Review: Fantastic addition to The Girl Series
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 29, 2013
Brave Girl is the second installment of the Girl Series by Kate Baum. I really enjoyed the first in the series, Nice Girl, but I adored and devoured Brave Girl! This is Eve's story....and what a story it was.Eve O'Malley has been accepted into a graduate program that placed her teaching on an American Indian Reservation. As much as Eve admires and is interested in American Indian cultures and history, she soon realizes that the local tribe's people aren't very welcoming. Add that to the fact that she is living with three strangers and this surely is a situation only a brave girl would be able to handle. Lucky for Eve she has the support and weekly chats with her best girlfriends to keep her spirits up. The girlfriends she has known since forever, they chat about any and everything. These days the main topic of their weekly web chats is the orgasm pact they all made before splitting up in different directions for school. You see, none of them have ever had an orgasm courtesy of a man, and now they are determined to experience just that. Only with the lack of friendly faces here, there's no way Eve is going to win. Or so she thinks. When a handsome, rugged police officer catches her eye, things start to get interesting.Lou Red Wolf immediately notices the new red-haired spit fire teacher...probably because she is currently giving a fellow officer a verbal bitch slap after a few undeserved rude comments his peer has made to her and her roommates. These new teachers weren't exactly welcome here. Not after the debacle the last teachers this program had brought to their Reservation. But no matter what the previous situation, Lou knows his fellow officer is out of line and feels terribly for what had just been exchanged. He knows he owes her an apology on behalf of his department and now has an excuse to come back to see her. Hopefully he will be able to cut through her temper long enough to hear his apology and hopefully give him a chance to introduce himself properly...because he absolutely wants to get to know her better.Eve and Lou have a whole lot to deal with on their way to a friendship....let alone attempting to take things further. Their attraction is undeniable. Unfortunately also undeniable is the contempt his family, friends, and well, most of the town feels towards these new girls. The odds are stacked against them from day one.This book was a-freaking-mazing. Eve has so much life, spirit and determination. She knows who she is and why she is the way she is and has no apologies for any of it. She has a short fuse, speaks (hell, sometimes yells) her mind and fights for what she believes is right...consequences be damned. She also had a side she rarely shows, and we were lucky to see it. When she lets her guard down, it only adds to her amazing personality and gives her a depth I could feel. Lou is absolutely delicious. He was an alpha male that simmered slowly and came to a rolling boil before our eyes. He always had a dominating presence but when he showed it in a sexual manner, it was delectable! Together, Eve and Lou are a fantastic match and compliment one another beautifully!The secondary characters in this story were all equally well-developed and I feel like I could pick up the phone and invite them to dinner. Along with the original BFF's of Grace, Dee, and Janie, the newbies we meet, Cora, Joe, Julia, Lauren, Lane and Cash are a group I hope we get to see more of. There were a few twists in this story that I totally didn't see coming but only added to my adoration to each one of them. I find that it's rare to be able to get to build that relationship to a whole cast of characters, but I did it with Brave Girl....Well done, Kate!I will continue to look forward to the releases in the Girl Series (Funny Girl and Smart Girl) and have to thank Kate for giving us Eve and Lou. This book should absolutely be on your summer reading list!*I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review