Good to be Bad
by Lili Valente and Lauren Blakely
My review:
“Good to be Bad” is a seriously delicious story by Lili Valente and Lauren Blakely, who serve up great novels separately and as a writing duo. This is a low angst, enemies-to-lovers story featuring lead characters Gigi and West, who are awesome individually and are even better together.
Gigi and West are the type of people everybody should be lucky enough to have in their live – creative, kind, loving, intelligent and with a great sense of humor. Together, they also have amazing, sizzling hot chemistry. Among the qualities and characteristics that they share is a love of preparing desserts and playing board games. Gigi owns a successful pie shop and West is opening a new business across the street from her offering teas and English delicacies. Each of them have had past relationships that have left them skittish about trusting somebody new. Watching them, especially Gigi, work through those issues and figure out how to move forward with somebody, is very rewarding. She has some self-esteem issues that she needs to conquer. West, the British hunk, is so sincere in his appreciation of her that he helps her view herself the way he does. They truly evolve into a wonderful example of “relationship goals.” When they find out they’re competitors in a prestigious cooking competition, I wondered how that would all be handled. The resolution ultimately surpassed my admittedly high expectations.
The authors have written a story that is both sweet and savory. It pulls you in because you want to know what happens next to the two lovable and slightly quirky main characters. I thought the secondary characters were great additions to the story, especially West and Gigi’s respective siblings, her Gram, and Joan … although to be honest, Joan was kind of catty. This book is a real pleasure, best enjoyed with a cuppa Earl Grey tea and a slice of your favorite pie.