Friday, August 30, 2013

Book Review: Very Bad Things (Briarcrest Academy #1) by Ilsa Madden-Mills

Holy. Frickin Crap. As I finished this book in the early morning hours, it took me a while to find a word adequate enough to describe how I felt. Consumed. This book completely consumed me. Let me tell you how thoroughly captivated Very Bad Things had me. At 10:00pm the other night I was about 70% through, but I decided to call it an early night for a change. Honestly, it was only so my husband wouldn't complain that I was up all night reading again. For the next hour, I tossed and turned in bed unable to get my mind off of this book. So I headed back downstairs to read "just one more chapter." Snort, yeah right. I had to finish it. There was no way I was stopping until I was done. No book has ever gotten me back out of bed again before this.

When people look at Nora Blakely, they see the perfect rich girl with the perfect rich life. She hates that word: perfect. Nora's life is far from perfect. No, it is the complete opposite of perfect, with her deeply screwed up family. Leo Tate is the guardian of his 17 year old brother Sebastian and has moved him from L.A. to Texas to attend Briarcrest Academy high school. He loves his brother beyond words, but has no room for any other love in his heart. Love leads to loss and pain and he wants no part of that.

When Nora's and Leo's eye meet for the first time through a car window, he can see the sadness and pain there. He doesn't know her, but he feels for her. And he does something, that to me, shows who he really is deep inside.

...before I pulled away, something completely insane possessed me, and I kissed my first two fingers and sent the kiss to the lonely girl in the back of a Mercedes.

Sweetest. Thing. Ever. Sebastian and Nora are both seniors at Briarcrest Academy and quickly become friends. Finally fed up with her crap life, Nora makes a list of very bad things she wants to do to help her forget the pain. Being bad makes her feel good. And one of the things she wants to do is Leo. But she soon realizes it is so much more than that.

This was a whole lot more than just wanting to do bad things. I couldn't blame this anymore on wanting meaningless sex. No, this was all about him. About Leo. He sparked this insatiable, urgent need in me, one that I hadn't quite wrapped my head around yet. I'd never felt more alive than when I was with him...

Leo has never wanted a girl the way he wants Nora. But he is determined to stay away from her at all costs. Even though she is 19, he uses their age difference as an excuse to not be with her. When truthfully, he knows he is incapable of giving her the love that she deserves. Now that he has made his point abundantly clear, will he be able to sit by and watch if she dates another guy? After he pushes her away again and again, is it still possible for them to get their HEA?

I'll say it again, this book consumed me. Written in the first person and alternating between Nora's and Leo's point of view, you can really feel what these characters are going through. This is my favorite style of writing because I need to get inside the head of both the heroine and hero and know what each of them is thinking. Ilsa Madden-Mills' exquisite writing makes you feel their pain and anguish, their happiness, their heartache and their fear. And the sexual tension? Dear lord the sexual tension. This book has it in spades. Every time Nora and Leo almost come together, its scorching.

"I want to lay you down and slip deep inside you. I want to find every secret part of you with my lips, my tongue, my hands. I want you to ride me while I watch. I want to hear our skin slapping together. I want to wake up next to you in the morning and do it all over again."

I also felt hatred; a bone deep hatred for Nora's poor excuse of a mother and the rest of her so-called family. Mrs. Blakely has made the very top of my most hated characters list and I don't think anyone can dethrone her. But the rest of the supporting characters were awesome and I loved them. Sebastian is flirty and funny and loves Nora like a sister. Nora's best friend Mila is prim and proper until you mess with her friend, and then the claws come out. I hope each of them get their own story somewhere along the line in this series.

This book was so well written and honestly the best I have read lately. It was incredible and amazing and I seriously can't wait for more from this author. We have a while to wait for book 2 in this series, which is set for an April 2014 release, but it will be worth it.

Very Bad Things will be releasing on September 10, 2013.

Marianna's Rating:


**I received an ARC in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Title: Very Bad Things
Author: Ilsa Madden-Mills
Series: Briarcrest Academy #1
Genre: New Adult, Contemporary Romance
Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/book/show/17836829-very-bad-things
Website: www.ilsamaddenmills.com
Twitter: @ilsamaddenmills; www.facebook.com/pages/Author-Ilsa-Madden-Mills
Book Description:
Born into a life of privilege and secrets, Nora Blakely has everything any nineteen-year-old girl could desire. She’s an accomplished pianist, a Texas beauty queen, and on her way to Princeton after high school. She’s perfect…

Leaving behind her million-dollar mansion and Jimmy Choos, she becomes a girl hell-bent on pushing the limits with alcohol, drugs, and meaningless sex.

Then she meets her soulmate. But he doesn’t want her.

When it comes to girls, twenty-five-year-old Leo Tate has one rule: never fall in love. His gym and his brother are all he cares about...until he meets Nora. He resists the pull of their attraction, hung up on their six year age difference.

As they struggle to stay away from each other, secrets will be revealed, tempers will flare, and hearts will be broken.

Welcome to Briarcrest Academy…where sometimes, the best things in life are Very Bad Things.


Buy:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00F225YK2/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00F225YK2&linkCode=as2&tag=babytalkbio-20 https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/very-bad-things/id710035036?mt=11&uo=4&at=11l5Yf
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1 comment:

  1. I love this post and how eloquently you wrote your review! ♥

    ReplyDelete

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