Title: Bad Boyfriend
Series: Bad in Baltimore 02
Author: K.A. Mitchell
Narrator: Chet Daniel
Genre: Contemporary
Length: 6 hours, 34 minutes
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (3rd July 2018)
Heat Level: Explicit
Heart Rating: 💖💖💖💖 4 Hearts
Reviewer: Prime
Blurb: Causing trouble has never been more fun.
Eli Wright doesn’t follow anyone’s rules. When he was 17, his parents threw him out of the house for being gay. He’s been making his own way for the past five years and he’s not about to change himself for anyone’s expectations. For now, romance can wait. There are plenty of hot guys to keep him entertained until he finds someone special.
Quinn Maloney kept the peace and his closeted boyfriend’s secrets for 10 years. One morning he got a hell of a wake-up along with his coffee. Not only did the boyfriend cheat on him, but he’s marrying the girl he knocked up. Inviting Quinn to the baby’s baptism is the last straw. Quinn’s had enough of gritting his teeth to play nice. His former boyfriend is in for a rude awak-ening, because Quinn’s not going to sit quietly on the sidelines. In fact, he has the perfect scheme, and he just needs to convince the much younger, eyeliner-wearing guy who winks at him in a bar to help him out.
Eli’s deception is a little too good, and soon he has everyone believing they’re madly in love. In fact, he’s almost got Quinn believing it himself….
Purchase Link: Audible US | Audible UK | Amazon US | Amazon UK
Review: Bad Boyfriend is the second book in KA Mitchell’s series Bad in Baltimore. This is only my second experience with both the author and the audio narrator, after recently listening to the audio of book one. Although this is the second book in the series I do not think that it is vital to read the previous book and works well as a standalone novel.
So firstly, the narration. Much like book one I was left very impressed by the narration by Chet Daniel. He is certainly a narrator that I will look forward to hearing more from. I found myself easily getting lost in the narration and the characters and the voices given to the characters. Also, much like book one, the narration was easily the highlight of the book.
I must admit, that I enjoyed this second book better than the first book. I think that the MCs were much more likable in this story and their outlandish scheme was much easier to swallow. The main thing that I didn’t gel with in this book was the amount of sex scenes. I felt that there were a number of random sex scenes that didn’t really help to bring the plot forward, when really in some instances a few paragraphs of conversation would have sufficed. But if you like the sex scenes, more power to you and you’ll probably find a lot more enjoyment in this book.
The story starts with Eli, who is a photographer for Nate from book one. Eli Wright has never been one to follow rules and he isn’t shy to be himself. He knows that there is nothing worth him not ever being his true self. He eventually wants love but for now he isn’t on the look out for Mr Right.
Quinn Maloney is quite the opposite. He lived in the closet for ten years to absolutely everyone, despite being best friends with his ex’s family. His ex was too scared of being himself. Quinn’s world is shattered when he is not only dumped, but he finds out that his cheating ex has got a woman pregnant and “is doing the right thing and marrying her”. That sucks, but what is more fucked up is how his ex manipulates Quinn and keeps him captive despite not being together any more. So when he is invited to be godfather to the ex’s kid, he proposes his hook-up, Eli, to join him and pretend to be his boyfriend. Not only that, Quinn wants Eli to go all out with his act. Eli figures that will be fun but goes in blind without a lot of the facts. This is the start of a roller coaster that ignites the spark of attraction between the guys.
I am aware that I am using the word outlandish a lot to explain the scenario concocted by the MCs in this story, but it the best I got at the moment. Quinn has a really strange and twisted relationship with his ex, while he considers the ex’s family to be his closest friends and allies. I understand that bit, I’ve seen in real life a couple instances where despite the couple separating they are still friends with the full disclosure of everyone else/new spouses. Strangely enough it works. In this case it was the whole thing of Quinn being dragged into the wedding party and being the godfather to his ex’s kid. That was just weird, but I went with it mostly because I really liked both Eli and Quinn and thought that they were well matched.
I recommend this book to people that like 1) lots of sex, and, 2) two guys pretending to be in love because they’ve concocted an outlandish scenario.