CHEATER (Curious Liaisons #1)

CHEATER                                       RACHEL VAN DYKEN

Lucas Thorn wasn’t born a cheater. All it took was a single moment—say, a certain disastrous incident on the night before his wedding—and boom. Reputation destroyed forever and always. So now he owns it. He has a lady friend for every night of the week (except Sundays—God’s day and all), and his rules are simple: No commitments. No exceptions.

But a certain smart-mouthed, strawberry blonde vixen is about to blow that all to hell.

Avery Black has never forgiven Lucas for cheating on her sister. And suddenly being forced to work with him is pretty much a nightmare on steroids. Of course, it does afford her the opportunity to make his life as difficult as possible. But no good revenge scheme comes without payback. Because he didn’t become the Lucas Thorn without learning a few things about women.

Now Avery’s lust for vengeance has turned into, well, lust. And if Lucas stops cheating, it’s definitely not because he’s falling in love…

MY REVIEW:

     Wow, is all I can say.  Can there really be guys like this?  Well, I guess so if she’s writing a book about them and bet there are women like this too.  Makes me want to put bubble wrap around my daughter though.

     What was sad was when Lucas Thorn first catches sight of Avery Black he goes down memory lane.  The times he comforted her with scraped knees, a boyfriend who made her cry, and times she needed him.  Most of all the one day he disappointed her and he stopped being her knight and shining armor.

     For Avery, though her thoughts were when she saw him though were “Oh Hell No!”  She was confronted with the hero and crush who had disappointed her.  You see Lucas and his family were friends with her family back home.  He had gone to school with her older sisters.  He was the star quarterback and her sister Kayla was the cheerleader he was engaged to until that ill-fated night.

     The night before their wedding Lucas had gotten extremely drunk and had ended up in the wrong sister’s bedroom.  It was Brook’s, not Kayla’s and before his brain could fully grasp that fact as she spoke he was caught.  Then all hell broke loose.

     He will never forget the look of hurt mixed with anger Avery had in her eyes as he left their house for the last time.  There was a ten-year difference between Avery and himself but they had been friends.  He had enjoyed her energy, her joy for life, her animated stories about her day at school, and well really just Avery. 

     When he arrives at work one morning when he had just been dumped by one of his “Days of the Week Girls” he was surprised to find a sexy woman standing at his desk.  Her back was to him and all he could see was her backend.  But he knew she had to look great.  When she turns around she was because it was “Avery Bug” but she was no girl she was “All Woman.”  Damn, she looked and he was doomed because she was to be his intern for the next sixteen weeks.

     They end up having words over the women he chooses to keep one each day of the week except Sundays, for you know that is God’s day and of course his sister’s.  She says he is still cheating he says he’s not because they all know about each other and accept it.  

     On his lunch hour, he replaced his Friday when royally pissed off Avery and for the first time made him feel guilty about his activity.  Especially, at work and with Avery there.  His last four years of living what he thought was the great life of free, no strings, and no feelings attached to sex were over.  Because the girl he saw turn into a woman has now captured his attention and it’s making him face past truths, feelings, and fears.

     I love the characters in this book.  Not the actions so much but the way they were written you couldn’t help but enjoy the story of what it was about.  There were all flawed in one way or another and they owned it.  Which, was an interesting concept.  The problem they had was how to go about fixing it.

     That’s where the comedy of their lives comes through.  That’s when you realize just because you want to love someone it may not be enough to lie your way through a situation to make it better.  It may, in the end, make it so much of the time worse than when you started.

     In the case of Lucas, his love for Avery four years earlier had set in motion a cause and effect that caused them both heartache.  Their banter made the story and her busting his chops about being a cheater because he has girls six days a week was funny.  Not to mention you realize why they are a little odd because their family is eccentric beyond words but in a funny well-meaning way.  Their friends Austin and Thatch at the party at Lucas’s parents were too funny.

     See how this all turns out for this comedy of errors when she comes to work for his old crush she has on her, not so shiny knight.  I can't believe I missed out on Cheaters Regret, Dang It!  I was declined!  I give this: 5 stars.  Provided by netgalley.com.  Follow us at www.1rad-readerreviews.com.