by: Jen McLaughlin
Genre: New Adult Romance
Release Date: September 15, 2015
Source: Publisher ~ Loveswept via NetGalley
In this explosive novel from bestselling author Jen McLaughlin, a good girl falls for the ultimate bad boy: her stepbrother. Perfect for fans of Sabrina Paige, Caitlin Daire, and Krista Lakes, Bad Romance proves that passion can be so wrong it’s right.
Seven years in the army will change a guy. But after a shoulder wound ends his career as a sniper, Jackson Worthington finds himself back home, fighting a battle that’s all too familiar: keeping his hands off Lily Hastings. She’s still her rich daddy’s little angel, innocent, impossibly lovely, as squeaky-clean as Jackson is dirty. And she’s still his stepsister—forbidden but not forgotten, not after the soul-melting kiss that got him kicked out of the house at eighteen. He couldn’t resist her then. How the hell can he resist her now?
Lily is about to marry a man she doesn’t love, and commit to a high-stress job she hates, all to please the father who controls every waking moment of her life. On top of everything, her teenage crush is back, with a sleek, chiseled body and a trace of the rebellious boy whose lips sealed her fate. Jackson’s timing couldn’t be worse . . . or better. Because Lily’s all grown up, too. She’s aching for another taste. And for the first time, she’s ready to be a bad girl.
Walt, my stepfather, frowned at the letter in his hand. “Yale said they would take him, despite his bad grades. I have to buy his way in, but I will.”
“They did?” Mother gasped, smiling.
“‘He’s’ right here,” I said drily. “And doesn’t want to go to Yale.”
Neither of them noticed.
“At least he can amount to something, unlike his father.”
Mother smiled even wider. “Thanks to you, Walter.”
“You’ll go at the end of the month,” Walt said, not even looking at me, even though he clearly spoke to me. “You’re dismissed.”
The hell I was. “I don’t want to go to Yale. I’m joining the army.”
Walt laughed. “Not in my house.”
This was bullshit. Everything about it was. Mother was married for the millionth time, and this time to a man who quite clearly didn’t want the extra kid that came along with her. No big shocker, there. His new wife didn’t exactly want me, either.
She never tried to hide that fact from me.
Had told me, straight up to my face.
But to have some pompous prick all up in my business, telling me what I had to do with the rest of my life as if I needed to listen to him, was the last straw. I was eighteen years old. I didn’t have to listen to Walter Hastings. Or to his wife.
Screw them all.
They’d only been married a few months, and he wasn’t my damn stepfather, no matter what he thought. I mean, he was. Legally. But I didn’t need him.
I didn’t need anyone.
So I stood up, fisting my hands at my sides. “I don’t want to be a lawyer. I already told you that.”
Walt laughed. “And I told you that, under my roof, you do what I tell you to do, and that’s that. You’ll do it, and you’ll like it. I won’t budge.”
“Neither will I, Walt.”
“Don’t call me that,” Walt said, his voice low and seething. His name was Walter, and he hated it when I called him Walt . . . which was why I did it. “My name is Walter, or Mr. Hastings, or sir. No one calls me Walt. Learn some respect, boy.”
I didn’t answer. Just smirked.
Walt could kiss my ass.
“Jackson, dear . . .” Mother fidgeted. “It’s a good career. You’ll be lucky if you live to see the other side of twenty if you join the army. Listen to your father. He knows what’s best for you.”
I stiffened. I might not know my father, but I knew one thing. Walt wasn’t him. “He knows shit, and he sure as hell doesn’t know me because he’s not my father. He has no idea what’s best for me, or who I am. Or what I want. I want to—”
“Watch your mouth, young man, and how you speak to your mother. You’re going to law school, to Yale. That’s final, so get it into your head. End of discussion.” Walter picked up his newspaper, addressing his wife. “And if he wants to continue living here, he will stop annoying me.”
I gritted my teeth, because he was a tight-suited asshole. “Then I’ll leave this house. Go out on my own. Make my own way.”
“Over my dead body. You’re part of this family now, and while you are, you’ll live up to the Hastings name. And that’s all that will be said on this matter. You may go,” Walter said dismissively, flicking a hand my way. “I’m finished with you.”
There was so much I wanted to say, but why bother? I knew it was a waste of my time, so I walked away from them both. He wouldn’t listen, and, really, it didn’t matter even if he did. Officially, I was an adult now, so I didn’t need their approval to sign up for duty, no matter what they seemed to think. End of discussion. What the fuck was that, anyway? The discussion was over when both parties decided it was. Not one.
Pompous prick.
As I left, I heard Walt sigh. “Honestly, Nancy, I don’t know what to do with that boy. Are you sure his father won’t take him off our hands? He’s nothing like my Lily.”
Ah . . . Lily Hastings. Fifteen. Rich. Smart. Sweet as hell. And gorgeous, to boot. Walter didn’t deserve her, and it boggled my mind that she was the old man’s daughter, because she was nothing like him. Everything she got, she must’ve gotten from her deceased mother. That was the only thing I could figure.
I initially tried to hate her on principle, but the thing was, I couldn’t. From my first day here, when she brought me chocolate chip cookies because they were my favorite, till today, she’d been nothing but kind to me. She was the only person who made life in the Hastings household bearable. And because Lily was the total opposite of her father, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t hate her.
And believe me, I tried.
REVIEW
Only Jen McLaughlin or Diane Alberts as I know her could get me to step out of my comfort zone and read a stepbrother romance. I get that apparently this is a whole new world in romance, but it just seems weird to me. So yeah, you guessed it, this is my first time reading a stepbrother romance.
I won’t deny seeing some bad star ratings for Bad Romance and wondering if I really wanted to read it. But I honestly wanted to know what Jackson and Lily’s initial kiss was about and why Lily was marrying a man she didn’t love.
There are so many issues and inner workings going on with Bad Romance, I don’t even know where to start. You have Jackson rebelling against his mother and stepfather because they want him to tow the line and fit into the little box they want him in. You have Lily always doing things to please her father and never really knowing what it’s like to do something for herself.
Yes, Jackson and Lily are step-siblings. However, they probably only lived as step-siblings for a couple of months, a year at the most. During that time, nothing happened between them, even though Jackson knew Lily had a crush on him. Eventually, Lily decides to initiate a kiss with Jackson, resulting in him being kicked out of the house and the two never speaking again.
Seven years later, fate brings these two back together. The two are still pretty much the same. Jackson became the soldier he wanted to be, only to have the career he loved end with a bullet. Now, he’s getting treatment and trying to adjust to his new career. Lily is still playing the good girl and dutiful daughter role. Only this time, she’s in a no-win situation. If she doesn’t marry the man picked out for her by her father, thousands of people will lose their jobs and her family’s company will go under. If she does get married, she will be forced to spend years with a man she doesn’t love, much less like.
After Jackson saves Lily from a sticky situation, she invites him to move in with her, so they can reconnect and become friends. Old feelings die hard and the two are still attracted to each other. Bad Romance was hotter than hot. I’m talking fire alarms going off. But it was also full of pure love. Jackson has always tried to get Lily to be her own person and that doesn’t stop when they reconnect. There’s no doubt Lily is in a really hard predicament. I wouldn’t want to be in her situation. Did she handle it as a lot of women think they would have? No, but she did the best she could do, while still being who she was.
I found so much to love about Bad Romance. I loved Jackson and Lily and the way they talked to each other, with playfulness and love. As I said, their bedroom and non-bedroom action was hot. The story brought out so many emotions within me from happiness, to sadness, to horror, to “oh, that just happened”. I just wish a certain scene would have played out differently with a lightbulb going off. Alas, people are shallow and stupid. Told in first person from the point of view of both Lily and Jackson, Bad Romance shows what happens when you allow someone to dictate your life. You’re able to see Lily grow as a person and see Jackson open himself up to love and being loved, even if it means him getting hurt. Bad Romance is one of those love stories I wish would never end.
**Received a copy from Random House - Loveswept in exchange for an honest unbiased review.**
Rating: 5
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Though she lives in the mountains, she really wishes she was surrounded by a hot, sunny beach with crystal-clear water. She lives in Northeast Pennsylvania with her four kids, a husband, a schnauzer mutt, and three cats. Her goal is to write so many well-crafted romance books that even a non-romance reader will know her name.
Places to find Jen McLaughlin:
Thank you for hosting BAD ROMANCE!
ReplyDeleteNo problem. Thank you for allowing me to be part of the tour.
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