Blog Tour: Mia and the Bad Boy (Backstage Pass #2) by Lisa Burstein

Mia and the Bad Boy
Backstage Pass #2

By:
Lisa Burstein

Published:
May 19, 2015

Publisher:
Entangled Crush

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Source:
eARC from publisher for a honest review

GR's Summary:

This good girl’s about to meet her match… 

Ryder Brooks is living the dream—he’s famous, loved by millions of girls, and miserable. All he really wants is to write his own music, not Seconds to Juliet’s sugary sweet pop. In order to do that, though, the “bad boy” of the band will have to play by the rules. And that includes behaving with his new—and super cute—über-good-girl tutor. 

Mia Reyes is in fangirl heaven. Tutoring her favorite member of her favorite band? It’s a dream come true…until it turns into a complete nightmare. Ryder is nothing like she thought. He’s crude, arrogant, and pretty much a total jerk. And the worst part? She’s roped into pretending to be his girlfriend so that no one finds out he’s being tutored. Fake kisses, plenty of PDA, and even sharing his hotel room… 

But sometimes even the baddest of bad boys needs a little redemption.

Backstage Pass Series:

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My Thoughts:

Mia and the Bad Boy, is the second book in the Backstage Pass Series, but can be read as a standalone.  It was a sweet, and cute little romance, that was low on angst, and drama.  The story is told from the dual perspectives of famous "bad boy" musician, Ryder Brooks, and intelligent, dedicated, and hardworking, high school student, Mia Reyes.

Despite fame and fortune, Ryder Brooks is miserable in his band, Seconds to Juliet.  He is in a "boy band" and forced to write and sing pop music.  He longs to have the freedom to be creative and express himself musically.  Ryder's dream is to attend Berklee, a college known for its excellent music program.  However, something that nobody knows is that Ryder never graduated from high school.  He tasks his manager with finding a tutor to help him pass his GED, so he can apply to the college of his dreams.

Mia Reyes comes from a hard working, blue-collar, Mexican-American family.  Her parents want her to go to UCLA and become a doctor.  She is under a lot of pressure, because she wants to make them proud, and be the first person in her family to graduate from college.  When her mother's boss offers her a job tutoring, Ryder Brooks, she is ecstatic.  The money she will make from tutoring him for a month will pay for her college tuition, not to mention that he is gorgeous, and in her favorite band!

When Mia meets Ryder for the first time, she thinks he is rude, and egotistical.  However, he convinces her to stick to their tutoring arrangement.  It is important to Ryder that nobody knows that he didn't graduate high school, and that Mia is his tutor.  Therefore, he devizes a plan for Mia to "pretend" to be his girlfriend.  However, along the way, lines get crossed, feelings grow, and it leaves both Mia and Ryder wondering what is real and what is pretend.

Mia and the bad Boy was a fun romance.  For anyone that's ever fantasized about a rockstar, you will be able to relate to Mia.  I enjoy the pretending to be in a relationship trope, and enjoyed watching Ryder and Mia go from pretend feelings to real ones.  I loved learning about the depth to Ryder's character.  He may have appeared to be a "bad boy," but more than anything he was emotionally scarred and misunderstood.  I also enjoyed the character growth that Mia underwent in this story.  At the beginning of the story, she was passive, when it came to controlling her own life.  Her parents were overbearing (especially her mother), and I enjoyed Mia breaking out of her shell, experiencing life, and finding her voice. 

My Rating:

I give, Mia and the Bad Boy, 3.5 Fun, Sweet, Romance with a Sexy Musician Filled Stars! 

Book Teasers:

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About Lisa Burstein:

Lisa Burstein is a tea seller by day and a writer by night. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from the Inland Northwest Center for Writers at Eastern Washington University and is glad to finally have it be worth more than the paper it was printed on. She lives in Portland, Oregon with her very patient husband, a neurotic dog and two cats. 


She wrote her first story when she was in second grade. It was a Thanksgiving tale from the point of view of the turkey from freezer to oven to plate. It was scandalous.

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