and the characters lacked the usual spark. Olivia and Grayson shared no chemistry and the romance was bland. While I was reading the book, I had to battle the urge to skim through it because I wasn’t interested in the story.

      The bad guys were cartoonish, with no redeeming qualities, depth or even motivation. They were just evil for the sake of it. So the suspense aspect of the plot was just as bland and uninteresting as the rest of the book.
      As I said before, the book lacked focus. There’s a subplot involving one of the friends that gets sick again. I thought that was the best part of the book, yet it was also predictable and unnecessary. Olivia works with troubled kids, so we have yet another subplot revolving around one of said kids. What’s worse, the filler characters and subplots were more entertaining that the main characters and plot.

      Sweet Spot is a mediocre book. It’s not bad, I was able to finish it and I’m even wondering if one of the friends will get her own book. But it’s very disappointing because Ms. Garwood is a fantastic author that can do so much better. I’m just scratching my head wondering what happened.

      Grade: 1.5

      Source: we received an e-ARC of the book through NetGalley for review purposes.
    • 5/5
      I seem to go through Julie Garwood waves. I'll read half a dozen or a dozen of her books in a row and then it'll be six months or a year before I pick up another of her books. Apparently I'm in a wave right now though and I have to say I'm enjoying it:)

      Sweet Talk was a book I got at the library and I so enjoyed it that I will be buying it ASAP. Olivia is smart, independent, loving, and loyal - at least to those who deserve it - and she doesn't take crap from anyone. Grayson is smart, strong, gentle, with a fierce protectiveness towards those he cares about or those who are crime victims. The chemistry between the two is well-written and believable while the overall plot is engaging and perfectly paced.

      I would definitely recommend Sweet Talk!
    • 3/5
      One of four young girls who survived a particularly nasty experimental cancer treatment, Olivia MacKenzie is all grown up. She loves her job, but when budget cuts threaten she's forced to start making the rounds of the interview circuit. It's just her bad luck that her latest interview melts down and lands her smack in the middle of a months-long FBI investigation. Suddenly it seems as if everyone's gunning for Olivia. Good thing she has Bond look-alike FBI agent Grayson Kincaid on her case.Garwood's modern fiction has an unfortunate tendency to be adjective-logged, which is distracting. And this particular story reads a bit as if she's channeling Catherine Coulter. Some moments of humor, but unfortunately too few and far between. Grayson is absent as often as not, and Olivia is fairly one-dimensional. So-so, but check this one out from the library if you can; definitely not worth springing for the hardcover.
    • 3/5
      A good, but flawed, story. If you're not super picky on consistency in tone, plot and character voice, definitely give it a read. It is entertaining.
    • 2/5
      Julie Garwood has written this book before. It seems like she has just slotted in a few different names and locations. IRS agent Olivia MacKenzie wants to put her father in jail for his ponzi scheme. Her family shuns her. She puts herself in danger because the ponzi scheme is falling apart, and she is pushing it over the edge. As a result, there are threats on her life and she needs FBI agent Grayson Kincaid to help her out. Been there, done that.
    • 2/5
      I thought this sounded good: a female attorney working with a male FBI agent to uncover a Ponzi scheme, written by “a New York Times best selling author.”It turns out that the attorney is the incredibly unbelievably stunning Olivia MacKenzie, and the FBI agent is the incredibly unbelievably good-looking Grayson Kincaid. Both are (incredibly, unbelievably) single. Obviously they get together, as in he took possession of her. He is, need we qualify, strong yet gentle, viz.: “His skin was hot, and she could feel his strength, but it didn’t overwhelm her, for he was being so incredibly gentle, so loving.” In addition, she spends some one-on-one time with “his arousal.” Okay, I have to admit, I have never heard that particular euphemism. (It makes me think of "His Highness" or "His Majesty.") But wait, there’s more! I started to think the author secretly works for a perfume company, even though she never names names. Grayson kept mentioned how turned-on he got by Olivia’s perfume:"When he got a whiff of her perfume, he instantly reacted. Her scent had the power to drive him crazy. It was so damned sexy.”Wow! I’ll have what she’s having!Olivia has three best friends, who like Olivia, are likeable and have some nuance. None of the men do. Curious. Grayson is all perfection, his "arousal" and all! ....that is, unless you have objections to scenes like this, describing the climax, so to speak, of the attraction Olivia and Grayson have for one another:"For Grayson, the primal need to touch her overrode caution. Her perfume blended with her natural scent, enticing him. [THERE WE GO WITH THE PERFUME AGAIN!] He stood in front of her, one hand on the small of her back, the other at her neck. He roughly twisted her hair around his fist, forced her head back, and growled, ‘Open your mouth for me,’ a scant second before his mouth covered hers.”Okay, okay, that one had me ROTFL, pounding the couch, with the tears coming out of my eyes. I know, I know, it’s not funny. But OMG, I’m hoping I don’t need to rant (again) about the outrageousness of the eroticization of dominance/submissive behavior and how women are taught to associate arousal with male power displays. You've probably had enough of that lately from all the negative reviews of Fifty Shades of Gray and its offshoots. Thus I will refrain from going off on what we might call Fifty Shades of Grayson....So I’ll just stick to other issues. Like the opening scene, for example, when the author has Eric Jorguson - the CEO of one of the largest investment firms in the country - a man, you would think, who knows how to behave in public - totally lose it in a restaurant – shouting and threatening to kill Olivia – yelling across the room to his bodyguard to “get her! Get her!” AFTER he ripped open her dress down the front and she responded by punching him in the nose. Right…. [insert emoticon of dripping sarcasm] Specifically, after the (well-deserved) nose punch, Jorguson "screams" at Olivia (but oddly, without any exclamation marks): "How dare you touch me. You’re going to be sorry. I know people who will hurt you.”Yep! Sounds like CEO talk to me! But Olivia need never have feared anyway: who rescues her from Eric Jorguson? You guessed it: No, no! NOT Dudley Do-right! This is when Olivia meets Agent Grayson Kincaid, who was thinking: "Everything about her appealed to him. Whatever perfume she was wearing was a real turn on.”GAAAAAH!Evaluation: In the front of this book, a fly sheet notes that “Julie Garwood is the author of twenty-three consecutive New York Times bestsellers.” More than 36 million copies of her books are in print. As Grayson said after having sex the first time with Olivia, “Wow.”
    • 3/5
      I have been a fan of Julie Garwood since my late teens when I was completely addicted to historical romance novels. One thing Ms. Garwood does extremely well is historical romance. Pick up any one of her novels and you will see what I am talking about. I especially love For the Roses and Saving Grace. In 2000, she decided to cut her teeth at contemporary romance. She introduced us to the Buchanan family with Heartbreaker and hasn’t looked back since. Her newest installment in this FBI heavy series is Sweet Talk about a gusty IRS attorney Olivia MacKenzie and Grayson Kincaid, one of the FBI’s finest. They meet under the usual way: smart beautiful sexy woman gets in trouble and smart, fearless, sexy man saves her. And of course he can’t take his eyes off her because she’s perfect and she can’t take her eyes off him because she never seen a male specimen that fine. And so begins their whirlwind romance.If you are looking for a break from the mold, sadly you won’t get it. I don’t necessarily blame Ms. Garwood. I think it could be more a genre issue than a writer’s issue. Then again, my opinion is biased, as you will find out below. She is far from “calling it in,” but this is lackluster compared to her earlier works. I believe the major flaw in Ms. Garwood work is that she creates characters that are too perfect. Even their minuscule flaws are endearing. I found Olivia to be reckless and Grayson too domineering. Overall the story moves quickly, it is action packed. But is it missing something, something critical to make this a success.The thing is I am willing to overlook these flaws because of one thing, and one thing only…I love Julie Garwood. I love her writing style. I love how she sucks me in. In spite of knowing how it will end, I keep on reading. In spite of how annoyingly perfect the characters can be, I keep reading. Part of me feels she can do no wrong. What contradicts those thoughts is I have read her early contemporary romance novels and I can read the difference. I know how fantastic Heartbreaker and my absolute favorite Mercy are. I makes me a little sad that she can’t quite muster that magic again. I just hope it is not lost forever.
    • 4/5
      I absolutely love Garwood’s historical romances but for the most part other than The Ideal Man I have not been a huge fan of her contemporary romances. Fortunately this one brings back many of the aspects I enjoy in her historical romances. Garwood’s trademark humor is back and on the mark bringing me lots of laughs. The humor in Garwood’s books is a major factor in making Garwood one of my favorite authors.I also really enjoyed the main characters. Olivia is feisty, strong and intelligent without feeling like she has to take stupid risks to try and prove how smart and independent she is...See my full review on