Review: Hot, sexy and fun!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 28, 2014
Poor Valerie Willis has only known one kind of life: the kind where her father manipulates and she rebels, only to capitulate in a desperate attempt to gain his approval. Now, years later she’s gone through a very public and messy divorce from the man her father picked for her, Valerie is determined to live her life on her terms and to hell with what her father thinks or says. If only she didn’t have to be back in her hometown to do it.Enter Justin Silverton, former Marine and someone from Val’s rebellious past. Ten years have passed since he’s seen Val but he never forgot her. A twist of fate and he now has the chance to reconnect with Val but it’s not long before he wants something permanent and now he has to chase, catch and convince Val that he’s worth the effort and the fight there’s bound to be when Val’s father finds out she’s taken up with the son of a man he can’t stand.Talk about a dysfunctional family! The Willis clan consists of Edward Willis, a controlling, manipulative and cold hearted lawyer, former mayor and the father of three daughters: Valerie and her two sisters Ellie and Caroline. Each daughter carries the emotional and mental scars of growing up with such a man but Bad Girls Don’t Marry Marines is Valerie’s story and she has a lot going on.Honestly, I was surprised that Val wasn’t more damaged than she actually was, however I think that maybe she might have been the luckiest of the three daughters. Even though she’s had a difficult family life, she’s still a fun, loving, passionate and tough woman. I liked her and I definitely understood where she was coming from. I didn’t see her actions or her fears as unreasonable or even silly, she was acting out her frustration with her life and what she saw as her inability to cope or even escape it. Val was the perfect example of someone who came from money, power and influence and yet was beyond miserable and was treated as little more than a caged bird, only brought out to perform for audiences.Justin is the complete opposite of Val. He and his family didn’t have much and his father is an alcoholic but there is a lot of love and friendship between Justin, his brother Everett and their father Fred. I loved their dynamic as a unit. Each man has their own demons to battle but they still make time to joke around and be supportive of one another.As much drama as there could have been in this book with such a dominating (in a bad way) character like Edward, I was surprised that Bad Girls Don’t Marry Marines paid a lot of attention to the relationship between Justin and Valerie and I loved that about this book. So much time was spent on them getting reacquainted with each other and the sexual tension that enveloped them every time they were together that I truly felt that they had come full circle by the end of the book. I loved how there was no quick, clean getaway from Edward’s clutches for Valerie because when someone has been abused like Val, it’s never easy to just “get away” from that person, especially when it’s a parent.Author Codi Gary brought a lot of emotions to the table through character interactions. They were diverse, interesting and sometimes intense but that’s what kept me reading from start to finish.Final Verdict: I loved Bad Girls Don't Marry Marines. The characters were fun, dramatic and passionate and I hope that Caroline and Ellie get their own stories soon.