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"A room without books is like a body without a soul." - Cicero

Sunday, July 6, 2014

Bad Girl Lessons by Seraphina Donovan

Evangeline Harper has been everyone's good girl. But after being dumped at the altar by her fiancé, Evie decides it's time to stop playing by the rules and have some fun. There's only one problem... she doesn't know how. But one of her oldest friends, Jackson Cope, is just the man to teach her. Hotter than a Georgia tent revival in July, Jackson has had a starring role in every erotic fantasy Evie has ever had. Can she convince the local bad boy to help transform her from a slightly pudgy, former debutante into a wanton, sex kitten?

Jackson's been secretly in love with Evie since they were kids, but she was always off limits to the likes of him. Now she's offering him everything he's ever wanted, but only as friends with benefits. Planning to seduce her into his life on a permanent basis, he starts out with hot, steamy lessons on how to walk on the wild side. When Evie's former fiancĂ© shows up, trying to woo her and her trust fund back to save his sorry hide from the Dixie Mafia, it's up to Jackson to protect her from danger. But who will protect him from a broken heart?  

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Slight Spoilers

Bad Girl Lessons by Seraphina Donovan is the first book in a two part series called Gresham County. The premise to this story was good; longtime friends who had secret feeling for one another finally get together - I'm a sucker for that type of story, so of course I had to read this book.

It was a decent read. It went the way I expected it to. Unfortunately, it didn't "wow" me. There were a ton of grammatical/spelling errors, and that's a big no-no for me. I can ignore one or two, but this book had a lot of mistakes and it kept taking me out of the story. Also, the story itself I feel could have gone through another round of editing. Some parts didn't have a strong enough voice for me, personally.

There were a few things in the story that were glossed over, that I wish they would have discussed, like the fact that Jackson had been in love with Evie since he was fourteen. It was mentioned to her twice, and both times the character decided not to give it a second thought. You would think if the man that you have been secretly pining for all these years confessed that he had been doing the same thing, you would have some type of reaction. And even if you didn't believe him, and thought he was just saying that to get into your pants, then the fact that one of his friends told you the same thing later on would make you think that maybe there was some truth to it.

As the title suggests, this is an erotic romance and as far as the sex scenes go, they were fine. Not great, not terrible, just fine.

I did enjoy the two main characters, and even the villain of the story - Trevor. This book had some heavy scenes with Trevor and Evie. I'm used to bad guys trying to kill the heroine and whatnot, but I'm not used to almost-rape or domestic violence type scenes. I actually enjoyed them, because they made the story real. These things happen; ex boyfriends come after their ex girlfriends and manhandle them and beat them if they refuse to get back together with them. The author gave just enough detail to keep you riveted but not so much that you were disgusted and had to walk away - so kudos for that!

Uncensored comments straight from Kindle:
  • Now I know what too much head hopping can really do. This book serves as a lesson and reminder.
  • They're like practically best friends and she didn't realize he was a sweet guy?
  • Not a fan of the word "sheath" - and to my chagrin, she used it multiple times.
  • “Yeah, you’re good at that. There’s never been a woman you couldn’t walk away from.” - Well, that came out of nowhere. The author doesn't really go into much detail about their past, how they grew up, the fact that Jackson was a womanizer, how Evie felt about it, etc. So for Evie to just throw that out there without any sort of preamble really caught me off guard. It didn't fit.
  • Are you F-ing kidding me, Trevor!?
  • Where the hell is Reed!?

As I said, overall, it was a decent read. I wouldn't mind reading another one of her stories. Maybe I'll read the second part of this series.


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