I started reading this once and bailed, then found it in an anthology and tried again. This time I finished it but the things that turned me off at first stayed problematic: I don't like the "use one guy/girl to make an impression on another one" plot device, even when the person is up front about it. When the heroes do it it is always treated with horror (how dare he!) but somehow when the heroines do it it's okay? it's just a symptom of her "confusion"? Here I got tired of Pepper's "confusion" about using Reece to get to Hunter. It wasn't okay and it took her too long to figure that out. That said, Sophie Jordan is a better writer than most NA writers so that is one selling point. ( )

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This review may contain minor spoilers, but not much further than you'll already find in the synopsis

"You can’t even see it. I’m the safest thing you’ll ever find." - Reece

I really enjoyed reading this book. I give it 4/5 stars.

The book is about Pepper. I do kind of like Pepper, she is who she is and doesn't care that she's not a barfly but actually studies. But honestly, what kind of a name is Pepper? Somehow I found myself internally laughing everytime the name came up. At first I thought it was a nickname, but no her actual name is Pepper. And sometimes I kind of wanted to slap her silly for the choices she makes.

Pepper had always been in love with Hunter, her best friends brother. To Pepper, a life with Hunter equals a perfect life, with a perfect family and perfect trips do Disney Worls. There is however one problem, Pepper is still a virgin and has no idea how to seduce a 'man'. She decides that she needs to gain experience and to do so, she sets her eyes on 'the bartender' AKA Reece.

Reece is the typical: seems like a bad boy, but is actual a good guy- character. I liked Reece, I thought it was obvious what he thought of Pepper and he always seemed like a very decent guy.

As the two spend time together, Pepper starts be less sure of the fact that Hunter is THE guy for her. But that's all for the spoilers from me.

I liked Hunter, he actually seemed like a nice and good guy that would treat Pepper right. I also liked Peppers friends (Emerson and Georgia), who seemed to be really good friends to her.

The book is told from Pepper's POV alone and I found myself enjoying this book a lot. It wasn't an original masterpiece, but I did think it was a very good read and I'd recommend it to any NA lover.



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I enjoyed this book, but simply put, I have read better New Adult reads in recent times. I just felt like something was missing from this book and that disappointed me slightly because I felt like it started off strong. But by the halfway point, I was getting a little bored with it.

I think part of the problem was Pepper. I just didn't like her all that much. It's not because I found her to be annoying--I just found her to be boring. Which is a shame because she could have been a very interesting character given the stuff we learn about her later in the book. Reese was the same for me too. He just seemed very generic but I did find him swoon-worthy at times.

I'm not sure how I feel about the love triangle either. Usually, they irritate me to no end but this one didn't bother me that much. I'm not sure if it is because I always knew how it was going to end or if I just was indifferent to Pepper--I think it's the latter though.

I had a pretty solid idea about how this book was going to end going into it so nothing really surprised me as I read it. Though I will give credit to two particular "twists"/events that got me to perk up in my seat as I read them--they made things a little more exciting.

Overall: All and all, this book was alright. When I finished it, I gave it a 4/5 but when I thought about it more, it's more of a 3.5 that's closer to a 3. It wasn't anything overly exciting (drama wise) but I enjoyed reading it. I think it's a great book to read if you are looking at getting into the New Adult genre, but I think those who have read a good number of New Adult reads will find this a little dull. Though, it should be said that the writing caliber of this book is SIGNIFICANTLY better than a lot of New Adult reads out there.

Check out more spoiler-free book and series reviews on my blog SERIESous Book Reviews as well as read book series recaps!

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I started reading Foreplay late on a Tuesday night, and finished it Wednesday morning. I could not put it down.
I absolutely love Pepper and Reece. Both are so completely damaged, but they both have to put some things aside to figure out who they are. Pepper changed so much throughout this book. Just because you make a plan, doesn’t mean that’s how it’s going to work out. I love how protective Reece is. He’s also strong, and determined.
The smexy scenes were great. It was fun seeing Pepper’s reactions to Reece. I like how she was able to open up to him when she couldn’t with her friends. The things that Pepper went through made me hurt for her. The same went for Reece. I do like that while there were some dark things that happened that overall the storyline was still fun.
Foreplay is a fast paced read that you won’t want to put down. ( )