Bringing Home the Bad Boy is the first book that I have read by Jessica Lemmon. I was very impressed by the characters that she created. I was even more impressed by the fact that she wrote a male character that recognized his faults, was honest, and much more than meets the eye. His name is Evan Downey and his whole world came crashing down after his wife died suddenly 4 years ago, leaving him to raise their 3-year-old son alone. Evan’s a tattoo artist turned book illustrator and he is ready to move forward with is life. Consequently, he sells their house and moves him and his son by the lake where he grew up. That just so happens to be a few doors down from his wife’s best friend, Charlotte “Charlie” Harris.

Although Evan and Charlie have remained in contact over the years, they had never really known each other as well as they thought. When Evan thinks that he sees a hot woman in a bikini, he is taken aback when he finds out that it’s Charlie. To make matters even more interesting, Charlie has had a crush on Evan since the day she and Rae met him. He just so happened to have chosen Rae. Evan is a guy that goes after what he wants and he quickly realizes that he wants Charlie in every way imaginable. Oddly enough, it’s Charlie that makes it difficult for them to have a relationship. She projects her own issues onto Evan but he refuses to let her push him away. No matter what she does, he keeps on coming. She experiences sex and other emotions on a level that she never had before. Unfortunately, her guilt over pining for her best friend’s husband eventually becomes overwhelming and she doesn’t know how to handle it and I love how honest it all is.

I can’t say enough about how much I loved Bringing Home the Bad Boy. Evan was truly a good guy. He said exactly what was on his mind and refused to let Charlie ruin their future together. And, unlike other books, Evan didn’t have some moment where he did something wrong that he had to apologize for. He wasn’t too keen on apologies at all. He lived his life out loud without any secrets and Charlie was truly affected by him. If Jessica’s other books are like this one, she has gained a new fan.