Book Review: Rules of Arrangement by Maren Mackenzie

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I liked our main character, Addie from the start. After we get walked through her "delinquent" forgery of essays, we quickly are introduced to Addie's high school lover (on only one occasion before he left for college), Declan. From there I could feel the high stakes heist vibes that had me excited to keep reading. What starts out as a blackmail mission/make-over romcom quickly became a spicy mess of a book. I'm going to be honest, I didn't thoroughly read through the description of this book on Netgalley so I was a bit taken by surprise when it started getting erotic. Not a bad surprise though if i may so, though.

The pace of this book was quick, engaging and easy to keep up with. It had a clear timeline and a simple flow to its plot. Throughout the book we are dealing with a dual life. Addie has to balance her college life full of the papers she still owes, her own assignments leading her to graduate, family drama, and Declan's threat of expulsion which bleeds into her new life Declan threw her into. This life consists of all the glitz and glam of the upper life and art dealers. Oh, and the super hot art dealer himself, Jack Nolan, that despite all of Declan's warnings about Addie can't help be drawn into. Because, he's hot, mature, and not the picture Declan painted. It's definitely a lot for one college senior to balance. There is a lot going on in the plot line but it is seamless and incredibly entertaining.

I'm once again going to have to be honest...I have never read an erotic book. This was my first one. Let me tell you, there is a good amount of hot and steamy in this book but the fact that it is still plot driven helped balance it out for me and my tastes. One thing I will point out and need people to be aware of is this book's TRIGGER WARNING - suicide is involved in the plot.

Addie, Declan and Jack Nolan are the big three for us here. Addie is a college senior, stripped of her inheritance after her parents died and in her desperation to pay for and finish college, she writes other student's papers for money. While I might not condone her methods of earning college funding (as she later also gets paid to be an escort to Jack Nolan), I do applaud her determination and drive. I myself had to pay college myself and boy, is it a hard thing to do. She is witty, charming, and your average girl. She has insecurities, trouble with moral judgement, and many self doubts. She is beautifully and wonderfully normal, making her that much easier to relate to.

Declan is Addie's first but most recently her blackmailer. Under the threat of turning her in for her college "job", he enlists her in his own scheme of revenge on Jack Nolan- an older gentleman with a high society reputation of being one of the best art dealers and curators. Declan plays a much smaller part than I thought he would but his presence never fails to have you feeling Addie's anxiety and pressure. He is a genius artist and the biggest pain in the side. Jack Nolan is hot and...more charming than we are lead to believe. Each character are tightly intertwined in the best and worst ways possible. They were a perfect compliment to each other's characters for plot and development.

This is a new adult/adult read so things get pretty spicy. I wouldn't say XXX rating but a generous R rating. It was hot but it wasn't the main drive of the story. It had purpose to the plot and the character's development. Overall, I enjoyed every aspect of this book. A good four star read!

What was missing to make it a 5 star read? It lost me a bit about 3/4 in. I think it was the Declan aspect that every now and then popped up as an unsteady reminder that this was not just a romance book and had a very dreaded expiration date on happiness. This of course is part of the plot and much needed to have the book make sense from beginning to end. However, I feel like it could have been a bit more seamless. It felt a bit too rushed in the end.

Overal Rating: 3.5/5

*Thank you Netgalley for providing a copy for review purposes*