Reviewed by Dan
TITLE: Smitten (SSU Boys Book 2)
SERIES: SSU Boys
AUTHOR: Maris Black
PUBLISHER: Self-Published
LENGTH: 331 Pages
BLURB:
Dan Fisher is a fun-loving slacker from SSU with a passion for partying and dancing. When rich girl Avery Wakefield offers him a brand new designer wardrobe in exchange for posing as her boyfriend, he reluctantly agrees. He hates lying, but it’s hard to turn down nice clothes and a chance to live in a historic mansion in Savannah for two weeks. What he doesn’t count on is falling hard for her mysterious, straight brother.
Julian Wakefield is as tortured as he is handsome. He keeps a secret close to his heart, and everyone else at a distance. But now his sister’s new boyfriend is stirring up feelings he’s always been able to deny. Like an angel and the devil all rolled into one, he tempts him to take chances he never would have taken before. Too bad Dan belongs to his sister, whom he would never dream of betraying.
But… put two hot boys with an irresistible attraction in the same house for long enough, something is bound to happen.
REVIEW:
I love the fact that Maris Black’s books are always exactly the right length! Too many times in this genre, writers churn out a bunch of books in the sub 150 page range, that only half introduce you to the characters before they are wrapping up the story. Not so with Ms. Black’s books.
In Smitten, we return to the campus of Southeastern State University (SSU), this time to hear the story of Dan. We were introduced to Dan Fisher as a Harley Davidson riding supporting character in Ms. Black’s previous book Pinned. Now he is back as the main character, unfortunately without his motorcycle, which it turned out belonged to his Dad.
Dan is approached after class one day by one of his classmates, a rich girl from Savannah who begs him to come home with her over the Christmas break to pose as her boyfriend for her Coming Out Cotillion. It seems her boyfriend just broke up with her, and the gossip rags will tear her apart if she shows up without a boyfriend. She knows that Dan is gay, and that he doesn’t have a lot of cash, so she plays the “designer clothes shopping spree” card and he reluctantly agrees.
As soon as they arrive in Savannah he is introduced to her obnoxious, but super-hot straight brother, Julian. Julian goes out of his way to be obnoxious and talk down to Dan. But is there another reason? Julian is hiding a secret, even from himself. A lot can happen in a couple weeks. And boy does it ever in this book! There is so much I would love to add, but I don’t want to give to many spoilers!
Honestly the only thing I didn’t like about the book, as an avid motorcycle guy myself, was Dan not having a motorcycle! Come on Ms. Black, what’s up with that? (Mock Frown) You could probably make it up to me though in a future book if Dan and Julian show up on matching motorcycles….maybe on matching black Ducati Diavels? Just saying.
Back to seriousness. I highly recommend you pick up this book today, I loved it. While Smitten could be read as a standalone, I would highly recommend reading Pinned first so you have the background on the characters. I personally am eagerly looking forward to diving into the third book in the SSU Boys series, Undeclared!
RATING: 
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