Temptation
The Hunted, Book #1
By Ivy Smoak
Author’s Website: https://www.ivysmoak.com/
Brought to you by OBS reviewer Heidi
Penny Taylor was on her way to class when a sexy stranger ran into her, literally, and spilled her coffee all over her shirt. He was nice and offered her his sweater to wear, which she hesitantly accepted. It turns out that the stranger is no other than Professor James Hunter, her Oral Communications teacher!
She also meets handsome student, Tyler, in her class. He invites her to a party at his frat house. Penny wants to decline, but her roommate, Melissa, insists they go together. Melissa quickly ditches Penny for one of the guys leaving her to go find Tyler on her own. The two get drinking and things move much faster than Penny is ready for. She fights Tyler off and leaves in tears. In the rain. Professor Hunter happens to see her and comes to her aide. He thinks she’s a senior, and since he just caught her after an evening of underage drinking she doesn’t feel the need to correct him. He sees her home safely and gives her his number in case she’s ever in need again.
Tyler is very apologetic the next day and is willing to do just about anything to fix things between Penny and him. He really likes her and knows he’s probably blown his chance with her. Penny does like Tyler, but he just doesn’t hold a candle to Professor Hunter.
Penny and the professor keep flirting with one another until he finally gives in to his desire, in hopes that it will get her out of his system. Of course, it doesn’t and the two begin a sordid and secret affair.
And, during all this time, Tyler and Penny’s friendship continues to grow, which is not something Professor Hunter is all too happy about.
Can a taboo relationship like theirs survive? And, what happens when their secrets are revealed?
This book got me with its sexy cover, but unfortunately it’s all the book really had going for it.
The start was very slow and I found Penny to be too immature for my liking. Penny’s lack of maturity really made reading this a struggle.
I found James to be too controlling and it just always felt like he was using Penny and manipulating her to do what he wanted.
I didn’t understand why Penny would even consider a friendship with Tyler, who nearly raped her. And, it annoyed me when something came up in her relationship with James, she jumped to conclusions and didn’t even talk to him about it. And, she immediately was trying to climb into Tyler’s bed. The way she could keep jumping between the two just made her look like a complete slut. Melissa definitely hit the nail on the head there.
“Penny, you’ve gone from future cat lady to quite the slut”
Melissa claimed to be joking, but I completely agreed with her. I thought Melissa was a horrible friend in this book. She only ever seemed to care about herself and what she wanted.
And, then James got all high and mighty and overreacted when Penny finally confessed her age. Her secret didn’t come close to his and he blew it way out of proportion.
The book ended on what most would consider a cliffhanger, but honestly it wasn’t exciting enough for me to classify it as such. I’ll be sure to avoid the next book because this one was quite painful to read and had no true conclusion. The book felt like a pornography in book format. All sex, no substance.
