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Truth in Lies #25
A Family Affair: The Risk
He spent years dodging commitment, but then she came along and stole his heart. Unfortunately, he broke hers.
If Katie knew Ian Finnegan would break her heart, she’d like to think she would have ignored that blue gaze and slow smile, blocked out the deep voice, the pull of attraction that warned be careful. But would she have done it? She was nineteen and had been careful her whole life. For one long hot summer she allowed herself to believe in destiny.
Ian Finnegan might be a rich kid in designer clothes whose visit to Magdalena started out as a “punishment”, but he’s never met anyone like Katie Layton. She’s not impressed with his looks, his style, or his money. Katie fascinates him and the more time he’s around her, the more he realizes there is no one else like her. Ian is arrogant and naïve enough to believe nobody can stop them from being together. And then he finds out how wrong he is…
10 years later
Katie’s vision of creating specialty soups has become a reality. Katie’s Soups was born from her love of cooking alongside her mother, and it’s how she honors her memory. When she lands a national contract that requires company expansion, a silent investor steps in to fund the project. However, months after completion, she’s still struggling to fulfill orders, and that’s when the silent investor insists on sending an engineer to conduct an efficiency audit.
Ian Finnegan certainly doesn’t look like an engineer or a successful businessman with his long hair, tattoos, T-shirts, and faded jeans. That’s what he’s counting on when he returns to Magdalena to convince Katie to let him help make her company more efficient without divulging that he's the engineer she’s expecting and he’s the silent investor. He'll have to tell her eventually, but not until he explains what happened all those years ago. It's going to be a big risk, but it’s one he’s willing to take for a chance at forever with the only woman he’s ever loved.
If Katie knew Ian Finnegan would break her heart, she’d like to think she would have ignored that blue gaze and slow smile, blocked out the deep voice, the pull of attraction that warned be careful. But would she have done it? She was nineteen and had been careful her whole life. For one long hot summer she allowed herself to believe in destiny.
Ian Finnegan might be a rich kid in designer clothes whose visit to Magdalena started out as a “punishment”, but he’s never met anyone like Katie Layton. She’s not impressed with his looks, his style, or his money. Katie fascinates him and the more time he’s around her, the more he realizes there is no one else like her. Ian is arrogant and naïve enough to believe nobody can stop them from being together. And then he finds out how wrong he is…
10 years later
Katie’s vision of creating specialty soups has become a reality. Katie’s Soups was born from her love of cooking alongside her mother, and it’s how she honors her memory. When she lands a national contract that requires company expansion, a silent investor steps in to fund the project. However, months after completion, she’s still struggling to fulfill orders, and that’s when the silent investor insists on sending an engineer to conduct an efficiency audit.
Ian Finnegan certainly doesn’t look like an engineer or a successful businessman with his long hair, tattoos, T-shirts, and faded jeans. That’s what he’s counting on when he returns to Magdalena to convince Katie to let him help make her company more efficient without divulging that he's the engineer she’s expecting and he’s the silent investor. He'll have to tell her eventually, but not until he explains what happened all those years ago. It's going to be a big risk, but it’s one he’s willing to take for a chance at forever with the only woman he’s ever loved.
235 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 1, 2026
11 people are currently reading
4 people want to read
About the author
Mary Campisi
80 books422 followersMary Campisi is the author of over 40 emotion-packed novels that center around hope, redemption, and second chances.
Mary should have known she'd become a writer when at age thirteen she began changing the ending to all the books she read. It took several years and a number of jobs, including registered nurse, receptionist in a swanky hair salon, accounts payable clerk, and practice manager in an OB/GYN office, for her to rediscover writing. Enter a mouse-less computer, a floppy disk, and a dream large enough to fill a zip drive. The rest of the story lives on in every book she writes.
When she's not working on her craft or following the lives of five adult children, Mary's digging in the dirt with her flowers and herbs, cooking, reading, walking her rescue lab, Henry, or, on the perfect day, riding off into the sunset with her very own hero/husband on his Ultra Limited aka Harley.
If you would like to be notified when Mary has a new release, please sign up at http://www.marycampisi.com/book/book-...
website: marycampisi.com
e-mail: mary@marycampisi.com
blog: marycampisi.com/blog/
twitter: twitter.com/MaryCampisi
facebook: facebook.com/marycampisibooks
Instagram: instagram.com/marycampisiauthor/
Mary should have known she'd become a writer when at age thirteen she began changing the ending to all the books she read. It took several years and a number of jobs, including registered nurse, receptionist in a swanky hair salon, accounts payable clerk, and practice manager in an OB/GYN office, for her to rediscover writing. Enter a mouse-less computer, a floppy disk, and a dream large enough to fill a zip drive. The rest of the story lives on in every book she writes.
When she's not working on her craft or following the lives of five adult children, Mary's digging in the dirt with her flowers and herbs, cooking, reading, walking her rescue lab, Henry, or, on the perfect day, riding off into the sunset with her very own hero/husband on his Ultra Limited aka Harley.
If you would like to be notified when Mary has a new release, please sign up at http://www.marycampisi.com/book/book-...
website: marycampisi.com
e-mail: mary@marycampisi.com
blog: marycampisi.com/blog/
twitter: twitter.com/MaryCampisi
facebook: facebook.com/marycampisibooks
Instagram: instagram.com/marycampisiauthor/
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
April 2, 2026
Every Mary Campisi book is a triumph! She believes in redemption and second chances, and her books portray that goodness in every paragraph. The Risk follows that same tradition and succeeds as all her previous books have done.
This is her twenty-fifth book in the Family Affair series and centers around the love story Katie Layton and Ian Finnegan.
Ian Finnegan was sent to the town of Magdalena as a punishment for his extravagant and expensive lifestyle. His father was mortified with Ian’s behavior and felt that living with his Uncle Jack for three months would cure Ian of his foolishness and return him back into the fold.
Ian doesn’t want that. He doesn’t want to work for his dad. He would rather tinker with engines, figuring out how they can work better and more efficiently. The inhabitants of Magdalena were very skeptical of this young man who can’t adapt to factory life until he begins to work on old automobiles bringing them back to life as well a fixing old washers and dryers which had not worked in years.
The first time that Ian saw Katie Layton, she was swinging an axe and cutting wood. She was not at all impressed with the newcomer with whom her sister was infatuated! Katie did not respond to his chiseled features, his full head of styled hair, or incredible blue eyes.
Katie wanted to make her business of creating and selling her soups a huge success. She dreamed of building Katie’s Soups, available in grocery stores far and wide. She had no time for a flirtatious Casanova. She didn’t want or need his money or his time.
Of course, their relationship blossomed as they worked together to make Katie’s Soups successful. Then Ian had to leave Magdalena with promises that he would return. That never happened. Katie never heard from him again.
Now Ian Finnegan is back with long ponytailed hair and tattoos everywhere, tending bar at the local watering hole. After ten years, how is Katie going to react?
Mary Campisi’ latest instalment of the A Family Affair series is as captivating as all the other Family Affairs books are. She involves characters from her previous books into the current story line which always makes me smile. In this current world of chaos, she brings light and I love that. I hope you do too.
This is her twenty-fifth book in the Family Affair series and centers around the love story Katie Layton and Ian Finnegan.
Ian Finnegan was sent to the town of Magdalena as a punishment for his extravagant and expensive lifestyle. His father was mortified with Ian’s behavior and felt that living with his Uncle Jack for three months would cure Ian of his foolishness and return him back into the fold.
Ian doesn’t want that. He doesn’t want to work for his dad. He would rather tinker with engines, figuring out how they can work better and more efficiently. The inhabitants of Magdalena were very skeptical of this young man who can’t adapt to factory life until he begins to work on old automobiles bringing them back to life as well a fixing old washers and dryers which had not worked in years.
The first time that Ian saw Katie Layton, she was swinging an axe and cutting wood. She was not at all impressed with the newcomer with whom her sister was infatuated! Katie did not respond to his chiseled features, his full head of styled hair, or incredible blue eyes.
Katie wanted to make her business of creating and selling her soups a huge success. She dreamed of building Katie’s Soups, available in grocery stores far and wide. She had no time for a flirtatious Casanova. She didn’t want or need his money or his time.
Of course, their relationship blossomed as they worked together to make Katie’s Soups successful. Then Ian had to leave Magdalena with promises that he would return. That never happened. Katie never heard from him again.
Now Ian Finnegan is back with long ponytailed hair and tattoos everywhere, tending bar at the local watering hole. After ten years, how is Katie going to react?
Mary Campisi’ latest instalment of the A Family Affair series is as captivating as all the other Family Affairs books are. She involves characters from her previous books into the current story line which always makes me smile. In this current world of chaos, she brings light and I love that. I hope you do too.
Displaying 1 of 1 review