Side Effects by Lisa Suzanne

 She has been hurt. She has a past of lies, cheating, and pain. She has severe panic attacks when she’s in enclosed spaces, a side effect of a horrible accident caused by a man she thought she loved. Quinn Carpenter has a distinct type: bad boys with dark hair, dark eyes, and tattoos. Tyler, her friend with benefits, fits the bill perfectly. They have fun together and they both know that fun is where their relationship begins and ends.

Quinn’s life is exactly how she wants it until she meets Reed Porter, the typical pretty boy with blue eyes, blonde hair, and zero tattoos. He is the exact opposite of everything Quinn likes.

So why can’t she get the frustrating, preppy, blue-eyed Reed out of her head?

She isn’t interested in commitment. She doesn’t want a relationship. But Reed challenges her, he puts her in her place, and he makes her nervous. The confident Quinn is never nervous around men, so what is it about Reed that has her questioning everything? And what will be the side effects of attempting to juggle two men at the same time?

I found this book at the right time.  After a few dark and emotional reads, Side Effects came along and made me laugh and feel good.  The author did a wonderful job at bringing her characters to life and many times I thought to myself how cool it would be to have Quinn as a best friend.  Life would not be boring I can say that for sure. 

The premise of this story is Quinn deciding to finally go after the love she desires yet is afraid to be tied down to.  After being hurt and let down by men in the past, deciding her future isn’t going to be comfortable. She has some major panic about things in life and watching her overcome them is both endearing and funny at times.  She sees her close friends settling down and getting married, putting their life back on track and having kids and she begins to believe maybe it is time for her to focus on the same thing. 

She has her buddy Talented Tyler and I am sure you can guess why he has that nickname and it isn’t because of his on stage performances.  They have a hot chemistry together, he is everything she wants in bed, best of all he doesn’t want a commitment to her any more than she wants one with him.  She loves that he plays in a band and has covered his hot body in tattoos.  He is the ultimate bad boy and by staying with him she doesn’t have to worry about the future.  He is the perfect distraction from what she knows she needs to address. 

Then here comes Reed Porter, nicknamed Preppy Porter. He is a confident man who appears to be a straight laced nerd.  He is nice to look at but doesn’t light her bad boy fire.  Good thing for Reed that he has no problem identifying what he wants and going after it.  Slowly he starts to tear down Quinn’s walls and works his way in enough to show her how a man should treat a lady.  She had the best of both worlds, or so she thought.  She has a bad boy for bed and a nice guy for life, until she went to bed with Reed and found out that some nice guys have a naughty streak and can be extremely satisfying in bed. 

It sounds like it would be an easy choice right?  Reed who is the total package or Tyler who really only has the bad boy theme going for him, but what if Tyler decided that he could be a nice guy too?  Now Quinn is going to have to figure out what path her life is going to take and not panic about it as she makes a choice. 

Quinn is a smart mouth who had me cracking up, especially when she was trying to convince herself of something.  The way she labeled everything in the world and gave nicknames to people really allowed us to see how her mind worked.  I loved how the author wrote both of the guys, both so real and enticing yet so different which made Quinn’s options even more appealing.  I would recommend this book to anyone who loves a hot, sexy and funny read.  The author did a great job and keeping the story interesting and flowing and I would love to read more of her books in the future. 

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