A review by tuvasunnelid
Temptation by Ivy Smoak

lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

The first thing I want to say is that I am so confused over the fact that it was totally ignored that Tyler basically tried to rape penny. Like he was almost successful. He was drunk and didn’t stop. Then after this, he said sorry and then everything was over. He was painted as the good choice over James despite trying to RAPE her. I just can’t get over that.

I thought the plot was good, however, the execution was a little bit off. What put me off the writing. It was very stilted and it had no finesse. It’s very hard to explain, but it just feels like the writing was very mediocre and could’ve needed an editor. How the scenes were laid up and described made it hard to get into the story. 

I did really like James. This might be because I’ve read a lot of dark romances lately, but I was pleasantly surprised by him being so nice. I feel like kindness in bookmen is grossly underestimated. I also felt like his actions were very logical and reasonable. He seemed like a great boyfriend to Penny and brought her out of her shell which was needed. 

I did not like Penny as much. The main reason for that is that some of her decision-making was very questionable. She made a lot of rash decisions without a second thought which hurt the people around her. I also thought she treated James quite badly sometimes due to these unnecessary misunderstandings. I felt a little bit bad about how she treated Tyler, but then again not really because he tried to rape her. The confusing part about that is that Tyler from the start of the book and the end of the book did not feel like the same person. Like that one act in the beginning of the book was not consistent with the character he was in the rest of the book.