{"id":45006,"date":"2019-08-06T08:29:19","date_gmt":"2019-08-06T12:29:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=45006"},"modified":"2019-08-06T08:29:19","modified_gmt":"2019-08-06T12:29:19","slug":"arc-review-discretion-the-dumonts-1-by-karina-halle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=45006","title":{"rendered":"ARC Review: Discretion (The Dumonts, #1) by Karina Halle"},"content":{"rendered":"

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From New York Times bestselling author Karina Halle comes a delicious saga of wealth, luxury, and scandal\u2014and the wicked secrets\u00a0of success behind an envied family dynasty.<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Discretion, a full-length contemporary standalone romance by Karina Halle\u00a0is Live!<\/strong><\/h4>\n

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\u00a0 Amazon US<\/a> |\u00a0 Amazon Worldwide<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0 Paperback<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n

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Blurb<\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n

From New York Times bestselling author Karina Halle comes a delicious saga of wealth, luxury, and scandal\u2014and the wicked secrets of success behind an envied family dynasty.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Riviera means indulgence\u2014if you\u2019ve got money. For Sadie Reynolds, a down-on-her-luck student, the Riviera means dingy hostels and back streets. When a wrong turn puts her in jeopardy, the last thing she expects is to be saved by the most handsome stranger she\u2019s ever locked eyes with. When she later wakes up in a luxury suite with a Mediterranean view, she\u2019s in the tender care of her rescuer: Olivier Dumont, France\u2019s most eligible bachelor, billionaire hotelier, and heir to the Dumont fashion fortune.<\/p>\n

Olivier also owns his reputation for scandal. But Sadie is unlike any woman he\u2019s ever met. Her humble persona and wild innocence promise real passion. He\u2019s promising Sadie something too: anything she wants. From Bordeaux to Cannes to Paris, Sadie\u2019s past in America is swept away and replaced with a fantasy too good to be true.<\/p>\n

Pulled into Olivier\u2019s orbit of wealth, glamour, and excess, Sadie discovers that the Dumont dynasty comes with a legacy of wicked secrets. And Olivier\u2019s secrets may be the most damning of all\u2026<\/p>\n

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Add to Goodreads<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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Review<\/b><\/h4>\n

4 stars<\/b><\/p>\n

The first book in Karina Halle\u2019s Dumont<\/i> series is romantic, dramatic and super<\/i> sexy with an intriguing, suspenseful twist. Taking us to France, and an exclusive world of wealth, privilege, power, greed and hidden secrets, we are introduced to the Dumont family for the beginning of a dramatic family saga that had me completely captivated.<\/p>\n

Sadie Reynolds is a struggling American student backpacking around Europe. She started the trip with her boyfriend, but is finishing it as a single woman after her relationship fell apart, and she\u2019s navigating the back streets of the French Riviera when she runs into trouble. She is rescued by a gorgeous stranger who turns out to be a millionaire hotel mogul from one of the most exclusive families in Paris. Heir to a fashion empire, Olivier Dumont is one of the most bachelors in France, and her personal knight in shining armour.<\/p>\n

Olivier is well aware of his reputation as a player, and he owns it. He has dated models and celebrities, avoiding relationships and living in the moment, but from the moment he picks up an injured American tourist and whisks her away to one of his hostels, he is captivated. Sadie is unlike anybody he has ever met \u2013 real and unpretentious, and with no clue about his celebrity or strange family dynamics, and he is drawn to her in a way he never has been with anybody else. And amidst the luxurious backdrop of the French Riviera, their chemistry sparks a wildly passionate love affair that flips both of their worlds upside down.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you trying to, I don\u2019t know, seduce me?\u201d
\nI regret it the moment I say it.
\nHe breaks into a devastating grin, the kind that could steal my breath away and never give it back. \u201cDo you want me to seduce you?\u201d he asks, running his long fingers down the length of his jaw, like he\u2019s now considering it.
\n\u201cNo,\u201d I say quickly.
\nI\u2019m pretty sure I\u2019m lying.
\n\u201cGood,\u201d he says, still smiling. I see a hint of pink tongue as he bites his lip. \u201cBecause, believe me \u2026 you wouldn\u2019t be able to handle it.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Karina\u2019s books usually contain a healthy dose of steamy time\u2026 this book is hotter. Seriously. Between Olivier\u2019s confidence, sexy moves and filthy mouth (complete with French accent), and Sadie\u2019s willingness to embrace all that he has to offer, and give it right back, the chemistry between these two is off the charts! You can feel the connection between them, which very quickly develops beyond just the physical, and they fall hard, fast and completely, and I loved watching it happen!<\/p>\n

Our lives are made up of nothing but moments.
\nBut I want to live in every moment with her.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But as Sadie is swept up into Olivier\u2019s world, she also learns about his complicated family politics full of greed, secrets and vicious blackmail, and he is caught right in the middle of it all. And as much as Olivier tries to protect her, when Sadie is dragged into it, it will put the new lovers to the test in ways they never expected.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are the only thing that\u2019s good and pure and real in my whole life.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Oh, I love this love story! It\u2019s super romantic and really fast moving, but it works! You can feel everything happening between Sadie and Olivier, and it gives you that heart-pounding, tingly anticipation feeling that I love about reading romance, and I was in a world of swoon.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at you, being all romantic.\u201d
\n\u201cI\u2019m always romantic,\u201d he says, kissing my neck. \u201cBecause it\u2019s impossible to be anything but a lovestruck slave around you.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This book has a different feel to it than what I usually expect from Karina\u2019s writing. It doesn\u2019t have that edge<\/i> that I associate with her books and felt a bit more generic than her usual writing style. But I think this series will have a different sort of feel overall. The intensity of the romance and the family drama is extreme, but it feels intentional, creating this decadent, powerful and passionate world, and I really enjoyed losing myself in it. And Sadie\u2019s down-to-earth nature balances it out really nicely. Though talking of extreme, I did think that the reason behind the blackmail and the resulting consequences were a bit OTT, but it works to bring intrigue to the story and set up the next book nicely, so I just went with it.<\/p>\n

This is a really great read. The characters are likable, the romance is hot and heavy, the setting is wonderfully described, and the drama\/suspense adds a great twist to things. It\u2019s a really strong start to the series, and I\u2019m excited for more.<\/p>\n

4 stars!<\/p>\n

An Advanced Reader Copy generously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.<\/i><\/p>\n

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The Dumonts<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"\"\u00a0 \"\" \u00a0\"\"<\/p>\n

Discretion (#1)<\/strong>
\nReview<\/a>
\nBuy:\u00a0 Kindle Ebook<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0 Paperback<\/a><\/p>\n

Disarm (#2)<\/strong>
\nReview<\/a>
\nBuy:\u00a0 Kindle Ebook\u00a0<\/a> |\u00a0 Paperback<\/a><\/p>\n

Disavow (#3)<\/strong>
\nReview<\/a>
\nBuy:\u00a0 Kindle Ebook\u00a0<\/a> |\u00a0 Paperback<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Meet Karina<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"\"Karina Halle is a former travel writer and music journalist and The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today Bestselling author of\u00a0The Pact<\/a>,\u00a0Love, in English<\/a>,\u00a0The Artists Trilogy<\/a>, Dirty Angels and over 20 other wild and romantic reads. She lives on an island off the coast of British Columbia with her husband and her rescue pup, where she drinks a lot of wine, hikes a lot of trails and devours a lot of books.<\/p>\n

Halle is represented by the Root Literary and is both self-published and published by Simon & Schuster and Hachette in North America and in the UK.<\/p>\n

Connect with Karina:<\/p>\n

Facebook\u00a0\u00a0<\/a>|\u00a0\u00a0Amazon\u00a0\u00a0<\/a>|\u00a0\u00a0Instagram<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Website\u00a0\u00a0<\/a>|\u00a0\u00a0Join her Reader Group<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Stay up to date with Karina by signing up for her\u00a0newsletter<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Check out our Karina Halle Author Spotlight<\/a> for more amazing reads!<\/strong><\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  From New York Times bestselling author Karina Halle comes a delicious saga of wealth, luxury, and scandal\u2014and the wicked secrets\u00a0of success behind an envied family dynasty. Discretion, a full-length contemporary standalone romance by Karina […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42540,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","yasr_overall_rating":4,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"Product","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,9,29],"tags":[59,38,48,1025],"class_list":["post-45006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drama","category-romance","category-steamy","tag-arc","tag-karina-halle","tag-review","tag-the-dumonts"],"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":false,"span_bottom":false},"number_of_votes":0,"sum_votes":0},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Discretion.jpg?fit=200%2C300&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7gaNL-bHU","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}