Wednesday, January 3, 2018

Book Review: Lessons In Corruption by Giana Darling



The only thing that held me back to read this book the instant it was available was the age gap between the main characters and the fact that the hero was younger than the heroine because that's usually what I avoid in books. I'm also not very keen on the student/teacher romance but I loved the author's previous books and she managed to put my mind at ease with a taboo topic before, so, why not now too?!

It turned out to be a decent story and since the age gap was not that huge because the heroine was only twenty-six years old, I found myself enjoying this book.

Now you're probably wondering why I rated this book with three stars when I just said that I enjoyed this book. So, let me explain:

I guess it all comes down to Cressida's character. There were many things that bothered me about her, from the inner voices to the immaturity and her constant outbursts of anger. She annoyed me and I just didn't like her. At first, she behaved like a teenager having her first crush – it's not that I mind reading about teenagers, but this just did not fit to Cressida's very conservative character, no matter how much she wanted to be different, one simply cannot change within a second.
She was rude, judgmental and got angry at King all the time even when he did the loveliest things for her, for which she didn't even thank him once. Cress also always dug up the same topics when she was mad and threw it in his face without a care in the world for his feelings, just to be sorry for it shortly after. There were too many repeats of that and I didn't understand how King didn't dump her eventually after having thrown in his face for the umpteenth time that she wasn't OK with the criminal MC world he lived in.

'Why did I turn into a raging judgmental bitch the first second I was reminded of King's biker status or faced one of his biker kin?'

It didn't really feel like a MC novel to be honest, which could be because King was not a member yet. He was only a biker and the son of the Prez but he was involved in everything just the same which had me a bit confused for several reasons. But I have not much knowledge of MCs and it's still fiction, so anything's possible, right?!

I didn't like – especially considering her past and previous lifestyle – how Cressida went into a dark alley with a stranger without second thoughts. It was just so out of character for her and although I know she wanted to escape her strict, boring and safe world, it was still all very extreme considering that she hopped on a bike with a stranger. I just wished they'd have met differently.

King Kyle Garro was a pretty arrogant boy, but hey, he was a biker, you kind of expect him to be that way. He sometimes was even more mature than Cress.

'There was something about his pose that was predatory, a hunter inviting his prey closer.'

Why Cress pushed a student to open up about his sexual preferences was beyond me. Also, the constant mention of her as a Queen did not sit well with me as it was repeated too often, and the 'nickname' did not at all reflect her character, no matter how bad she wanted it to be. Someone who always ran away before thinking about the situation at hand was not deemed to be a Queen.

I don't like comparing books but it's just after I've read Sinclair and Giselle's story I was so excited for a new book by this author that I got a bit disappointed with this story because I know she can do so much better. And by that I don't mean the typos in this book.

Anyhow, there were some very good and some not so good parts in this book, it was a mix of up and down for me. All in all, it was a great read though. I have a feeling that the author's only warming up and that her next MC stories will get much better. I'll definitely read Zeus story because he was a very intriguing character in this book.

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

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