Beware of Bad Boy by April Brookshire

After her parent's messy divorce, Gianna's mom remarried a nice man three years ago. She's totally fine with Scott, but not his arrogant son whom she's never met. After refusing to meet his dad's new family for years, Caleb's mom finally reached her limit on his partying, and sent him to live with his father. Completely different people, Gianna and Caleb both immediately hate each other. But they both see in each other something that's missing from their own lives, and that might just be enough to overcome anything.

"'Nice to meet you, sis," he said with a chuckle. I felt his warm breath on my ear as he added in a whisper only I hear, 'Wanna sleep in my bed tonight?'"

I've never really delved much into the contemporary genre, because I didn't think I'd like it much. But after reading Perfect Chemistry, I was hooked, and downloaded every free kindle book in that same genre I could find. Some of them–not great. This one–fantastic.

"It was funny how people were always telling me how lucky I was. Lucky to be so beautiful. Lucky to do well in school. Lucky to be dating Josh. Right now, when it came to stepbrothers, I was feeling decidedly unlucky."

Gianna is the kind of character I like. She's beautiful, really beautiful, but doesn't care. A lot of the book focuses on the transition of her relying on her physical beauty to her inner beauty. People always judge her based on the way she looks–especially Caleb–but she's not at all what they expect on the inside. She's witty and I love the dialogue throughout the entire book. She's exciting and fun, and while she might be a little whiny at some parts, she's a teenage girl, let's be realistic. Her dancing was a really fun part of the book, and the club exposure was a nice touch.

"Getting jealous over a guy like Caleb would be like getting jealous over a swing at a public park. It was free for anyone to have a ride." 

Caleb is a huge player, and super flirty. I love the things he says, and he owns up to the things he's done. Especially when him and Gianna are dating, he admits that he doesn't know how to be romantic, and I appreciate that because not every guy does. He is who he is, and Gianna accepts him for that. However, his development in this book is nice because he does go from a huge player to someone who wants to change their lives for the better. Sure he corrupts Gianna some along the way, but he also changes into someone who cares more about other people than just himself.

"Before I met Gianna, I'd thought I was living life to the fullest, wild and carefree. Now that I had her in my life I understood what it really meant to feel alive."

Their relationship in this is really good. They don't fall in love at first sight. In fact, it all starts with Caleb hitting on her just like he would any hot girl, and then blackmailing her into spending time with him. Of course, she gets him back, and to avoid any spoilers I'll just say that I literally laughed out loud multiple times during this book. It's a little strange because they're supposed to be stepsiblings, but here's why I was okay with it: 1. They'd never met before and had been living together for a week before they started getting serious. 2. They're NOT blood related. 3. They never seem like siblings! So yeah, I loved it.

There's not a moment where the story gets boring, because things happen right after the other, without every feeling rushed. I'll say this, a lot happens in this book, and that's exactly what kept me engaged and interested. I even read it twice, which I hardly ever do!

I love this book, and I've already read the second, and am dying for the third to come out! For a cheap/free amazon book it has very few editing errors, and they weren't that bad, and the rest of the writing was pretty good, so it didn't really bother me that much. Unfortunately, this book has raised the standard for contemporary romance for me, which means I've already ruined a genre that I've just started!

Five Stars

Rosalie Williams

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