Sam's Reading: A Work in Progress

Ugh, I have a problem. That problem is Kylie Scott making me stay up all night to finish Lead.

In the prior books, I was almost dreading Jimmy's book, he's presented (at least from my memory) to be a self-indulgent asshat with no redeeming qualities. To be sure, he behaves this way even toward his brother. Indeed, he didn't start off much better in this book, with the obnoxious Mal (yes, yes, super unpopular opinion. I do not find Mal adorable or charming. He's annoying and sophomoric.) seeking her out as a sobriety companion for Jimmy based on her behavior toward her former employer moments before she's fired.

I could not stop reading this book. I said in my updates, I have an oddly soft spot for stories of addicts in recovery, and with this told from the heroine's POV exclusively I was concerned it would come off all wrong. Luckily, Lena was exactly the right balance. She wasn't invulnerable, and she was sensitive and empathetic but not ridiculous. She held Jimmy accountable, let him know when she was hurt (both as a friend and employee) and called him on his shit. He did start out a bit of a jerk-or maybe he even stayed one, and Lena was not immune...but it felt real to me.

I'm not into reading about codependent recovery (though I think that's obviously a scale not a binary thing) or man-babies that don't have reasons behind their issues. I felt that this book avoided all those things marvelously. Was Jimmy a jerk, well, yes. What was clever about how Scott created this relationship is that through empathy and understanding and a good dose of accountability, Lena outsmarted him.
She outsmarted him so good.

In fact, during the love declaration, he did not say he loved her, he described, in wonderful detail all his feels and she looked at him like he was an idiot (at least in my head) and said, "You weirdo, that is love." I might be paraphrasing here.

To sum, yes I loved David and his sensitivity in [b:Lick|17983690|Lick (Stage Dive, #1)|Kylie Scott|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1421855031s/17983690.jpg|25216800]. I liked the prior book ok too (Mal's) [b:Play|19095025|Play (Stage Dive, #2)|Kylie Scott|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1393202794s/19095025.jpg|25758268], and maybe this exceeded previously lowered expectations-especially considering this seems to be seen as weaker than the previous books by other readers. I wonder if this left me feeling far more favorable than I would have otherwise, but I thought this book was superbly done. Perhaps it just suited my style perfectly--After all, I'm pretty in love with both characters. Fair warning: very possible you will not enjoy this the way I did because I can see where it would be detested too....but I'll just sit here happily with book hangover.