Take a photo of a barcode or cover

dermkat 's review for:
The Bad Boy Rule
by Maren Moore
I really enjoyed the author's baseball series set at the same university, so I was hopeful I'd enjoy this one too. It was fine, certainly good enough to read to the end and some really good aspects to it (the stuff with both MCs' families was the best part, and I liked the conversations the leads had together when they got real and the banter when they didn't) but overall I felt a little meh once I was done. The main issue was the focus on her virginity and how that was written. I have zero problems with there being a good girl/bad boy trope, even though it felt a little fast for him to totally change his ways. I also have no problem with there being one inexperienced MC who learns from the other, and I thought the descriptions of her first experiences felt right, but the way her virginity was talked about bothered me. The entire concept of virginity and it being something to be given away to someone else, or that someone takes it, or that he pushed/tore through her virginity (you mean her hymen, just say it) feels archaic and patriarchal. In this book especially it felt like using that kind of language went against the whole point of Lennon becoming her own person and going against what her family and father and high society expected of her, of the little value they placed on her. Also, I feel like the author has written a similar trope before and it didn't hit me like this so I found it distracting as I read. I think if I gave star ratings it would be still be around a 3 or 3.5 because I didn't dislike it overall and I'm still willing to try more books by this author, but maybe would bump to a 4 if this while thing had been framed differently.
Thank you Valentine PR for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. The book is out now!
Thank you Valentine PR for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. The book is out now!