Very Bad Things by Ilsa Madden-Mills

Briarwood Academy, Book 1

Synopsis: “He’s my Romeo, but I’m not his Juliet.”

Everyone thinks Nora Blakely is perfect. And why wouldn’t they? Valedictorian of her class and a Texas beauty queen, she’s well on her way to Princeton after kissing everyone goodbye at graduation.

Until the day she cracks wide open in front of the entire school.

Leo Tate is a tattooed bad boy who’s sworn to never fall in love, especially with a high school girl.

But she keeps showing up at his gym, wearing short skirts and tempting him with her list of bad things.

He wants to resist her, but with one touch of her lips, forbidden love has never tasted so sweet.

Welcome to Briarwood Academy . . . where sometimes, the best things in life are Very Bad Things.

Review: Nora Blakely does not have an easy life. She drags her demons behind her without being able to get rid of them. Yet, in the eyes of everyone, she is perfect: she is successful, she is rich, she is smart. But nobody knows her, not even her parents. So to get rid of her image, she decides to write a list of things that will make her someone else. Someone not so perfect. That’s how she meets Leo, the brother of one of her classmates. It’s love at first sight. But he doesn’t believe in love, he doesn’t want to be in a relationship and above all, he doesn’t want to date a high school girl. They may be for each other, two broken people who will help each other to rebuild.

It was a pretty good novel, a rather classic new adult, but I had a good time. Nora is broken and facing her past will not be easy. Leo is stubborn, but he is also touching in his own way and I loved discovering the secondary characters who bring a nice interesting touch to the story.