When PERFECT isn’t really good enough.
Kesley Richmond is stuck in an undergraduate time warp, stagnating in the same-old-same-old routine. On top of that, her total dedication to an emotionally draining career is leading to burnout. She needs more, something just for herself—like a personal life for instance. All her college friends have moved on, fallen in and out of love, married, divorced. Done something! Except her…
And her complacent downstairs neighbor, Andrew Chandler.
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it—that’s Drew’s philosophy. His college apartment suits him fine, and his sex life is one score after another. Though his consulting business keeps him traveling, he has Kesley, a girl in a million, to come back to. He doesn’t know what’s set Kes off, why she wants to shake things up, why she’s on this kick about moving on, changing stuff that doesn’t need changing. He wants her status quo to stay right where it belongs—one flight up from him. But to keep his sweetheart happy, he’ll do anything, anything at all, even… SCREWING WITH PERFECT.
Genre: Erotic/Red Hot!/Contemporary
Grade: B
Sensuality: Burning
Jane Meter: TRY
This is a reissue of a book that was previously published by LSB. I don’t think there have been changes but the one I have read was the LSB.
The Good: It seems to be friends to lovers review week. So I guess I like that theme ;). There are many common elements in this book but they have enough of a twist that they are different. Kesley is a virgin and tired of it. So of course when she decides to date some guy, she met in the a very sad way, she wants to be rid of that silly virginity.
Enter Drew, her BFF and a manwhore, who better to show her the ropes? Yes, all been done before. The thing is even though she loves him and he loves her neither really think this could be ‘it’ for them. She wants marriage and babies. He wants, well he wants his life just like it is right now – perfect. He loves his job, travels loads, fucks away from home (often) and has a great love in his friend where sex isn’t involved to fuck it up. As sex does…. so once she says the S word, life goes completely out of wack for Drew.
I love a rake who falls and falls hard. I love how when her set timeline is up, she goes on with her business as planned. And I love it is the man doing the chasing.
The Bad: There is a lot here not to love as well. To be honest, I had the worst time trying to read, Courtesan. After reading the blurb for Screwing with Perfect (LOVE the title) and reminding myself I should never write an author off after one book, I read this. Louisa Trent does a lot of telling, right after showing
And the inner dialogue grows old, as does the almost sex. I hate almost sex. You know when your two character get to a point and something unexpected happens and poof, they almost had sex. This is ok once (sometimes), twice it gets annoying, and by the third time you throw the book. But whenever the author annoyed too much, she would do something to pull me back in.
There are some funky breaks in the story from chapter to chapter. Things would end and then where you would expect them to pick up, they didn’t. So we miss out on some great reactions and get ‘told’ about things I could have just read about.
My biggest issue though is the time frame. 10 years… just seems like an awful lot of wasted time.
The Verdict: I think it comes down to I really loved the characters. Drew and Kesley are people I enjoyed meeting and had a friendship I could believe that developed into a relationship I wanted to work.
I would recommend the book just to read the scene when Drew returns home. Of course I could see many people hating it. But it amused the hell out of me.
Next up: Captive
The author can be found here and here. The book can be purchased here.
