Review: Professor Cline Revealed by J.M. La Rocca

Professor Cline Revealed is the first book in the Professor series by J.M. La Rocca. This book is not a standalone and does end with a bit of a cliffhanger. The second book in the series, Professor Cline Redeemed is now available though, so don't let that hold you back from reading this one. This is my first J.M. La Rocca book, and I enjoyed a lot of it. There were some things that I did have some issues with, but I will continue the series as I am curious to see what is in store for these characters.

At first glance Mason Cline seems to have everything he could ever want. He is a successful law professor at NYU, he is handsome and has a successful family and the money to go with it. But underneath the facade, Mason has a ton of secrets and is living an unhappy life. Though Mason tries to drown his secrets in alcohol and women, he finds himself unable to fully escape the horrors he has experienced. But when he meets Emma, he finds himself drawn to someone for the first time in years. Though he knows that he needs to stay away from her, he finds himself unable to. Though Emma knows that her law professor is the last person she should be with, she also finds herself drawn to him in a way she never was with her ex. But Emma isn't about to be another one of Mason's women to be used and discarded. The more Emma learns about Mason, the more she realizes that she doesn't know him at all. 

I liked Mason. He is seriously messed up and has a lot of issues, and his past is just starting to be revealed here. I have to say that I am a sucker for a tortured hero, and I love seeing them grow and change with the help of a strong heroine. There is just something about someone broken and damaged that is able to finally push past all the bad and find love when they least expect it. But I really had some issues with Emma here, and I found myself bored with her character. While Mason and Emma clearly have chemistry and attraction and couldn't be hotter when it comes to sex, Emma was pretty bland everywhere else. When she wasn't with Mason, I found myself not really caring about her at all. I wanted her to be stronger or a bit more feisty, and I just didn't really see much of that over the course of this book. 

Overall, I thought that the story was intriguing and I am invested enough that I need to know what happens. I am curious about Mason's past as well as some of the things that happened at the end of this book. Things are definitely about to get more interesting, and I really hope that Emma is better for me in the second book. For some reason I just wasn't clicking with her character here, and I would really like to see her step up and challenge Mason a bit more. I will say that these two were super hot together though, and I really enjoyed their steamy scenes! I found myself skimming to get to those, and I couldn't get enough of Mason! Something that I think readers should be aware of before reading this one though is the fact that while this isn't necessarily what I would classify as a dark read, it does have some dark elements that might bother some. There are a few things that could possibly be a trigger for those that have issues with self harm, so if that is something to keep in mind when determining if this series is for you.

**Review Copy Provided by TRSOR Promotions**

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ARC Review: Professor Cline Revealed by J.M. La Rocca

Professor Cline is Mason Cline, a law professor at NYU. Emma is a law student at NYU. Mason is effed up 10 ways to Tuesday and Emma is…a law student….

I can’t put my finger on it but there was just SOMETHING about this book that didn’t do it for me. My best guess is that it was the depiction of Emma that left me with a case of the “meh”’s. Mason was a pretty compelling character, he was all angsty and effed up, just how I like them. When you put a female character into a story opposite a character like that, she needs some depth that I just didn’t get from Emma.

Emma was kind of the typical push-over 20 something year old just living life. The stuff that happened to her was more interesting than she was. So besides being physically attractive I didn’t really understand the connection between Emma and Mason. Emma was just…regular. There was never a point in the book when Emma really drew Mason out because of something she did. Now, that may be because this is a serial and we just have to wait to see what comes next but I’m a pretty impatient person. It’s like, if you want me to wait on a meal, I’m going to need a snack and I just didn’t get enough of one in this book.

I thought Mason’s back story was intriguing and I truly appreciated his very crazy coping mechanisms. I’m also a dark romance reader. If you’re not, things could get a little dicey for you. This doesn’t rank high on the “dark” scale but if you normally stick with the very “light” stuff, there could be some disturbing things in this book.

The writing of this book is good, the story, from Mason’s perspective is compelling and the sex is HAWT. My only issue with this book was that I found Emma, outside of the sex scenes, boring. That means I was bored by like 30% of this book. All that being said, I will still try Book 2 because I was intrigued enough by Mason to want to see what happens next with him.

A petty note: It didn’t effect my rating of this book but I went to law school and I don’t recall it being like this. I didn’t go to NYU (because those bastards had me on the wait list forever. Whatever, I’m over it) so I don’t know exactly how things go there but I’m going to assume it’s something like the school I did attend. I graduated several years ago so maybe things have changed but I’m reasonably certain they haven’t changed enough for the type of shenanigans that was going on in this book to be plausible. I say this in case you are considering attending law school and you think there is any chance any of this stuff will be happening to you. You are more likely to walk away with a nervous twitch and a lot of debt than a Emma-Mason situation.

**ARC provided by NetGalley**

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