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A review by bananatricky
Heart of a Bad Boy by Sugar Jamison
5.0
Four and a half amazeballs stars!
I think that this is my favourite of the three Destiny books.
The three King boys were once considered trash in the small town of Destiny, Nevada where they grew up. Son of the town drunk they grew up dirt poor, the eldest Duke once got arrested as a teenager for stealing food to feed his brothers. Then Duke got put in prison for ten years for beating up the Police Chief's son and the town turned against them. One way and another the King boys left Destiny and made new lives for themselves, creating a reality TV show centred on Duke's custom car renovations and featuring the youngest boy, Levi a former racing driver, as the host. Together the King empire has made each of the men very wealthy under the direction of the middle son, Colt. When their aunt Lolly goes into hospital the boys are forced to return and face their demons.
If you haven't read the first two books in the series you can easily read this one as a stand-alone - just don't read the epilogue! The USP of this series is that each book is set in the same time period, so each starts with a different King brother reacting to the news of Lolly's illness and how they react to returning to Destiny.
This book features the youngest, Levi King. Living the life of a playboy from his base in Vegas, Levi is vaguely dissatisfied. The cars and the girls and the international travel are starting to become a bit same-same and he is contemplating going back to racing, even though he nearly died in a crash. When he returns to Destiny his first visit is to see his childhood best friend Shelly. Shelly is Levi's opposite; her father is a prison guard and deacon of the local church, she is an elementary school teacher, never drunk alcohol, never had sex, never even gone dancing, a woman who wears her hair in a tight bun and dresses like a nun. Yet the two of them had been best friends since they were eight years old and a little girl in a pretty pink dress and a pink hair ribbon decided to befriend a little boy with ripped jeans and a T-shirt that was too small. All the time that Levi has been away from Destiny Shelly has been writing to him and sending him little gifts, telling him the minutiae of her life - she doesn't realise how much those letters meant to Levi.
Maybe the way I've described this Shelly comes across as a prudish, bible-bashing, kill-joy but she isn't at all. In her letters to Levi she lets out all the things she thinks and feels (her 'confession' about her dreams involving peanut cookies and milk made me laugh out loud), in return Levi validates her feelings. Shelly is kind of a Pollyanna (in a nice way), she is always happy and helpful to others, she volunteers for the local church and helps the elderly 'just because'. What she really wants to do is live a little, see the world, have adventures.
Now I've read 100s of friends-to-lovers novels, and novels where the heroine has been in love with the hero since they were children, and lots of variations on the themes but I don't think I've ever enjoyed one as much as this. Both Levi and Shelly were just great characters. It was blindingly obvious to the reader that they were in love with each other, as one character says near the end, what twenty-something man writes letters like a little old lady to a girl unless he is in love? I just enjoyed the ride and the sassy comments that Shelly comes out with. She might be innocent but she is one heck of a fun girl, the sort of friend everyone wants. If only she liked red wine!
I honestly worry that part of the reason I stopped work wasn't because I was suffering from a head-cold today but because I just couldn't wait to finish this book. Loved it! Loved it! Loved it! I think Sugar Jamison has just got better with each book. Please tell me that Judy gets a book.
I received a free copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.
Bumped for release week (and spelling the author's name wrong!).
I think that this is my favourite of the three Destiny books.
The three King boys were once considered trash in the small town of Destiny, Nevada where they grew up. Son of the town drunk they grew up dirt poor, the eldest Duke once got arrested as a teenager for stealing food to feed his brothers. Then Duke got put in prison for ten years for beating up the Police Chief's son and the town turned against them. One way and another the King boys left Destiny and made new lives for themselves, creating a reality TV show centred on Duke's custom car renovations and featuring the youngest boy, Levi a former racing driver, as the host. Together the King empire has made each of the men very wealthy under the direction of the middle son, Colt. When their aunt Lolly goes into hospital the boys are forced to return and face their demons.
If you haven't read the first two books in the series you can easily read this one as a stand-alone - just don't read the epilogue! The USP of this series is that each book is set in the same time period, so each starts with a different King brother reacting to the news of Lolly's illness and how they react to returning to Destiny.
This book features the youngest, Levi King. Living the life of a playboy from his base in Vegas, Levi is vaguely dissatisfied. The cars and the girls and the international travel are starting to become a bit same-same and he is contemplating going back to racing, even though he nearly died in a crash. When he returns to Destiny his first visit is to see his childhood best friend Shelly. Shelly is Levi's opposite; her father is a prison guard and deacon of the local church, she is an elementary school teacher, never drunk alcohol, never had sex, never even gone dancing, a woman who wears her hair in a tight bun and dresses like a nun. Yet the two of them had been best friends since they were eight years old and a little girl in a pretty pink dress and a pink hair ribbon decided to befriend a little boy with ripped jeans and a T-shirt that was too small. All the time that Levi has been away from Destiny Shelly has been writing to him and sending him little gifts, telling him the minutiae of her life - she doesn't realise how much those letters meant to Levi.
Maybe the way I've described this Shelly comes across as a prudish, bible-bashing, kill-joy but she isn't at all. In her letters to Levi she lets out all the things she thinks and feels (her 'confession' about her dreams involving peanut cookies and milk made me laugh out loud), in return Levi validates her feelings. Shelly is kind of a Pollyanna (in a nice way), she is always happy and helpful to others, she volunteers for the local church and helps the elderly 'just because'. What she really wants to do is live a little, see the world, have adventures.
Now I've read 100s of friends-to-lovers novels, and novels where the heroine has been in love with the hero since they were children, and lots of variations on the themes but I don't think I've ever enjoyed one as much as this. Both Levi and Shelly were just great characters. It was blindingly obvious to the reader that they were in love with each other, as one character says near the end, what twenty-something man writes letters like a little old lady to a girl unless he is in love? I just enjoyed the ride and the sassy comments that Shelly comes out with. She might be innocent but she is one heck of a fun girl, the sort of friend everyone wants. If only she liked red wine!
I honestly worry that part of the reason I stopped work wasn't because I was suffering from a head-cold today but because I just couldn't wait to finish this book. Loved it! Loved it! Loved it! I think Sugar Jamison has just got better with each book. Please tell me that Judy gets a book.
I received a free copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.
Bumped for release week (and spelling the author's name wrong!).