Bea Reviews Lethal Intent by Cara Putman

Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: January 12th, 2021
Buying Links: Amazon* | Apple Books* | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Google Books | Kobo |
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Blurb from goodreads:

When Caroline takes a job with a promising medical start-up, she believes she’s on the side of angels . . . until she’s asked to go too far.

When the judge she’s clerked for dies, Caroline Bragg starts over as in-house counsel for a pharmaceutical start-up working on innovative adult stem cell research with the potential to save thousands of lives. But when her charismatic new boss ignores her legal advice, Caroline's left unsettled. Then the company launches into headlines when a furious family demands answers regarding how the start-up used their deceased relative’s cells for innovation—with neither informed consent nor agreement for compensation. Caroline must defend the work of the company even as she realizes informed consent couldn’t have been given and the business is operating on questionable legal and ethical grounds.

Caroline’s friend Brandon Lancaster is at risk of losing his life’s work—a group foster care called Almost Home that has provided for sibling groups needing a landing place. He’s desperate for a solution, but then the pharmaceutical company’s he invested his last dime in is losing value fast. He’s been counting on the eventual sale of the start-up to save Almost Home, but with every other effort failing, he’s out of options and out of time.

With the start-up in trouble, Caroline's and Brandon’s problems intersect. He needs the story to end so he can salvage his investment, and she wants the truth to come out. Will their relationship survive? And will they survive the changes that are inevitably headed their way?

My Thoughts:

Rereading the blurb for this book, I realized it's not accurate. Caroline does work for a start-up, her new boss doesn't listen well, Brandon is having trouble running his group foster care; the rest, eh, no. Ignore it.

One thing the blurb failed to say was that the research involves cancer and there's a young child with cancer. I swore. A lot. I try to avoid books with cancer. I considered forgoing the book but I was already intrigued so I kept reading. There were several times I almost said the heck with it but I kept reading because I was feeling stubborn and wanted to see if I could do it. Although I did finish the book, I think the unhappy surprise did affect my feelings about the book and my reaction to it. So, something for you to keep in mind as you read my review. 

Caroline often felt naive to me. Despite her years clerking for a judge, she seemed to have little actual legal experience, and her professional interactions were sometimes unnecessarily abrupt. Her communication skills were lacking, especially with her significant other Brandon. She really botched communicating with him about a possible conflict of interest and avoiding the appearance of insider trading. And Brandon went complete ahole on her when they finally did discuss it. I ranted on Twitter about it.  he redeemed himself, happily, but the whole Big Misunderstanding was so unnecessary; if they had just talked to each other and shared their concerns. Instead, insecurities and a desire not to rock the boat, caused more problems than they solved. 

As for the mystery, it was easy to figure out who the villain was though it took Caroline a while to figure out. The romance is "clean"; there's no sex and only mild kissing. There's also no swearing as the book is published by a Christian publisher. Both Caroline and Brandon pray to God and rely on the Bible for advice. 

The story was interesting even if I did get impatient with Caroline at times. The medical and legal jargon was over my head at times but that didn't bother me much. Despite the strong presence of cancer, I was caught up, and I even Googled a few things after I finished to see what was real. I didn't love the story but it was engaging, at times exciting, and the characters well drawn. I might try Putman again.