The first book in the Jerk Duet, an all-new fun and sexy duet from New York Times bestselling author Max Monroe is LIVE!
THE DAY I STOPPED FALLING FOR JERKS
(Jerk, Book One)
AVAILABLE NOW!
Amazon | Amazon Universal | Paperback
Blurb
Everyone calls me Lucky, but when it comes to love, I’m anything but.
I have a long history of dating the wrong men.
You know the ones I’m talking about.
The beautiful, charming guys who are quite literally too good to be true.
The ones who are impulsive in love and prefer short flings over long-term relationships.
I’m talking about the jerks.
The guys who taste so good, but are so very bad.
After going through the most ridiculous breakup in the history of breakups, I thought I’d learned my lesson. I officially put myself into jerk rehab and committed to changing my ways.
But, let’s be real here, love is never that easy.
Especially when an arrogant, charming, he-devil of a sexy alpha man gets involved.
Aussie accent.
Tanned skin.
Muscular, surfer bod.
Gorgeous brown eyes.
And the kind of sexy smile that brings women to their knees.
Oh, did I mention that he’s also my best friend’s brother?
Yeah. This story, my story, it’s a real doozy you guys.
The day I stopped falling for jerks, I met Oliver Arsen—the biggest jerk of all.
Find The Day I Stopped Falling for Jerks to GOODREADS
Review
5 “Little Fire” stars!
Love and I are not on the same page. Not even in the same book.
“Lucky” may be her nickname but Luciana is unlucky when it comes to love. She falls for the men who seem to be wonderful but end up being jerks, leaving her broken hearted over and over again. Her latest boyfriend left to go back to Brazil and things ended on a good note. Until she saw him in NYC locking lips with another woman when he was supposed to be out of the country. Broken hearted once again she turns to her listeners and her podcast “The Day I Stopped Falling for Jerks” was born.
The Day I Stopped Falling for Jerks is the first book in the Jerk Duet and it is a fantastic start to the duet! It is completely original from the way the story was written to the lovely characters created, and it captivated me from the very first page.
I tend like a lot of dialogue in books and find that sometimes when there are too many inner thoughts, the story drags on. However, even though there was less dialogue in this book than usual, I wasn’t bothered at all. Told completely through Lucky’s point-of-view, the story unfolds in a podcast series and I could not put it down. Lucky gives us her dating history and I felt like I was with her as she experienced everything that led her to where she is at the end of the book. It was as if she was talking directly to me, like I was also part of her book, and I was immediately invested in her life.
Lucky is sarcastic, fun, witty, and is done with jerks. She leads us through her breakups in a creative way, showing us just how terrible men can be. When she is sent to Australia to cover a surfing competition she is determined to stay away from jerks, especially her best friend’s brother, Ollie, who seems to be “the biggest jerk of all.”
From the moment they meet, Lucky and Ollie get off on the wrong foot. The banter is entertaining as they volley back and forth, and Ollie knows just how to push Lucky’s buttons. There is a spark between them, though, and the sexual tension is off the charts. As they spend time together, Lucky realizes that there is a sweet side to Ollie instead of just the annoying one that only irritates her. He makes her flustered, and her willpower is seriously tested the longer she tries to resist him. I would have never lasted as long as she did.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt this draw, this pull, this undeniable need to reach out and take a taste. My body vibrated with the desire to kiss him, taste him, brush my fingers across his bare skin.
…
And I knew, with everything inside of me, one kiss with a man like Ollie would never be enough.
Even though he is arrogant at first, Ollie is such an amazing guy. Totally swoon worthy and sweet, I fell for him fast and hard. He was sincere and caring, and his actions spoke volumes about how wonderful he is.
He had changed everything.
And I was no longer trying not to fall.
Instead, I’d fallen.
Love sneaks up on Lucky and Ollie and they are so good together…until they aren’t, and I knew something big was coming. The final letter is painful but it was a necessary ending to this book. In truth, all of the letters were fantastic and the growth and healing Lucky goes through writing them is touching. I loved seeing her realize the positives in everything she experienced even if she is left with a broken heart.
Overall, I loved The Day I Stopped Falling for Jerks. I was crushed by the things that went down between Lucky and Ollie and am desperate for the second book, The Day the Jerk Started Falling, to get Ollie’s point-of-view. I devoured the little excerpt of the second book found at the ending and I want more!
I had you in y grasp, Lucky, but now it’s fallen apart.
And in order to explain how it happened – to explain myself – I feel like I have to go back to the day it all began.
To the day the jerk started falling.
*ARC generously provided by the authors and Social Butterfly PR in exchange for an honest review*
Excerpt:
The Day I Stopped Falling for Jerks podcast
Episode 1: “Is this thing on?”
Hi, everyone.
I’d like to welcome you to episode one of my very first podcast.
[quiet, hesitant laugh]
I’m a little nervous, so please bear with me as I try to figure out how to podcast.
See, I’m more a writer of words than a podcaster of words, but what I’m about to tell you is honestly too damn big to fit into one of my columns.
Way too big.
It’s a real doozy, guys, but I have to get it out.
And I’m hoping, once I finish recording this—since my boss says I might start feeling symptomatic of, say, poisoning, if I ruin this new venture—I’ll actually be able to upload it to Scoop’s website. Apparently, I’m told, podcasting is the wave of the future, and if we—meaning Scoop—don’t get our foot in the door first, we—meaning I—might as well find another room. Room meaning office.
I’m pretty sure she’ll fire me, okay?
Still, I figure pouring my guts out to a bunch of strangers has to be at least close to therapeutic, so consider my fingers and toes crossed that my technical inability doesn’t mean it’s for nothing.
[mumble from producer]
Oh, good. I’m told the uploading portion of this podcast will be taken care of by someone else. Smart move, guys.
[laughs again]
Okay, so where do I even begin?
[long, audible sigh]
Well, I guess my love life would be a good start, huh?
I mean, it’s the whole reason I’m here, ready to pour my heart out to you.
The past.
The present.
The future, as I’ve sworn and promised it to myself.
They’re all kind of a hot mess, but it’s really the chaos I’ve gotten myself into this time that made me decide to take action.
Think of a woman trying to stand up in a hammock during an earthquake, and then throw in a writhing pit of cobras dancing below it for good measure. Add in the task of juggling several oddly shaped objects and a horrible lack of hand-eye coordination, and you might have some idea of what I look like while trying to navigate lust, like, and love.
Relationships, dating, finding love…God, you guys, it is so hard.
I envy those people who manage to find the love of their lives on a first date or—even more mind-blowing—a chance encounter a la love-at-first-sight that blossoms into a long-term courtship.
Like, how in the hell does that even happen?
It feels like some trippy, magical unicorn kind of stuff or, worse yet, an evil consecration for those with a special, dark gift. And I’m not exactly comfortable exploring how many pagan gods I’d have to promise ill-willed deeds to in order to experience the easy road to love.
Heck, even the hard road.
As long as it didn’t end in disaster, I’d be ahead of where I am now—where I always seem to be.
See, I’ve been a serial dater, a constant cultivator of bad relationships, for as long as I can remember.
Even my kindergarten boyfriend, Kenny, is a prime example of what I’ve come to know as normal.
He was a swoony little guy, even at the ripe age of nearly six, and I was a naïve five-year-old, hungry for pure love. We were happy for about a day and a half, but when another skirt-wielder, Amber Carter, ran by, the apparent love of his life—Kenny’s description of me—wasn’t the only twinkle in his mossy green eyes anymore. One push off the monkey bars, and my first official relationship promptly ended in what would be one of many breakups for me.
Think of all the very worst guys to date—the players, the weirdos, the clingy momma’s boys, and the jerks…good God, picture the jerks.
Do you have those men in your head?
Well, I, Luciana “Lucky” Wright, have dated them all.
It might sound like an exaggeration, but it’s not. I’ve been there, done that, written the book, and filmed the Lifetime movie.
And all those good-for-nothing men left me with were weeks filled with Netflix binges fueled by ice cream and the same question rolling through my mind—Where are all the good men?
You know, the men who are actually worthy of us. The men who know what they want and have good intentions to boot. The ones who know how to truly love a woman, one woman, for the rest of their lives.
Are they underground somewhere? In one of those highly discriminatory bunkers from the movie Deep Impact, perhaps? Do I actually have to discover the meaning of life to get the password?
I honestly don’t know. But I believe, in order for you to truly understand my frustration, I need to show you the final straw in my never-ending cycle of dating jerks. The moment that made me say “Sayonara, Jerks!” and write them off for good.
It’s going to feel like some serious Romeo and Juliet kind of stuff, but I can tell you, a Shakespearean love story it is not.
Keep listening. You’ll see.
The Jerk Duet
The Day I Stopped Falling for Jerks (#1)
Review
Buy: Amazon | Paperback
The Day the Jerk Started Falling (#2)
Review
Buy: Amazon
About the Author
A secret duo of romance authors team up under the New York Times and USA Today Bestselling pseudonym Max Monroe to bring you sexy, laugh-out-loud reads.
Max Monroe is the New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author of more than ten contemporary romance titles. Favorite writing partners and long time friends, Max and Monroe strive to live and write all the fun, sexy swoon so often missing from their Facebook newsfeed. Sarcastic by nature, their two writing souls feel like they’ve found their other half. This is their most favorite adventure thus far.
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