This is a spoiler-free review! You can read my reviews of Lick, Play, and Lead on my blog, now! Lick is now available to stream on Passionflix.
I should have read the blurb for this final installment - color me surprised when I was thrown into one of my least favorite tropes in the prologue / first chapter. Accidental pregnancy trope is already a top contender for gag-worthy plot points, but add in the fact that the female lead is twenty? Probably my worst nightmare. This series was already cruising the line of "do I like these books or are they just easy to read?" but this book truly takes the cake on me deciding that they were just quick and easy to read. I will say that the books did improve as the series went on, but that all went down the drown with Deep. That being said, Ben is definitely one of the better male leads and actually takes accountability for his actions, unlike some of the other band members.
Lizzy is so incredibly frustrating and just downright annoying during this entire book. I truly felt as though I was going to pull my hair out if she made one more ridiculous decision - yes, she is twenty and pregnant with no idea how she and Ben are supposed to coparent and embark on this journey together, but good grief the girl does not have a single brain cell floating around in her head. To make matters absolutely worse, she tries not to curse, which just results in the most annoying fake curse words known to man being sputtered every other page. Considering Lizzy was still working on her psychology degree, you would have thought that she would have been able to become more well-adjusted and maybe actually take the time to think about what having a baby at twenty would mean for her.
Ben is likable in the sense that he is in the running in being the best male lead of this series - Jimmy was no walk in the park, Mal truly had me second-guessing how much I originally liked him, and David was the most avoidant man on the planet. I was glad that he was actually taking accountability for getting Lizzy pregnant, and even though they were not in a relationship, he was still focused on making sure she was feeling well and had a support system from him as a coparent. He really wanted to provide for her even with the uncertainty of where their relationship stood, so I have to give him credit for being responsible.
The smut was a mildly redeeming aspect of this book - it honestly was the only thing keeping me going at one point because the plot was just not doing it for me. I truly wish I enjoyed this installment as much as I enjoyed Lead, but not every interconnected stand alone is built the same and unfortunately it shows in this final book. If you are looking for quick romances, this series certainly can be up your alley - they are easy to read and always tie up the relationships by the end of the book. I hope Passionflix decides to adapt the rest of the books into movies because I honestly think I enjoyed the movie of Lick more than the book.
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