Bad Romeo by Leisa Rayven

Bad Romeo by Leisa Rayven
Series: Starcrossed #1
Publisher: St Martin's Griffin
Publication Date: December 23rd 2014
Source: Gifted

When Cassie Taylor met Ethan Holt at acting school, sparks flew. She was the good girl actress. He was the bad boy about campus. But one fated casting choice for Romeo and Juliet changed it all. Like the characters they were playing, Cassie and Ethan's romance seemed destined. Until he broke her heart and betrayed her trust. Now the A-list heartthrob is back in her life and turning her world around. One touch at a time.

Cast as romantic leads once again, they're forced to confront raw memories of the heartbreaking lows and pulse-pounding highs of their secret college affair. But they'll also discover that people who rub each other the wrong way often make the best sparks.

Bad Romeo was a recommendation from Brittany that I couldn't wait to read. And then one day it magically appeared at my door (courtesy of Brittany) so obviously I had to read it ASAP because it'd had to have been amazing for her to send me a copy.

Bad Romeo follows Cassie and Ethan. They met at acting school where they hit it off and started dating, until Ethan broke her heart. Skip forward a few years, and they meet again. They've been cast as romantic leads which forces them to confront each other and deal with the emotions and feelings they have for each other.

So, in Bad Romeo we get alternating POV's from both Cassie and Ethan, and we also have two timelines: Past and Present. In the Past timeline, we see how Cassie and Ethan meet and what happened between them to merit Cassie's feelings towards Ethan in the Present. 

Even though Ethan was a moody, jealous, asshole that I would have loved to punch, he was also charming, sweet and protective. Past Ethan definitely needed a punch, but Present Ethan has changed quite a bit. He's grown up and has been getting help with his issues and all he wants to do is make amends for what happened in the past.

Cassie is naive, headstrong but also pretty friendly. She did annoy me with all of her slut-shaming - which I totally could have done without - but I still kind of liked her. She was funny and completely obsessed with penises (I'm not kidding).

I really enjoyed getting to see Cassie and Ethan's friendship begin and morph into something more. One of the things I loved about their relationship was that Cassie was the one trying to take their relationship further and Ethan was the one putting on the breaks. It's not often you read about male characters saying no to sex and wanting to take things slow, so it was a nice change and it actually made me like Ethan a lot more. Ethan and Cassie had an extremely passionate relationship. Their chemistry was sizzling off the page and it was clear to every character in the book that they really liked each other - even though they continued to deny it. 

Bad Romeo was a fantastic beginning to the Starcrossed series and I can't wait to get my hands on Broken Juliet to find out whether Ethan and Cassie will be able to work past all of their shit and actually stand a chance of working together - I hope they do! It was a passion-filled, sizzling read and I'd recommend it to anyone who loves a bit of New Adult and romance.