Rê 's Reviews > The Rule Maker

3.5 “Break a leg, a wall and some rules while you're at it” Stars

ARC via NetGalley.

Thank you, Entangled (Embrace)!!

I’ll start with this: the second book in The Rule Breakers series is steamier than the first one, so hurray for that!

As I learned by reading The Rule Book, my first Jennifer Blackwood title, this author knows how to write sexual tension and chemistry extremely well. Lanny and Brogan had tons of that, and the new main characters in the series didn’t stay behind.

We met Zoey and Ryder (although I don’t remember if I knew his name then) in the first book, but we got to really care for these two characters now.

Zoey is now more than Lanny’s BFF. She’s a successful, funny and strong young woman who can’t get over the man who turned her life upside down when he slept with her. Too bad he was a jerk and left without a good-bye.

Ryder is a professional athlete who’s going through a tough time with his injury and a situation with his brother. He has no time for relationships, but he’s still thinking about Zoey, the girl he slept with and had to leave in the middle of the night.

Months later, a work project forces Zoey and Ryder to work together, and you can imagine how it goes from there, right?

Out of the two, Zoey was definitely my favorite character. Her voice was really strong and even funnier than Lanny’s. She sounded young and fresh while still showing traits of a mature woman. I liked how she cared about her job and had ambitions. In fact, young, smart and ambitious women seem to be the theme with female main characters in this series, and I LOVE that.

The fact that I loved Zoey more doesn’t mean I didn’t like Ryder. He was a good love interest. He was funny, sexy and you could really tell that he cared for his brother, which is always a plus. I only wished there’d been a little more of his personality. There was room to develop his character further, especially with all the family drama going on. His grandparents were awful people, and I thought that could’ve played a bigger part in Ryder’s story.

The romance developed nicely. It was slow burn and there was heat from the very beginning. The fact that Zoey and Ryder had slept together previously, but waited so long to do it again only made the chemistry between them stronger.

In a way, The Rule Maker had similar elements from the first book, which is perfect for a title in a series, but it still managed to be fresh and unique. Plus, it was sexier. If you liked The Rule Book, then I bet you’ll enjoy this one, too.