HONEYTRAP - Crystal Green
Perfect 10
Aidan Falls Series , Book 1
InterMix Books
ISBN: 9780698184251
February 2015
New Adult eBook

Aiden Fall, Texas - The Present

Shelby Carson has had to return to Aiden Falls for summer break after a devastating breakup with Rex Alvarez, Aiden Fall's quarterback hero and now the freshman third string quarterback at Texas University. She caught him cheating with Lana Peyton. The emotional turmoil felt over the situation cost Shelby her scholarship, and she is unsure of her future. However much she does not want to face the community's football fans and Rex's particular set of spiteful friends and followers, she wants to help her mother at her struggling café. She is not Rex's only rejected girlfriend in Aidan Falls, as her classmate and the girl Rex took up with after her, Jadyn Dandritch, is receiving the same treatment from locals.

The only child of a single mother, Shelby has no idea who her father is. Her mom refuses to talk about getting pregnant at sixteen, but Shelby has no doubt her mother loves her and would do anything for her. Shelby's good friend Evie stands by her, forces her out of her hiding zone, and makes her start engaging in being herself again despite the slut and bitch insults regularly hurled at her by Rex's friends. When another captivating local bad boy, Micah Wyatt, makes a bet that he can nail Shelby that summer and comes sniffing around her, Shelby is prepared to resist the persistent charmer. That becomes increasingly difficult as she gets to know Micah better.

Micah shows his interest in Shelby when she takes her mother's lawnmower into his cousins' repair shop where he works. While Shelby wants to find her father, Micah wishes he never had to see his father again. His father's abuse and addictions have affected Micah's perception of himself. As his attraction to Shelby grows, the more he becomes aware he is undeserving of her. He knows she will leave Aiden Falls at the end of summer, so that gives him only this summer to make something happen.

HONEYTRAP is a deeply emotional story examining both good and shattered relationships of all types and assuming adulthood in a judgmental society. Lingering feelings for Rex hurt Shelby, while his behavior disgusts her, but the town judges her actions not his. Rex also makes her distrust her judgment where men are concerned, but watching Micah, she begins to change her mind. This is an excellent novel about friendship, love, standing up for yourself, and being willing to change. It contains several explicit sexual encounters. The well-drawn main and secondary characters, their situations, the sometimes sassy but believable dialogue, and the outcomes are sure to keep readers hooked, earning HONEYTRAP a Perfect 10.

Robin Lee