Review: Bending the Rules by L.K. Lewis

Bending the Rules is the second book in L.K. Lewis's Breaking the Rules series. This is the continuation of Drake and Morgan's story and is not a standalone. If you haven't read Breaking the Rules yet, you will need to read that book first. I had some mixed feelings after the first book, but I liked Drake and Morgan and was curious to see how things would play out for them. While I did have mixed feelings about this book as well, a lot of the things that I had problems with before were different with this book.

After Breaking the Rules, Drake has been sent to Switzerland by his father for breaking his rules. He wasn't allowed to have any contact with Morgan for the next nine months or even allowed to tell her where he went. Morgan has no idea what happened to make Drake up and disappear, but she promised him that she wouldn't stop fighting for them and has hope that he will return. Morgan quits her job at Baylor because of Drake's dad and gets a job working for Adrian at Thompson Manufacturing. As Morgan struggles to deal with Drake's absence, Adrian uses the opportunity to try to win her back. But when Adrian and Morgan head to Switzerland for New Year's, Drake and Morgan meet back up and decide that they are done being apart for good. With Drake and Morgan reunited they start to make plans for their future, but there are still obstacles that threaten to stand in the way of their relationship.

I like Drake and Morgan. After the first book, I thought that they were great characters and that they really belonged together. That didn't change with this story. However, I felt like Drake should have never done what he did by taking off and not talking to Morgan at all or at least allowing Garrett to fill her in on what was going on. I understand his reasons and that he was trying to provide for Morgan and that he was trying to protect her job. But I still don't really see why he felt like he needed to follow his dad's wishes. He was determined to see it through though and he always kept Morgan and their future as his top priority. But he also expected her to realize that whatever he was doing was for them and their future, and I felt like that was complete unrealistic. I'm sorry but if the love of my life up and left me with no explanation and I didn't hear anything from him, regardless of how well I thought I knew him I would figure that we were over. That just didn't make sense to me at all. I also didn't really understand some of the things Morgan did. She was committed to Drake and fighting for them, and she believed that Drake would be back despite what he had done. But yet she allowed Adrian to take her out on dates and kiss her. I know that she and Drake weren't exactly together, but it felt like cheating to me and I wasn't okay with it.

I did think that the writing was much better in this book than the first, and some of the flow problems and chapter problems that I had with that story were so much better this time around. You could tell that L.K. Lewis's writing has improved and it was very noticeable from the first to the second book. I liked that the chapters weren't so choppy in this story, but that we still got multiple POVs. I will say that we get more than just Morgan and Drake's POVs in this story, and it was a bit much at times. It did allow the reader to see more of the story and what the characters were feeling, but at times it got to be confusing trying to figure out which character's POV it was. I liked the way that things were at the end of this story, but I felt that the ending was a bit abrupt and that there could have been more. Then I found out that there is going to be a third book to the series, so I am hoping that we will get more of Morgan and Drake's story and things will have a satisfying conclusion. I really didn't like Adrian in the first book, and I liked him even less in this. I hope that the third book doesn't focus as much on him. His character also confuses me. He was so calculated and manipulative in the first book and all through the beginning of this book. Then towards the end of this book its as though he flips a switch and is completely different. I didn't really believe that he would give up like that and just change his tune. I do like Morgan and Drake despite the criticisms that I had with these books, and I am interested in seeing how things end for all these characters. I really like Morgan's friend and Drake's friend a lot, and I am glad that they are together. I hope we get more of them in the next book. I think that Drake and Morgan's story is worth reading and I am looking forward to reading the next installment in this series.

**Copy provided by Xpresso Book Tours**

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