Make Her Pay
4 Stars

Former Navy SEAL, Constantine Xenakis, has spent years on the questionable side of the law. Now, after rejoining the Bullet Catchers, Con must prove himself by investigating a series of thefts on board a salvage ship. Thus, no one is more surprised that Con when he catches diver Lizzie Dare red-handed in the treasure room and decides to help her recover a stolen ancestral legacy. But someone else is also on the trail and will stop at nothing to satiate their greed. Can Con and Lizzie beat them to the treasure?

Con was an intriguing character in the last book and he more than lives up to expectations in this one. There are one or two moments when the secret keeping trope raises its ugly head and Con's actions are rather questionable. Thankfully, this is very short lived and does not undermine either the suspense or the romance.

Lizzie is a charming heroine and her initial encounter with Con is one of the best (and steamiest in the series). The romance is sweet and the conflicts realistic.

The treasure hunt aspects of the story are exciting and the backstory on Lizzie's ancestor is very compelling. The mystery has some good twists and the identity of one of the villains comes as a complete surprise. St. Claire has some excellent misdirection here.

On a side note, Lucy Sharpe is an exceedingly unlikable woman and she does not redeem herself in her own book or in this one. Her tendency toward making snap judgments about people and twisting her view of professional ethics to suit her purposes is annoying in the extreme. Can you tell I don't like Lucy? :)

All in all, an excellent conclusion to the series and I'm glad I didn't give up on it with Lucy's book.
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Nice read. Makes me curious about the rest of the series.
Grade: B ( )