Born into a
life of privilege and secrets, Nora Blakely has everything any nineteen-year-old
girl could desire. She’s an accomplished
pianist, a Texas beauty queen, and on her way to Princeton after high
school. She’s perfect…
Leaving
behind her million dollar mansion and Jimmy Choos, she becomes a girl hell-bent
on pushing the limits with alcohol, drugs, and meaningless sex.
Then she
meets her soulmate. But he doesn’t want
her.
When it
comes to girls, twenty-five-year old Leo Tate has one rule: never fall in love. His gym and his brother are all he cares
about…until he meets Nora. He resists
the pull of their attraction, hung up on their six year age difference.
As they
struggle to stay away from each other, secrets will be revealed, tempers will
flare, and hearts will be broken.
Welcome to
Briarcrest Academy…where sometimes, the best things in life are
Very Bad Things.
As if he’d made a decision, he pulled me out into the quiet
hallway. Once we were alone, he said, “Now, about last night—” he stopped,
appearing stuck on what to say.
“Yeah?”
He took two steps away from me, like he needed some space
between us, like what he was going to say was difficult. He ran his hand
through his hair furiously, pulling on the ends a little. “Nora, look, I think
you’re a pretty girl, but there won’t be anything between us.”
My face flushed because I had acted inappropriately last
night. Like a slut, really. Yet I didn’t regret it. And then there was my bad
list. I wanted him for my meaningless sex. Still.
“Because you think I’m too young.”
“Yes.” He blew out a breath. “I’m sorry if I come across as
a prick here, but I don’t want you to get the wrong idea about me. I don’t do
serious relationships ever, and you
deserve something good, not just a quick fuck.”
I stared at his full lips, not holding back. “I like it when
you say ‘fuck.’”
I had
really high hopes for this book, like really really high hopes. I think it’s because of all the hype that has
been going on about it that raised my expectations, but after finishing the
book I felt sort of letdown. It might be
because I have read so many books, but to me it was very predictable.
Don’t
get me wrong, I still enjoyed the story, I just felt like there could have been
more to it than there was. The
characters were written extremely well.
I was able to completely connect with them and I did enjoy how Ilsa was
able to switch POV’s and still be able to pull that off. There are some authors that can’t seem to
switch correctly, yet she was able to and it added to the story greatly.
The
book itself was very fast paced, yet it didn’t seem rushed to me. There were some parts that it would have been
nice to have expanded upon, but it was still good the way that it was
written. Even the other characters that
were brought into the story were written extremely well in my opinion. They didn’t take over a scene while they were
in the story; they were there to give more insight when it was needed.
Overall,
I did enjoy the book and the twists that were in there, although to me they
were predictable, I still liked reading the story. I think this was a great book for it being
Ilsa’s first novel.
Ilsa Madden-Mills is a loving wife and mother,
a loyal friend, and a teacher. When all that is done, she writes. Obsessively.
She spends her days with two small kids, a neurotic cat, and her Viking husband. She collects magnets and rarely cooks except to bake her own pretzels.
When she’s not typing away at a story, you can find her drinking too much Diet Coke, jamming out to Pink, or checking on her carefully maintained chocolate stash.
She spends her days with two small kids, a neurotic cat, and her Viking husband. She collects magnets and rarely cooks except to bake her own pretzels.
When she’s not typing away at a story, you can find her drinking too much Diet Coke, jamming out to Pink, or checking on her carefully maintained chocolate stash.
She loves to hear from fans and fellow authors. Check her out on Facebook or her author website.
Thanks, Crystal!
ReplyDelete