Review of ‘Fare game’ by Cade Haddock Strong

Kay Colbert is the new VP of International Pricing at Logan Airlines. Unfortunately, she gets dragged almost immediately into the illegal scheme of fare fixing orchestrated by other executives in the company. Kay then begins to gather evidence so she can turn these people in. Riley Bauer works in Logan Airlines’ financial department. She travels to Japan as part of the airline group when she finds herself having an unexpected dinner with Kay. They had both been eyeing each other and now the opportunity presented itself to become more than coworkers. As they return to Atlanta, the illicit activities push Kay to the limit. When she tells Riley about her findings, they embark on a journey to expose the men responsible for the scheme.

I was very excited to read this book after I read the blurb. Boy, is the whistleblower topic a hot one right now. In the end, the book left me with mixed feelings. The writing seemed choppy at times. This is Ms. Haddock Strong’s second novel so perhaps it showed some. There are some authors that have such great flow and this book just came up a little short in that department.

I liked the straightforward encounter and flirting. Sometimes things do not have to be so complicated between two single adults. That said, there was a disconnect for me as Kay returned from Japan and was disproportionally stressed out (compared to before the trip) when there was no new information about the scheme. It also seemed too early in the mains’ relationship to tell Riley about the company. It almost made it look like Kay sought out Riley to help gather evidence, which was not the case. Seemed they started with sex and immediately an unshakable partnership formed without even a friendship. Maybe the story would have been better served as Kay recruiting Riley then coming together at the end. Difficult to reconcile a budding relationship through such mental stress. Again, it was just somewhat disconcerting.

Another theme was Riley being in the closet to her family. That was just aggravating to me, as a closeted grown up that does not depend on her family is hard to relate to and something I cannot connect easily with. All that said, I think the author handled it well. There was also a friendship that appeared to play a bigger role than what it ended up playing, then basically there was no resolution to that arc.

I did like the idea behind the illegal scheme. However, the action after the mains bring it to light was not very believable to me. Seemed to me there was more opportunity to threaten as it became obvious Kay did not agree with the scheme. I will not go into detail so I do not spoil the events for others but, for example, there should have been a threat after they knew Kay had collected evidence. Also, Kay’s relationship with Riley was common knowledge in the company, so that should have been addressed as the events unraveled.

Overall a mixed feeling lesbian book for me. I would definitely give this author another go as I did like the central concepts in the book and the mains relationship was well done as the book progresses. 3 stars

ARC generously provided to me by BB via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.