Review for Foreplay (The Ivy Chronicles #1) by Sophie Jordan

TITLE: Foreplay
SERIES: The Ivy Chronicles #1
AUTHOR: Sophie Jordan
PUBLICATION DATE: November 5, 2013
PUBLISHER: William Morrow
PAGES: 320 pages
FORMAT: Book / ebook
SOURCE: Purchased / Won from A Book And A Latte
RATING: 4 bows

Pepper has always been in love with Hunter, her best friend’s brother. They would be perfect together and now the opportunity has arrived because he just broke up with his long time girlfriend. Her lack of experience has her wondering why he would ever want her so she devises a plan, become talented in the bedroom. For this she will need a teacher and her college roomies have the perfect man picked out, but Reese is more than Pepper expects him to be. Instead of a suave ladies man, she’s a cool and caring, with a troubled past. The deeper into her “lessons” they get, the more she wonders if maybe Hunter isn’t the perfect man for her. Which guy will she choose?

Pepper is that slightly nerdy, slightly sheltered college girl we have all known at some point. She’s very sweet and a bit shy, but also pretty determined to make Hunter see her as a woman, not just his sisters best friend. She was a pretty easy character to relate to and it’s hard not to sympathize with her plight. Who hasn’t experienced that type of crush where you’d do just about anything to make it work? Even fool around with someone you don’t know well to amp-up your boudoir skills. But this is made incredibly difficult by her shyness. How exactly to you come on to a man when you can’t even look him in the eye without blushing?

Reese was entirely too swoon-worthy. He’s hot and mature and caring and sooo much better than Hunter. Once she starts seeing Reese, I don’t understand why she still thought Hunter was perfect. Look at this specimen of man in front of you! LOOK!

You can easily have all of that and you still want Hunter?

It was a concept I couldn’t understand because Reese is perfect and the chemistry between him and Pepper was amazing.

The writing was really good, which I’m coming to expect from Sophie Jordan. The plot was a touch predictable, but you know what you are getting as soon as you start this. The concept behind it is pretty straight forward and we all know she’s going to fall for Reese and end up with him, but there were those terrible moments when we weren’t as sure of that as we’d liked to be.

When it comes down to it, this is an amazing NA that I only had a few minor issues with. The first one being I hate the name Pepper. But beyond that and a handful of tiny things not even worthy mentioning, this was an awesome novel with lovable characters and just the right amount of smut. Smutty enough that you don’t feel like you are reading YA, but not quite overdone where you feel like you are reading erotica. I think anyone who likes NA novels will love this!