Up To Me by M. Leighton Book Review

Up To Me by M. Leighton

The Bad Boys Series by M. Leighton welcomes the second installment Up to Me. If you remember, my review of Down to you was given rave reviews on this site. I was thrilled with the novel. So I was very much the eager woman when I learned book two was finally available.

We left off in book one where Olivia Townsend learns the truth of the Cash/Nash ordeal (the hot and bothered, sexy bad boys). M. Leighton left us with a mysterious stalker like presence in book one.

Up to Me opens the scene with Olivia and Cash, still in that stage of ‘can’t get enough of each other’ and still, Olivia deals with her unfortunate history of getting way too involved with the wrong types of men. She doesn’t trust herself and she is constantly doubting Cash. And yet she is head over hills for him.

While they are keeping their relationship on the down low it seems the mysterious people from Cash’s father’s past have figured out a thing or two about the people who mean something to Cash and are more than willing to use them as leverage. Cash has information they want and they soon get hold of something he wants.

Warning: this book has some erotic reads in it. I would say that its not quite as ‘clean’ and ‘pretty’ as Leighton made it in book one. This book had a feeling of ’50 shades of grey’ to it (unfortunately.) I preferred the sexual tension of book one to this book. But that’s me…I prefer the tension of the heated moment and not so much the heat of the moment. But a lot of people really liked the style in this book. I personally felt that it lowered my verdict scoring.

Characters: Olivia was a little too much in her head in this book. I wanted more action and less thinking. Don’t tell me over and over what she’s thinking. Show me. (Which Leighton does to a small degree…but not enough for my tastes.) Cash…well, he’s all ‘you’re mine and I will spank you if you forget it)>>>again…can we say 50 shades?

Now I was really digging the new male characters in this book. I definitely want to get to know them. I won’t say their names…for fear of spoilers (and we can’t be having spoilers, now can we?) All I have to say is yummmmyyyy!

Storyline: I get it. I do. And okay I know there has to be some tension but I just don’t enjoy the moments where…if this were a movie I’d be screaming at the girl “Don’t do that. We all know what happens if you do that!” only to see the girl do it anyway. I wanted a bit more surprise. I kinda felt that in one instant the author took the easy way out in the novel instead of being crafty and creative. It’s alright I suppose…just another notch on the verdict score.

The ending: Umm…I get this too to a degree. The author left it open (as she did previously) and we know a few things…but only enough to make us ponder new questions. Will I read the next book? I’m invested in the series. The characters are real enough for me and I’m eager to see what happens with the new faces.

Verdict: 7.5/10