One Night Scandal by Elle Kennedy

I’ve been a long time fan of Elle Kennedy. I adored Out of Uniform series and her Welcome to Paradise series. So, I was ridiculously excited to hear that Elle was writing a new novella series for Entangled Publishing’s Brazen imprint. I was given an Advanced Reader Copy of the second book in the series, One Night Scandal, from Entangled Publishing under the condition that I give a completely honest review of the book on my blog and Amazon.

Book Blurb: 
Ex-fighter Reed Miller has been secretly lusting over his best friend’s girl for months, but he refuses to jeopardize a friendship over a woman—especially one who doesn’t like him all that much. Now that Darcy’s on the market again, it’s even more imperative to stick to his strict hands-off policy. But the sizzling attraction between them is too powerful to ignore, and once he’s had a taste of her…all bets are off.

Darcy Grant is tired of walking the straight and narrow path. She’s on the hunt for passion, and there’s no denying Reed is just the man to give it to her. Although she has no interest in dating a bad boy, and certainly not her ex’s best friend, it’s impossible not to melt beneath Reed’s skillful touch. Now it’s just a matter of setting a few ground rules—and hoping her rule-breaking, sweet-talking bad boy agrees to follow them. But if she lets Reed into her bed, does she stand a chance of keeping him out of her heart?

Review: 
I generally don’t like to post negative reviews on my blog, however I also believe in being completely honest in my reviews. And I have to say, for the first time ever, I was disappointed in an Elle Kennedy book.  

Elle’s books are fantastic reads, filled with rough and tumble alpha males, strong but sassy female characters, a great supporting cast of people you’d want to spend a long summer with, fantastic dialogue and beyond erotic sex scenes. Both Brazen and Elle Kennedy have a history of publishing fast, quick but incredibly steamy books…but One Night of Scandal is lacklustre.  

The plot is one of the major problems. It feels slapdash and vague. The essential plot is that Reed wants Darcy but thinks he can’t have her because she’s his best friend’s ex. To spice that up, there’s a little bit of an intrigue plot thrown in, with Reed trying to find out who is selling drugs in his club, but it feels very much like an afterthought. 

Reed and Darcy have no chemistry. I didn’t like either of them at all and I couldn’t relate to them on any level. Moreover, I didn’t feel like they liked each other even a little bit, and there was absolutely no hint of this fierce sexual chemistry that was suggested in the book blurb. The sex scenes felt forced, as did the dialogue. And what’s more, the dialogue was cheesy and stiff. 

I also read the first book of this series and was similarly disappointed. I’m not sure if it’s the fact that Elle is known for writing novellas, but this series is lacking the fantastic Elle Kennedy heat that is in every one of her other books.