***I was given this book in exchange for an honest review.***
This story is about a musician/college student, Casper Covington, who sleeps around with anyone especially those who are groupies to his band. He meets the woman of his dreams and spends one blissful New Year's Eve night with her and she is gone when he wakes up. For month's all he can think about is her even though he continues on with his one-night-stand-type lifestyle. Only this time it's to try and erase her. He's performing at one of the local bars, Angels & Demons, when he meets out leading lady...Alexis Radcliff. Boy is she fiesty one. Immediately he gets to see first hand Alex's attitude, how headstrong she is, and that she is capable of handling things herself. Thinking he can break her down, he tried his thing only to come face to face with some glowing green eyes and a tongue that could slice his throat. Insults were flying back and forth between the two like poison being spit. But those eyes....something with those eyes. Her cousin/best friend Declan is a friend of Casper's and warns him, but in a loving way. He walks away from her but continues to watch her from afar. Casper's roommate Colton is madly in love with Declan but is way too shy to say anything. Casper whispers into Declan's ear to give him a chance so she agrees to a date, but turns it into a double date and wants Colton to bring a friend. Here is where the story really takes off. The four meet for dinner and Casper remembers her from the bar and she remembers him. They sit and rile each others feathers with rude words, crazy off the wall comments, and all while both being set on fire deep in their pants. Both try to fight the attraction, but neither can succeed. Over the weeks and months to come they come to a truce and decide for their friends' sake they will get along sine they will be around each other all the time. The name calling, although still name calling, becoming teasing endearments and they grow closer everyday. During this time Casper stops sleeping around only wanting to be with Alex, only he won't tell her that. Alex, enjoying all of her time with Casper, won't admit that there is anything else going on because she fears getting hurt and used. So they both ignore the heat until Alex starts dating Reece, one of Casper's frat brothers. That's when Casper decides to make his move. Bad timing Casper. Casper ends up pissing everyone off with his jealous actions. Eventually he is able to get her to see that he wants to be with her, but she is a runner. She runs from Casper and her feelings every time she gets a chance. Towards the end of the book are when her secrets actually come out. Casper doesn't blink an eye at her admissions. During this time Alex and her family experience a tragedy and Casper is there waiting to help her through. Once again she uses him and runs. Will he still be there when she figures out what love is and how to open herself up to it? Read this story and find out.
First off I want to say I rate this book 3.5 stars. I just couldn't go 4 and 3 seemed not right either. I'm stuck on this book and here are my reasons why. First off, this book is hella long! It seemed as though it were 2 books in one almost,having multiple plots and the way they were set up. Every time I would pick it up and read for a couple of hours I would think I should be close to the middle where secrets are...nope read some more...nope read some more....The story kind of drags without dragging. It's hard for me to explain. Jessica does a good job putting in little things here and there during that drag part, and Alex's and Casper's characters are interesting enough to keep your attention and with the first person pov alternating between them you don't want to put the book down. I felt like after reading the synopsis of the book I was misled a bit waiting for said secrets to unfold and drama to pick up. I was to the point that I never thought it was going to happen when finally we were smacked in the face with some secrets that could've been mentioned way sooner in this book and made a bigger part of the story. Although I loved Casper and Alex, I wanted to smack Alex. It's one thing to be a hardass cause you were raised by your brothers. I get that. Girly tomboy who doesn't really know how to show love. She shows mean love. But for the love of god after 300 something pages of her acting like an idiot and not being hardheaded but being a bitch to everyone gaaaaaaaaah. There were tons of errors through out the book, too, that threw me for a loop. I don't mind some errors, after all we are all human, but it looks as though this book skipped a well needed proofreading. So be prepared if that's one of your pet peeves when reading a book.
Not everything was bad about this book. Like I said, for the most part I loved Casper and Alex. All the characters in this book are well written. I love her brothers and how they interact with each other. Their names threw me off at first, and I was like wait who is talking now, wait who are they talking to? But I loved all of her bothers and the bond they shared together after everything they had been through is amazing. My fave parts of the story are when Alex and Casper are bantering back and forth trying to one up each other while the their sexual frustration builds. The ending was a big surprise and the epilogue was like reading about 2 different people until they called each other by their name calling nicknames.
Overall this is a good book. I did like it and I think others will like it too. Jessica's writing style is beautiful and I can see her writing some amazing stories in the future.