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Blurb
I HAVE A BAD REPUTATION.
Call me what you want: Bad Boy Next Door. Trouble. That Kid Who Can’t Do Anything Right.
When Willow moves into my neighborhood, nothing should have happened. She’s geeky. Shy. A true wallflower.
Willow is a good girl.
Too good for me.
And how the hell was I supposed to know that she’s related to Loren Hale—yeah, that douchebag celebrity that lives on my street. The same guy I’ve been pranking by spray painting vulgar words on his mailbox and worse. Much worse.
Don’t ask me why I do the things I do.
Don’t ask me why it had to be her.
I’m cursed. Simple as that. But here’s the thing about people who are cursed—they break everything they touch.
And yet. . .I still want to touch her.
Whatever It Takes is the first book in the Bad Reputation Duet and can be read and enjoyed without reading any of Krista & Becca’s other novels, but it is a spin-off from the Addicted series.
Review
3.5 stars
I’ve been wanting to read this duet for so long! A spin-off from the Addicted series, this is the story of Willow and Garrison. We know them as side characters from the Addicted books, and from the Like Us series, we know them as a married couple with a family of their own, very much a part of the group. Now, we get to go back in time and see how it all happened for them.
This book can be read as a standalone, but beware it will have spoilers for the Addicted series – as will this review.
Willow came into the series as the half-sister of Loren Hale later revealed to be his full sister when they discover they share a father as well as a mother, which also makes Willow the half-sister of Ryke Meadows. Lucky girl!. This book begins with Willow discovering her family connection and making the decision to move to Philly to get to know the brother she didn’t know she had.
Garrison was one of the spoiled brat bad boys who terrorised the Addicted characters by constantly pranking their house. He was also the only one of that group who regretted his actions, apologised and went out of his way to make amends. He is a troubled kid, emotionally and physically bullied by his family, and he feels very lost, and oh, how my heart ached for him. But he ended up getting ‘adopted’ into the group, and was given a job at Superheroes and Scones, which is where he met Willow.
And so, the painfully shy, quiet, geeky, comic-book-loving girl, and the troubled, former bad boy with the heart of gold, become a part of each other’s lives.
“He was a bad boy. Misunderstood. Mine.”
We know where they end up, and I was so looking forward to the heart of their story where we see them come together, but this book has a bit of an odd structure, with the story shifting between the ‘present’, where Willow and Garrison are 20 and having a long-distance relationship while Willow attends university in London, and when they first met at 17. And sadly, this didn’t really work for me as it lacked flow and the romantic build-up that I was so looking forward to, and all we see is an introduction to them as characters and then them in love but apart and miserable about it.
“Her confidence in me is like a drug. I close my eyes and grip the edge of the counter. It hurts to be away from someone you love so much. God, it fucking hurts.”
The beginning of their story where they meet and become friends took most of the book to unfold, as it was intermingled with the time jumps, and most of the ‘past’ part of the book was Willow and Garrison’s drawn-out explanations of their family lives. Another big interruption to the story was the time spent with the “core 6” – the characters from the Addicted series, and the introductions needed to their complex personalities, backstories, and the dynamics between them. As much as I love this group and adore spending time with them, in this case I feel like it came at the expense of Willow and Garrison’s story. I wanted more romance, I wanted to see more of them spending time together and falling in love, and we got none of that. There are some sweet conversations and a few steamy scenes, but I feel like I missed out on the build-up of their relationship – I wanted to see them take the step to more, with tentative hand holding and first kisses – and though I love them both dearly as characters, I’m not as connected to them as a couple as I want to be.
“We’re going to make this work. I’m going to text and Skype.” He cupped my cheeks and both of us were crying. “We’re going to make this work, Willow. Because you’re my girl, and that’s not going to change.”
Having said that though, I am enjoying getting to know them better individually, and the writing is really strong. It just feels like their story is all jumbled up and has been overshadowed by other things. If you took all of the excess stuff out and concentrated on Willow and Garrison, and their relationship, you would have a strong book that probably wouldn’t need to be a duet.
But I’m invested enough to continue reading, hoping that I’ll get to see some romance in the next book. And I desperately want to see some happy for these two, who have struggled with so much.
Loved the characters… the story so far not so much.
3.5 stars.
I listened to this as an audiobook, narrated by Cooper North and Charlotte North, and they do a fantastic job bringing these characters to life! Bringing just the right amount of vulnerability, strength and emotion, I definitely recommend listening to this one!
Bad Reputation Duet
Whatever It Takes (#1)
Review
Buy: Amazon
Wherever You Are (#2)
Review
Buy: Amazon
Bad Reputation
Both books together in one collection, re-edited in chronological order (includes bonus scenes)
Buy: Amazon
About the Authors
Krista & Becca Ritchie are New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors and identical twins—one a science nerd, the other a comic book geek—but with their shared passion for writing, they combined their mental powers as kids and have never stopped
telling stories. Now in their twenties, they write about other twenty-somethings navigating through life, college, and romance. They love superheroes, flawed characters, and soul mate love.
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For more info on this, and more of these authors’ work, check out our Krista & Becca Ritchie Author Spotlight