[Review] The Bad Boy Bargain - Kendra C. Highley

Summary: Baseball player Kyle Sawyer has many labels: bad boy, delinquent, ladies’ man, fearless outfielder… Only one of them is actually true. But then sweet ballet dancer Faith Gladwell asks him to help wreck her reputation, and everything goes sideways.

Faith knows a thing or two about love, and what she had with her cheating jerk of an ex wasn’t it. When he starts spreading rumors about her being an Ice Queen, Faith decides it’s time to let a little bad into her life.

Lucky for her, Kyle Sawyer—dark, dangerous, totally swoonworthy Kyle Sawyer—is landscaping her backyard over Spring Break. Shirtless. And if she can convince him to play along, “dating” Kyle will silence the rumors.

But Faith’s plan threatens to expose Sawyer’s biggest secret of all…and that’s a risk he’s not willing to take. (Pub Date: Nov 14, 2016)

Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.

So sweet! Entangled really has become something like a guarantee I will enjoy some nice romance.

Kyle is no longer the shrimp he used to be in middle school but the fear of the constant bullying he suffered, mainly from Cameron and his friends, has made him attached the persona he's created to be his shield, a bad-boy, college-girl playboy. Faith wants revenge on Cameron for cheating and putting half of the school to torment her days, so she goes to school delinquent Kyle with a plan he can't refuse, to destroy her reputation and prove Cameron wrong.

I feel the high point of the book was taking a theme I already expected to be developed in a certain way and making it more interested without a twist. Yes, the development followed the line I thought but there was some spice there, which made it all more interesting but I unfortunately can't name.

I wouldn't say I fell in love with the characters but maybe their personalities contributed the spice I mentioned above. They were nice and I feel they were different too. Also, even though both are pretty much from the privileged kind, they still rang true. If I had to point the characters I most liked, however, they would be the families. They are all rich, I assume, but they're warm and pleasant. I was glad it escaped from the distant-parents cliché.

Still, the last third, I think, dragged a bit. Perhaps, the climax came too soon. The story doesn't have many different elements to make it memorable either. So those are the main reasons for me not to grade it higher. If I were to base myself on enjoyment only, I'd sure give it something close to 5 stars—yes, there would still be the problem with the slow rhythm by the end.

If you are a fan of the Entangled releases, this is another win by them. A quick and cute read to make you fall in love.

Rating: 3 out of 5