Book Summary: 

One immature dare. Two childhood enemies.
Three kisses to bring him to his knees …

Clarissa Wilson hates Adam James – his dentist-white smile, his ridiculous body built of muscles-upon-muscles, and that movie-star swagger that carries him into every room. So, back in their hometown of Moonshine — sixteen years later — with a revenge body and a new name, it’s a guilty thrill when Adam wants her … and has no idea she’s the chubby girl he teased throughout school.

As ‘Lissy,’ she’s determined to live by her own rules and hide her old scars — meaning she needs a plan to deal with Adam, their past, and the present. Luckily, his cheeky dare offers Lissy the perfect opportunity for payback: she has three kisses, and three chances to seduce the man who ruined her life … then leave him in the dust.

But Adam is playing with her heartstrings and rewriting their history, revealing things aren’t what they seem. Now, Lissy must decide who she really is and what her heart desires, because three kisses can’t undo a lifetime of hate … right?

My Review:

I can’t even begin to describe how wonderful it was to return to Moonshine! In the third book of the Moonshine series, we turn our attention to the town heartthrob, Adam James. We were given a hint of something going down at the end of “The Write Way for Love,” and it turns out these two books are set within the same timeline. While this can be read as a standalone, reading the books out of order will reveal spoilers for the previous books. If you intend to read “Meet Me in Moonshine” (where it all begins), definitely read it first, as this will give away the ending of that book (and trust me, the mystery is what makes that book so much fun!). With Lissy’s sass and Adam’s ability to turn anything into an innuendo, get ready to laugh, swoon, and fall in love with the people of this quaint little town.

Sixteen years. Sixteen years had passed since Adam James broke Clarissa Wilson’s heart. But you know what they say, revenge is best served cold. Adam may think it is a cute game of Truth or Dare with the new stranger in town, but Clarissa (now known as “Lissy”) has other things in mind. She’ll take Adam up on his little three-kiss dare, doused with much-deserved payback. The problem is, this kindling is fanning a flame she had hoped was extinguished. She wasn’t looking for complicated; she just wanted to return to her hometown of Moonshine under the cover of night, live her life, and maybe grab a singing gig at The Pope. Instead, she has become the star hairdresser at the local beauty salon and can’t seem to shake the attention of the last person she wants to recognize her. All games aside, the past and the present need to stay separated, which means keeping Adam as far away from her heart as possible. She has survived worse; surely, she can survive the gravitational pull of one “Adam freaking James.” How hard could that be?

Brooklyn has an incredible talent for creating characters that you not only admire but also want to be best friends with. From Lissy’s vivid imagination to Meredith’s admirable free spirit, good nature, and electric personality, to Adam being an enigma of a person that you want to hate, love, and everything in between—you don’t just enjoy these characters, you fall in love with them.

I don’t even know where to begin with everything I liked (and absolutely loved) about this book. Let’s start with the leap between past and present. The story structure is always my favorite because it provides the best foundation for the relationship between characters. We are not being told second-hand how they “used to be”; we get to witness it. We watch over the years how Adam and Clarissa orbited around each other, grew to tolerate, like, and even at an adolescent level—love one another. This tethering of the past and present intensified the emotions, feelings, and fallout. Again, we weren’t just hearing about what happened or sympathizing via a retelling (which can be skewed); we were there—forming our own opinions.

I also appreciated the slow burn of the story. It wasn’t a “Will they, won’t they” per se, but more about whether they could overcome the past to build a future. This prevented the story from magically resolving and allowed for a much-respected realistic aspect. Adam didn’t just realize who Lissy was and—poof—happily ever after. There were years of heartache, pain, and angst that would have been unbelievable if they had just dissolved in a moment. The continued back and forth, struggle, and resistance that Clarissa faced—the need to escape, to protect herself, her heart, at all costs—was believable, relatable, and the lifeline of the story.

This structure also allowed Brooklyn to focus on the secondary characters of the story instead of solely on the intensity between Clarissa and Adam. By doing this, she did an excellent job recapping the important highlights of prior stories to bring the first two books into this one. While you don’t need to read “Meet Me in Moonshine” or “The Write Way for Love” to enjoy “The Insufferable Adam James,” it does give you a more complete history of sub-stories referenced and the wonderful town of Moonshine.

My absolute favorite aspect was the war between the angel and demon on Clarissa’s shoulders. It felt as if there were times they didn’t even understand what side they were on! This added an additional dimension to Clarissa’s character—the innocence and rawness of her past warring with the sassiness and strength of her present. By personifying these parts of her, we were given an even better understanding of the inner turmoil of her feelings towards Adam.

Brooklyn focused hard on bullying in this story and the destruction it could cause. Brenton and his gang never let up and pinned a target on Clarissa’s back from the moment Adam was smitten with her. We never really learn the root cause of why, but the reader may infer that Brenton didn’t like the competition for Adam’s attention. Rather than going down that rabbit hole of speculation, I will focus on the detriment of bullying. We saw the fear it invoked, the paranoia, and for what? He and his friends tortured Clarissa, and while she wanted to rise above it, it indirectly stripped her of the one thing she loved the most (even when he thought his intentions were pure—in an effort to protect her). Brooklyn also highlights that whether you run away or stay, the greatest obstacle to overcome is the healing process. She took great care to add the tools Adam and Clarissa used to battle the ghosts of their past. We witnessed that even separated, unbeknownst to one another, Adam and Lissy were still tethered in their journey of healing.

Perspective, assumption, and orchestrated narratives were also ongoing themes. With Adam, when we were able to lift the hood and see what was underneath, it destroyed everything we ever knew—especially if you had read the prior stories. “Meet Me in Moonshine” hinted that Adam was much more than he seemed, but our perspectives were skewed in “The Write Way for Love” by the people of Moonshine, and we found ourselves believing the same assumptions as the rest of the town. The stories, the rumors, and whispers were never questioned and yet never directly denied by Adam himself. It was heartbreaking to learn that he found this as a way of penitence—punishment, an uncertain path to redemption for letting down the one person who cared for him the most. To hear his side of the story, what he went through, how he suffered, how he tried to escape but came back to live with the ghosts of his past, made you realize how easy it is to believe a lie, a rumor, rather than actually get to know someone and discover the truth.

What I most admire about Adam’s character is that he didn’t give in to the image that was created for him. He was celibate for five years. He could have easily become the story created by his ex—sleeping his way through town and being a guaranteed good time. It took a lot for him to secretly hate how he was perceived while keeping up appearances and being good-natured about the labels, the rumors, and the whispers.

The approach to intimacy as punishment in this story was interesting. The heated moments between Clarissa and Adam were supposed to be sizzling and combustive, and yet, with the knowledge of hurt, pain, and sorrow—you understood that while it was lust and connection for Adam, it was payback and mental warfare for Clarissa. Each connection with him was a clash between past and present, the girl who once loved him versus the woman who now loathed him. It amplified these moments because of the current that flowed between them.

While I am sad to close the book on Clarissa and Adam, I was very excited to get a sneak peek at a pairing I have always been suspicious about. For those who are as much of a fan of the Moonshine series as I am, get ready for a little festive magic coming later this year!