Bad in Baltimore: Book Two Causing trouble has never been more fun.Eli Wright doesn’t follow anyone’s rules. When he was seventeen, his parents threw him out of the house for being gay. He’s been making his own way for the past five years and he’s not about to change himself for anyone’s expectations. For now, romance can wait. There are plenty of hot guys to keep him entertained until he finds … entertained until he finds someone special.
Quinn Maloney kept the peace and his closeted boyfriend’s secrets for ten years. One morning he got a hell of a wake-up along with his coffee. Not only did the boyfriend cheat on him, but he’s marrying the girl he knocked up. Inviting Quinn to the baby’s baptism is the last straw. Quinn’s had enough of gritting his teeth to play nice. His former boyfriend is in for a rude awakening, because Quinn’s not going to sit quietly on the sidelines. In fact, he has the perfect scheme, and he just needs to convince the much younger, eyeliner-wearing guy who winks at him in a bar to help him out.
Eli’s deception is a little too good, and soon he has everyone believing they’re madly in love. In fact, he’s almost got Quinn believing it himself….
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4.5 Stars
I first read K.A. Mitchell’s Bad Boyfriend in its original publication back in 2011. When you read as much as we do, let’s face it, sometimes you remember a book more for the way it made you feel when you were done with it than you recall all of its nuances and details—that’s just the way it is—and then time passes, tastes evolve, experience changes us in both small and myriad ways. What I remembered most about the story was that the characters clicked with me in a big way, so I grabbed it in its latest iteration to see if what had drawn me to it seven years ago withstood the test of time. It so did. This novel is a great example of how to do plotty sex and chemistry between main characters. I love Quinn and Eli so much. And Peter Laurent is still a shitweasel all these years later, so there’s that too.
For ten years Quinn Maloney was invested in and committed to his relationship with Peter, ten years of fidelity, shared memories, a life built with each other, but in one night of intense sex and a morning after that goes down in the annals of history as the dickiest move of all dick moves, Peter packs a box—thinking Quinn is at work, prepared to slither out without so much as a word—and leaves, throws away the life they’d built, and takes. the dog. with him… Why? Because Peter wants to marry his baby mama. Yeah, it’s like that. In spite of the fact that he’s been living with, and having sex with, a man for ten years, Peter has a real hard time admitting he’s attracted to men. He’s not gay, bi, or whatever. Really. He’s not. Did I mention Peter is a denying, cheating shitweasel? He’s also so much fun to hate.
Quinn’s ties to the Laurent family complicate everything immensely. The family thinks (or maybe they were denying the obvious) that Quinn and Peter were just housemates for ten years, and so the ties that bind, the ties that Quinn doesn’t want to lose because he loves them like the family of his own he doesn’t have, serve to ensure there will be some awkward moments in the story—not the least of which is Quinn being asked to play godfather to Peter’s infant son. I know, right?! Those ties that bind can feel a little like a noose sometimes. So, what do you do when your one credible excuse to decline would mean outing your closeted ex to not only his family but his wife too? You accept the mantle of responsibility like the good and magnanimous man you are. And you take a date to the baptism, obviously, because trying to make your ex jealous is everything, and besides, you’ve never denied being gay.
And oh, a little bit of revenge can be so satisfying.
Fake boyfriends is a tried and true trope, one I’ve always loved. Yes, it’s predictable. Yes, like any romantic trope it can be mishandled, but K.A. Mitchell delivers it perfectly here, by and large due to Eli. He’s young, sure, but is strong and confident and competent, and he stands up for himself in every single way. His backstory hits all the right notes, and he’s the perfect shock of color introduced in Quinn’s dull existence at just the right time. Truth is stranger than fiction had to come from somewhere, and the plot of this novel is just plausible and twisted enough to lead me to believe this could’ve happened to someone Mitchell knows, because humans and family are complicated messes most of the time, which is why I always think twice before I say, ‘That would never happen IRL.’
The undeniable truth here is that Quinn and Eli are combustible together. The sex, the chemistry, the age play, it’s all there in spades, but the only way it works is if their characterizations are strong individually, which they are. They’re both so charming and funny and sassy and passionate, and their conversations run the fine line between revelation and evasion at the opportune moments. It all came together in such a perfect storm of storytelling that the book was unputdownable even though I already knew how it all played out. Mistakes were made. Of course they were. That’s to be expected when a relationship begins on one big lie and mind-blowing sex is the only thing going for you, but Mitchell builds on it and leads readers to a believable happy beginning for Quinn and Eli. That’s the definition of well-written erotica as far as I’m concerned—if you can take out the sex and be left with a good story that develops into a credible relationship, it’s been done right.
And yeah, we get to savor Peter’s day of reckoning too, which is altogether delicious.
If you read and liked this book in its first iteration, it’s so worth a reread. If you’re looking for a new-to-you read with a little age play, some light BDSM, and two guys who belong together, this one is a good gamble. It can be read as a standalone in spite of it being book two in the series, so don’t be afraid to jump in here.
I love this entire series! I’ve heard there might be more!
Audiobook/book review:
Bad Boyfriend is the first of the Bad in Baltimore series I’ve read and it was a bit of a mixed bag for me. Character wise, I liked Eli and Quinn, though they did tend to frequently frustrate me. Story wise it was good, though a bit rushed in the relationship area. As for the chemistry, heat abounded. Daddy kink is really not my thing and while I wrinkled my nose occasionally when that made an appearance, it wasn’t a focal point of the book or relationship and I was able to roll with it. I ended up reading and listening to this one, and can say that the audio is a fun upgrade if you enjoy the series.
I’m always up for May-December romances and was in the mood for something with a bit of heat recently, so after listening to the sample, it seemed like a great time to read Bad Boyfriend. I really liked Eli and Quinn together as they complemented one another and offered plenty of fun banter that had me smiling frequently. What was more difficult to digest were the main characters themselves. Eli rubbed me wrong initially because he seemed excessively pushy and opinionated. Happily, as I got to know him and learned his background, I found his “mood swings” and in your face defensive posturing more palatable. Conversely, Quinn’s situation struck me odder the more I got to know him and the more Peter entered the plot. I simply didn’t get it and I spent more time trying to make sense of Quinn’s acceptance of the odd arrangement than I did just enjoying the book. I think Bad Boyfriend is one of those times that rolling with it is paramount to enjoying the story.
Narrator wise I liked the performance by Chet Daniel and wouldn’t hesitate to pick up more audiobooks he narrates in the future. His cadence and delivery was easy and pleasant to listen to. That said, I did find myself flipping to the book to follow some of the discussions because it was difficult to differentiate who was talking at times. Overall, Bad Boyfriend was good with a nice dose of heat, but had some details that kept me from loving it.
*Reviewed audiobook for Alpha Book Club*
The funny thing is, this book is the second in the series. I read it first, because I’m a freaking rebel, and I liked Eli (with some caveats, see below.) When I read the first book in the series, I absolutely hated Eli and wanted to strangle him with his own skinny jeans. I had the same issue with Christa Tomlinson’s The Detective’s Pleasure, which is one of my favorite romances of all time and the one I go back to when I want to soothe my brain.
I guess that’s one of the signs of a great author, right? Someone who can take a character who is unsympathetic in one context and make him the absolute hero in another. It’s something I’d like to try at some point.
Anyway, what Mitchell does with both of these characters is make me identify with them when the scene is from their point of view, completely and totally. When the scene is not from their point of view, I find myself looking at them with a much more critical eye. In general, I liked Quinn much better than I liked Eli, but I’m closer to Quinn in age and he was specifically wronged on the page in this story. (Not by Eli, don’t worry.) He’s easier for me to identify with on a number of levels.
But Quinn has his issues. I found him to be controlling in more than a few instances, which made me recoil once or twice. At the same time, he lets his ex do a lot of things that seem a little doormat-ish, to the point where I’d reconsider the target for the affore-mentioned skinny jeans homicide.
Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team
Kris –
5 “fake boyfriend turned real” stars!
This book had it all, great characters, action, lots of steamy scenes, good confrontations, and conflict. I really liked Quinn and Eli’s Daddy/boy dynamic as it was very consensual and not over the top. Age play can be tricky and since Eli is 23, he’s not too young but he is 10 years younger than Quinn. It was done well in my opinion and Eli was enjoying himself. Quinn’s (deep in the closest) ex-boyfriend, Peter, is the man you love to hate! Eli with his opinionated mouth gives us perfect drama and gives Peter a verbal beat down when needed.
I’m going back to read Kellen and Nate’s story in the first of the series because I enjoyed these two even though they were not the main characters of the story.
Angie –
I didn’t read the first book but I didn’t feel like I was missing anything. Let me start off by saying that Peter is a total jerk-face a-hole!!! I loved Quinn instantly and I cried early on in the book. Did I say Peter was a jerk-face a-hole? When Peter does the unimaginable, Quinn needs a date. Eli is a breath of fresh air with a crappy past. Quinn and Eli have such hot chemistry I am shocked my Kindle didn’t catch on fire. This was a good story with a little drama and angst. My only complaint is it ended abruptly. I thought a few more chapters or even an epilogue to explain what happened at Thanksgiving and what the aftermath was would have given the reader closure.
Reviewers received a free copy of this book to read and review for Wicked Reads.