Nina Astor gave me one red-hot night, then disappeared like a ghost.Three months later, fate drops her in my lap.The only problem?She’s beyond off-limits, and we’re worlds apart.I’m a city prosecutor with a bit of a dark side.She’s the gilded daughter of a dynasty…and property of the scum of the earth.And the man who owns her is the subject of my next investigation.Nina thinks I’m on the right … next investigation.
Nina thinks I’m on the right side of the law, but she’s forgotten one thing:
When it comes to her, I’m not a good man.
To claim her as my own, I might sell my soul to the devil himself.
True be told…
When it comes to this woman, maybe I already have.
more
So so many feels! Nicole French has an amazing ability to find raw emotions, and play with/torture her readers’ hearts. Book 1 of the Rose Gold trilogy will have you all over the place, both loving and hating the characters (ultimately loving them though), and wanting them to have their HEA. Of course, just like life things aren’t always easy and they’ll have their obstacles to overcome. I can’t wait until the next book, “The Perfect Woman” to come out this summer!
To everyone around him, Matthew Zola is a good guy, a hero, a loving brother/uncle/grandson, great friend; however, to himself, he’s a grade A @$$hole who is beyond redemption. Zola is an NYC DA, who never has a problem going after the hard cases, and when mutual friends (Jane & Eric de Vries) need help, he instantly agrees. After a rough day at work, he heads to his favorite bar in search of relief. He meets Nina Astor, who is the epitome of everything he wants in a woman (classic beauty, grace, a real life version of the great Hollywood films). After one night with her, he knows in his soul, he’s forever changed, but she leaves him in the morning without a word.
Nina Astor de Vries Gardner is NYC high society royalty, but don’t dare call her a princess. She is the epitome of classic beauty and grace, and was raised to do nothing but what is expected of her. Following the death of her family’s matriarch, her grandmother, and the turmoil of her cousin Eric’s life, she needs a momentary escape from her world. While having a drink, she meets Matthew, who makes her feel things she hasn’t (if ever) felt. This one night leaves her changed, but in the morning she leaves him without a word knowing she must return to her duty and life.
A couple months later, a chance encounter has their paths crossing again, and the tension and sparks are still there. Neither has forgotten the other, but can their very different worlds allow them to ever be together?
I have been anxiously anticipating this book since reading The Scarlet Night Prequel, heck, since reading the Quicksilver Trilogy when I first met Detective Matthew Zola. I was so glad when I found out he was going to get his own book!
Nina Astor de Vries Gardner is a beautiful socialite who was raised with every advantage except love. She is trapped in a loveless marriage with Calvin Gardner, an abusive weasel who has been described as a wheel of gouda and a moldy meatball.
Matthew hasn’t been able to get Nina out of his mind since their one Scarlet Night together. He has tried to move on, picking up blonde women that remind him of her, but all it does is make him want her more. When they finally accidentally bump into each other, Matthew is not going to let her slip away again!
The chemistry between these two is crazy mad! I fell hard for Zola in the prequel and just keep falling deeper and deeper. He is so honorable and such a good man, as much as he says how bad he is. Nina fights the attraction so much, but cannot stay away. She is like a moth to Matthew’s flame, seeking the love and comfort she has never known before. My heart breaks for her, only sporadic spots of joy here and there, proving that money can’t buy happiness. I will never again listen to “Strangers in the Night” without tearing up.
While Zola is involved with catching a dangerous man who is a threat to Jane and Eric, the time frame actually parallels the Love Trap, the third book in the Quicksilver Trilogy. If you haven’t read it, you don’t need to, but all these books are intertwined and the stories are much richer having read the others. This one is the first of The Rose Gold Trilogy so it has a cliffhanger we will be hanging off of until June when the 2nd Book, The Perfect Woman is released! Wish I could give this 10 STARS!
Wow. Matthew and Nina are so opposite that they crackle and like magnets, they are inexplicably drawn to each other even if they shouldn’t be. This is a rollercoaster story with intrigue, passion And a sense of rightness. I am totally rooting for them because Nia belongs with Zola and not Calvin on so many levels. Bring on The Perfect Woman.
“My life was fine before this woman entered with the grace of a flower and the blast of a storm. I’d been empty, maybe. But I knew what I was. Who I was. Now the only thing I could think of was the way Nina tasted after a bottle of wine. The way her lips puckered just so when she was upset. The way her lip felt clenched between my teeth.” ~Zola
Reading other reviews I realize I have a LOT of catching up to do, but I read this as the starting point for these characters and understood clearly what was going on.
Matthew. Matthew. Matthew. He’s everything you could want in a book boyfriend. Nina has her own demons, and they are many. There’s a mystery around this ‘couple’ that is hard to ignore and the author beautifully brings it all together in the telling!
So glad to have accidentally found this author – I’ll be snapping up the rest of her stuff asap!
I’ve never read a book by this author before and I thought that this book was written fantastically. I defiantly was not disappointed and I really like the way that this author writes.
This book is the first in this Rose Gold series and I cant wait to read the next installment.
Rose Gold #1
Matthew is really one of the good guys, a really decent, loyal, genuine sexy human being and he’s also extremely over protective which is always beautiful to see. He knows what he wants and he isn’t afraid to get it.
Nina is a woman that is who is beautiful but also in need of a friend. She is a very strong soul who has been through a lot. Nina is very very lonely and she hides it well under her mask.
These two get to spend a night together after this other man really does see who this beautiful woman is and then everything changes and Nina is gone.
When these two meet they don’t know who each other are its just that something passes between them and the magnetic pull that they feel is incredible. The chemistry that these two have is so powerful that its actually sizzling of them.
( NO SPOILERS )
This book has it all it will hook you in and will not let you go. This book has twists, turns and complete shockers that you will not see coming. I feel that this author has written this book awesome. Seeing the journey that these two characters go on is very intense and I feel myself really rooting for them both to make. I felt that this author written these characters so good that you really wish that Matthew was a real man because by the end of this book that is what he is in your mind.
This story really will have your emotions up and down and you will be desperate for more, I couldn’t put this book down, this book is a real must read.
Thank you to the author and the publishers for allowing me to read an early copy of this book.
ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.
This book is expected to be released on 10th March 2020.
The Other Man is filled with suspense, drama and an inside look into a man who falls into an obsession with a married woman. As the title implies this book does involve cheating, but perhaps you’ve always wondered what is was like on the flipside to “be the other man”.
Matthew Zota seems to have a penchant for married women, that is at least how he meet Nina Gardner. Being a single man in New York you’d think he’d have no trouble finding a single gal, but somehow the taken ones seemed to end up in his bed.
Enter Nina, whom he can’t seem to stop obsessing about. She continually pushes him away, tells him it cannot work, that she is in fact a married woman, yet he goes back again and again like some kind of punishment. On top this obsession, he could have the potential to lose his job. He is an Assistant DA and the connections she has is really what could risk him his job. Matthew knows what love is, his grandparents fell in love as teenagers and were a strong foundation of what a relationship is and can be. Why he can’t seem to find what they had is somewhat of a mystery, even to him. While he’s investigating a huge case, Nina, the woman he’s been obsessed about waltzes back into his life and the two become tangled, perhaps more than he could have guessed.
Nina is a rich socialite and tied to the current investigation Matthew has on going. Could those ties be deeper? We don’t find out the full answer to this question in this book, but there are hints that perhaps they could be. Personally, I wasn’t a fan of this relationship overall. Not so much because she was married and Matthew wanted to pursue her, but more so for the reasons Nina insisted or more like continued to stay with her husband. Nina is actually the one in her marriage with money, her husband is abusive, and she is unhappy plain and simple. So why stay with her husband and then also continue to play with Matt’s emotions? I suppose this is what bothered me about their affair when there really seemed to be no motivation.
The story didn’t connect with me, mostly I believe, because it was based on a one night affair where the emotions were still surface level and I never felt them connecting deeper. Most of the time Nina spent the story running away from Matthew telling him their relationship wasn’t going to work while he chased her down and begged her to give him a chance.
Do you have your one-click finger warmed up? You’re going to need it on this one! EVERY STAR AND THEN SOME! Nina and Zola knocked my socks off! The way this author pulls you into her stories is amazing. Never thought I would like a book where one of the mains cheated. Threw that theory out the window. The way this story reads is very film noir in my head. In my mind, Zola was very Sinatra/Humphrey Bogart type charm. Old school classy but so HOT. Nina was all demure until Zola dirtied her up like a big screen siren. Their chemistry was undeniable and when it burns they know it will take out others, so they wisely decide to end it, but are so drawn to each other they are helpless to fight it. I can NOT wait to see what happens when the gloves are off!
Ok here we go! I finished The Other Man yesterday but I needed some time to put my ideas together before writing my review. But don’t misunderstand my waiting, I’m officially in love with this book. As always Nicole did an amazing job, beautiful characters, you can’t help but love and her descriptions are so amazing you feel like you’re there with them.
We meet Matthew as a friend of Skylar in the Spitfire series, he then comes back helping Jane and Eric in the Quicksilver series with their main problems. He was always in the background but a powerful character. And what a surprise it was when Nina gets all nervous on The Love Trap meeting Matthew on the event. Things get steamy in The Scarlet Night and it all brings us to this moment.
I said it on the group I’ll repeat it here: Matthew Zola is Not the Other Man he is THE MAN!! coming from a humble family, raised by his Italian grandparents, he is a protector of his loved ones, even though he battles his own demons. He’s the perfect combination of sweet and Alpha. I was always curious about Nina’s life in the previous books and my heart goes to her, we meet a side of her that is was not expected. I remember Nicole asking if we would be put off by cheating, but in this particular case, those rules don’t apply in my humble opinion. I do believe that if it’s not working you can always walk away, but it’s no that simple in some cases, like we see here.
This is the type of book where I kept checking the progress while reading, because I didn’t want it to be over. I’m not even going to talk about Mr. Gardner, he would ruin this beautiful story, I just hope he gets what he deserves.
So now, I’ll just be here patiently (NOT) waiting for book two. I have two favorite highlighted paragraphs but I don’t want to spoil it for any one. Just read and let me know how it goes
I am not sure where or how to start with my review for this book. My emotions are literally all over the place. My heart has been broken, put back together and broken again. Some words that do come to mind about this story of Matthew & Nina are incredible, phenomenal, brilliant but mostly, the best word to describe this is epic. If you have read the Spitfire Series and the Quicksilver Series, then you were introduced to Matthew Zola and knew he had to have his own story. Matthew is a throwback to the days of Sinatra, Kelly, Martin and that is shown in how he dresses in suits and shiny leather shoes. His grandfather had instilled into him how to be a true gentleman, but while he is a gentleman, there is a side to him that isn’t, and oh, boy, is he hot! One night when he was out, he came across Nina. Not having any idea who she is, but knew she was classy, he became instantly attracted to her. She had such a keen sense of style and appreciated his. The chemistry between them is palpable. After an intense night together, she just disappears. Will he ever find this woman who took complete hold of his heart? And if he finds her, will she be all that she said she was? This story makes you believe in fate, in lust, in true love and I have completely fallen in love with these characters. Nina may sometimes come across as timid or meek, but she is anything but. She is a woman who has to come to terms with decisions made in the past. She is a warrior in my eyes and I am in awe of her. And as for Matthew, you will fall in lust and love with him as well! How can you not! I truly wish I could say more but I don’t want to give anything more away. All I can say, is you are crazy if you don’t read this book. And now that I’ve read it, I need the next book in this series like the air that I breathe! Bravo to this author, she blew this one right out of the park!
Is it devotion or obsession? Is it compassion, love or lust? The more you get into the book the more questions the reader comes up with. Nicole French has a way of sucking the reader into the story and not letting them go. This time it is with Nina and Matthew. One brief encounter that shifts the entire world on it’s axis. There were moments of great passion and moments of anger and frustration – and that ending – wow – I need more ASAP. Another great beginning to a series that will certainly become a favorite.
I have been dying for more of Matthew and Nina since reading The Scarlet Night. That little novella caught me hook, line and sinker. The Other Man is the first book in their story and it was brilliant, beautiful and completely addicting.
It is hard not to love Matthew. He’s hardworking, determined and the man knows what he wants and he isn’t afraid to go after it. Plus, the man is super protective. He’s the only man in his family and the way he looks after his sisters is great. I love the sense of family he has when it comes to them, his nieces and nephews and his nonna. Nina may be married, have a family, come from wealth, but there is no hiding the fact she is lonely. Matthew brings out a different side of her and Nina brings out a different side in Matthew. They are two halves that make a whole. However, their “relationship” isn’t easy and at this point I don’t think it ever will be. There is an insane amount of chemistry between them, seriously, when they are together things are explosive!
The Other Man is full of secrets, twists, turns, suspense, drama and HEAT. Once you start it you won’t be able to stop. I can’t wait to see what is in store for them in book 2 of the series. This one is a MUST READ for me!