The Do-Gooder by Jessie L. Star ~ Review & Quote-tastic (@SimonSchusterAU)

I had fun reading this book, and connecting with characters that are Aussie's. I don't think Lara was as bad as she made herself out to be, but once you got past her tough exterior, I could see the sad, fragile girl who wanted someone to see her.

Title: The Do-Gooder

Author: Jessie L. Star

Genre: NA Romance

Published: June 1st 2017 (first published February 22nd 2014)

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A college girl tries to make up for her bad karma by doing one good deed for anyone willing to ask—a witty, sweet romance perfect for fans of Christina Lauren and Abbi Glines.

Lara Montgomery is no good. Having been scorned by her classmates since high school, she’s used to it. From where she’s sitting, the one with more notches on the bedpost has more fun anyway. At least, that’s what she tells herself.

Really, a small part of her hopes that her massive amounts of bad karma can be neutralized by wearing her Do-Gooder hat—that thing she does where she’ll complete one good deed for anyone who asks. And she does an amazing job at it, if she does say so herself. Still, there’s one thing she knows she can’t make better, no matter how many problems she solves for other people: on the night her brother died, she was off hooking up with his not-so-single best friend, Fletch.

It’s been three years since that night, and Fletch just wants her to let it go. To him, her persistence with the good deeds only serves to remind everyone in their small university town about what they did. As it is, they can’t help but get into a heated argument every time they run into each other on campus. And yet, neither of them can seem to stop that pesky electricity that runs between them whenever they get too close….

I wasn't really sure what I was getting myself into when I picked this one up, as I hadn't read anything by Jessie L. Star before. Once I began though, I was swept away into the world the author created. Lara had made it her mission to help anyone who came to her for help, and Fletch couldn't understand why she wouldn't go back to the girl she was before, to stop with the deeds and forgive herself. The Do-Gooder was a fun, lighter read about a second chance for Lara and Fletch.

I don't agree with cheating of any sort, and I did see what happened between Lara and Fletch, but the book quickly moved past that moment, and took off three years later. Lara and Fletch were at uni, where Lara carried out her deeds. Lara came across as quite a bit$h, to put it plainly. She's rude, cold and self centred, but I soon discovered it was her way of keeping people away as she didn't think she deserved any real happiness. It was sad to see her harbouring those feelings and that she was unable to get past one moment in time that changed her life.

Fletch and Lara had one of those love/hate relationships and they continually bickered when they were together. I could see that he really did have feelings for her, but didn't agree with her deeds. Along the way his feelings became more as Lara opened up, although some of the times she didn't do so intentionally. She harboured deep hurt that Fletch was able to relate to, and getting to know their story enabled me to see that they were good together.

I really enjoyed my first Jessie L. Star read, watching the characters grow and understand one another. The Do-Gooder was set here in Australia, and I liked that the author wove the story with that Australian voice, using terms and language any Aussie would use. It had both Lara and Fletch's perspectives (Lara's in the first person POV, and Fletch's in the third person POV), so I was fully able to understand their fears and their connection. I would've liked more to their ending though, maybe an Epilogue. Nevertheless, it was a good read and I'll try Jessie L. Star again in the future.

Complimentary copy provided by Simon & Schuster Australia in exchange for an honest review.

Here are two moments that are certainly heating up!!

‘This is a bad idea.’ Fletch's voice was hoarse and uneven, and I wriggled slightly against him, a move that triggered an immediate response.
‘Yes,’ I agreed, knowing that at that stage, it wasn’t going to make a blind bit of difference. And then I leaned down and pressed my mouth, hot and open, against his and the conversation was over.
I felt him buck with the force of my kiss, pressing the swelling bulge beneath me up and ending any illusions, had there been any, that this was going to stop at a kiss.

Paperback Page 124

I could see he understood what I meant, but he didn't pull away like I expected him to. Instead, he ran a hand soothingly up and down my calf as he murmured, ‘I'm not going to do anything you don't want me to, you trust me on that?’
I nodded.
‘Okay, so we'll take it slow.’ Fletch blew out a long breath and then leaned up and kissed me again, long and deep, until the heat that had been dampened by my sudden recoil was stoked once more.

Paperback Page 224

Hosted by Anna @ Herding Cats & Burning Soup

Whilst digging through her childhood scribblings a few years ago, Jessie L Star (AKA star123) discovered a thrilling saga by her six year old self entitled 'Jessie has Lost her Sock'. This sweeping epic spanned all four corners of her childhood house in outback South Australia as the sock was hunted down (spoiler, it was in Jessie's bed all along). Many years later and the urge to write is still going strong, although lost socks have thankfully been replaced with a raft of characters destined to snark and banter at each other until, ultimately, falling in love.

Jessie studied Business at Uni where she primarily learnt that writing and talking were very much her thing and that dealing with numbers was very much not (although, honestly, what difference does a couple of zeroes in a spreadsheet make, really...?).

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