Make Me Bad by R.S. Grey

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Title: Make Me Bad
Author: R.S. Grey
Published by: Audible Studios
Release Date: March 7, 2019
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Luci Christian, Jason Clarke
Length: 8 hours and 21 minutes
Genres: Romantic Comedy, Romance, Contemporary
Source: Audible
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2021 Audiobook Challenge, Lenoreo's 2021 Backlist Reader Challenge, Lenoreo's 2021 COYER Winter
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ iTunes
My rating:

Blurb:

I was issued a warning: stay away from Ben Rosenberg.

As Clifton Cove’s resident “king”, he thinks he’s entitled to anyone and anything.

The trouble is, I’ve spent my whole life following the rules and playing it safe. I know what it feels like to be the good girl. I’m the police chief’s daughter and a librarian—for adorable children, no less. My wardrobe consists of colorful sundresses and baggy jeans. I might as well have a Post-it stuck to my forehead that reads: Yup, she’s a virgin.

An all-nighter with a fictional hunk is about as exciting as my life gets, until one day, fate decides to take pity on me and shove me straight into the path of Mr. Off-Limits himself.

Oof.

Just as I suspected, every inch of him promises to be my demise. Up close, he’s tall, menacing, dangerously handsome—the type of man who’s never spent a single moment worrying about the opinions of others. A well-behaved girl would do as she’s told and avoid him at all costs, but I’m overdue for a little rebellion.

No more Friday nights sprawled out on the couch in my comfiest pajamas. No more wishing I had the courage to misbehave.

Everyone thinks Ben is going to ruin me.
They think he’ll chew me up and spit me out.

Well, Ben…go ahead.
Tempt me. Taunt me.
Make me bad.

My Review:

4.5 stars — OMG, I seriously love this author.  And I love her even more when listening to her narrated by my favourite narrators.  This was a trifecta of goodness!

Let’s start with the narrators.  Luci Christian is wholeheartedly one of my favourites.  She nails that spunky mixed with sweet.  And I’m not sure if I’ve listened to much of Jason Clarke, but he was delightful too!  Great deadpan, great emotion, seriously great to listen to in steamy scenes, and a girl voice I actually enjoy!

Madison was just everything.  Seriously, she is my kind of heroine.  She’s ridiculously innocent and naïve in some ways, but OMG she made me laugh and laugh and laugh with her spunky, quirky sense of humour.  She surprised me so often with the things she would think and say.  I don’t even know what made her her, but she was like this girl with an epic crush that you can’t help but LOVE.  Well, I can’t help but love her.  I suppose she might not be everyone’s bag, but she was definitely mine baby.

And then we have Ben.  Ben was completely different than I was expecting him to be based on the blurb, but in a better way.  He wasn’t really bad at all, he was really just dragging around a reputation from either his family or his youth.  He had his own wicked sense of humour.  He was smart, caring, stubborn.

But it was seriously the two of them together that really made this book shine.  I loved the way they saw one another and appreciated the quirks of one another.  They were just cute and fun and…yeah, I’m fangirling.  And even though it had a bit of a slow burn feel, the steamy scenes were well worth the wait.

And then there were the secondary characters.  OMG.  Andy was EVERYTHING.  He was the perfect foil as a best friend for Ben.  I LOVED it when their friend groups merged.  Eli, Kevin, Ariana — they were all great additions!  Even Maddie’s family was fun, if frustrating.

So yeah.  I know I always enjoy books by Ms. Grey, but I don’t think I was expecting to love this one as much as I did.  It was just what I needed.