Unspoken was exactly the book I NEEDED to read! Swoony protective male that wasn’t a douchecanoe? CHECK. Hot name (Beauregard)? CHECK. Friends then lovers? CHECK. Amazing hot and sweet chemistry between Bo and AnneMarie? CHECK, CHECK!
Does that sound like something you’d like? READ ON!
“I didn’t want save everyone. I wanted to save AnneMarie. I wanted to save myself. Somehow it seemed the same thing at that moment and surely that wasn’t asking for too much.”
AnneMarie “AM” West is a sophomore at Central College, but college hasn’t exactly been the time of her life she was hoping for. After a drunken night, she lost her virginity to a member of the school’s lacrosse club. Soon, the whole club knew that she had slept with one of their members. The club’s leader, Clay Edwards III, (doesn’t he just sound like a jerk?) saw AM as a piece of meat and someone to be conquered. He propositioned her but AM rejected his advances. With his ego bruised, Clay Edwards had the entire club spreading vicious lies about her all over campus. Now in her second year at Central, AM avoid going to any public places.
Bo Randolph is a former Marine who releases his pent up aggression through underground fighting rings. Bo is the strong and protective type (reow). But what I like about him the most is that he is intelligent. He is also a heartbreaker.
“Bo was the poster child for ever disaster that female singers warbled about. He’d break your heart and do it smiling. Worse, he’d make you think you were better off for having your heart broken because it was done in by him.”
AM opts to take Biology instead of Geology, a.k.a. “Rocks for Jocks,” in an effort to avoiding coming face-to-face with Clay Edwards or another member of the lacrosse team. Lucky for her, the only empty seat in the class is right next to Bo. From the very beginning, Bo flirted with her and engaged her in a little verbal foreplay. AM tried her darndest not to let Bo’s flirty banter affect her, but it’s hard to resist when he’s so damn persistent. Her main goal of the semester was to do well and stay far, far away from Bo.
“Bo was fun, smart, and showing an inordinate amount of interest in me. I was so screwed.”
Sitting in close proximity to Bo and his absolute perfection begins to wear on AM’s self-control. Both of them are crazy attracted to each other. As the two of them spend more time together, they get to know each other. What started out as a prospect for a purely sexual relationship, both of them realize that the feelings they have for each other run deeper than just lust. The feelings Bo began to feel for AM scared him.
“In biology, I felt like I had AM to myself, all cozy in the front at our end of the table. but unlike my previous interactions with the opposite sex, I felt uncertain about how to approach AM without her thinking I just wanted sex. Because I did want sex, but I was pretty sure I wanted more than that. How much more, though was a mystery to even me.”
I love stories where the couple becomes friends organically and slower develop deeper feelings for each other. This was that kind of story. Even though it was clear that they wanted to rip each other’s clothes off from the beginning, Bo and AM’s actual relationship took awhile to build up. I love feeling that build up, waiting for one of them to make the first move. To move closer. The moment right before they kiss for the first time. This story had all those feelings. And once these two finally realized that they both wanted each other, it was game on. The scenes between AM and Bo were scorching, yet tastefully done.
Bo’s nickname for AM was Sunshine (get it?) and I just found that completely adorable. The more I read this book, the more I was completely and utterly smitten with Bo Randolph. He went to any length to protect AM from harm. Both of these characters have their own set of issues, which I quite liked. Neither was completely okay. They leaned on each other to work through their problems, both evolving and growing from beginning to end.
This book is the second in Jen Frederick’s Woodlands series, but each book can be read as a standalone.
3 stars
