Single Sundays: Bad Romance by Jen McLaughlin

Single Sundays: While this blog may be focused on reviewing book series as a whole, we can’t forget about the good ole’ standalone novel! On Sundays, I will review a novel that is considered to be a standalone novel. Here is this week’s offering:

Synopsis for Bad Romance (from Goodreads):
Seven years in the army will change a guy. But after a shoulder wound ends his career as a sniper, Jackson Worthington finds himself back home, fighting a battle that’s all too familiar: keeping his hands off Lily Hastings. She’s still her rich daddy’s little angel, innocent, impossibly lovely, as squeaky-clean as Jackson is dirty. And she’s still his stepsister—forbidden but not forgotten, not after the soul-melting kiss that got him kicked out of the house at eighteen. He couldn’t resist her then. How the hell can he resist her now?

Lily is about to marry a man she doesn’t love, and commit to a high-stress job she hates, all to please the father who controls every waking moment of her life. On top of everything, her teenage crush is back, with a sleek, chiseled body and a trace of the rebellious boy whose lips sealed her fate. Jackson’s timing couldn’t be worse . . . or better. Because Lily’s all grown up, too. She’s aching for another taste. And for the first time, she’s ready to be a bad girl.

Author: Jen McLaughlin
Genre: New Adult, Romance, Contemporary
Heat Rating: hot
Point of View: First Person, Alternating
Publication Date: September 15, 2015
Source & Format: Own–eBook

Why I Picked it Up / My Expectations:

I first saw Bad Romance on Netgalley but wasn’t able to request it for a review at the time. I really enjoyed McLaughlin’s Out of Line Series and her Sex on the Beach Series so it seemed like a no brainer. Plus, I wanted to dive further into the romance world of forbidden Step-Brother romances. Rival is one of my favourite NA novels and it has a similar concept, so I was looking forward to expanding my horizons.

The Plot:

Besides these two having an unrequited love for each other for years, the plot for this one of so illogical it actually hurt my brain.

Lilly’s main argument for keeping her shame of an engagement irked me to no end because it was a stupid point. I mean, I understood the basis of it because she is a nice human being; but why she felt this obligation to save the company was beyond me. There are 20 other ways that conflict of a failing company could have been resolved. It just made her look like an idiot in the grand scheme of things. Super frustrating!

The Characters:

Like I said, Lilly seemed to not be the brightest crayon in the box and that annoyed me to no end. And its a shame because she did seem to be a decent person who just couldn’t think things through all the way to the end.

Jackson wasn’t anything new either. Meh.

The Romance:

While these two had a strong physical chemistry, I wanted their emotional connected to be established more. If it’s a “forbidden” romance, you have to convince me why they need to defy all the odds to be together. And while I get it on a basic level, I wish we had more background on these two and why they always felt drawn to each other.