January has been a crazy month. It kicked off with a big overtime project at work that kind of sidetracked my reading and hasn’t let up since. I’m trying to fit reading in with some other projects, including the revision of my own novel that’s about to come out of the beta reading phase. If January is setting the precedent for the whole year, it’s going to be insane.
In fact, I’m writing this a few weeks after I actually read this book, so some of my memories have faded. I considered not blogging about it, just throwing it on Goodreads and calling it good, but I really did enjoy it and wanted to give it some blog love.
One-Sentence Synopsis
Once friends, now enemies, a lady and a viscount fight the the sexual tension building between them to maintain their animosity. For a full synopsis, see this book’s Goodreads page.
Don’t Want No Short Man
Aurelia and Max follow a friends to enemies to lovers trope, giving us a lot of conflict foreplay and banter, though at times the banter gets intense and turns into some hateful dialogue. As a young girl, Aurelia was in love with Max…until she caught him getting down with another woman. Her anger and hurt took the form of a caricature that ended up haunting Max into adulthood, hence the mutual hate (and by haunting, I mean calling into the question the size of a certain male-only appendage).
Put a Ring On It
Aurelia values her independence, but when her mother decides to go to Scotland due to financial and family issues, Aurelia has no choice but to either go with her or find a husband locally. This doesn’t sit well with her, but a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do. Max, of course, doesn’t want her…until he realizes that omg, someone else might have her. Then it’s game on. Sort of. Because while he doesn’t want to marry her (or so he says), he feels he needs to screw up her chances of marrying anyone else.
Such Anticipation
Aurelia and Max spend a lot of time warring with themselves over what they want. There is a lot of great foreplay, the kind that kept me on edge and made me happily frustrated with the waiting, going into each scene with a “Will they or won’t they this time?” mindset. I enjoyed Aurelia as a character, and I related to her ability to hold a grudge. There were times I liked Max, and then times I wanted to tell him to suck it up. There were also times he was downright mean to her, so douche alert, though he ends up being an okay guy at the end.
Emo Hero
Though I enjoyed the book, towards the end I thought the characters drew things out and parts of it felt depressing, what with Max not wanting to love and all that jazz due to past hurts, blah blah blah.
The Romance Factor
I really did love the foreplay that happened through most of the book and the fact that Aurelia and Max tried so hard to hold on to their dislike for one another. But there were also sweet moments that helped develop the relationship. 4/5
The Steam Factor
I’m embarrassed to say that due to the time lag between when I read this and when I wrote this review, I forgot how steamy this book was. I’m pretty sure it was open door and detailed, so I’m giving it a 4/5, but there is a chance it wasn’t quite that saucy. Please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.
Final Thoughts
This was my first Sophie Jordan novel and I really enjoyed it. Though I thought some of the pacing was a little slow at the end and the random meanness of Max annoyed me, overall it was fun and I liked the heroine. I’ll definitely be adding more of her books to my TBR list.
The Romance Factor 