Troublemaker by Melissa Pearl

Synopsis:
Kelly DeMarco is out of Marcus Chapman’s league. When they met in high school he was besotted with the blue-eyed goddess, but she never gave him the time of day.

High school is now over and the tide is turning.

Five years later, Kelly is job-hunting and the best she can find happens to be Marcus Chapman’s personal assistant. He is thrilled by this second chance and determined to win the beauty’s affections, but Kelly has no intention of falling for the “class clown.”

What you’re looking for can be hiding right in front of you.

In spite of her resolve, Marcus’s playful charm begins to chip away at Kelly’s protective veneer, and she starts to realize that tall, dark, and mysterious isn’t a requirement, and sometimes Mr. I Don’t Think So can actually be Mr. Perfect.

Will Kelly’s obsession with keeping up appearances push Marcus away, or will he have enough drawing power to convince his favorite girl that honest love can outclass anything?

     

My Review:
4 stars — I received an ARC of this book from the author for my honest review!!

I was totally unsure of this book for the first little bit…technically I’m not sure how much of the book, b/c I read it while waiting at the airport….which I guess means I was totally sucked into the story, b/c I finished it in honestly just a few hours.  I was totally sucked in by sweet Marcus, but I couldn’t always understand his infatuation with Kelly.  I was NOT sold on her until later on in the book, and I’m not sure if I ever was 100% sold on her.  I’m not saying she’s not an interesting character, and doesn’t have her own sympathetic plights, but I guess I just loved Marcus so much that she never seemed good enough for him, you know?

So after all that, how did I still come up with 4 stars??  Well, a lot of that was with Marcus.  While his judgment sometimes came under question, he just never failed to make me smile (and occasionally cringe) at his antics and just fantastic outlook in life.  Reading about his history and infatuation with Kelly really was cringeworthy, but I liked the man he became.  It was nice to read about a guy who’s a little bit dorky and unsure of himself, and not the usual 100% unattainable hunk.  And I guess in the end, despite my reservations about certain parts of the story (the steam scenes were up and down for me, parts great, parts meh), the good parts just outshone the rest.  I guess part of me is still waffling about making it a 3.5 stars, but I just had such a big smile on my face for good parts of it that I say screw it!  It’s my review, I’ll do what I want!  😛

I still need to go back and read books 2-4 of this series, but I enjoyed getting a little bit of Chaos cameo in there, and catching a glimpse of Jimmy (and hearing about Nessa).  And let me tell you, if you’re a fan of Chaos, there was some fantastic news at the end of the book about that…

Ms. Pearl just knows how to write an easy to read story with likable characters.  And if you’ve ever been a fan of the underdog guy, then this is truly the story for you.  I even liked that he was a little bit on the shorter side, b/c I married me a shortie and they are underrated.