Secondhand Smoke

Oh, Aidan.


I was really looking forward to this book, and it did not disappoint!

Aidan's a fuckboy. He's a selfish, immature manwhore...at least, that's what he was in previous books.

This is the story of Aidan growing from a boy to a man. He makes mistakes...like, hella mistakes in this book. At times, he was a downright idiot. But, those mistakes are what made him change for the better.

Sam is a college professor & the ultimate good girl. She's been in love with Aidan since high school.
He never noticed her, until she became Ava's friend.

“‘You don't want me,' she said through her teeth. ‘You think you do, now, all of a sudden, because Tonya used you and made you feel like shit...I make you feel better, right? You said so. Because I'm this pathetic...loser...who has a crush on you, and looks at you adoringly, and makes you feel like a man. You don't want me. You want the ego boost.'”


Damn girl.

But, I loved them together. A perfect unbalanced match.

There wasn't a lot of mystery as to how the story was going to unfold. I knew that Aidan wouldn't tell her about the baby, that she would find out some other way. I knew he wouldn't tell Ghost about Greg, but that was his immaturity shining through. That was the turning point for him though, and god did I love mature Aidan.

IMO, there wasn't enough groveling for the whole baby thing. I just needed a teeny bit more. Sam of course, didn't let him get away with it though
“'But don't you get it? You can't blunder through life one accident at a time. I won't let myself be another of your accidents. When are you going to grow up? When the baby comes? After? Never?'”
Yes bitch.

This book was also focusing on Tango, since his book is next it introduced us even more into his fucked up mind. This helped Aidan on his journey into manhood. After what happened to Tango, I saw a completely different Aidan.

Ghost and Aidan finally hashed out their shit. This book made me hate Ghost even more than I already did. But, he did get some brownie points at the end of the book. But still...Fuck you Ghost.


There was so much more to this story than romance. Lauren Gilley is an amazing author. I know I say that in every review, but fuck if it ain't true. You get chapters about the other characters that we have read about and grown to love.

Warnings:To me, this book didn't really have any horrible parts except for some of Tango's story. But just be aware that this series as a whole has some fucked up content in it. If you have any triggers, I may just skip this series, or just tread very carefully. As amazing as this series is, it deals with real shit.