The Officer’s Gamble (The Outdoorsmen series) by Renée Gendron

Published on October 18, 2022

361 pages

Back cover

After a disastrous relationship, Officer Manner Pereira has one thing on his mind: get his career back on track. He comes across the stunning and dogged Sylvie Pelletier on patrol investigating burned vegetation. Hounded by a reporter looking for her next scoop, harassed by wealthy interests, and under pressure from his boss, Manny must shift through a series of complicated relationships to catch the culprit.
Manny puts his career and life on the line to solve the case. Will his gamble pay off?

My review

First, I would like to thank the author for letting me reviewing this novel. It’s the first book from Renée Gendron that I read. The story is mostly about the relationship between Manny and Sylvie and the investigation come in second. I had a chance to forget about real life while I was reading.

I enjoyed the investigation, I really wanted to know who was behind all the trouble the protagonist was going to. Environment is important for me and I thought it was a great idea that an author write about it. I also like the fact that Sylvie is talking more about her passion about cooking than her job in a law firm. I could relate to her about that, since writing took an important place in my life in the last decade. I wish I could meet someone like Manny in real life. I would say he is the perfect bookboyfriend, but he is different from the other protagonist I usually see in romance novel.

The internal conflicts are well written. I had the feeling that I could enter in the protagonist head. The readers can get attached to them. None of them are perfect, but it’s made the story believable. Sometimes Sylvie and Manny got on my nerves with the on-off relationship, but hopefully it was not long enough to make me close book. It’s normal that Sylvie got turned off after Gabrielle came back. Gabrielle is the character that I like to dislike. Even though, she is a secondary character, she brings lots of trouble by saying just a few words. I understood why Manny could not stand her.

I found a few typos, but I was so into the story that I did not care while I was trying to find who was causing all the incidents. I just hope I will find less in the third book in the series. This is the second one and I did not have any trouble to get into the story, but I recommend to start with Book 1.

My favorite part of the book is when Manny and Sylvie are at the movies watching Star Wars with Manny’s friends. I watch them everyone Holidays and the original trilogy have an important part in my life. I doubt I could say no, if someone invited me to watch it.

My interview with the author