Gabriel=Extremely intense, loyal, scary, lonely man.
Valentina=Caring, strong willed, bad ass, loyal woman.
Magda=Satan in women’s clothes.

This is a very intense, sexy book. Charmaine did a get job putting it all together. Gabriel is a very intense, scary man who everyone fears with good reason, but Valentina will do whatever she has to do to protect her brother Charlie. Gabriel takes what he wants because he doesn’t think anyone will ever chose him for what he is. Well I think he met his match with Valentina. But if Magda has her way Valentina will never see the light of day.

This is an amazingly, sexy, book full to the hilt with intensity. You never know what might happen when you turn to the next page.

Great job Charmaine Pauls. Can’t read book 2 soon enough.

Not a romance novel.
This is a very dark tale depicting the unfortunate circumstances That led a girl who's had enough bad luck in her life into being a gangsters property in all ways. True this gangster turns out to have feelings for her, but that is a weakness he can I'll afford in his world.

I was generously given an ARC for a honest review. I do not normally read dark romance but this book kept me glued to the pages! And I have the next book Consent ready on my Kindle. But before I get sucked into that book, I wanted to write this review because I enjoyed Dubious far more than I expected. Ms Pauls is a new author for me....I was introduced to her writing in the Kindle Worlds Krinar series. Her take on the Krinar series was fresh and interesting. This book is more like Anna Zaires Twist Me series, where the heroine is forced to be with the hero in the beginning. Gabriel is dark as they come....basically he is a killer. And Valentina's story is so very sad.....and Charlie is heartbreaking. The book is set in South Africa but it could be set in any urban city where drugs, crime, and human predators feed off the weak. I won't get into the plot of the story......there is darkness but there is also lightness where she slowly starts to affect Gabriel. There are times where it is very hard to like Gabriel because of his actions but considering his upbringing and current life its a wonder he can even love. The book ends on a cliffhanger but the 2nd book will come out very soon after Dubious is released.

Absolutely would give this book 5 stars! Dubious was so addicting I had to read more and before I knew it, it was 2am. Gabriel and Valentina's story was so intriguing and I had to know what was going to happen next. Valentina's character was just as "brave" as she wanted her brother, Charlie to be. I can't say enough about her caring and tender love for her brother and animals, it truly touched my heart. Gabriel's character was just Ahh! He was tender and sweet with Valentina, but scary and dominating too. I just love how he was portrayed and took care of his "property". On a darker side of the plot it was everything I enjoy reading and can't wait to read the next book and find out the ending to their story.

This was a fun, unpredictable and sexy read. I enjoyed it, and am really in love with the whole series. Can't wait for more! I think this was my favorite so far.

This was so good!! Dark but tender. Gabriel and Valentina's relationship hit all the right notes! I cannot wait for book two!!!

Totally enjoyed this one! The characters were likable and well developed, the love story unfolded slowly just the way you'd expect it to with the rough start they had. The secondary characters also added much to this book. It has some twists, and keeps your interest to the end. I highly recommend.

I really enjoyed this one.

This is the first book I’ve read by this author and I’m so glad I requested the second part of this duet, I don’t think I would’ve survived until November after that cliffy! (Okay, slight over exaggeration, maybe?)

Poor Valentina, how many hard knocks can someone take in their life? Life for Valentina is already a struggle and her past tragic, and all of this before Gabriel enters her life.

Gabriel takes Valentina in order to pay a debt, she is to be his ‘property’ for 9 years. But we all know it’s never that straight forward. Gabriel is a complex main lead and in no way a knight in shining anything. He’s dark, he’s ruthless, possessive and brutal. And even knowing all this, I come away from this book, liking him? Hmm, maybe. I’m not sure. I know that although he comes across harsh, Valentina brings out a vulnerability in him that softens the reader to him.

I liked how the book is told from duel POV, honestly without it I don’t think I would’ve warmed to Gabriel in the slightest. I think it’s only his inner monologue that shows his vulnerability because although some of this actions do lean towards him being ‘kind’, they could also be interpreted as him taking care of his ‘property’.

This book is dark, not as dark as I was expecting but dark nevertheless.

I will be diving headfirst into book 2 right after posting this! Who needs sleep? Or to work? Pftt!

I would definitely recommend this book and I will be keeping an eye out for this author in the future!

*copy received via NetGalley*

Wow. First book by this author and I will def be coming back for more! Hit and steamy and yum!!

My Review of Dubious (The Loan Shark Duet #1)
by Charmaine Pauls.
My Rating 4 Stars
New author for me, but once I read the blurb it was a no brainer, I had to read.
Amazing story with steamy scenes, and emotional rollercoaster that keeps you on the edge of your seat and the intensity of the characters kept me turning the pages and wanting more.
The perfect match for Gabriel is Valentina with her admiral spirit and her emotional strength with how she cares for her brother this is a woman who is a strong heroine within these pages and just when I thought I knew how the story was going to go…Cliffhanger, Oh My Hell! I can’t wait to read the second in this duet!
** I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review from Author and Netgalley **

The book was addicting.From the very beginning I was drawn in and hooked on to the story.The story is hot and sexy.Valentina finds her brother gambling one night and discovers he owes a debt to a loan shark a lot of money. She doesn't have the money to pay the loan shark, Gabriel.She's forced to work off the debt for nine years. What she doesn't know is that Gabriel wants to make her his and doesn't plan on letting her go at the end of the contract.
When I started reading I couldn't put it down.I received an arc from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I received an advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review. The story caught my attention from the beginning and held it until the very end. Gabriel is Mafia and he has possession of Valentina as payment for a debt. He becomes obsessed with her and then comes to love her. She loves him but he can't believe she could love him after what he has done to her. The sexual content is explicit but a good read. There is a HEA but a lot happens before this comes about. This book was read out of sequence and after reading it, I reread the 2nd book which makes it a great 2 book series. I would highly recommend this book but read it first.

This is part II This is an author that I am going to follow! It doesn't disappoint. If you liked the first one you will like this one too.

I don’t read a lot of contemporary romance/erotica simply because the escape into another time and place is as important as my enjoyment of the connection between people. However, when I saw that Charmaine Pauls’ The Loan Shark Duet took place in Johannesburg, South Africa my interest piqued. A dark story set in a uncommon locale definitely sounded like something I needed to try.

Valentina will do anything to protect her brother, Charlie, after the car accident that left him with brain damage. She just never thought she’d have to bind herself to Johannesburg’s most notorious gangster, Gabriel Louw, to pay off Charlie’s gambling debt. For nine years Valentina belongs to Gabriel to be used however he sees fit; she just never anticipated how gentle, caring, and respectful her master could be when taking what he wants…or how he makes her want to be more than just his possession.

Dubious should not have worked for me at all. The basic premise denies Valentina the ability to consent to anything Gabriel does to her, which is something I prize highly in anything focusing on sexual relationships. Frankly the idea of the heroine belonging to the hero repulsed me on a purely intellectual level, but Charmaine Pauls’ writing and careful scenario hooked me emotionally. The deciding factor was how Gabriel proceeded with his seduction of Valentina. Given their agreement he could have forced her and called it fair; of course Valentina has no right to deny Gabriel’s desires, but he lets her set the pace. Rather than setting taking her virginity as a goal, he moves slowly to make his playtoy want his touch and crave sex (okay, Gabriel’s reasons are pretty nefarious, but I still appreciated his focus on Valentina’s pleasure), and penis in vagina sex doesn’t occur until Valentina asks/begs for it. It’s definitely not an example of How Relationships Should Be Done TM, but it transformed a dub con scenario into something palatable.

Gabriel’s kind treatment of Valentina can’t change the fact that he’s in the business of doing unethical things, and his mother and ex-wife exemplify how women generally survive in his world. Valentina is strong, but she lacks the ruthless edge necessary to play the games in mafia society, so just being in the Louw household makes her an easy target. She manages to get Gabriel’s employees on her side (some of the cast seem to magically be drawn to her), but Magda Louw, her owner’s mother, just wants an excuse to make the young woman disappear…permanently.

Magda’s desire to dispose of Valentina sets up the one point in the plot that I found nearly unforgivable. It is so pivotal to the cliffhanger and book two, Consent, that I have to vague book it, but suffice it to say that Gabriel makes a choice that enfuriates me.

At the end of the day I wanted to know if Valentina and Gabriel could make it beyond hot sex and bad decisions to form a real relationship. Despite everything I was rooting for those crazy kids and wanted some type of HEA, not just steamy erotica.

4 Snobby Teenage Daughters out of 5

Valentina is trying to keep care of her disabled brother. He gets into trouble with gambling, then enters Gabriel. He demands payment.

Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley.

Okay, this author is new to me and I'd never heard anything about this mini-series (there's this book and one after it). But the description sounded a little crazy and a little outside my comfort zone so I figured I should at least give it a chance. I liked a lot of things about this book and I disliked a few as well.

I think I liked Valentina. She reacted in ways that maybe I wouldn't have but she had other things to consider. Of course, Valentina didn't have a lot of choices about much in her life. She was busting her ass to make ends meet so she can take care of her mentally handicapped older brother and when things seem like they're at their worst, something just a little worse happens. I was shocked at the sexual assault towards the beginning of the book and my discomfort with it hung on for quite a while. It made me like the book a little less for a long time. But dammit if Valentina didn't put her big girl panties on and just kept moving forward. She's quiet and abused but she still manages to be a force to be reckoned with.

Gabriel was tough... he's the hero of the book but he's a horrible effing person. He's a loan shark but he's super crazy rich. I mean, I have a picture in my head of what a loan shark looks like but at no point was "rich" one of my descriptors. But whatever. He's hot, he's big (muscular), and he's rich. So he MUST be likable, right?? Well, it wasn't that easy. He's essentially kidnapped Valentina and has made her a slave. But she's a slave that he gets to have sex with whenever he wants. Like, she doesn't get to say no. Even later in the book, when he starts to genuinely care about Valentina, I had a hard time liking him.

The Sexy Time was extremely plentiful but I can't say whether it was hot or not. In one way, holy hell YES it was hot!!!! But Valentina is there against her will, Gabriel's goon killed her dog, she's threatened with death just about every day, her brother's life is in danger... I could go on but my point is that it was difficult for me to feel all hot and bothered when I remembered all that stuff. And the relationship between Valentina and Gabriel was progressing but it wasn't easy for me to forget all the crap Gabriel had done to Valentina in the beginning.

This book was crazy-well written. I couldn't believe how angry and upset I felt at some of the things that were happening with Valentina, her brother, Gabriel, Gabriel's mom, everyone. And when I was feeling things about the BAD GUYS, that's really saying something about the writing! But this is definitely one of those books that should come with a trigger warning. So many horrible things happen in this book... if rape, sexual assault, dubious consent, or abuse bother you, don't pick this one up. I wasn't totally sure, after finishing THIS book, that I wanted to continue with the second. But I had to see what was going to happen and how Gabriel and Valentina would get away from Gabriel's mom, who was the absolute worst. So I continued on....but that's for the next review!

I received a copy of this book through NetGally. This is the first book I have read by this author and it will definitely NOT be my last. What an amazing book! I am so wrapped up in the characters and story line that I cannot wait to read what happens next. This is definitely one of those books that will keep you up and night reading and wanting more and more and more.

Valentina: Beautiful and fragile but very brave girl with big dreams and now stuck in a 9 year commitment bending to Gabriel's every need.

Gabriel: They call him the Breaker. He is a loan shark with a very rough exterior. He knew he wanted Valentina as her property the first time he saw her.

It is amazing how the story unfolds. Left off with a cliffhanger but as the next book is released I will for sure be reading it RIGHT AWAY!

Loved it, The Breaker and the Vet Yes Please Give me more.... I Loved it, and I think you will as well!

So this is set in Johannesburg South Africa. That surprised me, and I Liked it! The author was super descriptive about certain areas and how they were so different but really not so different then here. We learn how people were treated because of were they lived and the status they have because of who they are and how much money and power...it starts out in a small ravaged city that is left in ruins an ran by the mafia, and some Mean Loan Sharks more than the police. Valentina was left to care for her brother Charlie after her parents died, she was in college on a small type of grant and she wanted to be a Veterinarian more than anything. They lived in a terrible area, in a run down shack that was left to her and Charlie whom was also in an accident and left brain damaged and needed constant care, her neighbor was suppose to keep an eye out on her brother for her while she went to school and helped at the vet Clinic. One day she comes home and no Charlie and even though it is about to be dark she goes out when she knows she shouldn't, to look for Jerry and Charlie, she believes Jerry who is very nice to her and Charlie, but he is also a bad guy and loves to gamble, he is a car thief. So she is worried and wants to find her brother and boy does she...she finds much more than she wants. She meets up with the several people one known as "The Breaker aka Gabriel, he is huge and badly scarred and walks with a limp. The Breaker...well he is very hard to get to know and a real bad guy, he does whatever he needs to collect a debt...but once he saw Val, well all bets are off he wants her and he will have her and he doesn't care what he has to do to take her and break her...

Val does get out of the dirty pub were Charlie has racked up a ridiculous amount money he now owes the breakers family but he didn't even understand he was gambling, she manages to get him out, for now and is furious with Jerry! On her way home we meet another character that seems to think he owns "Val" and well he is Vile, this place is just a terrible place and Charmaine Pauls gives us a wonderful view into these people lives and well Val and Charlie they should have never been in this place period! Its drug dealers and thugs that is all that is left and she pays a price but its not near over...because the Breaker is coming....

The ruthless Breaker has a job and its to get the money that Charlie has bet playing cards...instead of making it easy and doing what he is told to do by his Vile mother, he makes a deal with Valentina to work off her brothers bet, at his home, its a quick shot offer and she has minutes to get what little possessions she has and to take her brother to her only friend the Vet. and Gabriel takes Val home, his mom is livid. She will have to live with them for 9 years to pay off the debt. Oh Magda I have nothing good to say about Magda and I doubt you will either...Val knows what her life will be now, a slave to these people, she will clean and do the laundry of a huge mansion and she will be Gabriel's...and boy does Gabriel want her, more than anything he has in a long time. And he has a long time, 9 years to use her, he knows it wont be that long before Magda his mom insists that he kill them instead but she will allow him this time for now and he will take it well because its done its what he did! They have Guards and watch dogs, she will never get away from these people and what about Charlie...

So many secrets in this book...they way this author twists this tale will have you staying up all night trying to finish it regardless of what is going on. And she is descriptive, the erotic sex is built up very well, The juicy tid bits that she slowly feeds us in this first book makes you rush to finish and get to the next book if you are lucky enough as I was to get the privilege to read them both and jeeze are the both so very good. I cannot believe how I started out feeling about these characters, some you just know you will like and some well you will Love to Hate! Its got such a great storyline and for it to be in this place, well it could been in NY or Chicago

I want to thank Charmaine Pauls for a wonderful job writing and setting up this first book of the Duet, it had me on the brink of thinking one thing was going to happen and then bam we would go in the next direction. I offered this Advanced ebook by the Author and NetGalley for my honest review! I hope you will take the time to get to know these people and this Place, its an awesome story, loved it!

Gabriel Louw is a merciless loan shark who destroys lives in the name of his family's business. Physically and emotionally damaged, the respect he earns comes from the fear he imposes on those who break their promises. If you owe, you pay, or you die. In a country devasted by poverty, crime, and corruption, the likes of Gabriel rule. That's what put Valentina on his radar. The Haynes were a job. A bullet for Charlie, the brain damaged man who owed him too much. Another for his beautiful, loyal and fearless sister. The love and loyalty she revealed at the threat to her brother's life, awoke something inside Gabriel that he couldn't resist. From that moment on, she sealed her fate. She became his. He knew he would have to break her first, but soon she would beg for his touch. She would come to beg for his dominance too. Dubious is the first installment of a dark romance series where free will can be taken away, dominance and submission are more than sexual games, and family can be both a life sentence or salvation. Secrets, however, are destructive and when kept can destroy all hope, and risk love and life. An addictive read that will keep readers entranced and desperate for more.

This story was fabulous. I loved the characters and the plot.. The author had me interested from the first page and I could not put the book down.
I am looking forward to book 2 in this series