The Tenth Girl (The Tenth Girl #1) by Carrie Aarons

The Tenth Girl
Series: The Tenth Girl
by Carrie Aaron
Check it Out: Goodreads | Amazon (KU)

Never play a game you can’t win.

For Cain Kent, that rule is golden. Losing is not in his vocabulary, and up until now, everything has come easy. Football, school, girls … his charm-laced ego may just be bigger than Texas itself.

The competition he started freshman year with his friends, to make ten notches each in their bedposts by graduation day, is practically in the bag. One more to go, and then it’s off to college fame and eventually, the big time. Attachments aren’t something he wants to form, but when the quiet new girl challenges him in front of his classmates, his curiosity is piqued. She would be the perfect final score, and what fun to break her in the process.

Too bad Harper Posy has no intention of being just another warm body, especially to the bad boy quarterback. Even if he does quote Forster and Huxley when no one is listening. An aspiring author herself, Cain and his hidden soft side are dangerous to her heart. She’s seen men ruin her mother’s dreams time and again, and she’s determined to fly far away as soon as she has that diploma in her fist.

But as the school year’s end looms closer, both realize they didn’t quite understand the rules to begin with. Is winning a dirty bet worth the gamble when the stakes, or the other’s heart in this case, are so high?

Harper is the one girl who isn’t up for playing games. And she just might make Cain lose. Everything.

There is something about Carrie Aaron books that keep me reading. The way she writes these characters and tells a story never fails to hook me. However, I am so torn and have so many thoughts on this one. 

While I did get some entertainment out reading this one, I have to admit that I did struggle with it. Like for real struggled. Guys, I really did have to power through the beginning here. Lets be honest. If I would have stopped reading, it would have had everything to do with Cain.

Cain was such a fuckboy and he stayed that way for quite a while. His inner commentary was quite terrible and stereotypical at times. He was the town’s jock and football star and boy did he know it! He was a manwhore and had a terrible perspective on women that didn’t really change until more than halfway into the book. 

For the most part, I did like Harper. She knew that she wanted to save her virginity for something/ someone special and she did stick to her guns about it. Do I wish she made Cain grovel more? Yes. However, she is also a teenager. High school me took back some boyfriends who done shitty things and I don’t think that made me less than a person. It made you a teenager learning about relationships. 

I can’t even lie and say that I didn’t enjoy the banter and the back and forth between them. The tension was honestly what kept me reading. The “will they or when they” aspect was very entertaining. Once Cain started realizing that he was falling for Harper? I knew I was in for the long haul. She seriously gave us a love interest who quotes classic literature. How was I supposed to resist that?

There are a few other things I wanted to say. I did find this to be predictable. You know from the synopsis that there is a bet. You also know that she was going to find out. Also, even though they are in high school, I consider this to be New Adult. WAY too much sexual content to be considered just YA. Well, in my opinion. 

Like I said before, I have mixed signals on this one. While it was entertaining it was also predictable and had a manwhore love interest.

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