Wild Justice

The Beaumont Brides #1

by Liz Fielding

Betrayed by a lover, her career in ruins, Fizz Beaumont devotes all her energy to restoring Broomhill Bay pier, using the old theatre as the home for the radio station that is her life.The arrival of tycoon Luke Devlin, who has taken over her major sponsor, threatens not just her radio station but -- as he offers her a lesson in passion which promises to set the skies ablaze -- everything she holds dear.

Genres: Romance, Contemporary Romance, Contemporary, Ebooks, Fiction, Erotica, Amazon

481 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Hi, I'm Liz Fielding, and I'm a best selling contemporary romance author with more than 15 million books in print and Katie Fforde wrote, when honouring me with the Romantic Novelists' Association's Outstanding Achievement Award in 2019 said - "Liz Fielding's books, with their warmth, humour and emotion, have charmed millions of readers. She is a true star of the romantic fiction genre..."

And now I've turned to a life of crime with my first cozy mystery. Murder Among the Roses, published on 18 April 2023 - of which Katie Fforde also said, "I was gripped from beginning to end..."

Reading is a big part of my life. I love witty, contemporary romances, not too much sex,, Women's fiction by the likes of Fiona Harper, Julie Cohen, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Jennifer Crusie and Barbara O'Neal. And I love crime fiction that isn't too gory, or focussed on clue hunting, but is big on character.

My best loved series at the moment are the Ruth Galloway series by Elly Griffiths, The Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch and the Libby Sarjeant Mysteries by Lesley Cookman. I've just read the first in the Georgina Drake crime series from Kate Hardy and looking forward to the next.

For news and excerpts of my new releases, visit me at http://www.lizfielding.com and sign up for my newsletter

Reviews

[Tammy Walton Grant · Rating 2 out of 5]

Blah. Blah, blah, blech.

The new cover is the best thing about this. Wish the Hero in the book was as appealing as the dude on the cover.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

When Liz Fielding posted on Twitter that she was offering her book for free on smashwords.come, I took the chance and scooped up a copy - and I'm glad I did! I have never read anything by this author before, so I didn't know what to expect - which can be both exciting and scary (in a good way).

Wild Justice is romance at its best - not so much simpering and fluffy, but with a real, meaty story to balance it all out nicely - just the way I like it! I will admit to being slightly thrown off at times by grammar errors (most likely a product of formatting - something I have personally experienced with my own writing) and slightly by the setting - as I am unfamiliar with England locals. But that feeling was quickly pushed aside as I delved further into the story, more often than not unable to put it down. Although, overall, the pace was good, there were a few times when I wanted it to speed up - especially when it came to trying to figure out what Luke Devlin's end-game was; and other times when I want it to slow down - I would have liked to get more insight, through Luke's POV, into his conflicting feelings for Felicity "Fizz" Beaumont and why he was doing what he was doing. I also felt that even though the sexual attraction and tension between Luke and Fizz was very well done, I would have wanted more from Luke's POV on what was happening between them as opposed to him declaring his love for her to her almost out of the blue.

But even with these few points, I thoroughly enjoyed the story and found myself wanting more when I reached the end - and lucky for me there is more! I will definitely be checking out the sequel, of which an excerpt was included and although I don't usually read excerpts, I read this one and was instantly hooked!!

[Rabbit {Paint me like one of your 19th century gothic heroines!} · Rating 3 out of 5]

The hero is a cad but entertaining, until he started acting like a crybaby when his plan for revenge backfires.



I liked Fizz, but if I was her, I would have kicked him in the crotch.



Why three stars? I enjoyed the main characters.

[Rachel Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I downloaded this for free from somewhere. Overall it was a good book, and kept me reading.

Fizz Beaumont is a failed actress. After getting her heart broken, she's taken refuge in Broomhill Bay in order to run a radio station, but her current way of life is threatened when incredibly rich Luke Devlin buys the station as part of his plot for revenge.

The romance portions of this book were good. Luke is your typical alpha-male personality, at times rude and unforgiving, but able to turn up the heat at a moment's notice. Fizz comes from a family of actors, so other than the fact that the author felt she had to tell us how incredibly beautiful she is (gag!), I enjoyed the way Fizz 'played her part' in trying to convince Luke to keep sponsoring the station.

Some misunderstandings ensue, including a huge one where Fizz jumps to the conclusion that young actress Melanie is Luke's lover. Luke is far too protective of Melanie and it's just amazing that Fizz didn't come to the conclusion that Melanie and Luke are family by herself, especially since she had someone do some digging into Luke's past. How would that not come up? In fact, he's a very wealthy man, but supposedly a bit on the secretive side. Info about him is hard to come by. This just seems like a necessary plot device and not all that likely. Both he and Fizz say some pretty hurtful things to one another which almost crippled the latter part of the book. It was difficult to see them moving past that point, but I still enjoyed the story. The author told it really well, even when here characters were doing/saying stupid things.

[Silke Juppenlatz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, let me start out by saying I liked the story.
There was intrigue and the characters were quite well written and believable.
I kind of guessed where it was all leading about half way through, but it didn't detract from the story.
I really liked Melanie, too. And Claudia grew on me.
I liked Fizz, but sometimes she was terribly clueless. I liked Luke too, he was a strong, if flawed, hero, but I thought the progression from being an ass to falling in love with Fizz was a little sudden.

However...
What let the book down for me was the editing (or lack thereof).
Missing words -- tons of them. Words left in during a rewrite of a sentence were frequent too. Wrong words jerked me out of things. One in particular was "make me right out five hundred times, I must not be a cat" (Right instead of Write. Come on now. No one noticed?)

"Perm any three from four" I had to look that up. It bugged me. I'd never heard that term before and it threw me every time it showed up. It's Math stuff, and to be honest, I don't quite understand why Fizz uses it. (I did not grow up going to English schools, so this may be familiar to others.)

Overall, a good read, if you can ignore the freaky word missing/addition. :)

[Janeiowa · Rating 1 out of 5]

British setting, but no British spellings made this novel different. It was, quite honestly, boring with way too many drama queens/kings. The Beaumont family of actors seemed to be stuck on "playing a part" and that came across to me as silly and shallow.

The author's use of single quotes for dialogue was very strange, and no, she wasn't quoting a quote, which is how Americans use single quotes. If this is a British thing, why didn't the author also use British spellings?

I'm glad it was free as it was a waste of my time. It'll be removed from my IPAD since there's no chance I'll ever look at it again.

[Elizabeth Ashworth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I struggled to enjoy this book because I really did not like the 'hero', Luke Devlin. The story was readable and there were parts that I enjoyed, although the ending was long drawn out and held no surprises. But it was the portrayal of a man who would try to destroy the happiness and livelihoods of innocent people to be revenged on what he thought was a betrayal that I didn't like. The man was wrong, wrong, wrong all the way through the book and I wouldn't have trusted him to post a letter never mind married him. Or maybe I'm just too picky when it comes to men and their moral values?

[Nell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely enjoyable longer length read - I read the new kindle version, looking forward to the next two books in the series.

[Jessica Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm 50/50 on this book. I was a pretty good romance with very interesting twists, BUT one reason I am 50/50 is that many of the "twist" you could see coming which takes away from the story since they are also typical twist you see in many soap opera drama/romances.



**** SPOILER ALERT *****


To go more into detail of why I feel or what I see as being typical read further.

#1 - the ending where she get knocked up, like really, come on lets get more unique, and also with the pregnancy it automatically fixes all?!?! I am sorry if a man did the things Luke did to Fizz and her family, as well as called her basically a whore to her face it would take A LOT for me to get over it WAY more than getting knocked up. Plus after he called her all those names she still slept with him? I mean yes it can happen, but most women would not they would still be hurting from someone they fell in love with calling them the most horrible things.

#2 - the predictablity like this girl who strangely looks just like FiZZ's sister just happens to OMG be there half sister, Shocking.... NOT. especially since the author through Fizz mentions on a few occassions how Edward, Fizz's father, had his escapades. And I am sorry Luke/Melanie thing I knew light years before it was revealed that they were not lovers but family.

Now for more positive things!

I like the begining soooooo much! I love that the author waited to tell us exactly how Fizz had her heart broken, you knew it was bad (really it wasn't that bad I would have made it more juicy - it was basic cheating issue but i did forgive it since the author does address it in the end of why she did that way) since Fizz shyed away from all men not letting anyone in again.

I also loved the discriptions of the electricity sparking between them when they touched.

i also like that Luke's millions were not used a ploy, meaning like in many books about millionaire/billionaires the man throws his money at the woman, spoiling her which sorry with 50 shades and all its spawns has gotten quite old. This time he is throwing money at her but she throws it back! it was nice!

*** one thing that really doesn't give or take from the book that I personally would have like is more chapters from Luke's point of view to see actually how much he was sufferring after Fizz, told him she would not be with him or would ever forgive him, he really just ran away (which in the end I did agree with the sister when she said if he really did care/want her he would have stayed and not went away) and a chapter from his point of view as to why would have made it easier to digest the whole she gets knocked up so that equates instant forgiveness for all his actions and words.

[LadyCalico · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once upon a time I read a Liz Fielding book that was so thoroughly awful that I put her name in my mental files as an author I would never bother reading again. However, I am glad I forgot and downloaded this book, because I actually enjoyed this one very much. It did share one of my complaints with the previous book--the hero was so obnoxious that it was unbelievable that the heroine fell in lust with him, no matter how pretty the putrid package looked on the outside. Granted the author humanized him after the first meeting in his office when he was so inexcusably, and nonsensically, rude to her, but any sane woman's antenna would have flashed all kinds of "mean, arrogant, selfish" signals that would have been a complete turn off. What is less sexy than a rude, self-aggrandizing boor? Lately I've found myself deducting a star from romance novels because the heroine was so obnoxious that she damaged an otherwise good story. This time I've downgraded the book because the hero was too obnoxious. On the positive side, I did like having a heroine named Fizz, although later all the hokey associations with temper tantrums and orgasms kind of ruined the coolness of her nickname. I primarily liked the metaphor of revenge as a wild beast that often turns around and bites the backside of the master who released it. Now that is a very realistic theme.

[Eloise · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book started out with a great storyline although I had the twist worked out way before halfway through. It was fast paced and kept me interested.

Having said all of that by towards the end of the book I began to hate the main characters. I wanted to fall in love with Luke's character but he turned into a real pig by calling Fizz a whore. I am sorry, but any man who does that deserves more than directions to catch a cab home. Then he dares her to prostitute herself for radio sponsorship? I'll give you money for that taxi honey, provided you never come back! Sorry, that just didnt work for me.

As for Fizz, no wall-flower just strips off at a party for wild sex. It just seemed to out of character and that annoyed me. She was so erratic in her emotions - a bit too much "I'll forgive everything if you will love me forever. I hate you, I love you, never leave, never come back"

You could be mistaken for thinking that I didn't like the book. I did actually like it (mostly).

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

As hero's go I really disliked Luke for about 2 thirds of the book. He came across as a psychopathic jerk, whilst poor Fiz as very much the victim.

His aim revenge served very cold, deadly almost and her aim to remain invisible and just get on with the everyday business of running her radio station and protecting her battered heart.

Very well written, especially as the hero did a complete 180 turn and became the love of her life at the end.

If it had not been for the fact that I've been challenging myself to read as many Kindle freebies as possible this year .... thus extending my reading range .... I would probably never have chosen this one. Liz Fielding is definitely one to read again, and I will probably get the remainder of the Beaumont Brides series.

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to say I enjoyed this book. I liked the characters, even Claudia towards the end. It was fast paced with a good plot. I had figured out what had happened before I got to it, but that was okay?

The bad thing about it was a huge amount of misspelled words. Hmmmmmm did I spell misspelled right? Also words that should have been edited out were not. There were many words that came from England. Since I was raised in the states I had to look up words or try to figure them out if I couldn't find it.

All in all it was a good story, plus it was free. How can you complain when it was free.

[Tori · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable story-well plotted, engaging characters, and a nice romance to boot but I have to say that the hero, Luke Devlin, was such an arse the majority of the story. So many times I wanted to reach through the book and pop him a good one. He makes up for it in the end but not enough groveling for me.

[Christina · Rating 1 out of 5]

A lot of potential, just not the right execution. There are plenty of pages to this book, that were easily skimmable and didn't lend to the overall story. The characters could have been developed more, as I wasn't emotionally invested in either.

[Lili · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a freebie, although it was afast easy read i didn't enjoy reading it.

[Nellster · Rating 1 out of 5]

Gave up after 15% just wasnt happening for me it was a real struggle!

[Momoftwins02 · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't even finish this rediculous book ... Don't waste your money!!

[Amy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Shoot me in the face. I couldn't get pasted chapter six it was so long slow an boring. I have never given a bad review until now. Sorry author I don't even remember your name. :-(

[Mhari · Rating 1 out of 5]

The "hero" was a creep! .... And that's all I have to say about that.....

[Angel Graham · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. Calling a woman a whore is a no from me.

[Curiousgem · Rating 5 out of 5]

There was a time when I read a lot of Liz Fielding books and I mean.. A LOT. Not because the books were great, but because they were easily accessible and they had a certain formulaic pattern that felt very familiar.

Out the entire Liz Fielding lot that I read, I liked Wild Justice the best. The book was written in the 90s when it was ok for the hero to be an alphahole. However, viewing it with today’s lens, this is a book that is very problematic and has an uber toxic hero at the center. He is vengeful, he is cruel, and he doesn’t quite take no for an answer. Very much so like Linda Howard’s heroes. In fact, Liz Fielding’s stories have the same 80s/90s dated feel that Linda Howard’s stories have.. maybe it is a generational thing. Anyway, there are lot of problematic parts to this book.

That said, there was a time in my life when I used to devour toxic hero books. I loved them and I lived to read these books. Wild Justice came into my life during such a phase. And I read and re-read this book relentlessly. So much so that I now have strong nostalgic memories associated with this book. So even though I know this is a toxic book, for the sake of nostalgia I shall award it full 5 stars!!

[Ronnae Stately · Rating 5 out of 5]

Felicity (Fizz) Beaumont runs the local radio station that is stationed off the end of the famous Broomhill Bay Pier. Her father, Edward Beaumont, and her sister, Claudia Beaumont, are famous actors. Her mother, Elaine French, was also a very famous actor. At one point i Fizz's life she tried her hand at acting but things didn't go the way they should have. She recently took up a loan to expand her radio station with a restuarant but has now lost her major sponsorship in the local community with the takeover of the company that gave her it. When she goes to meet the new owner he turns out to be someone with his own agenda aimed at the whole entire Beaumont family. Luke Devlin is an Australian entrepreneur and has come to Broomhill seeking revenge for his sister. But what he didn't realize is that he had finally found his match in everything he didn't realize he was looking for. These two spar over the sponsorship of the radio station which leads to revelations about Luke's niece, Melanie Brett, being more than what enyone had thought. And love is found between two unlikely candidates, Luke and Fizz.

[Ayezu Tamarapreye Okoko · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got a recommendation to read this by Booksweeps

LIZ FIELDING
WILD JUSTICE: When Fizz's finances hit the wall she's in danger of losing everything she's worked for. Only one man can save her...but at what price? (Beaumont Brides Book 1)

I looked inside the kindle read on Amazon

A business and finance prose fiction looking at being a business man from the life of Mr Devlin and finance management from Fizz Beaumont.The story looks at external support and its impact when withdrawn;reliance of towns on funds depicted through the Harries and Beaumont family fund support;franchise agreement in business financing;self support and reliance on sponsorship by business and it's negatives;possibility of overdraft payment;loans from merchant banks;business skills of distinguishing urgency from other matters;know when and when not to diversify looking at expenses ;amongst others.

[Pamela aka Scottieluvr · Rating 3 out of 5]

RRRC 2019 Read the Month Polish Edition (Kwiecien) April

A fascinating and well written contemporary drama with a London back drop, an intriguing film industry world set and a host of captivating secondary characters. The main protagonists, Luke Devlin and Fizz Beaumont are well constructed, alive and attractive. Their romance is typical but vivid and real.

[Dawn Myers · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's okay. I liked Fizz she loves her family, loyal and stubborn. I don't like Luke I didn't find anything worth liking. He's sneaky and a jerk. I found Wild Justice very long winded. I did have things figured out very early. I read in The Beaumont Brides 3-in-1 Collection: Wild Justice / Wild Lady / Wild Fire

[Purple Iris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not sure why anyone would want to marry this "hero." The writing was decent and the characters interesting, but the hero's behavior was just cruel and criminal. Not sure how/why everyone forgives him so easily.

[Sasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story strong characters

Has a good story strong characters even though predictable. Good to see more content than just a regular mills and boons type

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book

You people should just read this book yourselves and write your own review on this novel yourself and I really enjoyed reading this book very much so. Shelley MA

[Patti LeCrone]

Exciting

Best written book I've read in a long time. Held my interest from the beginning to the end. Loved the ending.