Review - Scandal Never Sleeps

Title: Scandal Never Sleeps
Author: Shayla Black and Lexi Blake
Publishing Date: August 2015
Genre: Contemporary
Rating: C-
Sensuality: Hot
Book Disclosure: I received this book in a goodie bag at the RT book convention 2016.

Scandal Never Sleeps is the first book in the Perfect Gentleman Series.  This series is about a group of powerful, men who attended Creighton Academy when they were boys.  They essentially became each other's family and would do anything for each other.  Now they are all grown up and one of their own, Maddox Crawford, has died unexpectedly in a plane crash.  Grieving, Gabriel just wants to loose himself in the arms of an attractive woman he meets after Mad's funeral.  Everly is reeling from the unexpected loss of her friend Maddox and impulsively decides to sleep with a stranger, something she would never do under normal circumstances.  What Everly and Gabe don't know is that Everly worked for Mad as his head of IT Security and when Gabe inherits Mad's company he becomes Everly's new boss.  But it gets even more complicated when foul play is suspected in Mad's death and Gabe becomes the top suspect. 

This book had so much potential, I mean there is a lot going on with the plot.  We have all these hot, wealthy, powerful men banding together.  We have a murder mystery to solve, with lots of plot twists and turns.  We have a sexy romance burning up the pages.  So why didn't this work for me???  Two words for you - Mental Lusting.  Ugh!!!  A large part of the book had the hero or heroine lusting after the other, and it really didn't work for me given their situation.  They are both being chased by paparazzi, there is a house fire set by thugs, almost being run down by a car, and yet there is still plenty of time for Gabe to ogle Everly's chest.  Really???  Also, Everly was prone to TSTL moments.

That being said, I am such a sucker because I still want to read the next book.  There was a lot of sequel bating in this book because of the mystery surrounding Mad's death.  They don't solve it and there are still a lot of unanswered questions.  The next book will be between Connor, the CIA agent and the senator's daughter, Lara Armstrong.  She has a political blog that is causing trouble for the Perfect Gentlemen and Connor has a hard on for her.  Literally!