Review: Mark Cooper versus America by Lisa Henry and J.A. Rock.

Mark Cooper is angry, homesick, and about to take his stepdad’s dubious advice and rush Prescott College’s biggest party fraternity, Alpha Delta Phi. Greek life is as foreign to Aussie transplant Mark as Pennsylvania’s snowstorms and bear sightings. So, when the fraternity extends Mark a bid, Mark vows to get himself kicked out by the end of pledge period. But then he’s drawn into Alpha Delt’s feud with a neighboring fraternity.

Studious Deacon Holt is disappointed to learn Mark’s pledging Alpha Delt, his fraternity Phi Sigma Kappa’s sworn enemy. Mark is too beautiful for Deacon to pass up an invitation for sex, but beyond sex, Deacon’s not sure. He wants a relationship, but a difficult family situation prevents him from pursuing anything beyond his studies.

Mark and Deacon’s affair heats up as the war between their fraternities escalates. They explore kinks they didn’t know they had while keeping their liaison a secret from their brothers. But what Romeo and Juliet didn’t teach these star-crossed lovers is how to move beyond sex and into a place where they share more than a bed. That’s something they’ll have to figure out on their own—if the friction between their houses, and between Mark and America, doesn’t tear them apart.

Sooooo, if anyone had told me I'd be rating a book that ended with a

SPOILER ALERT

***************************************************************************







Fisting  - highlight here with your mouse.









*********************************************************************************
five hearts, I'd have told them they were NUTS. But guess what, I did.

What can I say I adored this book from the second I opened it, fellow Unicorns didn't fare so well, but I was hooked. I think the fact that I absolutely loved Mark from the first second I met him helped. An Aussie bloke uprooted to live in America he couldn't even get a beer on his 18th birthday - I sympathised, here across the pond we do tend to celebrate 18 in the pubs and clubs, legally adults we're allowed to drink, waiting another three years for that legal pint, torture. I'm not saying being able to drink is the be all and end all, much older and wiser now I cringe at the hangovers of my past, but hey, I enjoyed them at the time (well not so much the hangover but the bits that came before the hangover) but I digress. Yeah I liked Mark, he was 18 but he had attitude - yet we still saw his nice side.

I also loved the more serious Deacon. Usually one or the other main character is who I luuuurve the most, but in MCVA the loving was equal. They were both great.

The whole fraternity thing - well I'm very glad I didn't go to college in America, I love the USA but really? REALLY? This actually happens? OMG. I've obviously read/watched some frat/sorority stuff before but it just seemed so much worse in this book.....however I liked it. God knows what that says about me, I really don't want to analyse it. It also tackled some serious bullying, reactions to which were not at all ideal, but reflective and realistic. If it makes you stop and think about how your interaction could help then good. It did me.

So the rooooomance (hey when you read that you have to do it in a sexy, drawn out, teenage girl way), well Deacon and Mark just worked so well together I was completely lost in their story. I don't want to spoiler it but I just loved them as a couple. They needed to be together, the way wasn't always plain sailing, but they got there in the end.

Sometimes when there is a lot of hype about a book it is easy to feel let down by the finished product, expectations can be too high, but in this case, in my opinion, no sirree it was as good as the hype suggested.