Disorderly Conduct | The Tessa Bailey Project

And we have the first flop in my reading-Tessa-Bailey project. The writing is definitely better in her more recent books and they’re better stories overall.

On the other hand, Disorderly Conduct was centered around two horny adults with mummy issues.

I liked the humor in the beginning, especially the socks bought on Amazon Prime meaning Charlie has got to be a bachelor, the wiping of cheese sauce with a T-shirt before unannounced guests come over…

Ever’s catering business is called ‘Hot Damn’ but other than her cooking a few times and catering an event, we didn’t get much of her hot damn food descriptions if you know what I mean.

I did not care for name dropping the brands her mum is wearing whenever she makes an appearance, did we really need to know she wears Chanel flats and a D&G perfume? Surely there’s other ways to say someone’s rich.

Ever’s mum though….there must be more of a story there. Coming up with a ‘one-month’ rule has to have a more detailed explanation than what was provided.

Both Charlie and Ever are holding back so much, I wanted to yell at my phone (cause audiobook, duh!) to have the talk openly already! Miscommunication trope at its finest.

In a way, we get a better picture of who Charlie is and his character than Ever. Who is she? Why does she do what she thinks others (mum, roomate, etc) want her to do? What would she really do if she were left to her own devices? I almost wanted to see more of her, a more independent main character really. Near the end she does start questioning her decisions a bit which somewhat redeems her as a character.

Charlie was fleshed out a bit better, but does outrageous things in the heat of the moment. Impulsive, jealous, wants to take care of Ever but never says he’s after a serious relationship. He keeps circling back to his career in the police department he’s training for. 4 generations of men in has family are cops, pretty sure he wouldn’t have picked otherwise himself.

Bad decisions are made. One of them being the ‘Cutie’ nickname. I don’t like it and I don’t like how often it was used either.

Inevitably, as in most contemporary romances, there’s a ‘grand gesture’ scene that’s so over the top, not to mention illegal and a waste of taxpayers money, did things have to unfold just like that? I don’t know but I wasn’t a fan. No, big NO.

There’s a pretty nice opening for the next book in the series, though not sure if I want to read it at the moment. Maybe later on.

Such an unfortunate choice for a cover. I prefer cover with graphics or silhouettes rather than actual people but then again this was published when such covers were in.

And wow, I haven’t written such a passionate review right after finishing a book so bumping up my rating to a 1.5 (2 stars on Goodreads) as this is a rare thing indeed.

It’s a quick read, but nothing outstanding. And there’s a lot of sexy time, you’ve been warned!

Check out my review of It Happened One Summer.

What’s your favorite Tessa Bailey book? Let me know in the comments.