DISORDERLY CONDUCT (The Academy #1) by Tessa Bailey-a review

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date August 29, 2017

You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone…

Police academy cadet Charlie Burns can’t believe his luck when the gorgeous blonde he meets in a bar murmurs those magic words: “Nothing serious, ’kay?” Mind-blowing, no-strings sex with Ever Carmichael—it’s the holy grail of hookups for a guy who’s too busy following in his law enforcement family’s footsteps to think about getting serious. Charlie’s all about casual…that is, until Ever calls it quits and his world tilts on its axis.

Ever knows that when you control the relationship game, you can’t get played. But for the first time, she wants more than short-term satisfaction. Step one: end her fling with commitment-phobic Charlie. Step two: sacrifice herself to the ruthless NYC dating scene. Yet everywhere she turns, there’s Charlie, being his ridiculously charming self. No online match or blind date compares to the criminally hot cop-in-training, but they’re over. Aren’t they?

If love is a four-letter-word, why does the idea of Ever seeing someone else tie Charlie up in knots? Now he’s desperate to win her back…and a little date sabotage never hurt anyone, right?

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REVIEW: DISORDERLY CONDUCT is the first installment in Tessa Bailey’s contemporary, adult THE ACADEMY erotic, romance series focusing on a group of three New York police academy cadets (Charlie Burns, Jack Garrett, Danika Silva). This is twenty three year old cadet Charlie Burns, and twenty two year old caterer Ever Carmichael’s story line.

Told from dual first person perspectives (Charlie and Ever) DISORDERLY CONDUCT focuses on the reluctant relationship between police cadet Charlie Burns, and caterer Ever Carmichael. Ever doesn’t do relationships-thirty days, no more, no less- and the men in her life are nothing more than a distant memory. Her grandmother’s ‘Mistress Manifesto’, a guideline for all of the Carmichael women demands all women to remain independent, never let the arrangement last past one month, and choose only unavailable men, keeping Ever from ever prescribing to a happily ever after with anyone. Meeting Charlie Burns has our heroine throwing caution to the wind until the moment she realizes that Charlie is a man, like herself, who doesn’t want anything beyond the present. What ensues is the building love between Charlie and Ever, and the fall out when Ever realizes that she wants something more than Charlie is willing or able to give.

Charlie Burns believes that he must sacrifice his own happiness for the ‘job’. Growing up in a family of men married to their jobs Charlie knows that being a police officer means the family comes second, and anyone left behind becomes collateral damage, and for this reason Charlie is unwilling to take a chance on love or anything more than a one-night stand. Ever Carmichael watched her mother’s life implode, going from one man to another, never longer than the designated thirty day, and our heroine is determined to live out her life, on her mother’s terms, one man at a time.

The relationship between Ever and Charlie is one of immediate attraction; a no-strings attached relationship that finds our couple seeking something different when the expiry date of their affair begins to trickle down. The attraction to one another is palpable; their numerous separations are heartbreaking and painful. Charlie’s need for Ever is overshadowed by his inability to commit to something more but saying that his questionable behavior and obsession with our story line heroine is cringe-worthy and disturbing in light of his upcoming future on the police force. The $ex scenes are intimate, intense and seductive.

We are introduced to Charlie’s best friends, roommates and fellow police academy cadets: Jack Garrett, who struggles with his need for alcohol; Danika Silva, a woman who has caught the eye of the police academy instructor Greer Burns; police chief Xavier Burns; Ever’s roommate and business partner Nina ; as well as Ever’s mother who slowly begins to understand the potentially damaging advice long adhered to by the Carmichael female line. Jack and Katie’s story line is next in INDECENT EXPOSURE.

DISORDERLY CONDUCT is a story of mistaken beliefs; of one man’s determination to sacrifice love and family for a successful career; and one woman’s need to follow in her mother’s footsteps, however ill-conceived and emotionally barren. The premise is energetic; the characters are passionate and sassy ; the romance is provocative and heartbreaking.

Copy supplied by Edelweiss

Reviewed by Sandy