The Bachelor Bargain

Secrets, Scandals, and Spies Series, Book 1

By: Maddison Michaels

Narrated by: Ashford MacNab

Length: 13 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

Bachelors, beware. For those who keep secrets and prey on the innocent, you will be exposed, with all your dirty little secrets laid bare to one and all. You have been warned....

Lady Olivia Haliford has had enough. Tired of seeing women lose their reputations, futures, and sometimes even their lives to scandal while the men walk free, she is ready to take back power and stand up for women everywhere. Along with her two closest friends, she plans to start an anonymous publication dedicated to dishing the dirt and exposing the secrets of society's most eligible bachelors. But in order to do so, she will have to make a deal with the devil....

Sebastian Colver, known as the Bastard of Baker Street, is feared throughout London as the city's most notorious gambling den owner and undisputed king of the underground. He agrees to be a silent partner in the publishing of the Gazette if she will use her connections to sponsor his sister and launch her into Society and away from his dark world.

But exposing the secrets of the rich and powerful can be dangerous. Almost as dangerous as a lady falling in love with the king of the underground.

Contains mature themes.

©2021 Maddison Fitzsimmons (P)2022 Tantor

Pretty good... but the ending is sappy

Worth a credit. But the ending... made me cringe, There's "happily ever after", and then there's sickeningly sappy... Rewrite?

The best of all the Maddison Michaels books!!

Fantastic story with strong characters who bring you through every possible emotion. Two people who do their best to defend others and truly believe they don’t deserve happiness, find each other and try to guard their hearts from being broken. Had happy highs and gut wrenching lows.

If you have read any of Maddison Michaels other books, you know there tends to be some dark criminal backgrounds. You have to be able to handle evil “bad guys” who do evil things and not faint at strong language. That being said, this was such an awesome story. I’m so happy I bought this one.

The next in the series is in print but not yet an audiobook. Hopefully won’t have to wait to long but I’ll be getting the kindle version in the meantime. Favorite from this author so far! Narrator was great, as always, too.

Just Lovely

As most over-thinkers do, I’ve been feeling a little lost as of late. It’s been a long time since I listened to a whole book. But I throughly enjoyed this installment. Great tension through the lovers and the great secrets that brought them together. Not a wasted credit at all.

Slow start building up to an intense love story!

When I started the story I enjoyed the story and thought it would turn out to be a light romance but as the story continued it got deep and had a touch of suspense. It ended on a high emotional note with me in tears! I enjoyed the book and was very happy with the happy ever after ending! The narrator was excellent!!

Great writing

This book is funny, insightful, and a must rad if you enjoy books by Sarah Maclean, you will really like this series!

Great Story

This was actually a really good story. And I can’t tell you how long it’s been since I’ve listened to a really good story LOL. The narrating was so-so. The man’s voices weren’t nearly as good as I would’ve liked. However, the story sets up for several others and what I’m hoping will be a pretty good series. I can’t wait to read the next one.

Great story and characters

I may have gotten annoyed with Olivia once or twice but it was worth it. Having a disability myself, it is easy to see why her self doubt drives her to push people away and feel less than. I think the love and passion she shares with Seb really help her heal. One very good round of sex with lots of build up. Happy ending, that is what we all want right? Enjoy this one!

started out strong

Laiden with misogynistic tropes and cliches, while riffing off of popular quotes on love with no creativity or originality. It was intriguing in the beginning with disability representation, but there was absolutely no empowerment for the disabled protagonist in relation to her disability. The male lead is emotionally constipated but with nothing new, just the same repressed algorithm. This is very much a carbon copy of the author's other couples, with minimal personality changes and in a different context. I was sorely disappointed by the lack of real engagement with the issues and characters. One of the punishments mentioned is literally almost straight from the Princess Bride. If you're looking for rivals/almost-enemies to lovers, miscommunication tropes, and characters with a victim mentality who can't possibly imagine healthy love or happiness for themselves, this book is for you. Not terrible, but I got a headache from rolling my eyes so often.

Too long....way too long

The plot of this book was mostly unclear and there were way too many sub-plots. The characters were interesting but needed definition. I listened to the whole book...that's a plus. But, I did fast forward through the last 10 chapters. If a good editor took out 1/3 of the redundant words and firmed up the plot and with a different narrator, this would be a really good book.

Interesting concept; not bad

I got on board for the plot of a proper lady entering into business with a gaming hell owner, hoping for saucy shenanigans.
Finding out that H (Sebastian "Bastard of Baker Street" repeated sooooooo many times) is essentially a mob boss, has done awful things and killed a lot. No, seriously, A. LOT. H is trying to go legit; he owns a lot of the titled lords in London through his business deals (or by winning their fortunes when they gambled it away). H is trying to be high society but he's still Sebby-from-the-block, ruling his turf and taking no shite from a rival gang that is trying to oust his gang.
To paint a picture of how deadly serious he is about avenging a wrong done to him, we learn that he enacted perversely awful revenge on the man that kidnapped and horrifyingly killed his mother. These acts of violence were more than I needed (and, lesson learned, I will check descriptions more thoroughly for content warnings). I guess that's a motive and illustrates how brutal the H is, ("We are from different worlds") and puts a fine point in how much danger the h (Olivia "Livvy") is in by association with the the H. These descriptions turned my stomach...but our h is not afraid.
The h is on a mission to get justice for her best friend who was used by a "honorable gentleman", got pregnant, and died suspiciously. "Justice for Alice", is h's motto and driving force. This allows her to ignore H's reputation (or accept and move on, pretty easily cause he cares about his mother and sister), to partner with H. h must investigate and puts herself in danger, pretty quickly relying on H to save her (in the guise of "protecting his investment"). She doesn't go about investigating with much discretion, which ultimately gets her identified by the rival gang. More threats to use the h against the H, but she is determined (and reckless), charmingly so, because the H can't get her off his mind.
Another reviewer said that the last third of the book got melodramatic, and it did. Both h and H get in their feels and suddenly, what was impossible ("we come from different worlds!") gets conquered by love and some good ol' fashion peer pressure. Truly though, what is society/ton, but adults being a-holes because of peer pressure and money?
What took me out of the story: I'm pretty sure the narrator used the word Okay; if that is in the actual book, that's funny. I don't claim to know when "okay" made it into English usage but methinks not yet.
The use of "darn" in place of "damn" was laughable, especially when "fuck" was used multiple times (startlingly so), and "bitch" made an appearance.
Other funny stuff: narrator sounded like Catherine de Berg (A&E Pride & Prejudice version) when speaking for the h's godmother, Dragon of Something-I-Can't-Remember.
I realize that this is a meandering review... This book was not awful; listened to the whole thing but won't do it again.
It was a happy ending. 😁 ♥️ Love conquers some...?
The next book, with Livvy's friend Kat, sounds interesting but I will not be paying an Audible credit for it.