♥Donnie Darko Girl♥: Cindy Miles

Welcome to my stop on the Stupid Boy Blog Tour hosted by Xpresso Book Tours. Click here to follow along with the tour schedule.

Title - Stupid Boy
Series - Stupid in Love #2
Author - Cindy Miles
Publication date - February 17th 2015
Genres - New Adult, Romance

Source - Copy for review

Purchase - Amazon | B&N

Synopsis

From Cindy Miles, bestselling new adult author of STUPID GIRL, comes the next installment of her blockbuster Stupid in Love series - STUPID BOY.

Brax Jenkins and Olivia Beaumont are the most envied couple at Winston University - but the so-called "virginity dare," orchestrated by Brax's old fraternity, almost tore them apart. Now, a new dare is taking shape, and it's sure to set emotions ablaze - more than ever before.

Winston's "It Girl" Harper Belle isn't just president of the Deltas - she's also a master at keeping her ugly past a secret. So, when the Kappas' dare hits closer to home for her more than anyone realizes, she devises a competition of her own as payback. Three sorority sisters will seek out a notorious womanizer on campus and - unbeknownst their "mark" - secretly train him to be the perfect boyfriend. Always up for a challenge, Harper targets the biggest player she can find: Brax's wickedly handsome foster brother Kane McCarthy.

But, Harper discovers there's much more to Kane than girls, games, and partying. His easy smile belies the quiet, old soul reflected in his deep brown eyes. All it takes is one night, one secret laid bare, and one kiss from Kane to shift Harper's world on its axis. Suddenly, the girl who's always walked a straight and narrow path can't think of anything else except losing control.

After loving Stupid Girl, I was excited to read Stupid Boy. With different characters as the focus, Stupid Boy can be read as a standalone, although I think reading Stupid Girl first will enhance your experience since the stories are connected.

This is probably going to sound morbid, but I do like reading realistic fiction where the characters are broken and need to work through their dark past in order to truly live. Stupid Boy makes me think about the saying, "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle." Kane sees that right away about Harper despite the outer image she's trying to project, and I think it's because he comes from a painful background, too.

Kane's experiences have given him the ability to see it in someone else, even someone he's just met. When both people have that in their past, they can understand each other in a way without words that other people may not be able to do. I think Harper was trying much harder and more desperately to repress the experiences she had been through, and that was why she didn't see past Kane's exterior shell right away. She wants to pack her pain in a suitcase and keep it in the back of a closet, away from her sight.

I wanted to know what had happened to both of these characters, and through bits and pieces here and there, you come to know what they went through. It's horrifying, and no one should have had to go through that.

I was happy to see Olivia and Brax from the first book in Stupid Boy. I really liked them and was hoping they'd be connected to the characters in this book, which they are.

The only thing that kept me from giving the book five stars was the story lulled in places. It might have been just me and my frame of mind at the time, but a few places were slow for me. Other than that, I really loved reading about Kane and Harper's story, and I'm looking forward to reading about new characters in the next installment.

About the Author

National bestselling author Cindy Miles writes edgy romance, ranging from contemporary love stories to sexy paranormals. A native of southern coastal Georgia, she loves reading (naturally), baking swoon-worthy desserts, traveling abroad, yoga, and classic rock. The cover for her debut New Adult romance, STUPID GIRL, was featured on USA Today's Happily Ever After blog. In the novel, a volatile mix of bad boys, sassy smart girls, dark secrets, and red-hot romance add up to one wild ride through college. The second book in her Stupid in Love series, STUPID BOY, features a wickedly handsome law-breaker who falls for a beautiful, straight-A college student with an ugly past of her own.

Connect with the Author

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Blog Tour organized by:

Welcome to my stop on the Stupid Girl Blog Tour hosted by Xpresso Book Tours! Click here to follow along with the full tour schedule.

Title: Stupid Girl

Series: Stupid in Love #1

Author: Cindy Miles

Publication date: May 13th 2014

Genre: New Adult Romance

Source: Copy for review

Purchase: Amazon | B&N

Only fools fall in love...

After her senior year of high school leaves behind nothing but heartache, Olivia Beaumont is sure of this: She's no stupid girl. She sets out for Winston College, promising herself that she will remain focused on her first and only love - astronomy. But all it takes is cocky sophomore Brax Jenkins and an accidental collision with a football, to throw her entire year off course.

A quick-tempered Southie who escaped the inner city streets of Boston to pitch for Winston, Brax is known to play way more fields than just the baseball diamond. So, when his name is drawn to take part in his fraternity's hazing dare, Brax eagerly accepts the mission to take Olivia's virginity. But he doesn't plan on falling hard for the sweet and sassy Texas girl who sees right through his bad-boy persona.

As Olivia and Brax battle their feelings for each other, echoes of the past year begin to surface. A boy who once turned Olivia's whole world upside down reappears, and "harmless" pranks wreak havoc. Pretty soon the aspiring astronomer is on the verge of revealing her most difficult, heartbreaking secret. All the while, Brax must wrestle with the irrevocable dare, and Olivia struggles against all logic as she does the one thing only a stupid girl would do: fall in love.

One of my favorite songs in high school was "Stupid Girl" by Garbage, so the title and the cover of this book called my name. I HAD to read it!! The synopsis definitely drew me in - I wanted to know how Brax's dare was going to play out, and Olivia sounded like a super smart girl. Astronomy is not an easy subject - I took an intro class for an elective thinking it's a fascinating subject (and it is), but I had quickly drop it. The class was over my head. Stupid Girl is about a girl who is anything but stupid, trust me.

Olivia Beaumont has lost trust in people, especially guys, after what her high school boyfriend did to her during her junior year. After spending a hellish senior year of high school, she moves a few hours away to college for a fresh start where no one knows her or anything about her past. There at college she meets Brax, not even ten minutes after arriving!

I loved the way Brax called her Gracie (Grace is her middle name). While Olivia is a Texan, Brax is from Boston, and I liked how she teased him about his accent. He had a way of disarming her and slowly began crumbling the walls she had built up. I'm not sure why, but he felt protective of her. Though my first inclination was to roll my eyes when he thought about how different she is from all the other girls, he's right. She isn't like other girls at all. That's why I could really relate with her. I know what it's like to want to make a fresh start and to want to go to college to learn, not party.

Olivia's roommate, Tessa, is as high energy as a tornado - she's fun to be around, and I loved how well she and Olivia connected right away. Girls can be bitchy to one another, so it was awesome that Olivia made a friend. While Tessa can be immature at times, she makes it clear that she'll always be in Olivia's corner, and I loved her for that. Her warnings to Olivia to stay away from Brax are so strong I wondered if SHE had personal experience with him...

Overall, I loved Stupid Girl and couldn't get enough of Brax and Olivia's banter. Both of them made me laugh more than once. I just enjoyed reading about them so much. When they weren't together, I counted the minutes until they were again. Stupid Girl flew by for me - I read it in one sitting and had no intention of putting it down. I'm definitely reading the next book, Stupid Boy, and highly recommend this series if you're a fan of new adult romance with a lot of heart and wit.

My Rating:

Coming in 2015 - Stupid Boy

National bestselling author Cindy Miles writes edgy romance, ranging from contemporary love stories to sexy paranormals. A native of southern coastal Georgia, she loves reading (naturally), baking swoon-worthy desserts, traveling abroad, yoga, and classic rock. The cover for her upcoming New Adult romance, STUPID GIRL, was featured on USA Today's Happily Ever After blog. In the novel, a volatile mix of bad boys, sassy smart girls, dark secrets, and red-hot romance add up to one wild ride through college.