Review: Tease by Sophie Jordan

Tease (The Ivy Chronicles #2)
   by: Sophie Jordan

Publication Date: May 27, 2014
Publisher: William Morrow
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Age Group: New Adult
Source: e-ARC provided via Edelweiss and the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Page Count: 320 pages
Order Links: Amazon | B&N
My Rating: 4/5 stars

What happens when a girl who always calls the shots meets a guy who's too wild for even her?

A born flirt and good-time party girl, Emerson has never had a problem finding a willing guy. She's always chosen her hookups carefully, and she's never broken her three cardinal rules:

Never let them see the real you.
Never fall in love.
Always leave them begging for more.

Then Shaw comes along. A hottie from the wrong side of the tracks, he's immune to her flirtatious banter and come-hither smile. After rescuing her from a disastrous night at a biker bar, he doesn't even try to take her to bed—he calls her a tease and sends her home instead. Unable to resist a challenge, or forget the sexy, dark-eyed, bad-boy biker, she vows to bring him to his knees.

But instead of making Shaw beg, Emerson finds herself craving him. For the first time in her life, she's throwing out her rule book. Suddenly, she's the one panting for a guy she can't control—a guy who won't settle for anything less than the real Emerson and who forces her to do things she's never imagined, including facing a past she thought she'd buried.

A guy who just might leave her wanting more. . .

 

 

After having read and loved the first book in the series, Foreplay, I couldn't wait to continue the series! I really like Sophie's writing style and she does a great job of developing relationships between her main characters. I didn't quite like Tease as much as Foreplay, but I did enjoy watching party girl Emerson snag herself a man!

 

Pacing: Emerson and Shaw's relationship felt well-paced and certainly not too rushed. He helps Emerson out of a less than desirable situation, thus igniting an attraction that neither one are strong enough to deny.

 

Storyline: Emerson has always been known as a party girl. Going out on the weekends and hooking up is her MO and everyone at school knows it. Now that her best friends both have boyfriends, she is definitely feeling the sting of loneliness. However, as lonely as she is, she thinks falling in love is a loss of control and Emerson doesn't lose control. Meeting Shaw throws her off balance, as she is attracted to him. Shaw seems to be popping up wherever she is lately, as he went to high school with Reece, Pepper's boyfriend. Emerson isn't looking for more with anyone, but Shaw isn't easily deterred....

 

Characters: Emerson carries some demons from her past, which in turn dictate a lot of her actions in the present. I felt for her, as I can't imagine the betrayal she felt from her the person she trusted most of all. Because her mother did not believe her when she came to her, their relationship is severely strained. However, until Emerson lets go of the past and in turn her fears, she will continue down the same path as she is now. Shaw plays a large role in helping negate this, but she does not make it easy for him. She plays the part of a party girl and makes it look like she's easy, but she's always been in control of her actions and her environment. Shaw crashes into her life and will not give up on getting her to admit she feels something for him too.

 

I really liked Shaw. He has just gotten back from being deployed in the Marines and has witnessed the death of his cousin. He has tended to keep to himself, which is natural after feeling like he wasn't able to protect his cousin. Breaking the news to his cousin, Beth, about her brother was not easy and now there is a tension between them as well.

 

The only reason he ended up at Maisie's bar is to scout for prospective clients. Maisie's is a biker bar and Shaw wants to open his own shop for custom bikes. He sees Emerson and instantly knows she doesn't belong there. I like how chivalrous Shaw is. He didn't have to help Emerson, especially after how she behaved, and yet he did. He sees through the 'princess' act and recognizes that she has no one else and still helps her. She doesn't want to feel for him, but she does- he's persistent and doesn't give up on her easily.

 

We get to see Reece, Pepper, and Georgia again in this book! I loved seeing Reece and Pepper so happy together. Pepper and Georgia are great friends to Emerson and I'm glad Jordan put such a focus on that friendship. I'm really looking forward to Georgia's story, it will be interesting to see how she tries to shed her good girl image to spice things up!

 

Final Thoughts: While I enjoyed this, I do feel a few things could have been expanded upon a bit more. I didn't feel like I got to know Shaw quite as well as I did Emerson, and I would have liked a bit more from him. I also feel the storyline with his cousin, Beth, didn't get quite resolved. We saw Emerson speak to her about Shaw, but we don't really know if anything came of it.

 

I do like that we got to see Shaw finally break down Emerson's walls and I give him mad props for being as persistent as he was. Most guys would've abandoned that chase way before. They have delicious sexual tension and Jordan knows her way around a good love scene! This isn't an overly original storyline by any means and that might bother some people who are getting burned out on New Adult contemps, but for me, Jordan's writing is just that engaging and I can't wait for the next book in the series!