A good read. I enjoyed reading about the Black family members. Page turner. This book was an engaging romantic suspense story. I recommend it.

Seduced by the Badge marks Deborah Fletcher Mello's debut with the Harlequin Romantic Suspense line and the very first book in her To Serve and Seduce series about a family of Chicago civil servants (OK, so there's a private eye in there - but they're mostly cops, lawyers, council members and such). I had a few quibbles (hello, this is me) but I ended up really enjoying this one.

Armstrong Black has been assigned a sex trafficking case and when another girl turns up dead, he finds himself getting an out-of-town partner. Danni Winstead is Atlanta PD and is sent to Chicago when links are discovered with an Atlanta case. That case? Danni's sister - who was targeted by these traffickers, but managed to escape. Danni's a good cop, but a bit of a lone wolf and with a very real score to settle. Will Armstrong's strong personality and her independent attitude spell disaster for their case and their simmering attraction to each other?

I like romantic suspense, but let's be frank - the sub genre has some fairly common pitfalls. I am, of course, talking about the heroine who runs off half-cocked. The heroine who doesn't listen to the hero, or disregards what he says, and puts herself in danger at every turn to the point where he has to play white knight and rescue her. What I loved about this story is that while Danni DOES run off half-cocked, she's competent about it. She's good at her job. She can protect herself. She's got some street smarts. When things get a bit dicey she can tap-dance her way out of trouble and the author isn't slapping the reader upside the head with Macho Hero Saves The Day clap-trap.

The bulk of the plot revolves around Danni going undercover, making herself appear young, vulnerable and ingratiating herself with the main players that are orbiting the sex trafficking ring. Danni appears younger, so can pass herself off as a vulnerable runaway. What I loved about this is that Mello doesn't fetishize Danni's looks. The hero doesn't "get off" on the fact that Danni looks like a teenager. Her being able to play younger is seen as an asset for the task at hand and bringing the bad guys to justice.

Like a lot of romantic suspense novels, this one doesn't always pass the smell test. Danni being loaned from Atlanta to Chicago and then poof! Suddenly she's undercover with nary a whisper of departmental red tape. I have zero intimate knowledge of how police undercover works, so take this quibble for what's it worth. I'm just saying that I feel like it's probably more complicated in Real Life. Depending on reader baggage, this could be fine or it could annoy the stuffing out of you.

But, I'm not reading this story for Real Life. I'm reading it for the romance and the suspense. I will say I found the suspense thread more compelling, especially in the second half when Danni's undercover work starts to bear some fruit. The romance is nice, but not as robust - largely because of plot constraints. Danni's undercover. Armstrong is handling stuff behind the scenes. They don't spend a super ton of time together. That being said, I will say the progression of their relationship was well thought out. Mello takes her time getting to the first kiss and we don't get a sex scene until towards the end. So no annoying "Oh gosh, the bad guys are chasing us - let's stop and have sex now!" moments (I seriously hate those).

I know reading about a Chicago police officer might be a non-starter for some readers right now (thank you recent-ish current events) - but I love the idea of the Black family being notable Chicago citizens, many of them having civil servant-type jobs. When the siblings get together, that familial relationship plays well on the page. It's a really attractive set-up for a series, and I'm definitely interested in reading future books.

This wasn't a keeper for me, but it was very good - and I enjoyed the suspense thread. It does involve sex trafficking, and while mileage will definitely vary on this, I didn't find the descriptions overly graphic. That said, Danni meets some of the girls and, true to form, some of them are young. While I do think Danni and Armstrong could have been quicker on the uptake during the climactic finish, I practically inhaled this book the closer I got to the finish line. The Big Baddies are caught and I'm sucked into wanting more Black family stories.

Mission accomplished.

Final Grade = B

I'm not entirely enamored of the series title To Serve and Seduce, but the first book gets it off to a cracking start. Set in Chicago, a busy, beautiful but sometimes bleak city, SEDUCED BY THE BADGE looks under the lid of human trafficking. Detective Danni Winstead from Georgia arrives and pairs up with Armstrong Black in search of the creeps who abducted her sister. Fortunately Danni's sister managed to escape, but other women are not so lucky.
The undercurrent of romance is swift to arrive as Danni and Armstrong feel each other's appeal right away. But Danni takes a risk by masquerading as an innocent in the hope that she'll meet the traffickers. Armstrong, who has already taken the newcomer to have a meal with his warmhearted family, can't believe she put herself in such jeopardy, without arranging for backup in advance.
I have to think that if Danni was a teenage girl she would have been abducted quite quickly, but as she's more mature and has more contacts, even though she pretends she needs a job, the traffickers go through a charade of getting to know her and inviting her to parties. Here she meets a girl called Ginger, who doesn't have many options in life, and Pius, the leader of the criminals.
We get a good look around the city and meet a variety of residents, as well as Armstrong's friendly family and the cops in the station. Danni is only in the city on assignment, and before too long, Armstrong can't stand the thought of her leaving. But first she has to survive her undercover work.
I enjoyed the complex, detailed police thriller, and the adult romance feels pretty real. I hadn't previously read anything by Deborah Fletcher Mello, but I will be looking out for more. She has a few series in print including Just Desserts and Sultry Southern Nights. SEDUCED BY THE BADGE is a good read and addresses a topical issue.

This book was very well-written and easy to get lost in. I actually read it twice! Danni is definitely a firecracker and Armstrong is just the one to stoke her flames.

Armstrong is assigned to a new partner Danni who is on a mission to take down a trafficking ring that went after her sister. She refuses to let anything get in her away even her new attractive partner Armstrong and he can either help out and stay at the sidelines or get out of her way but she will do everything in her power to go undercover and take down this ring.

I loved how strong willed Danni was as a character. She didn't back down when others wanted her to back off. She was actually a bit bull headed about things charging in a not meaning to cause a bit of trouble with how she did things. I also loved that even though Armstrong didn't like the way she handled things he did make sure to stick around and make sure that his partner was safe because she's not willing to back down and he wants to be there for her. I also loved the connection between the two and that the relationship that they seemed to be forming didn't get in the way of the case that they were doing. I loved that Armstrong was also there to ground her and to not focus on work so much and to relax and slow things down a bit. Overall I thought that this book was pretty good I really enjoyed it.

I love the premise of romantic suspense. Some mystery, intrigue, and some good love? Count me in. It’s one of my favorite subgenres, which most of you know. Being so, I was interested in checking out Deborah Fletcher Mello’s Seduced by the Badge.

Seduced by the Badge is the start of a series, featuring the family of police superintendent Jerome and Judge Judith Black, of Chicago, Illinois. Their son Armstrong (all of their children are named after great musicians), a detective, is first to fall in love. He is partnered with Detective Danni Winstead as they work to take down a massive trafficking ring. Their partnership should be platonic but these two soon realize that feel more than they should for each other.

I was invested in the suspense and while I figured out most of it pretty early on, I liked seeing how Deborah got us there. I was rooting for the secondary characters and hoping that they would get the endings they deserved. It wasn’t necessarily nail-biting for me, but I was definitely interested.

Now while I loved the suspense, the romance left a bit to be desired for me. I got that Armstrong and Danni liked each other but I didn’t really feel anything deeper. The chemistry was pretty tame. I felt like their attraction was on simmer throughout the whole book and I wanted to kick it up a few notches. It never got hot in the kitchen, so to speak. They progressed a little bit toward the end but I wasn’t as emotionally invested in the two of them by that time.


If you’re looking for a solid suspense novel with a sprinkle of attraction, I think Seduced by the Badge is a solid option to satisfy the need.

Detective Armstrong Black and the Chicago P.D. gest a dose of Southern hospitality when Danni Winstead, one of Atlanta's best, goes undercover to infiltrate a dangerous human trafficking ring (as you do in romance . . .seriously, why is it always trafficking ?) in the heart of The Windy City. The closer she gets to a break in the case the closer she is drawn to the indomitable Chicago detective.

This is a very plotty suspense novel which is exactly my thing, Armstrong and Danni's attraction takes a back seat to Danni's deep undercover work, which was enough to keep me flipping the pages. She quickly befriends a young girl caught on the fringes of the human trafficking ring and lets herself be lured into the dangerous lifestyle. With that being said I found it a little hard to believe that everyone just believes this 34-year-old detective is a teenager. She doesn't even initiate the lie... people just assume she's a teenager. . .all the time. Who is she, Bianca Lawson?

Danni owns this story while Armstrong hangs out on the periphery doing his investigating thing. He comes from an influential law family; his mother is a judge, his father is retired superintendent of police and his siblings are basically sequel bait who are all named after famous jazz musicians which I thought was pretty creative.

This is book one in the To Serve and Seduce series. I'm glad Mello, who was previously only published in the soon to be defunct Kimani line, has found a place in Harlequin Suspense.

I loved this romance! I feel so wrapped up into the story and the suspense of cracking the case what a sexy but rich crime filled romance . The ending was so unexpected but defiantly I can see how that was the ending looking back now. I loved ginger as a character she felt so real !! all these characters were well developed and detailed I loved how everything connected at the end of the story I need another story about the Black family maybe even about one of the sisters.