Review – Ain’t Misbehaving by Jennifer Greene

Publisher: Carina Press
Publish Date: 11/15/10
How I got this book: NetGalley

Mitch Cochran had been kept from enjoying life to its fullest, but he’s now ready for all love has to offer. He wants much more than just a casual encounter, though. He’s looking for love, and Kay Sanders is the real thing. But when he learns she’s a sex ed teacher, Mitch worries that he’ll be unable to live up to the expectations of this very passionate woman.

Kay can tell Mitch is hiding something, and the less he volunteers about his past, the more intrigued she becomes. Despite kisses that could tempt Kay to go against her own rule of no sex without commitment, Mitch ends each date like the perfect gentleman. Kay soon realizes that if she wants to move their budding relationship to the next level, she’s going to have to take matters into her own hands…

Blurb from Goodreads

Mitch spends every other weekend at the hospital, trying to bring cheer to the kids that are stuck in the hospital all alone. It’s there that he meets Kay, and immediately upon setting his eyes on her, he knows that he wants her all to himself. But Mitch is scared, partly because of the illness he had as a teen, and partly because of his lack of experience in the bedroom. When he finds out Kay is a sex ed teacher, that insecurity blows up even more.

After Kay gets kissed into a puddle of goo, she knows that she wants to know more and more about Mitch, but the more he deflects questions about himself and pulls away from her, the more intrigued she is about him. As Mitch does his best to court her properly, hoping she will fall in love with him, she does. But will miscommunications and misunderstandings be enough to break the fragile bond these two have begun to build?

I totally felt for Kay throughout this whole story, somewhat frustrated with Mitch and his stubbornness. I constantly felt like he was holding himself back from both Kay and himself. There were times I wanted to yell at him to open up and just talk to her dang it. Then maybe they wouldn’t have had to go through such heartache.

When I first got this book, I didn’t realize that it was a re-release of Greene’s, but while reading through the story, it was easy for me to tell that it was an older book. Not that it made a huge difference, I just wish that the main characters would have talked to each other, instead of keeping secrets and making assumptions.

That being said, I really enjoyed the way that Mitch was able to really make the best out of life, especially given the nature of the illness that stole his teen and early adult years. It was nice to see that he was able to make something of his life, give back to the kids at the hospital, and really take a chance at love. Like wise, Kay was also someone who had to life through heart break at the hands of an illness, watching her sister fight a terminal illness her whole life as well. Because of that, she really seemed to life her life to the fullest everyday, and was really happy with the way things were going.

The one thing I really enjoyed about this book was the way that Mitch courted Kay. The different dates that he took her on, the different places he took her to,  it was all very romantic. I felt like Mitch was, at times, Kay’s real prince charming. He did everything he could to woo her and make her fall in love, and I can see just how easily she fell for him.

All in all, I give Ain’t Misbehaving a C.