Publisher: Penguin Intermix
Publish Date: Out Now
How I got this book: eARC from NetGalley
Reviewer: MinnChica
Have you ever had a boyfriend cheat on you? Did you call him out on it, even if he’s the hometown hero? I did and managed to get my heart broken in the process…
Now, back home in Aidan Falls for the summer, all I want to do is keep my head down until next semester starts—a hard prospect when my ex, his ex, and the whole damn town can’t seem to let go of the past.
And that’s not even mentioning Micah Wyatt, the ludicrously hot new guy who seems to know all about my past, and he isn’t shy about wanting to trap me in a bet he’s made to get the town pariah—aka me—under the sheets.
I know Micah is bad news, but that doesn’t make him any easier to resist. After all, I’ve had a taste of bad before, and I’m not sure I want to go back to being the good girl…
*Blurb from Goodreads*
I really liked this blurb, so I was extra bummed when the book didn’t live up to my expectations.
Shelby is home for the summer, and keeping her distance from her ex is her main priority. She wants to keep a low profile, help her mom out at the restaurant, and get back to school. Having a summer fling with the new town bad-boy, Micah is sure to get people talking, and that’s the last thing Shelby wants, despite how much she enjoys his kisses.
Micah almost always gets what he wants, and the moment he lays eyes on Shelby, he knows he wants her. She’s everything he isn’t, good and sweet and kind. He wants not only to get in her bed, but to share a piece of her heart. Winning her over is going to be one of the hardest things he’s ever had to do. So will keeping her.
I thought this was going to be a fast-paced NA book that I could glom onto and really fall in love with. Instead, I felt as if it moved so slow. Maybe it was my lack of connection to the characters and the overall plot, but I found the book to be somewhat boring and difficult to get through.
Shelby and Micah are interesting character, but they are also a tad bit frustrating. Shelby is so concerned about what everyone thinks about her that she lets it rule her life. She is scared to go out to her favorite places, talk to people, even hang out at the beach. What the townsfolk think of her drives her every decision, and that annoyed me to no end. Not just because she struggled to stand up for herself (hey, we all make mistakes), but because she left everyone walk all over her time and time again.
While I liked that Micah didn’t care at all what people thought, he sometimes took it to the opposite extreme as Shelby. Thankfully, he was totally upfront and honest about his bad-boy intentions, but to me, he came across as a dick who was trying too hard not to be. There was just something about him that I didn’t like and couldn’t get behind.
Given my issues with the hero and heroine, it’s no surprise that the romance didn’t really work for me either. They hid their attraction and relationship, and it felt like they were, again, letting everyone in town dictate what they could and couldn’t do. It was frustrating to read.
I think my biggest issue with this book is the lack of maturity with the vast majority of characters. Shelby’s ex and his merry band of brothers were all immature a-holes who felt like 12 year old boys instead of college aged guys. They were douches to the extreme, and I hated every last one of them. It was a little bit ridiculous.
All in all, I was hoping this book would turn out to be another NA favorite of mine, but it fell short. I wasn’t a fan of any of the characters in the book, and because of that I struggled to connect with the story as a whole.
I give Honeytrap a D-
I tried to read this one but the issues you had were similar to mine so I quit it. I also thought the whole “honeytrap” conflict was ridiculous. I expected something major due to the empathis placed on it. Once it was revealed I was like, “Huh? All that drama for THAT?”