Title: Study Hard
Author:  Ava Sterling
Publisher/Year:  Red Lace Publishing 1/4/16
Length:   22 Pages

Overview

Graduating from college is hard enough without being single.

Faye’s best friend, Dakota, helps keep her mind off men by helping her study. The big exam coming up is making Faye lose sleep.

Dakota offers up her dad’s house for them to cram some studying in. It’s much quieter than the university library, especially considering that Dakota’s dad is out of town on business. Within an hour of being there, though, her dad arrives home after changing his flight. 

He doesn’t mind that they dropped by, but Faye finds it hard to concentrate on her studies with such an attractive, confident man nearby. She’d never do anything to hurt Dakota, but this is something Faye has never encountered before. 

She’ll have to decide whether experiencing Mr. Stevens is thrilling enough to risk a friendship over.

My Thoughts

I’ve read quite a few stories now from Ms Ava Sterling and this one may be one of my favorites. White short and concise, it has a mix of the character development and dual plot line that could make for an even more robust story.

To build off what’s in the summary of the story, we have two college friends who’ve clearly known each other for a long time and who work to elevate each other, either in school or with their personal lives. We’re first teeing it up here with the idea that Faye was successful in getting the attention of a hot guy at a party the previous night and there’s no jealousy there. nice right?

Then it’s back to studying – finals are no joke and that’s what seems to be on deck for them. As is always the case, there are distractions over and over again, either in thinking about the hot guy from the party, doing other stuff, or now, the fantasy of Dakota’s father – a guy who has been divorced, keeps himself in amazing shape, and well, the object of Faye’s attentions (in her mind at least) for years.

What we have here is a well laid out novella – seeing how this can all play out in the obvious but not obvious sort of way. We know that things will ‘go down’ once the girls relocate to Dakota’s dad’s house, but the question that begs is how will it happen, what’s the opportunity there, will Dakota find out, and backing it up a second, will her father even be into it?

Let’s just say that what we have in the final pages of this story were exactly what i needed last night. There are teases of the rationale for why an older man is better – Faye even vocalizes that, and the scene that Ms Sterling lays out gives us everything we wanted and more. Yet again I wish that we didn’t just have 22 pages, but happy to have enjoyed this one anyway!

And…..it would be an Ava Sterling Post without a giveaway! Enter here for your chance to win your own copy! good luck!