Don't act like you aren't.
Dirty English - Ilsa Madden-Mills
A scarred fighter.
A girl with rules.
One night of unbridled passion.
There are three things you need to know about Elizabeth Bennett: she’s smart as a whip, always in control, and lives by a set of carefully crafted rules. She’s learned the hard way that people you love the most always hurt you in the end.
But then she meets Declan Blay, the new neighbor at her apartment complex.
A tattooed British street fighter, he’s the campus bad boy she’ssupposed to avoid, but when he saves her from a frat party gone bad, all her rules about sex and love fly out the window.
She gives him one night of unbridled passion, but he longs for more.
With only a cardboard-thin wall separating their bedrooms, he dreams of possessing the vulnerable girl next door forever.
One night. Two damaged hearts. The passion of a lifetime.
*a modern love story inspired by Pride and Prejudice*
I won't even lie to you and say I didn't read this book immediately because of the cover. We all know that's exactly why I picked this book as my weekend read because we all know I need to live vicariously through fictional characters. So let's talk about the book briefly.
We have Elizabeth Bennett, who shares the name of the heroine in Pride and Prejudice by total coincidence, who is a broken-hearted, emotionally scarred girl. We have Declan Blay, who is a street fighter but also an academic smarty pants trying to build his dream of owning a gym and becoming a UFC fighter. They meet, they reluctantly fall in love but don't know it, sexy times, drama, and then happily ever after.
Overall? A solid little romance with some great sexy scenes, and Declan is a GREAT character. A stand up, normal guy but really a softy romantic at heart just trying to do the best he can in life. Here's my issue with this book: it is so much like Jamie McGuire's A Beautiful Disaster, which was a great book. (That author should have stopped right fucking there but she didn't and she RUINED the follow up novella where her characters get married and ever since then I refuse to read any of her stuff because frankly, total money grabbing scheme where you have to beat the story to death to write more books. End rant.) Just kidding- the rant will continue. Ha! Because not only is this book so incredibly similar, but I am so incredibly tired of romance authors using the SAME format. It's like they pull out stereotypical characters out of a hat and go with it. Lead female who has been raped now hates all men and refuses to love? Check. Lead male character who dates floozies and wonders why they all cheat? Check. Street fighting to make money the "honest" way? Check. Past bad boy who ruined lead female comes back and goes nuts? Check. Best friend who wants more? Check.
Just stop it already. Human relationships are so complex and amazing that there shouldn't be any two books with the same line up of characters and basic story line over and over again with a few minor details changed.
BUT.
If you aren't an avid reader (like me) and you haven't read a million of other books with similar story lines (like me), then you are going to love this book. We have a great bad boy/but really a great guy (with an English accent, always a win, I don't care what story it is) and a really stupid girl and somehow it all ends well and bring me the sequel! Yes, there will be a sequel called Sexy English which will feature Declan's twin, Dax. And I bet it'll be good. This book has a Pride and Prejudice theme running through it (kind of) and the next promises to have a Romeo & Juliet theme and you know I loved that story, so I will be all over it.
So there we go. I have a BUNCH of book reviews coming up this week for you, so stay tuned. You'll be mighty busy filling out your library requests and filling your shopping carts.
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