3.5 Smooches

Synopsis

How were they supposed to know that one night would change everything?

Devyn has life all mapped out. She just needs to accomplish one more thing before graduating college and becoming a full-fledged adult—lose her virginity. And who better to assist her than her best friend, Riley?

Riley is the self-proclaimed king of fling. His college years have been filled with meaningless hookups until the one night that ruined him for all other women. The one night he spends with his best friend, Devyn. Right before he screws it all up.

Balls to the wall, baby!

Now five years later, Riley is determined to atone for his mistakes and prove that he can be the man that Devyn deserves. Little does he know that Devyn’s been keeping a secret from him all these years. A big secret. Now he has to figure out how to win back the only girl he’s ever loved while navigating the pitfalls of her unexpected revelation.

Deal Breakers is filled with lots of laughs, a sexy romance, and an overflowing swear jar.

Review

I really wanted to like this book. I say that about every book I go into but after reading the synopsis for this one, I really did. It seemed perfect for me and even after reading through the college years I was still completely invested and interested but the hero let me down badly. I understand that to make certain stories dramatic you need to have the big ‘issue’ that comes along to disrupt the equilibrium but in Deal Breakers it all just fell rather flat. For a majority of the first half Riley is infatuated with Devyn, she’s smart, beautiful and down-to-earth but due to certain circumstances she and Riley remain in the friend zone, dating other people and enjoying college life however when Devyn makes advances towards Riley wanting to feel something for once and as neither are in relationships they spend one uncomplicated no-strings attached night together. It’s here that the whole story went sour for me. Riley transforms right before our very eyes into the biggest douche bag around. This is how he treats his best friend, someone he has loved and admired for an age, someone that he should respect and cherish, however the morning after the night before turns into not only poor Devyn’s worst nightmare but also the readers.

As the story progresses to the future I still found it difficult to reconnect with the Riley we were first introduced to. I understand he was oblivious to certain things and wanted to make up for lost time, but I felt that after five years of an absence that it was all very rushed and much too coincidental that he ended up where he was and with whom he was with. I don’t like being negative about any piece of writing because I fully comprehend this is someone’s baby, it took blood, sweat and tears to produce but I feel Deal Breakers would have benefitted with a bit more fleshing out and slowing the timeline down a bit and maybe toning down the hero’s ahole behaviour. I will say however that Riley began to turn things round a bit in the last quarter as he started to fight for those he wanted.

I grab it from her and throw it on the floor. ‘“I didn’t want the fucking number! I don’t want anyone else’s fucking number!”

“Then what do you want, Rye? What the hell do you want?”

“YOU!” All I’ve ever wanted since the day we met was you!”’

It is a story that will appeal vastly to others but it just didn’t grab me in this instance, however I would certainly give Laura Lee another go with a different book as her dialogue was very good and realistic and the passion and talent are there, it was the storyline that didn’t mesh with me.

~Nicole

BUY IT NOW