Title: Bad Girlfriend (First and Last #4)
Author: Kirsten DeMuzio
Genre: New Adult Romance
Release Date: March 18, 2014
Synopsis
Brooke Mills has only ever wanted to be loved. The product of a teenage pregnancy and raised by her grandmother, Brooke went looking for love in all the wrong places. She has been the other woman or someone’s dirty little secret more times than she cares to admit. When Brooke’s questionable judgment lands her in the bed of her new neighbor, it’s the wakeup call she needs to change her ways. With the help of her friends, Brooke is determined to find a nice guy.
Adam Branigan is new in town, and despite the way he and Brooke met, Adam knows there’s more to the beautiful redhead than meets the eye. He wants to be the guy to show Brooke that she deserves more than late night booty calls. But will outside pressures and past relationships conspire to keep them apart?
**This book is intended for a mature audience, age 18 and older, due to language and explicit content.
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Excerpt
I was overwhelmed with the urge to show her that good guys did exist, and that I was one of them. But that’s not what she needed right now.
When we were done eating, I threw the pizza box in the fridge. Brooke poured another round of shots for us, and this time I did mine at the same time as her, with my eyes closed.
“So, you know my story. Now it’s your turn.”
Brooke shrugged one slender shoulder and picked at the blanket with her pale yellow fingernails. I looked to her toes and saw they were painted in a matching shade. At first glance, everything about this girl screamed high maintenance. Yet, here she sat on my bed, eating pizza out of a box, drinking tequila shots and seemed to be perfectly comfortable doing it.
“There’s not much to tell. I grew up here with Gram. My mom was only sixteen when I was born and was too young to handle raising a kid. She comes and goes, but mostly goes. I went to cosmetology school after high school, and I do hair at Loraine’s Luscious Locks.” She winced as she said that last part. “I hate that name. Luscious is such a weird word.”
I laughed. “Do you like what you do?”
“Yeah, I really do. I’m good at it. I like making people feel good about themselves. It’s not brain surgery, but I like it.”
“You don’t have to save lives to be doing something important. I’m sure a good haircut can do more for a woman’s self-esteem than twenty sessions with a psychiatrist.”
“That’s probably true,” Brooke said, tilting her head to the side as she studied me.
“What?” I asked, thinking I must have pizza sauce smeared on my face or something.
She narrowed her eyes. “Are you gay?”
“What?” I repeated. This conversation was not going where I thought it would.
“It’s just that you’re so…nice. And you seem to really understand women.”
I snorted. “I assure you, Brooke, I am not gay. And I absolutely do not understand women. Your species is a complex and unsolvable mystery to me.”
She giggled and reached for the tequila bottle again. When we both had our shots in hand, she held hers up. “To new friends.”
I clinked my glass against hers. “To new friends.”
That’s the last thing I have any clear memory of…
Kota's Review
This was my first experience with Ms DeMuzio’s work.. so of course I started at the start! As Bad Girlfriend is Book 4, it was only fair that I got myself caught up on books 1-3.
So without going in to too much about each individual story what I can say is there are definite shared themes within all of the books.
The First and Last Series begins with Taryn and Wyatt’s story in Safe With You. Taryn is the daughter of a Senator, so people were interested in her story. She had a serious relationship before meeting Wyatt, but its fair to say that is over and done with.
This story is kind and sweet, this story has been told before, but Ms DeMuzio certainly told it in a way that engaged you. The characters were reasonably well developed and you had an understanding of what drove them. As with all of Ms DeMuzio’s books in this series, the path to their HEA is fraught with speed bumps.
The second book in the Series Just One Reason follows the story of Grady and Lindsay. Lindsay is Taryn’s cousin and best friend, so we met her in Book 1. It seemed a natural progression that her story would be told. This book really upped the ante on the emotional content. The angst was also much more palpable, but again these characters manage to work their way to their HEA.
Book 3 is Fourth Down, this is Ford and Poppy’s Story. Again Ms DeMuzio has cover issues that tug at the heart strings in this story. Hugely emotional issues that while they engaged you, just missed the benchmark a little bit on their impact. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed this story, I just found I didn’t reaction to the emotion of it as much as I did Lindsay and Grady’s story, and frankly I think I should have.
And finally here we are at Bad Girlfriend. This is Brooke and Adam’s story. Adam is new to town, Brooke is a local, but only just making friends with this group of people. Brooke has a bad girl reputation and is unlucky in love, Adam is a nerd in a really sexy way… and as like with the other characters, opposites attract.
Bad Girlfriend is a story of learning to love yourself and forgiveness for past behaviours. It is also about finding that one, again not without obstacles. These ones of the narrow minded kind, but they provide some variation to the themes of these stories.
Ms DeMuzio’s writing style is engaging, these books are entertaining reads, without significant depth of attachment for me. They were good books – the characters are well developed, they all come with a depth of experience that ensure you are not able to judge a book by its cover.
There is sizzle… but they didn’t really sizzle for me (you know what I’m talking about here girls…) yet I am confident that it will melt the heart and maybe the panties off many readers. I think that Ms DeMuzio is a talented writer and her stories flow, the time gaps are seamless and each story is about finding your soul mate.
In enjoyed the stories, but they didn’t rock my world. I am rating Each Book in the series 3 ½ hearts. On our scale that makes them a Good read.
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About the Author
I am an author of new adult and contemporary romance novels. My husband and I live in Columbus, Ohio with our two young daughters and happy golden retriever. When I’m not spending time with my family, I can be found doing one of my other favorite activities - writing, reading and napping.
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