Bad Boys After Dark: Brett
by Melissa Foster
Release Date: March 21, 2018
Book #4 in the Bad Boys After Dark series
Part of the larger Love in Bloom series
Number of Pages: 306
Contemporary Romance
Ages 15 and up
CW: grief, death of a sibling,
homophobic language, misogyny
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Billionaire security expert Brett Bad has had his eye on his brother’s gorgeous legal assistant, Sophie Roberts, for years. He wants nothing more from her than a single night between the sheets to satisfy his desires. But Sophie is a white-picket-fence girl, and she’s turned him down more times than he cares to count.
Sophie is all about forever kisses and happily ever afters. But she can’t deny her attraction to Brett, as enticed by his bad-boy behavior as she is by his devastating looks and his painful past, which she’d like to help heal.
When Sophie’s friend urges her to throw caution to the wind, Sophie leaves the door to her heart ajar—and Brett charges in. But this Bad boy doesn’t know a thing about romance and has no interest in forever, forcing Sophie to make her toughest decision yet—follow her heart or protect it?
Finally, Brett and Sophie give in and get busy. Brett has always heavily flirted with Sophie, often bordering on being inappropriate in my opinion, but it was obvious that Sophie returned his interest. She was just too smart to get caught up with a player. To be fair to Brett, although he wanted Sophie he also knew he couldn’t be the man that she wanted so he never pressed too hard.
Sometimes the switch just gets flipped. Brett found himself not being able to continue his player ways because all he could think about was Sophie. Doesn’t help that she is good friends with the significant others of his brothers as well as works for one of his brothers, so she’s always around. They get along great, but he can no longer deny the attraction runs deeper than looks and libido. I was worried he’d have a lot of regression in this book, like two steps forward and one step back. There was some of that since Brett was very confused by his feelings. While Sophie gave him space to figure things out, she also refused to be a booty call or an afterthought. She jumped in with both feet, but when Brett ran hot and cold she called him on it and demanded clarification before getting further involved. Once Brett realized he was all in…he was ALL IN.
This story is mostly a story about Brett’s growth. There were a lot of things holding him back that stemmed from his sister’s death and the fallout from that. He’s finally, all these years later, picking up the pieces and understanding that he doesn’t have to be that angry kid anymore. In fact, he’s already not that angry kid. He’s always careful with Sophie and wants to understand when he makes mistakes and how to better himself. He’s super romantic and wonderful with Sophie’s friends and family.
Truth be told, I liked this book but it was a bit slow once Brett went all in. While I didn’t want him to jerk Sophie around, it almost felt as though they were coasting after that. I’m glad Brett worked through his issues and found his story to be emotional and beautiful, but nothing was keeping me hooked after a certain point.
This series started very strong, so it’s a bummer it ended on a book that was just okay. At least, even with the so-so storyline, the characters in this series are all fantastic.
3 stars
All In Good Time 