ARC Review: The Bad Boy Bargain (Suttonville Sentinels #1) by Kendra C. Highley
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Series: Suttonville Sentinels #1
Author: Kendra C. Highley
Published November 14th 2016 by Entangled Publishing
Goodreads Synopsis
Baseball player Kyle Sawyer has many labels: bad boy, delinquent, ladies' man, fearless outfielder... Only one of them is actually true. But then sweet ballet dancer Faith Gladwell asks him to help wreck her reputation, and everything goes sideways.
Faith knows a thing or two about love, and what she had with her cheating jerk of an ex wasn't it. When he starts spreading rumors about her being an Ice Queen, Faith decides it's time to let a little bad into her life.
Lucky for her, Kyle Sawyer--dark, dangerous, totally swoonworthy Kyle Sawyer--is landscaping her backyard over Spring Break. Shirtless. And if she can convince him to play along, " dating" Kyle will silence the rumors.
But Faith's plan threatens to expose Sawyer's biggest secret of all...and that's a risk he's not willing to take.
Goodreads
Review
I received an Advance Reader Copy from the author via NetGalley. This in no way impacted on my view.
I love reading contemporary books, and Entangled publish some of the best ones around. When this one became available to review via NetGalley, I knew I needed to read it, and I'm glad I did. In The Bad Boy Bargain, we have two main characters, Faith and Kyle. Faith is a ballerina, a good girl, and has just dumped her cheating ex-boyfriend. Kyle, on the other hand, has a reputation for being a bad boy, a new girl every week, racing his car, and shoplifting. However, the truth is that he really is none of those things, and it's a persona he's put on after being bullied in middle school by Faith's ex-boyfriend. When Faith finds out that the cheating ex, Cameron, is spreading rumours that he dumped her for being frigid and everyone at school is talking about her. She soon cooks up the plan to find a new boyfriend, even if it's just pretend, to embarrass Cameron and regain some of her reputation. Cue Kyle, who is working in Faith's back yard - luckily - completing some landscaping which is a passion of his. His reputation is perfect for the wacky plan, and as they decide to give it a try, they grew closer and closer, and soon fall for each other in reality.
Both of the main characters were really good narrators. They had distinct voices, and through their chapters we learnt more about them, and their histories, and their actual personas. Both of them played a role in public, Kyle moreso than Faith, but in private they were themselves, which showed a level of vulnerability. Kyle really felt like he had a lot to lose if he was himself, and then felt that Faith would hate him for lying about himself for so long. I loved his scenes with his grandfather - you could really see how much they cared for one another. I think if I'm being honest, his chapters were more enjoyable than Faith's, but hers were nice too. She just didn't connect with me quite as much, but I did still love getting into her head.
The plotline was one that used a trope I love, pretend relationships becoming more, and in this case it was done very well. The use of the musical aspect too, was nice, and I'm glad I have the other books in this series to read too, as the secondary characters, especially Tristan and Violet, and ones that I want to see more from.
Dates Read:
August 14, 2017
Rating
4 Stars
August 14, 2017
Rating
4 Stars
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