I do love a good contemporary. For me, it’s the genre that I always go to when I want quick, light read. Or even if I’m in a major reading slump and I NEED TO GET OUT OF IT RIGHT THEN AND THERE. When it came to reading A Bad Boy Stole My Bra, it was because I needed a quick, light read. I was on the way back from Malta, the sun was shining, and I wanted something where I could chill, and not think too hard. (That sounds so bad like I’m saying contemporaries aren’t hard to write, but I just mean I don’t have to concentrate on world-building or the pronunciation of fantastical names. I do not mean any offence.)

When bad boy Alec Wilde moves in next door to Riley, sparks fly. After their ‘unconventional’ introduction, Riley is determined to get her own back. A nemesis is just the distraction she needs: inside, she’s barely holding it together. It’s game on.

But behind the banter, there’s a side to Alec that Riley actually likes. How can she get through to the real him when she can’t even take herself seriously?

This book was such a nice, quick read! At just over 300 pages, A Bad Boy Stole My Bra is a cute, contemporary read following a girl as she navigates a hate-to-love relationship and high school. The title of this book insinuates that this is a very childish read; I know I definitely thought it was going to be, so I was very apprehensive when starting it. However, after a few chapters, I realised that it wasn’t anymore childish than any other contemporary that I would read. The beginning, however, DID feel very very childish. I can’t pinpoint exactly why the beginning made me feel like this, I just remember reading the first couple of chapters, and just noticing how childish the language was that was being used.

Also, this book was just FULL of tropes. You have the bad boy next door (who is actually a big softie), we have the girl who thinks she’s a loser but well… she isn’t, and then we have the stereotypical high school mean girl who is only mean because of a stupid reason. Basically, these are all the tropes that I find really annoying. You’re probably thinking, ‘well… Kirsty… You gave it 4 stars…’ and yes, I know. Because the even though the mean girl and the loser element of this book really got on my nerves, I couldn’t help but like Alec. He was so charming. The only thing that peeved me off about Alec was that he was labelled as a ‘bad boy’ but he hadn’t done anything well… bad. Stealing a bra is not something that – I would think – would label a person as a ‘bad boy’.

However, even though there were definitely elements of this book that got on my nerves, I really did enjoy reading it. I remember that I was reading it on the way back from Malta and I finished it in about half a day. It was such a quick read.

One of the things that made this book more than a cutesy-contemporary was how Riley has this hidden past where she feels mega guilty about something that she did. And even though I’ve seen reviews where people have said that it wasn’t even her fault, I can understand WHY Riley feels guilty. She definitely had a hand in what happened, and if I was her, I would feel guilty as well. And because of her feeling guilty about this ‘thing’ (we find out towards the end what is it), it makes her very wary about opening up to her Mom, to her friends, and to Alec. When Riley first meets Alec, I didn’t really think that there was any chemistry, but as their friendship progressed, the banter got so good. I love it when love interests have great banter because it just makes me root for them even more. Towards the end of the novel, I thought that the chemistry between Riley and Alec was amazing.

I did think that there were too many secondary characters, but they were neither too much in the forefront, or too much in the background. They were just… there I guess? But one of the secondary characters that I really did love was Riley’s best friend. I thought that she was so cool, and she supported Riley through everything and was also going through the same grief that Riley was over the death of Kaitlyn.

Overall, I found this to be a very fun read, and just what I needed for the journey back from Malta.

Trigger Warnings: death, panic attacks, homophobia

Disclaimer: this book was sent to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review