Monday 1 February 2016

Deal Breakers


How were they supposed to know that one night would change everything?

Devyn has life all mapped out. She just needs to accomplish one more thing before graduating college and becoming a full-fledged adult - lose her virginity. And who better to assist her than her best friend, Riley? Riley is the self-proclaimed king of fling. His college years have been filled with meaningless hookups until the one night that ruined him for all other women. The one night he spends with his best friend, Devyn. Right before he screws it all up.

Now five years later, Riley is determined to atone for his mistakes and prove that he can be the man that Devyn deserves. Little does he know that Devyn’s been keeping a secret from him all these years. A big secret. Now he has to figure out how to win back the only girl he’s ever loved.

Disclaimer; I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Deal Breakers is an easy read, a simple story of boy meets girl. Ultimately, there’s not much more to the book than the central relationship between Devyn and Riley. Your enjoyment of the book will probably depend entirely on whether you buy them as a couple. Which I did. Both are walking clichés, the football-loving guy’s girl who doesn’t know how hot she is, with the kind of job that involves ‘pitching for a big account’. The womanising bad boy who’s just waiting to meet the right girl, in the meantime sleeping with anything that moves and behind horrendously insensitive to his current squeeze, their house guests and Devyn herself, not able to see what's right in front of him.



I got on board with the pair, they’re well written and make for a cute, believable couple. They have dynamite chemistry too, and the sex scenes certainly had me glancing around to make sure no one was reading over my shoulder!

I did feel for poor Jackson though! Devyn's new boyfriend and the token nice guy, he's a little hard done by by the plot, his presence is clearly meant to generate conflict, but it’s painfully obvious that he’s a non-entity, the whole angle of him and Dev seems pointless and ultimately comes off as cheap and a waste of time. It’s also resolved far too early, so there’s no drama in the last third or so of the book. I wasn't expecitng anything earth shattering, but even I was surprised at how quickly and cleanly everything was wrapped up.

Deal Breakers isn’t a challenging read, it’s easy to dip in and out of. It’s pretty clichéd, and the central conceit is the kind of plot point that would be revealed in about five minutes in real life, never mind five years, but I really enjoyed the book for what it was. I could have done without the cutesie kid-speak in the dialogue from Devyn’s son. We get it, he’s an adorable little tyke, I don’t want to read him asking for “choc-wat miwk”. Perhaps it's my aversion to small children, but barf! Overall though Deal Breakers was light, sexy read with plenty to keep me entertained. It's not ground breaking, it's not anything you haven't read before in some for or other, but kept me quiet for a plane ride to Vegas, and for that, it gets three stars.

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