Book Review — Beautiful Mistake by Vi Keeland

“This feels… right.”
His eyes searched mine. “It does. As much as I fought it, and it’s against every rule at work, nothing’s felt this right in a long time. Maybe I couldn’t get you out of my head because you were supposed to be there.”

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HOLY SQUEEEEEE!!!!! I LOVE LOVE LOVED this book!! It was HOT, SEXY, SWOOOOONY, and yet also FULL OF FEELS!! When I first started reading it, I was completely enjoying it – I felt totally wrapped up the story and was loving everything I was reading. But then came… an unexpected TWIST!!! One part of the story connected with another in a way that I didn’t see coming and OH MY GOD from that point on, I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN!!!! I was flipping those pages so fast I barely stopped to breath! I smiled, swooned, and got choked up with emotion. And the epilogue brought happy tears to my eyes. I’ve loved many of Vi Keeland’s books over this years but I can say with full certainty that this is my favorite book she’s written! I highly recommend it as a TOP FAVORITE!!

Vi Keeland is one of my go-to authors. I always look forward to her new book releases because after having read so many of her books, I know that I’m almost certainly going to love them. In fact, when I first started reading this book, I got to chapter three because realizing that I hadn’t even read the blurb — which is a pretty big deal for me because as a reader, I like to know exactly what I get into. There is a very small selection of authors whose books I’ll read without even finding out what they’re about first and I guess Vi Keeland just became one of them!

I think the best way to describe exactly why I love her writing is because it’s effortless. You don’t feel like she’s trying to hard, but you can tell that the book is both well written and edited. The story flows smoothly and there are generally no good stopping points. Her books are easy to read and yet carry a wonderful balance of sexiness, humor, and emotion. They’re both light-hearted and yet grounded by serious feels. I usually find her heroine’s relatable and her heroes dreamy but characterized in a way that makes them feel believably real. For all these reasons, she’s easily one of my favorite romance authors and I’m always excited to read her new books.

Anyways, I’m rambling. Here’s what this book is about:

The first time I met Caine West was in a bar.
He noticed me looking his way and mistakenly read my scowling as checking him out.
When he attempted to talk to me, I set him straight—telling him what I thought of his lying, cheating, egomaniacal ass.
You see, the gorgeous jerk had wined and dined my best friend–smooth talking her into his bed, all along failing to mention that he was married.
He deserved every bit of my tongue-lashing and more for what he’d done.
Especially when that lazy smile graced his perfect face in response to my rant.
Only it turned out, the man I’d just told off wasn’t the right guy.
Oops. My mistake.
Embarrassed, I slunk out without an apology.
I was never going to see the handsome stranger again anyway, right?
That’s what I thought…until I walked into class the next morning.
Well, hello Professor West, I’m your new teaching assistant.
I’ll be working under you…figuratively speaking.
Although the literal interpretation might not be such a bad thing—working under Professor West.
This was going to be interesting…

So of course this story starts off with the heroine being shocked to discover that the mystery man who she mistakenly gave a tongue lashing to in a bar was actually her new boss/professor. But her first real surprise came when she dug into his past and discovered that he used to have a different name and a whole other life before becoming the sexy, yet infuriating, professor she was now swooning over.

“You didn’t answer my question. How old are you?”
“Old enough to be your professor.”
… “So, what? About sixty then?”
“I’m thirty-two, wiseass. Are you happy?”
I smiled. “I am, actually.”
He slipped his glasses back on and returned to the menu.
I leaned in. “You don’t look a day over thirty-one.”
He shook his head and continued reading, but I caught the corner of his lip twitch.

Their attraction to each other was however tempered at first by the professional lines between them. She was his TA and he was her professor. There were rules in place and somehow things kept pulling them apart. But even though they both knew they shouldn’t give in, they desperately wanted to.

When I looked up, he was staring at me. “Christ. Are you trying to get me fired?”
“What?”
His eyes moved back and forth between mine. “You really have no goddamn clue, do you?”

And OHHH MY PROFESSOR WEST!! When their chemistry did finally reach a breaking point, let me just tell you that things got HOT HOT HOT! Any of you looking for a steamy sexy romance will certainly not be disappointed!

“Don’t ask for something you don’t want. I’m warming you.” He took a step closer, invading my personal space.
His pupils were dilated, and he looked angry as hell, but there was something lurking just beneath his dark gaze — desire.
I tilted my head coyly and leaned in. “Who says I don’t want it?”

I also loved the deeper and more emotional undertones to the story that tugged all my heartstrings and brought a wonderful balance to the otherwise lighter side of this romance.

“Do you have any scars?”
“No visible ones,” he said. “Although the invisible scars are the hardest to heal.”

And then…. OMGGGGG!!! There is a TWIST to this story!! Ok wait, I need to back up for a minute. And don’t worry, I won’t spoil anything. So, as you read, you’ll see the story is mostly told in present day and it’s about Caine and Rachel’s story. But there are a few other chapters mixed in from Caine’s past sixteen years ago that are painful and heart-wrenching and real show you a whole other side to this character. Now, I thought they were just there to flesh out the story and all, BUTTTTTTTTT. There’s a twist. A connection. A holy-shit-omg moment. And that’s all I’m going to say on the matter because I don’t want to take away YOUR surprise moment when you read the book. But just damnnn I didn’t see it coming and I LOVED the extra depth it gave the story. I literally got chills and could not put the book down from that point on!!!

Fuck!
FUUUUCK!
… I closed my eyes and let my head spin some more.
How do I find out?
How do I find out?

This is definitely one of those books I want to make everyone read because I’m so excited to see their reactions to the story too! It’s like one of those books you want to tell your friends to read and “keep you posted” as they’re reading so you can experience their reactions too.

He read my goofy smile. “What?”
“This feels… right.”
His eyes searched mine. “It does. As much as I fought it, and it’s against every rule at work, nothing’s felt this right in a long time. Maybe I couldn’t get you out of my head because you were supposed to be there.”

Now, this is the seventh book I’ve read by this author so I’m speaking with some background here when I say that, in my opinion, this is Vi Keeland’s best book yet!! It was a truly fantastic read and definitely one of my top favorites of the year! I highly recommend this to everyone looking for an amazing book to fall in love with!

Rating: 4.5+ STARS!! Standalone Adult Contemporary Romance.

• Buy BEAUTIFUL MISTAKE (Kindle)
• Buy BEAUTIFUL MISTAKE (Paperback)
• Buy BEAUTIFUL MISTAKE (iTunes)