Book Summary: 

When it comes to women, life has taught me I don’t always get want I want. But I want my good girl roommate, and I’m going to fight like hell to get her.

I thought I asked her out on a date. She thought it was a friendly invite to lunch. Why the misunderstanding? She assumed—wrongly, I might add—that I was in a relationship.

With. My. Brother.

Now she’s my roommate, and she has all of these rules designed to keep things strictly platonic between us.

As far as I’m concerned, rules are meant to be broken.

And little by little I’m going to break every last one of hers.

What started out as a fun game to rile her up has turned into something dangerously close to a relationship. She’s been burned one too many times, and I learned the hard way that women never stay. I may have set out to break all of her rules, but in the end, she might break me instead.

Mini Review:

This is the first book I have read by Aria Bliss and let me tell you, I enjoyed every moment of it. While the story wasn’t anything new to the contemporary romance genre, the uniqueness of the names used and just the personalities of the characters gave it an enjoyable twist that kept you engaged. I am so glad this was written from a dual POV because being inside Trent and Persephone’s heads and comparing how they interacted with the inner turmoil added so much depth to the characters. I will say Penny’s background is one I haven’t experienced in the 250+ romance books I have read. Her sheltered life made her so vulnerable to the world around her. It was interesting to see how much she loved and loathed her childhood. The togetherness, love, and closeness of her family gave her the support most would dream of, but it prevented her from experiencing the realities in adolescence that shape us to deal with the rest of the world. Entering society that sheltered made her an easy target, and it was unfortunate to see how many people in her life jumped at the chance to exploit her naïveté. I couldn’t, for the life of me, understand why she just didn’t block Marigold and Cullen, and while I want to sit here and say I have never heard of two people that despicable, unfortunately, I have, and it’s sickening how true to life their actions were.

The situation with Trent was, again, nothing new. I have read the playboy who wants to reform for the right woman and falls first. What I loved about his story was 1) Penny thought he was gay, and throughout the story, there was the ongoing humor of why she (and most women) would make that mistake. 2) His use of Gaelic when it came to terms of endearment, and that Aria took the time to defined each one (although I had already cheated and looked them up). The third was his interaction with Penny’s brothers! I can’t even begin to fathom what Atticus, Eros, Demetrius, and Adonis looked like in real life, but the way they were described, I applaud Trent for holding his own when he had to deal with them! They were a wonderful addition to the story, and while I haven’t checked to see if they have their own spin-off, I would be the first to read their individual stories.

Back to the overall story, the situation between Trent and his mother brought a growl out of me that I haven’t heard before. The audacity of that woman! It was infuriating what she had done and how she treated not just Trent but Sophia. What era is she stuck in? I am glad she finally came to her senses, but the things she did, in my mind, would have been unforgivable – no mother should do what she did to her child, and keep doing it despite being made aware of how much damage it is causing!

All in all, “Asides From Me” had more heart and tenderness than I was expecting. While there weren’t laugh-out-loud moments, I did giggle quite a bit, and my chest tightened over how much I connected to the characters. I read the bonus scene with Luke and Nicole’s story, and while it seems like their story is a no-win situation, Aria has proven she can make the improbable possible.