Lessons in Corruption

Not for me.
Too instalovey, immature characters that lacked depth, cringe dialogue, too many “babe”, over-the-top drama on multiple fronts that became too much and unnecessary.
The secondary characters seemed more interesting than Cress and King. The steamy moments were great, though.
Maybe I should give up on MC books but I'm curious about the third book in the series. I might give this series another shot.

Considering that this book had two of my least favorite romance tropes, age-gap + student-teacher, I didn't have high hopes for this one but it delivered. I'm a sucker for stories where a guy falls first which was handled so well in this one considering the tropes in it. 
Other characters were intriguing so I'll check out other books in this series.

I think I fell too hard for all the hype on booktube surrounding this series, because it was ‘just okay' and MC fiction (especially that which strays so far from MC reality) has never really been my thing. However, I fell for the poor little groomed, victimized, neglected, sheltered teen wife who grew a backbone when she aged into a young woman of 26 and went full steam ahead for what she desired. (emphasis on the steam part). The editing and writing left a lot to be desired, but the story line was decent. I sure hope book 2 is as good as it has been rumored to be.

NOTE: This coming year I have set a challenge for myself of reading one book a week that takes me out of my comfort zone. A book that may include one (or more) tropes (scenarios) that I avoid like the plague. Cheating. Older women/younger man. OW drama. Just to name a few. Nothing is off limits. I am taking a HUGE step out of the box I usually live in and charting a course into the unknown (HaHa). My reviews for these books will differ slightly from my usual as I will focus more on whether the author wowed me despite it having content I avoid. That said, I will go into each book with an open mind and an open heart and who knows, maybe I will discover a new favorite author on the way!




~THIS BOOK INCLUDED THE FOLLOWING TROPES (SCENARIOS) I USUALLY AVOID~
– Older Woman/Younger Man


~WRITING - PLOT - PACE~
So apparently hell has officially frozen over because I LOVED this book. L-O-V-E-D it, and I usually HATE the whole “older woman/younger man trope.” That said, King acted WAY older than he was supposed to be and the heroine acted younger than 26. Both of which I am sure helped me forget the age difference. On top of that, this was very similar to a KA book. The writing. The way they spoke. Certain things that take place. And since I adore early KA, I loved that aspect of this book as well. The writing was fantastic. The pace was perfect. The plot was super engaging. Last, it was all wrapped up in a very good happy for now ending.


~HERO~
KING...I adored KING. He was smokin' hot. He was sexy. He was smart. He wrote poetry. He was alpha. He knew what he wanted, and he went all out to get it. I felt a little pervy lusting after an 18-year-old, but like I said he acted older so I am just going to pretend he was (lol). King rates up there as one of my favorite book boyfriends ever.


~HEROINE~
CRESS... liked Cress a lot as well. She was a teensy bit annoying sometimes with how judgy she was and all the push/pulling she did. But I did like that she always apologized straight away and knew the way she was acting wasn't fair or right. 





~SECONDARY CHARACTERS~
There were SO many awesome secondary characters in this book. I LOVED Daddy Zeus. I loved so many of the MC brothers. I loved Cress's students. I loved the biker babes. I loved Officer Danner. I sort of even liked Cress's brother Sander and I am hella curious to see what this author is going to do with his character especially after reading book two of this series.


~HEAT LEVEL~ 
This was pretty insta-lust, but it takes a bit until we get to the sexy times (50%). That said, this couple has an excellent on-page chemistry, and when we do get to the sex scenes, they are super hot and plentiful.


~ANGST LEVEL - SEXUAL HISTORIES~
Low to Medium. There is a bit of push and pull from the heroine. I am not usually a fan of that, but it didn't overly bother me here. I kind of got where Cress was coming from. The student/teacher thing wasn't as big a deal as I thought it would be. Of course, we have some drama from a rival MC that causes some angst. Neither were virgins. There was a bit of OW drama with (I guess) some MC chick that took King's virginity, and she and heroine get into it a bit. It is never really made clear if the stuff she was telling the heroine actually took place or not, so I am going to assume it did. There was also some OM drama in the form of Cress's husband (some to be ex).


~IN THE END~
I ended up loving this book WAY more than I ever thought possible (lol). In fact, I would go so far as to say that out of the very few older woman/younger man books I have read, this was by FAR my favorite. Of course, again, I am chalking it up to the characters not really acting the ages that the author assigned to them. But honestly, who cares? I loved it. I will probably reread it. I can't wait to read book three. Therefore yours truly is going to give this one two HUGE thumbs up