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A review by messing_with_book
Boyfriend Bargain by Ilsa Madden-Mills
3.0
I love the way [a:Ilsa Madden-Mills|7059622|Ilsa Madden-Mills|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1484531571p2/7059622.jpg] manages to balance tragic/complicated stories with tender, funny and sensual love stories, and I really enjoy reading Sugar & Zack but some aspects towards the end of the book left me with mixed feelings about Zack's attitude, and even with that I'm dying to read more of this series, especially from Eric because his character stole my heart immediately.
Sugar was a character that I liked a lot, without a doubt she is a girl who has had a VERY complicated life due to her parents' relationship, something that together with the betrayal of her ex-boyfriend Bennet has generated some insecurities in her, plus, Sugar lives in a place that doesn't feel like home and the icing on the cake is the possibility of losing her dream of studying law at a specific school. This girl broke my heart a lot: from the situations she lives, her past, a little of her relationship with Zack and mainly because of her desire to prove her worth, but I think she had incredible growth throughout of the book, thanks in part to her strength, courage and desire to excel, but also to the constant support of Mara, Poppie, Taylor and even Julia.
Zack was also a very interesting character, I think in part he is a bit more complicated than Sugar: he is the golden boy of Hawthorne University, the captain and star of the hockey team, he has the reputation of a womanizer and there are a lot of rumors about his conquests and sex life, but what people don't know is the demons from his past, and personal life, that Zack has to face, that make him feel unworthy of the good that happens to him and that they're jeopardizing his career in the sport he loves. And I have to say that I liked Zack a lot, I loved reading him falling in love with Sugar, I think I could say that he was the first to fall but I'm not so sure, it was very nice to read him to discover more about her, wanting to protect her and support her in the complicated moments and I LOVED his fun and sensual side, what I definitely didn't like at all was the way his character dealt with the situation when Sugar found out the truth about their relationship, I think he never accept his share of responsibility for their problems and that he even tried to deflect what happened between the two by saying that "Sugar was not ready to acknowledge her feelings", I sincerely believe that this should have been handled in a better way and it is my biggest -but- with the character, what I really liked was the way in which Ilsa handled all his problem with anxiety from the beginning of the book and until the end.
One of the things that I liked the most about the love story of Sugar & Zack was that their relationship did NOT start with the fake relationship but much earlier, in a way not so spontaneous, but very cute & sensual, as I already said I LOVED that Zack is immediately attracted to Sugar, and I think that as a reader I could tell that he really feels attracted to his personality, the details that she has with him and how much fun he has when he is with her, and not because of what Sugar believes towards the end of the book, although it seems that the relationship and attraction between these two is only defined by its sexual component, the truth is that it was very easy for me to realize that they share a real connection, in which Zack confides in Sugar the darkest parts of his personality, his insecurities and things that nobody knows about him, in the same way Sugar lets her vulnerability show with him, and they both give each other a chance to really get to know each other. As I said, there were certain things that I didn't like very much, but I think that the end of this story was very nice for the characters.
Sugar was a character that I liked a lot, without a doubt she is a girl who has had a VERY complicated life due to her parents' relationship, something that together with the betrayal of her ex-boyfriend Bennet has generated some insecurities in her, plus, Sugar lives in a place that doesn't feel like home and the icing on the cake is the possibility of losing her dream of studying law at a specific school. This girl broke my heart a lot: from the situations she lives, her past, a little of her relationship with Zack and mainly because of her desire to prove her worth, but I think she had incredible growth throughout of the book, thanks in part to her strength, courage and desire to excel, but also to the constant support of Mara, Poppie, Taylor and even Julia.
Zack was also a very interesting character, I think in part he is a bit more complicated than Sugar: he is the golden boy of Hawthorne University, the captain and star of the hockey team, he has the reputation of a womanizer and there are a lot of rumors about his conquests and sex life, but what people don't know is the demons from his past, and personal life, that Zack has to face, that make him feel unworthy of the good that happens to him and that they're jeopardizing his career in the sport he loves. And I have to say that I liked Zack a lot, I loved reading him falling in love with Sugar, I think I could say that he was the first to fall but I'm not so sure, it was very nice to read him to discover more about her, wanting to protect her and support her in the complicated moments and I LOVED his fun and sensual side, what I definitely didn't like at all was the way his character dealt with the situation when Sugar found out the truth about their relationship, I think he never accept his share of responsibility for their problems and that he even tried to deflect what happened between the two by saying that "Sugar was not ready to acknowledge her feelings", I sincerely believe that this should have been handled in a better way and it is my biggest -but- with the character, what I really liked was the way in which Ilsa handled all his problem with anxiety from the beginning of the book and until the end.
One of the things that I liked the most about the love story of Sugar & Zack was that their relationship did NOT start with the fake relationship but much earlier, in a way not so spontaneous, but very cute & sensual, as I already said I LOVED that Zack is immediately attracted to Sugar, and I think that as a reader I could tell that he really feels attracted to his personality, the details that she has with him and how much fun he has when he is with her, and not because of what Sugar believes towards the end of the book, although it seems that the relationship and attraction between these two is only defined by its sexual component, the truth is that it was very easy for me to realize that they share a real connection, in which Zack confides in Sugar the darkest parts of his personality, his insecurities and things that nobody knows about him, in the same way Sugar lets her vulnerability show with him, and they both give each other a chance to really get to know each other. As I said, there were certain things that I didn't like very much, but I think that the end of this story was very nice for the characters.