With the death of her mother, Hannah Hawkins has inherited leadership of the family moonshine business. She feels unprepared when a rich family comes to town and tries to usurp their domination in the region. Having no choice, Hannah contacts their closest rival, the Meza's, to form an alliance to keep both of their companies safe from a hostile takeover. The only condition that worries Hannah is that she must marry the Meza's attractive son, Javier, to complete the deal. When Hannah accepts, she doesn't realize that Javier want to make their arranged marriage into a love match. White Whiskey Bargain is a very short book that tells the complicated story of a mafia style war between families in the moonshine business. The style and substance of the book reads much like a historical romance with a modern setting. Also, because this is a short novel, many of the events that take place in the book aren't allowed to evolve as they would if it were a longer story. Character development also suffers through the lack of pages. Overall, White Whiskey Bargain has the beginnings of what could have been a fantastic story, but is instead, little more than an outline.

Rival moonshine distillers Hannah Hawkins and Javier Meza get married to present a united front against their common enemy, a band of vicious new players on the scene in their hometown of Harlan, Kentucky. Hannah found herself at the helm of her recently deceased mother's empire and this is really the last thing she needs, but Javier is the heir to his father's business and could prove to be an amazing partner in the fight to come, and perhaps for a future neither of them dared dream of. So absolutely delicious. The setting of Black Appalachia is a character in its own right and has opened up a whole new world to me (a white reviewer). The drama comes not from the romance, as it is pretty clear both Hannah and Javier are very much into their "fake" marriage from the start, but from their actions to ensure their family legacies and business. I loved the slow-burn but absolutely steamy development of Hannah and Javier's physical relationship while they teamed up to take down their enemy. The scene on the hood of Javier's car is FIRE. Slaughter is a new to me author, and I cannot wait to read more! CW for gun violence, parental death (off page), cancer death of a minor character, kidnapping (of adults).