The Studying Hours is book 1 in the How to Date a Douchebag series. Recently, I talked about tropes in romance books and one I mentioned being tired of is the man whore trope. This is the main trope used in The Studying Hours so I was a bit disappointed at first; however, in all fairness, the series is all about douchebags so its not like I was really expecting different. I guess I was just hoping maybe Oz, the hero, was misunderstood. Nope, he is a huge man whore.
My second comment on the hero is that he does have sex and engage in sexual behavior with other girls after meeting the heroine. I know there are lots of readers who are bothered by this behavior, so I wanted to make it clear up front!
Sebastian "Oz" is very arrogant. He is a D1 wrestler and thinks he is God's gift. When Jameson won't give him the time of day, the game is on! He is determined to figure her out. So, his motives start with nothing more than figuring out why she is immune. He wants to be an HR director after college so he can stand up for people (after a specific incident his sister endured). However, he treats women pretty poorly, so I struggled with his desire to be a good guy. It was like he realized his behavior and the way he treats women is wrong, but only when its in the workplace. At college, its fine apparently... This is typical of my struggle with Oz. You get a glimpse of a good person under the man whore ways, then it collides with his actions and the dichotomy isn't painting a good picture of him.
Jameson is a bit more of your typical girl. She plays it cool, but when she finds out he is asking friends about her, she gets giddy. I wanted to punch her at the point. But, overall, I really liked her and loved that she pushed Oz to respect her.
Eventually, Oz won me over. I didn't expect it, but I kind of did fall in love with these two. However, I am NOT in love with Zeke....I am not sure she can redeem him in the next book.
- POV: 1st (Oz and Jameson)
- Tears: no
- Trope: man whore
- Triggers: none
- Series/Standalone: stand alone within an interconnected series
- Cliffhanger: no
- HEA: yes
#Nerd by Cambria Hebert, Fallen Crest by Tijan, Filthy English by Ilsa Madden Mills, The Goal by Elle Kennedy...then you will probably like The Studying Hours!
See full review on The Book Disciple