Badass Bloggettes: **** REVIEW **** Accidentally On Purpose by L.D. Davis

Emmy thinks her boss Kyle Sterling of Sterling Corporations is a jerk.

So, she sleeps with him.

Emmy tries to put the mistake behind her, but then finds herself snowed in with Kyle. As the snow builds, so does the heat in the house between the two. The problem is that Kyle has a steady girlfriend that he is unwilling to break up with. Emmy cuts Kyle off and starts dating Luke. Even as their relationship takes off, Emmy is finding Kyle hard to shake. He is blatant in his feelings and desires for Emmy, putting her in an awkward situation. She tries hard to resist Kyle, but deep down inside Emmy's motives are shady. When Emmy succumbs to her hidden feelings for Kyle without setting Luke free, devastating consequences ensue.

In addition to her two men, Emmy daydreams about doing violent things to her loud mouthed, opinionated mother.

With some humor and sarcasm, and of course, some tequila, Emmy's world will flip upside down as she deals with the results of "accidentally on purpose" falling for two men at once.

Even when people I trusted highly recommended it I avoided Accidentally On Purpose for a long time. I stayed away mainly because I heard the plot was cheating and triangles. I can’t justify cheating and felt why waste my reading time on a book that will have fire shooting out of my head. Well the book went on sale and I was invited to a buddy read so I gave in. I found AOP is a really good story.

There is nothing like a book that grabs the reader right from the beginning. You can’t come up with any good excuses to walk away from reading and soon the characters become part of your circle of fictitious friends. Accidentally On Purpose grabbed me from the start.

Emmy has a one night stand with her boss and ogre Kyle Sterling. Unfortunately the one night stand turns into multiple nights. Kyle has a girlfriend and he isn’t going to leave her. He knows Emmy loves him and Kyle claims to love Emmy. Their relationship hot in so many ways but it is also hopeless.

Emmy meets Luke, a really good guy, who wants a real relationship. Emmy wants to end her miserable relationship with Kyle and Luke is the perfect person who can help her move on but she doesn’t completely. Emmy knows Kyle is trouble so why can’t she let go him? As usually happens with secrets they eventually come out in the open and people get hurt.

"It happened accidentally on purpose-my heart accidentally started loving two men, but I purposely (and stupidly) acted on it instead of walking away from one of them."

Emmy is interesting and not your typical heroine. She is a contradiction. She is smart, funny and loyal but she also has flaws. Sometimes it is hard to see how she will get herself together so she can live a normal and happy life. In her professional life she is at the top of her game. She gets the job done and people enjoy working for her. In her personal life she is a mess. She has family issues (I won’t even go there but trust me when I say her mother drove me up a wall) that make her feel inadequate and too many men.

Needless to say it gets ugly in so many ways. As much as I wanted to hate Emmy I couldn’t. Deep down she is a good person. She has a lot to work through. She needs to grow and figure out who she really is and what she really wants in life.

In the beginning I found myself rooting for Kyle. I wanted him to grow a pair and be the man that Emmy needs. However, before too long I switched allegiances. “That’s a load of crap Kyle Sterling. You make choices in life. You can choose to be a dick, or not be a dick.” I prayed that Emmy would open her eyes and see that Luke is the man she with whom she could build a good life.

The story spans several years however the transition in time flows smoothly. It takes this time for Emmy to get her head on straight. As much as she hurts others she hurts herself more. Trust me when I say there are times that the reader wants to slap each one of these three characters. Sometimes you will want to tell them to grow up and sometimes you want to yell go to hell. There are also times that you will cry along with them and feel their pain.

What I Like:

The character development: These characters are so complex with so many layers. They can be funny or loving, mean or spiteful; you know all the same characteristics we find in real people. We learn something new on each page. It is a good book when the author peels back the layers to let us see into the mind and heart of the people in the story. The story is told from Emmy’s point of view which allows us to watch her emotional ups and downs the internal warring with herself.

“What he was saying to me was cruel. If I were at all the woman I used to think I was, I would have stood up to him and defended myself, but I had no defense, because he was right.”

Luke and Kyle are multidimensional too. I am team Luke all the way but there are times when he is cruel and heartless; mostly because he was hurt but cruel nonetheless. This man suffers terribly; it really breaks my heart. Kyle is a character that completely baffled me. He had me in love with him one minute and hating him the next…and the next… and the next. It is hard for me to understand his hold on Emmy until I thought of people I know in the exact same type of relationships. There are still a lot of unknowns about this man and some reveals. There is another book and I hope that, even if I can’t love him I will like him a little after reading that.

The twists: There are unexpected events that happen a couple times that really keep the reader on their toes. Love it! I don’t want to ruin the book so suffice it to say that some of the twists are happy and some will make your heart hurt.

Finally, the cheating and lying is not rewarded at all. We see the pain and suffering that impacts not only all the parties involved but people around them. Our actions have consequences and can cause deep pain that lasts for a long time. Fortunately Emmy eventually grows and learns from her mistakes.

What I don’t like:

Even though the book covers several years I want more. I didn’t want the book to end. I have questions and I want the answers. Fortunately there are more books with these characters and I will be reading.

*****

If you haven’t read Accidentally On Purpose I highly recommend it. Trust me you will go through a wide gamut of emotions but know there is an ending worth the ride. It says a lot about an author’s writing skills when a story makes the reader happy one minute, angry as hell the next and immensely satisfied with the ending.

Thanks L.D. Davis for a great book even if I resisted the call for a long time. Also a special thanks for your availability, questions and, responses during the buddy read.