Very Bad Things

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Very Bad Things

Very Bad Things

by: Ilsa Madden-Mills
My Rating: five-stars



Published by: Little Dove Publishing on September 9th 2013
Genres: Mature Young Adult, New Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Pages: 389
Series: Briarcrest Academy #1
Also in this series: Very Wicked Things, Very Wicked Beginnings
Also by this author: Very Wicked Things, Very Wicked Beginnings



Synopsis

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.






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I loved “The Briarcrest Academy Series” by Ilsa Madden-Mills. I could stop my review now. I loved it. Go get a copy of the books and read them. Book one is “Very Bad Things.” And it lived up to its name—in the best of ways. I liked it so much I read the novella “Very Wicked Beginnings” (which I HIGHLY suggest you read before the second book in the series) right after I finished. Literally. I finished “Very Bad Things” and opened the novella on my Kindle and kept reading. And when I finished the novella? You know I went straight into the second book “Very Wicked Things.” The titles alone made me want to read the series—I’m not sure what that says about me… moving on.

 

“Very Bad Things (Briarcrest Academy #1)” starts out with a bang. Nora drops a huge bomb, committing social suicide (according to her overly social conscious mother). It was a great opener. I learned so many things in that one scene. Nora was stressed and smothered by her parents to her breaking point (literally), Her parents were detached from her, and there was a definite connection between her and Leo that neither one understood, but couldn’t deny or fight. That was just the first chapter…imagine what the rest of the book held. Yeah, it was outrageous. I loved every second of it. Nora and Leo’s relationship had so many levels of emotion coiled tightly in a ball that when they finally let their feelings loose it was explosive.

I liked the characters in “Very Bad Things.” Even the ones I didn’t like, I liked how the author wrote them. I think they were all written very well and had flaws, hang-ups, and issues that made them seem real and relatable. Oh and Leo, that guy, he’s definitely got it.

Nora has some major issues to deal with throughout the book. I think the author told her story quite well. She brought in the level of embarrassment that would come with that situation, the anger, and the fear, especially of being rejected by someone she loved or thinking of herself as “ruined.”

 

Leo has his own demons chasing him. He’s a good guy. I really like good guys. I enjoy a bad boy just as much as the next girl, but sometimes there’s just something about the good guy that gets my flutters, well, fluttery. And that was Leo. He closed himself off on some things, but all in all he was a good guy with some nasty memories to work through.

Bottom Line: Loved it. It kept my interest all the way through. It did have a tad too much sappy ‘oh, I love him and he doesn’t love me,’ and ‘I love her, but I’ve screwed it all up.’ But not nearly enough to detract from the book. I would definitely recommend.

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About Ilsa Madden-Mills

Wall Street Journal, New York Times and USA Today best selling author Ilsa Madden-Mills writes about strong heroines and sexy alpha males that sometimes you just want to slap.

She’s addicted to all things fantasy, including unicorns and sword-wielding females. Other fascinations include frothy coffee beverages, dark chocolate, Instagram, Ian Somerhalder (seriously hot), astronomy (she’s a Gemini), Sephora make-up, and tattoos.

She has a degree in English and a Master’s in Education.

When she’s not pecking away on her computer, she shops for cool magnets, paints old furniture, and eats her weight in sushi.

Michelle
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