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The Blackjack Quartet #2
The Cost of Happiness
A Cinderella story set in a Philadelphia law firm filled with dark corners and scheming rivals ...
Meghan Mattson resigns her summer associate job when she learns that her bipolar mother is a con artist ... using Meghan's name. Meghan convinces the Feds to drop the charges against her, but it ends her career.
On Dan Howard's first day as a junior partner, he's amazed his paralegal is Meghan, Franklin Law's star student. He's thrilled to work with such a brilliant mind ... and such an attractive woman.
As Dan and Meghan tackle a tricky case, they struggle to resist their mutual attraction. Even if senior partner Wallace Leith approves, others in the firm want to see them fail. Can their office romance bring them a fairy-tale ending?
The Cost of Happiness is a stand-alone legal romance. It's also Book Two in Magdalen Braden's Blackjack Quartet, following Love in Reality.
Meghan Mattson resigns her summer associate job when she learns that her bipolar mother is a con artist ... using Meghan's name. Meghan convinces the Feds to drop the charges against her, but it ends her career.
On Dan Howard's first day as a junior partner, he's amazed his paralegal is Meghan, Franklin Law's star student. He's thrilled to work with such a brilliant mind ... and such an attractive woman.
As Dan and Meghan tackle a tricky case, they struggle to resist their mutual attraction. Even if senior partner Wallace Leith approves, others in the firm want to see them fail. Can their office romance bring them a fairy-tale ending?
The Cost of Happiness is a stand-alone legal romance. It's also Book Two in Magdalen Braden's Blackjack Quartet, following Love in Reality.
- GenresContemporary Romance
296 pages, Paperback
First published December 6, 2013
2 people are currently reading
256 people want to read
About the author
Magdalen Braden
8 books93 followersIn her series of sexy contemporary romances, The Blackjack Quartet, Magdalen Braden writes about lawyers, judges, law students, paralegals … an entire fictional Philadelphia legal community, in fact. Hey, she left her legal career to return to her first love, romance writing, so it makes sense she'd write about the law. As she puts it, "I needed a day job to quit, so I went to law school."
Be glad she doesn't draw on her other professional experiences, which include failed caterer, failed daycare administrator, failed editorial assistant, and failed hearing tester in a flour mill.
Magdalen writes about Philadelphia because she went to law school there, practiced there, and even has a British patent attorney ex-husband still living in the Victorian South Philadelphia house Magdalen bought before they married. (The house used to be part of a convent—another aspect of her past that won't show up in her steamy novels.)
In a shameless bid for attention, Magdalen has been known to tell people she and bestselling author Julie James have virtually identical legal careers: Magdalen went to a better law school but Julie had the better federal clerkship.
In addition to writing, Magdalen keeps busy completing her Masters in Fine Arts degree from Stonecoast, the University of Southern Maine's MFA program, one of only two in the country that acknowledges romance novels exist, let alone comprise a wildly popular fiction genre. She even submitted a scholarly essay on Susan Elizabeth Phillips' "Dream a Little Dream" in her first semester. What time Magdalen has left over is spent with her second British husband (what can she say? She has a type!) in their two-hundred-year-old house in rural Pennsylvania with their cats and dog.
Magdalen's debut romance, "Love in Reality", begins The Blackjack Quartet. Book three in the series, "Blackjack & Moonlight", was a 2012 finalist in the prestigious Romance Writers of America Golden Heart® contest and will be published in 2013 after "The Cost of Happiness" (Book Two) and before "Lost and Found" (Book Four). There are rumors she's even considering a fifth book in the series.
Figures a former lawyer would try to sell a fifth book as part of a quartet …
Be glad she doesn't draw on her other professional experiences, which include failed caterer, failed daycare administrator, failed editorial assistant, and failed hearing tester in a flour mill.
Magdalen writes about Philadelphia because she went to law school there, practiced there, and even has a British patent attorney ex-husband still living in the Victorian South Philadelphia house Magdalen bought before they married. (The house used to be part of a convent—another aspect of her past that won't show up in her steamy novels.)
In a shameless bid for attention, Magdalen has been known to tell people she and bestselling author Julie James have virtually identical legal careers: Magdalen went to a better law school but Julie had the better federal clerkship.
In addition to writing, Magdalen keeps busy completing her Masters in Fine Arts degree from Stonecoast, the University of Southern Maine's MFA program, one of only two in the country that acknowledges romance novels exist, let alone comprise a wildly popular fiction genre. She even submitted a scholarly essay on Susan Elizabeth Phillips' "Dream a Little Dream" in her first semester. What time Magdalen has left over is spent with her second British husband (what can she say? She has a type!) in their two-hundred-year-old house in rural Pennsylvania with their cats and dog.
Magdalen's debut romance, "Love in Reality", begins The Blackjack Quartet. Book three in the series, "Blackjack & Moonlight", was a 2012 finalist in the prestigious Romance Writers of America Golden Heart® contest and will be published in 2013 after "The Cost of Happiness" (Book Two) and before "Lost and Found" (Book Four). There are rumors she's even considering a fifth book in the series.
Figures a former lawyer would try to sell a fifth book as part of a quartet …
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
July 30, 2014
I received this. ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
The gist: Meghan was a law student at the top of her class, on her way to a Supreme Court clerkship. She had to drop out of law school and became a paralegal. Dan was the Assistant US Attorney, but he decided to go into private practice as a corporate defense attorney in class action lawsuits. Meghan is his paralegal.
Based on the synopsis, I expected some sort of office grudge thing and maybe some element of suspense or backstabbing or SOMETHING. 48% in and nothing like that happened. Two ladies weren't happy about Meghan being a paralegal because she was too smart to be a paralegal, but since she didn't lord her intelligence over anyone or overstep her bounds as a paralegal, I didn't understand the animosity there. And nothing HAPPENED. I got impatient waiting for it.
This book would be great, probably, for someone who has studied law and finds talking about law an aphrodisiac. I'm not one of those people, however. They were working on a case involving cell phone technologies and there was WAY TOO MUCH technical cell phone and legal jargon for me to follow along. I don't need all that in my romance novels.
Then you have the characters. She's 27 and he's 34, but he's 'old' for her. Huh? In what world??? They talk about the 'age difference' A LOT!!! Let me tell ya a bit about Meghan... She's super smart and top of her class and headed for a Supreme Court clerkship. Her mom is a loser and was using Meghan's identity to commit mortgage fraud. (This isn't a spoiler, it mentioned in the synopsis and it's all revealed in chapter one.) Even though the Feds have ZERO evidence against Meghan and they even KNOW she wasn't involved and hadn't even had ANY contact with her mother on years, they're threatening to charge Meghan as the mastermind. Also, she doesn't know a thing about it until her mom has already plea bargained and her mom only gets 3-5 years. So anyway, Meghan, being an exemplary law student, doesn't consult a lawyer before going to talk to the US Attorney on the case and agrees to repay all her mother's restitution. That made ZERO sense to me!!! And it was just crazily implausible. So anywho, she drops out of law school so she can go to work to start repaying the restitution. She was already working while she was in law school and making more money than she was after she dropped out. And they were garnishing her paychecks, which they would've done no matter how much she was making, so the whole dropping out business and having to drop down to paralegal made even LESS sense! She's also described as quite, shy, a loner, etc. Your typical super smart person. But she's all flirty with Dan quickly and practically "jumping his bones" shortly after he became her boss. It just seemed contradictory to me. Dan is kind of a tool also...
Needless to say, I'm not really a fan of this book. I would, however, give the author one more chance to 'wow' me. ;) Like I said, if technical or legal jargon is your 'thing,' you'll probably enjoy this book. It just wasn't my cup o' tea.
The gist: Meghan was a law student at the top of her class, on her way to a Supreme Court clerkship. She had to drop out of law school and became a paralegal. Dan was the Assistant US Attorney, but he decided to go into private practice as a corporate defense attorney in class action lawsuits. Meghan is his paralegal.
Based on the synopsis, I expected some sort of office grudge thing and maybe some element of suspense or backstabbing or SOMETHING. 48% in and nothing like that happened. Two ladies weren't happy about Meghan being a paralegal because she was too smart to be a paralegal, but since she didn't lord her intelligence over anyone or overstep her bounds as a paralegal, I didn't understand the animosity there. And nothing HAPPENED. I got impatient waiting for it.
This book would be great, probably, for someone who has studied law and finds talking about law an aphrodisiac. I'm not one of those people, however. They were working on a case involving cell phone technologies and there was WAY TOO MUCH technical cell phone and legal jargon for me to follow along. I don't need all that in my romance novels.
Then you have the characters. She's 27 and he's 34, but he's 'old' for her. Huh? In what world??? They talk about the 'age difference' A LOT!!! Let me tell ya a bit about Meghan... She's super smart and top of her class and headed for a Supreme Court clerkship. Her mom is a loser and was using Meghan's identity to commit mortgage fraud. (This isn't a spoiler, it mentioned in the synopsis and it's all revealed in chapter one.) Even though the Feds have ZERO evidence against Meghan and they even KNOW she wasn't involved and hadn't even had ANY contact with her mother on years, they're threatening to charge Meghan as the mastermind. Also, she doesn't know a thing about it until her mom has already plea bargained and her mom only gets 3-5 years. So anyway, Meghan, being an exemplary law student, doesn't consult a lawyer before going to talk to the US Attorney on the case and agrees to repay all her mother's restitution. That made ZERO sense to me!!! And it was just crazily implausible. So anywho, she drops out of law school so she can go to work to start repaying the restitution. She was already working while she was in law school and making more money than she was after she dropped out. And they were garnishing her paychecks, which they would've done no matter how much she was making, so the whole dropping out business and having to drop down to paralegal made even LESS sense! She's also described as quite, shy, a loner, etc. Your typical super smart person. But she's all flirty with Dan quickly and practically "jumping his bones" shortly after he became her boss. It just seemed contradictory to me. Dan is kind of a tool also...
Needless to say, I'm not really a fan of this book. I would, however, give the author one more chance to 'wow' me. ;) Like I said, if technical or legal jargon is your 'thing,' you'll probably enjoy this book. It just wasn't my cup o' tea.
July 29, 2014
1 partner and the Paralegal Star
• 1 star due to too many areas where I couldn’t connect and the story died on me.
I received a free copy of this via netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest review. I am reviewing the 2nd edition .
When I read the blurp I understood there was going to be a bit of legal matter involved and a steamy love affair… what I got was a crap tone of legalese office drama and a pitch for the ProCell case.
Along the verbiage you can tell that Dan is very much infatuated with Meghan’s work ethic.. and around the 29% mark he starts thinking about her personal ethic.
Dan reflected on how primal it was to hold someone’s hand. To touch their skin, primal in a sexual way, of course, because skin is skin, and hands are so sensitive
Each passing passage you see both characters remind them selves of their work positions (Dan being the boss man(partner) and Meghan being the paralegal) Dan literally tells his penis to remember that Partner and Paralegal is cliché.
The banter is very calm and girly as far as hitting on each other goes.
Chapter 11 is where the relationship really kicks off although the professional relationship starts off the bat. … BUTT .. Im bored. I wanted to just chuck the book at the 45%. There is not enough tension between the characters and the attraction doesn’t suit their ages either.
Meghan gives a blow job with a condom on…egads eww tasting… but she totally fakes the O! !!!! and he knew it!!!
tonights the night sweetheart…you are going to have an orgasm. In bed. With a man
Ever see someone come? It is a trip and a rush
And then boredom again at 60% there is mention of love and I could understand a reader getting involved if they were into legalese. But to me its too much and since I am no legal expert I am legally bored. The story falls flat for me. I don’t really see a Cinderella story from the blurb.. you just have a girl who got dealt a shitty hand and tried to make it regardless.
My prince… even better your criminal defense attorney, and the man who loves you without reservation
• 1 star due to too many areas where I couldn’t connect and the story died on me.
I received a free copy of this via netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest review. I am reviewing the 2nd edition .
When I read the blurp I understood there was going to be a bit of legal matter involved and a steamy love affair… what I got was a crap tone of legalese office drama and a pitch for the ProCell case.
Along the verbiage you can tell that Dan is very much infatuated with Meghan’s work ethic.. and around the 29% mark he starts thinking about her personal ethic.
Dan reflected on how primal it was to hold someone’s hand. To touch their skin, primal in a sexual way, of course, because skin is skin, and hands are so sensitive
Each passing passage you see both characters remind them selves of their work positions (Dan being the boss man(partner) and Meghan being the paralegal) Dan literally tells his penis to remember that Partner and Paralegal is cliché.
The banter is very calm and girly as far as hitting on each other goes.
Chapter 11 is where the relationship really kicks off although the professional relationship starts off the bat. … BUTT .. Im bored. I wanted to just chuck the book at the 45%. There is not enough tension between the characters and the attraction doesn’t suit their ages either.
Meghan gives a blow job with a condom on…egads eww tasting… but she totally fakes the O! !!!! and he knew it!!!
tonights the night sweetheart…you are going to have an orgasm. In bed. With a man
Ever see someone come? It is a trip and a rush
And then boredom again at 60% there is mention of love and I could understand a reader getting involved if they were into legalese. But to me its too much and since I am no legal expert I am legally bored. The story falls flat for me. I don’t really see a Cinderella story from the blurb.. you just have a girl who got dealt a shitty hand and tried to make it regardless.
My prince… even better your criminal defense attorney, and the man who loves you without reservation
December 7, 2014
The Cost of Happiness was one of my three favourite reads of 2013. This is what I said over at Heroes and Heartbreakers: http://www.heroesandheartbreakers.com...
"2013 had me all over the map in terms of favorite books but they had something in common, the magic of being seen and loved for who we are, through the eyes of our lover, albeit not necessarily society. I met a brain injured twenty-something (1), a glittery and forthright Essex lad (2), and a heads-down wounded Cinderella (3) (masquerading as a paralegal) in these three wonderful stories. Unsurprisingly, they all found love and happiness although their journeys all took angsty detours."
#1 New Life (New Life, #1) by Bonnie Dee
#2 Glitterland (Glitterland, #1) by Alexis Hall
#3 The Cost of Happiness (The Blackjack Quartet, #2) by Magdalen Braden
*was given a copy in exchange for an honest review*
"2013 had me all over the map in terms of favorite books but they had something in common, the magic of being seen and loved for who we are, through the eyes of our lover, albeit not necessarily society. I met a brain injured twenty-something (1), a glittery and forthright Essex lad (2), and a heads-down wounded Cinderella (3) (masquerading as a paralegal) in these three wonderful stories. Unsurprisingly, they all found love and happiness although their journeys all took angsty detours."
#1 New Life (New Life, #1) by Bonnie Dee
#2 Glitterland (Glitterland, #1) by Alexis Hall
#3 The Cost of Happiness (The Blackjack Quartet, #2) by Magdalen Braden
*was given a copy in exchange for an honest review*
August 11, 2014
I love Magdalen Braden's writing! I guess because I feel so close to her characters. I understand them. I think like them. They're logical and analytical like me.
This is my second Braden book and I loved both. The pacing is great. Lots of dialogue, and when a character's introspective, he/she's evaluating his/her life. It all just works for me, making it a really fun, enjoyable read.
This is my second Braden book and I loved both. The pacing is great. Lots of dialogue, and when a character's introspective, he/she's evaluating his/her life. It all just works for me, making it a really fun, enjoyable read.
April 8, 2019
The Cost of Happiness is actually a beautifully told love story, with sympathetic main characters and an interesting background story.The female protagonist, Meghan, has to struggle with the actions of her bipolar and irresponsible mother and the resulting problems and personal insecurities, while at the same time she has to juggle her job as a paralegal and her flourishing relationship to her boss, and all her feelings are carefully outlined. However, the character of the male protagonist is much more implausible. He also has to struggle with his own feelings of insecurity regarding his professional perspective and the love of his father, but as soon as he meets Meghan, everything fades into the background and he can only think of Meghan. And I mean practically all the time: during work meetings, client meetings, during complex legal research, while always admiring how smart and competent Meghan is. While I think it's great when the hero appreciates the heroine's abilities, supports her professionally and falls madly in love with her, it was hard for me to believe that someone who is actually very competitive and a successful lawyer himself suddenly can't think clearly sitting next to his co-worker, constantly adores her and acknowledges each of her remarks like a proud dad with a bright smile ("positively beamed at her").
December 28, 2014
Wonderful read.
I enjoyed this book because it is about 'regular' people - yes, lawyers at least some can be real people trying to do good but also finding a soul mate with each other. I do think the 'techie' discussions regarding the cell phone lawsuit were a bit long, but I'm a bit of a Luddite when it comes to the inner workings of modern techie devices. I thought the characters were drawn well particularly the female lead who must deal with some baggage of from her upbringing. It was and is a delightful book. I would recommend it to anyone who likes modern romances.
I enjoyed this book because it is about 'regular' people - yes, lawyers at least some can be real people trying to do good but also finding a soul mate with each other. I do think the 'techie' discussions regarding the cell phone lawsuit were a bit long, but I'm a bit of a Luddite when it comes to the inner workings of modern techie devices. I thought the characters were drawn well particularly the female lead who must deal with some baggage of from her upbringing. It was and is a delightful book. I would recommend it to anyone who likes modern romances.
July 29, 2014
This was like a romance version of a John Grisham book. Parts of the story were a bit predictable and things happened a little to easily for the main characters but I really liked the story line. The 2 MC's were very likeable and the supporting cast was unforgettable. The dialog between Dan and Meghan was witty and enjoyable.
I haven't read the other 2 books in the series but I am definitely going to go back and read those!
I haven't read the other 2 books in the series but I am definitely going to go back and read those!
June 9, 2014
I got this book in a Goodreads giveaway. It was a really sweet and cute book with a hea. The characters were very good since I think that being smart is really sexy. The one draw back that I had was the love scenes. They started out with strong words and then it was over which left it a little flat.
July 31, 2014
Intelligent and yet predictable for a nice lawyer intrigue. In the fashion of a Grisholm romance style our characters each have quirks in their backgrounds that trip them up in their relationship beginnings. sweet and sexy and very caring is our Dan who is quite perfect. I like that. Arc from Netgalley .
September 1, 2014
Back to the lawyer-speak, which I love. I felt like this book had just the right amount of information on a typical day as a lawyer, without getting too boring or technical. As always, the character development was great, with good back story issues that the characters had to work out for themselves.
When's the next book coming out?!? I can't wait to read it!!
When's the next book coming out?!? I can't wait to read it!!
December 8, 2014
Another successful Philadelphia 'lawyers in love' novel by Magdalen Braden. The depiction of internal law firm politics and legal strategies was absolutely realistic, but did not overwhelm the romantic journey of the engaging and charmingly intelligent young litigators.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews