The Beau & the Belle

So this book was tricky. It starts in the past, when Lauren is 17 and develops a crush on Beau, the 24-year-old law student renting an apartment from her parents. I could relate to this because what teenager hasn't had an embarrassing crush on an older guy? (Todd, if you're out there somewhere, sorry for being such a creeper back in the day!)

In the “past” portion of the book, Lauren's infatuation was seemingly one-sided. Beau never gave her any reason to believe he was into her, even when she literally throws herself at him. This is a good thing obviously because I'm not here for an adult dating a junior in high school. Then they're separated by a major event and we jump 10 years ahead. This is where I felt a disconnect in the story. There's really no build up when they meet again. We're just supposed to believe that they have been pining after each other for 10 years and then after a few weeks they're in love. Nope. I needed something more there.

So three pros and 3 cons
Pros
1) I really liked the chick. She wasn't that super uper duper lady, I mean if course she was drop dead gorgeous but she wasn't a sex god which I like
2) I liked the romance once she grew up - very steamy and sexy
3) I liked the setting. It was a nice little backdrop

Cons
1) I was super off-put by the taboo nature of it. Personally I don't vibe with older men creeping on young girls like thats not cute and I don't enjoy reading about it. If it wasn't for the fact I had it as an audiobook, I would have DNF'ed it
2) I didn't like that nobody had a problem with the tabooness not even the mother. HELLO PEODPHILLIA AINT NOTHING TO PLAY WITH
3) The relationship wasn't that deep to me. It was a physical relationship which is fine but then they were talking about love and I was like hold your horses honey

I'm more than halfway into this book and it is still so terrible. I've read a bunch of R.S. Grey's books and really liked them but this is such a major disappointment. This might end up being the book I give up on after already being mostly done with it. But I don't know if I can take hearing another word from the jerk who's supposed to be the heartthrob we all want the main character to end up with.
Putting aside how messed up the age difference and their living situation is,

First off, the main guy somehow goes from being a a super nice guy to a complete controling possessive rude asshole within a span of ten years and we're supposed to still like him?

The main girl stays exactly the same in her behavior and approach to men from the age of 17 to 27 and that's just... no. So wrong.

The best friend is more like a frenemy always being selfish or leading her down the completely wrong path.

The only redeeming characters are the parents and the guy the main girl passes to be with the weird asshole.

I definitely don't buy their chemistry (after the ten years) and I keep trying to give it a chance to see if it'll get better but instead it keeps getting worse and worse and WORSE.