Stevie‘s review of The Belle vs. the BDOC (Bend or Break, Book 0.5) by Amy Jo Cousins
New Adult Lesbian Romance published by Amy Jo Cousins 23 May 16
I keep dipping in and out of this college series, alternately cheering it for the diversity in character backgrounds and relationship types, and then feeling slightly frustrated that more of the books focus on the boys than on their female friends. I’ve yet to read the final pair of novellas in the main timeline, but when I spotted that this one was set more or less contemporary to my own university years, and was all about the women, then I had to grab it with both hands.
Shelby Summerfield is a bit of a fish out of water at her chosen college. Most of the women she’d like to befriend assume she’s a spoiled Daddy’s girl, and that because of the way she dresses she is either totally straight or a straight girl who might experiment a little while at college. None of which endears her to them, and none of it which is true, either, except possibly the part where she loves her Daddy – and the rest of her family as well. Shelby might dress like a proper lady, but she has three brothers, who taught her to look after herself and to be fiercely competitive when challenged to any game involving skill or knowledge. Unfortunately, the first opportunity Shelby gets to show off that side of her personality to the object of her affections happens to coincide with her – male – study partner getting dumped, and she’s spotted trying to sober him up, in what appears to everyone else to be a very compromising situation.
Florence Truong is the Queen Bee of the top lesbian clique, and has fashion sense that Shelby has been admiring from afar all semester, although her tastes run to impeccable tailored suits rather than dresses and high heels. When Shelby asks to join Florence’s quiz team – right after the incident with the drunken study partner – she gets turned down before she even gets the chance to name her specialist subjects. And so the first challenge is born as Shelby decides that if she can’t join them, she may as well beat them – by any means necessary.
I love Shelby’s ingenuity in figuring out how to form the perfect balanced quiz team and in assessing how to persuade or bribe each potential member to give up their evening and take part. That challenge is only the beginning, however, as the two women’s rivalry – and growing mutual attraction – ramps up with each new challenge they both decide to enter, with many of their fellow students watching on with great glee.
I like this story an awful lot, and would love to see the author write more stories about the women of Carlisle College – no matter the era in which their studies take place.
Grade: A
Summary:
Love is a battlefield.
Shelby Summerfield is a Southern belle at a northern college in 1993, which is a challenge to begin with. And yes, Florence Truong, the object of Shelby’s lust and the only other woman on campus not wearing flannel, does catch her in what looks like a compromising position with a straight boy at pub trivia night.
But Shelby is a gold star lesbian and Florence’s dapper fashion sense makes her weak in the knees, so her rejection stings hard. To exact her revenge, Shelby cheats a little when putting together her own trivia dream team, because nobody strategizes to win like a Southern girl on a mission. And if trivia can’t settle their rivalry, then maybe the annual campus-wide game of assassin will do the trick.
Shelby’s gonna come out on top of Florence—in bed or out, one way or another. Bless her heart. And her silk pocket squares.
Warning: Contains obscene pub trivia team names, paint guns, a Southern belle with an exquisite grasp of battlefield tactics, and one dapper dyke who’s misjudged her.
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