by Rebecca Grace Allen
Published by: Samhain Publishing
Publication date: November 11th 2014
Genres: Erotica, Romance
Gabriella Evans’s life exists in terms of logic and definitions. She’s holed up in Portland, Maine, for the summer to work on her PhD thesis, but something is screwing up her concentration: the rumble of a motorcycle every time the embodiment of her rough-and-tumble fantasies rides down her street.When her best friend talks her into a blind date, she finds herself out with the opposite of her fantasy. He’s polite and well-mannered, yet something behind his crisply tailored shirt doesn’t add up—a rebellious gleam in his eye that piques her curiosity.Orphaned at fifteen, Connor Starks has finally put the years of failing grades, breaking laws and breaking hearts behind him. The only holdover? His penchant for getting down and dirty in public places. But Gabriella makes him want to prove he’s become a better man.
Nothing intrigues Gabriella more than a problem she can’t solve. But the more Connor tries to bury his past, the more determined she is to uncover it. And what she finds makes all her trusty logic begin to fail her…
Warning: This book contains a summer romance, dirty talk, dockside kissing, motorcycles and tattoos. Features a rebellious nerdy girl with an appetite for outdoor sex and light spanking, and a bad boy who’s turned good…or at least he’s trying.
Soon-to-be an MIT PhD, Gabby’s still not quite the person her parents want her to be. She doesn’t want a safe, boring life with a guy of their choosing. She’s a logic, statistics, and probabilty kind of girl, but sometimes she wants to be–well, a little wild. She wants to feel accepted for herself–for all the different sides of herself, but she hasn’t really felt that way since her grandmother was alive. Spending the summer at her grandmother’s home in Maine, she’s working on her PhD thesis and hoping to find what she’s been missing.
Statistical analysis says she probably won’t find it on a blind date…
Connor grew up on the Maine coast, but it wasn’t exactly the kind of childhood that one remembers fondly. After putting his grandparents through hell, he’s decided it’s time to become a new guy–a guy they can be proud of. He’s got a coding job he enjoys, and a hot girl down the block he’s lusting for. He’s pretty sure she’s way too classy for him, though, and anyway he has to suffer through a blind date/favor for a friend first…
The Duality Principle had a lot of cute moments, and ends with a sweet happy-for-now with definite HEA potential. I enjoyed seeing Gabby and Connor slowly learn to accept themselves as they were and stop trying to fit themselves into someone else’s image for them. The “be yourself” message is a definite strength of the book, as are the smexytimes scenes. Feeling chilly? This book will warm you right up! 😉
The main conflict in their relationship–that Gabby’s looking for a guy who will bring out her hidden wild girl but Connor thinks he has to squelch his bad boy interior to be with her–went on a bit longer than it probably should have. It could have been cleared up with a two-minute conversation, and the fact that Gabby just doesn’t discuss her desires with partners but instead gives them the “It’s not you, it’s me” speech after only a few dates didn’t seem to quite jive with her character. Gabby’s email “solution” felt awkwardly done–though it’s hard to argue with the results. There’s a lot to be said for make-up sex!
In all, this was an enjoyable first read, and I’ll be interested to see what Ms. Allen comes up with next.
Rating: 3 1/2 stars / B-
I received a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.
Great review, Becky! Glad you liked it despite your few issues with it. It sounds like a fun, short read 😉
I enjoyed both the synopsis and the review. This is a new to me author/book, and I can’t wait to read this book.