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A review by under_covers_smut_lover
The Bad Boy Rule by Maren Moore
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Spice: 🌶🌶🌶
Heat/Angst: 🔥🔥🔥.5
I love a good Maren Moore book, and I was so excited to learn that Saint was getting his own book! We first met him in Homerun Proposal. Lane and Hallie's book. He was the bad boy, playboy that got into it with Lane at the Halloween party. So this book, and the next few, will still be taking place at Orleans U...yay 🤗
Tropes:
🏒 College Hockey
⛸️ Bad Boy/Good Girl
🏒 Revenge
⛸️ Fake Dating
🏒 Trauma/Abuse (DV & Child)
⛸️ Vrgn FMC
🏒 Reformed Playboy
⛸️ Tattoed Body & Pierced 🍆
I knew I was going to love this book from the start. I received this as an advance copy, but I saw a video by the author that was emotional for her to make about this book. By what she said in that video on her Instagram, I knew I was going to relate to a lot of things I was going to read. This book really hit home for me and made me emotional at times. So just be prepared for those hard to read parts.
Saint is the bad boy on campus and a playboy that puts it all up front when he meets a girl. He's there for a good time and doesn't cuddle or stay the night. He's worked his way through a lot of women on campus, and the author really made him out to be an arrogant 🍆.
I love that when Maren writes her characters, you truly get and feel that image from them. It didn't state they were a certain way and then not act that part throughout. No, she wrote Saint as a cocky bad boy, and you felt that opinion of him throughout.
Lennon is trying to take her life into her own hands. She's been controlled her whole life by her parents, and the last straw was when they tried to get her back together with her cheating ex. She wants her own life, and she takes the first step by trying to get back into something she loved doing that her father made her give up. Figure skating.
There's been a mix-up on the private ice rink times, and she's stuck sharing it with Saint for the school year. She can not stand him. She is a short yet feisty red head that gives back as good as she gets from Saint.
She thinks that he's just what she needs to fake date in front of her family to get them to back off. She comes from a prestigious, wealthy family that only thinks of her as a future trophy wife. Someone to help her father's name and business.
After the ex problem her father shoved in her face at the last gala, showing up with a motorcycle riding, tattooed, trailer trash, hockey playing a$$hole as her new boyfriend should show them all. And boy, does she let Saint be his natural a-hole self to her parents.
The thing about all this is that Saint hates her father. He wants revenge for his life and plans on taking it out by ruining her dad by ruining her. He thinks this is a happy go lucky family and thought of Lennon as their princess. He could see the attraction she had towards him and planned on using that in the long game. Or as long as it took because Lennon had a purity ring, and he was going to get her to give it up...to him!
The only thing is that the more time they spent together, the more they both realized the other person and their life wasn't what it seemed to be. The rare moments that Lennon saw Saint's real smile and life the more her attraction grew. And the more Saint sees that her life isn't what he thought, the more she became his safe place and the only person besides his mother that he cared about.
The spicy moments were great, and Saint had a delicious dirty mouth. Maren can write some great spicy scenes. I wish there was more of the actual act of s3x in this book. It was more 0ral and foreplay than anything else. I think there was only 2 times that I remember reading the actual act and a bunch of 0ral throughout. Saint loved to eat her out 🤭🥵
Also, there were certain moments that didn't really go together. Examples, like she was in a sports bra one moment, then it turned into a red lace bra in the same scene. Or another was the first time Lennon saw Saint without a shirt in the fancy suit store, then in the elevator scene later on, it was explained as the first time she saw him shirtless. It was like that a few times throughout the book, like she forgot she had already wrote it a certain way then forgot and went another direction. I know this is the Advanced Copy that I read, so it may be fixed in the final published book.
Overall, the book was good, and I would recommend reading it. I recommend all of her books if you haven't read any of them. The title of this book really made sense. It went with the actual book. Please check the trigger warnings in this book. There are some that could be upsetting and hard to read about. Saint's life wasn't an easy one to read about, and I'm so happy he got his HEA.
Spice: 🌶🌶🌶
Heat/Angst: 🔥🔥🔥.5
I love a good Maren Moore book, and I was so excited to learn that Saint was getting his own book! We first met him in Homerun Proposal. Lane and Hallie's book. He was the bad boy, playboy that got into it with Lane at the Halloween party. So this book, and the next few, will still be taking place at Orleans U...yay 🤗
Tropes:
🏒 College Hockey
⛸️ Bad Boy/Good Girl
🏒 Revenge
⛸️ Fake Dating
🏒 Trauma/Abuse (DV & Child)
⛸️ Vrgn FMC
🏒 Reformed Playboy
⛸️ Tattoed Body & Pierced 🍆
I knew I was going to love this book from the start. I received this as an advance copy, but I saw a video by the author that was emotional for her to make about this book. By what she said in that video on her Instagram, I knew I was going to relate to a lot of things I was going to read. This book really hit home for me and made me emotional at times. So just be prepared for those hard to read parts.
Saint is the bad boy on campus and a playboy that puts it all up front when he meets a girl. He's there for a good time and doesn't cuddle or stay the night. He's worked his way through a lot of women on campus, and the author really made him out to be an arrogant 🍆.
I love that when Maren writes her characters, you truly get and feel that image from them. It didn't state they were a certain way and then not act that part throughout. No, she wrote Saint as a cocky bad boy, and you felt that opinion of him throughout.
Lennon is trying to take her life into her own hands. She's been controlled her whole life by her parents, and the last straw was when they tried to get her back together with her cheating ex. She wants her own life, and she takes the first step by trying to get back into something she loved doing that her father made her give up. Figure skating.
There's been a mix-up on the private ice rink times, and she's stuck sharing it with Saint for the school year. She can not stand him. She is a short yet feisty red head that gives back as good as she gets from Saint.
She thinks that he's just what she needs to fake date in front of her family to get them to back off. She comes from a prestigious, wealthy family that only thinks of her as a future trophy wife. Someone to help her father's name and business.
After the ex problem her father shoved in her face at the last gala, showing up with a motorcycle riding, tattooed, trailer trash, hockey playing a$$hole as her new boyfriend should show them all. And boy, does she let Saint be his natural a-hole self to her parents.
The thing about all this is that Saint hates her father. He wants revenge for his life and plans on taking it out by ruining her dad by ruining her. He thinks this is a happy go lucky family and thought of Lennon as their princess. He could see the attraction she had towards him and planned on using that in the long game. Or as long as it took because Lennon had a purity ring, and he was going to get her to give it up...to him!
The only thing is that the more time they spent together, the more they both realized the other person and their life wasn't what it seemed to be. The rare moments that Lennon saw Saint's real smile and life the more her attraction grew. And the more Saint sees that her life isn't what he thought, the more she became his safe place and the only person besides his mother that he cared about.
The spicy moments were great, and Saint had a delicious dirty mouth. Maren can write some great spicy scenes. I wish there was more of the actual act of s3x in this book. It was more 0ral and foreplay than anything else. I think there was only 2 times that I remember reading the actual act and a bunch of 0ral throughout. Saint loved to eat her out 🤭🥵
Also, there were certain moments that didn't really go together. Examples, like she was in a sports bra one moment, then it turned into a red lace bra in the same scene. Or another was the first time Lennon saw Saint without a shirt in the fancy suit store, then in the elevator scene later on, it was explained as the first time she saw him shirtless. It was like that a few times throughout the book, like she forgot she had already wrote it a certain way then forgot and went another direction. I know this is the Advanced Copy that I read, so it may be fixed in the final published book.
Overall, the book was good, and I would recommend reading it. I recommend all of her books if you haven't read any of them. The title of this book really made sense. It went with the actual book. Please check the trigger warnings in this book. There are some that could be upsetting and hard to read about. Saint's life wasn't an easy one to read about, and I'm so happy he got his HEA.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail