This is a tough one to grade. On one hand, I very much enjoyed the writing and the characters. The messaging of the story was fantastic and I was totally here for the My Fair Lady connections. I loved Ford's internal monologue and his feelings for Suzie. I loved that Suzie was extremely self aware in some ways and actively trying to change herself because she didn't want to be who she's always been. In so many ways she felt like she was this brand new person and everything was a treat to her.

Most of my issues come from story aspects that felt unfulfilled and the overall tone. Another reviewer really hit the nail on the head in saying that the heavy/violent moments weren't balanced enough with sweet/loving moments. The sweet/loving moments were there, but there was no follow-through on the bedroom scenes. That choice didn't make sense to me because the author certainly incorporated language and moments that felt like a natural lead up to Suzie/Ford taking things further...and then we cut to black. I don't want to treat this as if it's a bad thing, but it also wasn't something I was expecting.

Another layer of not getting the book I expected is that I came into this expecting something a happier. I'm not interested in MC romance novels as a whole and I've encountered what I'll call "surprise! there's a ton of MC stuff in this book!" many times throughout the SmartyPants books. I hope they get better at making the blurbs more accurately describe the story. This book was a lot heavier and violent then I would've expected. I probably still would have read it, but at least I could go into with a better idea of what I was getting myself into.

A final note is that numerous times throughout the book both Suzie and Ford allude to terrible things they've done in their pasts. This gets said over and over again....but then there is never much detail given to it. I kept expecting that they'd have some heart to heart moment discussing those things. While there were versions of the heart to heart talk, it rarely went into much detail. The worst example of this is when at almost the end of the book, Ford just casually mentions in conversation to his foster brother about how he killed someone that one time. Like...WHAT? His brother says that it was in self defense/defense of a another and then...that's it. We get no more about it! On one hand, that does demonstrate what he's been saying all along about having a rough past, but on the other hand....why bring it up if you don't plan to go anywhere with it??

I'd give this book over 3 stars if I could! It had many positives but the negatives kept it from being a hit for me.