I Knew You Were Trouble

By Lauren Layne

Synopsis

Taylor Carr has it all—a sleek job in advertising, a stunning Manhattan apartment, and the perfect man to share it with: Bradley Calloway. Even after Bradley dumps her for a co-worker on move-in day, Taylor isn’t worried. She’ll get her man eventually. In the meantime, she needs a new roommate. Enter Nick Ballantine, career bartender, freelance writer—and longtime pain in Taylor’s ass. Sexy in a permanent five-o’clock-shadow kind of way, Nick knows how to push Taylor’s buttons, as if he could see right through to the real her.

Nick’s always trying to fix people, and nobody could use a good fixing more than Taylor. Sure, she’s gorgeous, with mesmerizing silver eyes, but it’s her vulnerability that kills him. Now that they’re shacking up together, the chemistry is out of control. Soon they’re putting every part of their two-bedroom apartment to good use. Then Taylor’s ex comes crawling back to her, and Nick figures she’ll jump at the chance to go back to her old life—unless he fights for the best thing that ever happened to him.

Review

I KNEW YOU WERE TROUBLE is the fourth book in the Oxford series, but it’s only the third one I’ve read. Since it’s been a while since I read the first two books in the series, and because I haven’t read the third, I’m not sure if Nick and Taylor have appeared in the series before, or if they’re new. The first several chapters are set in the past, ranging from one year to six months ago, before continuing on in the present. This really gave the beginning of the story a fast-paced feel, but it was a good way of providing us with this couple’s backstory.

Taylor could be a hard character to like, because she’s so defensive and very quick to attack. She was bitchy to Nick from the moment they met simply because of the way he made her feel. But because you get to see inside her head, you learn that underneath her cool and aloof exterior, she’s just a woman who wants someone to love her.

What can I say about Nick? Not much, because compared to Taylor, he doesn’t really shine. By that I mean I took a lot of notes about Taylor, but hardly any about Nick, which tells me that he didn’t really do anything noteworthy.

I KNEW YOU WERE TROUBLE is told in dual POVs, and while it’s part of a series, it can be read as a stand-alone. There are mentions of the previous couples, but they weren’t done in a way that left you feeling like you were missing something. I’m not a fan of a couple never using a condom, or when the conflict happens right at the end and is then resolved very quickly. Unfortunately, both of those things happen here. However, it does come with a lovely HEA for Nick and Taylor that I really liked.