Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsThis Steamy Story Is Dripping In Angst & Will Have You Reaching For The Next Book In The Series!
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 9, 2021
James & Penny’s Romance Opens As They Meet At The Start Of Her Sophomore Year Of College. As Penny Balances The Three Men In Her Life – Austin, Professor James Hunter, and Tyler – Things Become Very Complicated. This Story Ends In An Explosive Cliffhanger! Don’t Forget To Download The Free Bonus Scenes In Professor Hunter’s POV Via The Link At The Back Of The Book.
This is the first of four books in The Hunted series, which is James and Penny’s story. Their story continues in the three book The Light to my Darkness series. See James as a teenager in the four book Empire High series (Matt’s story), which gives the backstory for James and his friends, the Untouchables. There are other standalones that are spinoffs to these books, including City of Sin (Mason and Bee’s story), Third Chances (Rob and Daphne’s story), and Missing Pieces (Tyler and Hailey’s story).
Penny Taylor, nineteen, is beginning her sophomore year of college at the University of Delaware in Newark. As she returns to campus after an uneventful summer, she is anxious about seeing Austin again. She had been surprised that she hadn’t heard from him after spending spring semester together. He had been her first. Austin had an aversion to labels, so they weren’t formally boyfriend and girlfriend. He seemed more interested in a physical relationship than anything else, and she had unfortunately allowed him to use her. Their relationship hadn’t exactly been romantic, but she had expected more from him. As the fall semester commences and Austin begins his senior year, Penny has apparently been ghosted. In the midst of her bitter disappointment, though, a chance encounter with a handsome and polite stranger makes her forget her pain and humiliation. She hadn’t caught the man’s name, but wondered if he might be a graduate student.
An introvert, Penny is the type that prefers to sit in the back of the class and listen quietly. She is shy. Not one to procrastinate, she opts to get the dreaded Comm 212 – Oral Communication in Business – over with even though most marketing majors put it off until senior year. Public speaking is not something she looks forward to. When her handsome stranger walks into class on the first day and announces that he will be the professor this semester, she can hardly believe her good luck. She now knows his name – Professor Hunter – but having him as her professor is less than ideal. She intrinsically knows her attraction to him is taboo, but she cannot stop herself from seeking his attention. Comm 212 is certain to test her because she feels emboldened in Professor Hunter’s presence. She wants to push him, wants to see if he might be as attracted to her as she is to him. She has a stubborn streak, so forgetting about him and walking away doesn’t feel like an option to her. Still, there is very little opportunity to explore anything real with him when constrained to a few comments after class.
Penny is more inclined to stay in for the weekend than to find a party to attend. She tends to follow the rules and is rather straight laced. Her roommate Melissa, though, loves a good time and tries her best to pull Penny out of her comfort zone. She urges Penny to attend the Sigma Pi party that her Comm 212 classmate had invited her to. Tyler is friendly and seems sweet, and he lights up when Penny and Melissa arrive at the party. But Penny isn’t quite over Austin, and is too distracted by Professor Hunter to give much thought to anyone else. His interest doesn’t seem to wane with her rejection, and the pair develop a friendship. As Melissa begins to date Sigma Pi member Josh, she encourages the match. Tyler is handsome and charming – and isn’t lacking in female attention – but he seems quite content being Penny’s friend.
As Penny balances the three men in her life – Austin, Professor Hunter, and Tyler – things become very complicated. Her feelings for Professor Hunter, or James, must remain a secret if she has any hope of him returning them. His career could be on the line if word got out. But carrying on with the charade becomes challenging as the lies begin to build. And as she begins to suspect that James has secrets of his own, her feelings become more unstable. This story ends in an explosive cliffhanger.
Don’t forget to download the free bonus scenes in Professor Hunter’s POV via the link at the back of the book.
*Spoilers* Note that Penny’s behavior is rather uncharacteristic towards the end, and she soon finds herself in the middle of a drama that is spiraling out of control. Seven weeks into the semester, Penny is hardly recognizable. She is erratic. With her twentieth birthday just around the corner on October fifteenth, she has tested relationships and reacted emotionally. She has been dishonest with everyone, losing their trust in the process, and she suddenly finds herself feeling very alone. While reading you might be tempted to yell at her a little for some extreme reactions that are certain to be epic mistakes, but then again she is young, inexperienced, and hopefully learning from her mistakes.
This steamy story is dripping in angst and will have you reaching for the next book in the series! James and Penny’s romance opens as they meet at the beginning of her sophomore year of college. As Professor Hunter, James is taboo but that doesn’t deter Penny from pursuing him. He tries to do the right thing, but she doesn’t make it easy. As they get to know one another, his mysterious past terrifies her, and Penny has a feeling those secrets will destroy her. Their taboo professor-student relationship is wrong in many ways. They both know that, and yet they cannot deny their attraction to one another. This story is nicely written. The plot is somewhat complex. The characters are complex. The story is written in first person in Penny’s POV. I rate this book 4.5 stars.
