In the Dark by Monica Murphy

Title: In the Dark (The Rules #2)
Author: Monica Murphy
Publisher: Self-Published
Release Date: August 25, 2015
Source: ARC from WordSmith Publicity
Buy the Book: Amazon / B&N / Indigo

Stuck spending the summer with his screwed up family, Gabriel Walker is bored out of his mind and looking for adventure. And he seems to find it with the hot girl who lives next door. The attraction between them is instant. Electric. Soon they’re spending every stolen minute together. Talk about the perfect summer fling…

Lucy isn’t what she seems. She doesn’t live next door—she’s the girl who’s been hired to house sit for the summer while the family goes on a worldwide vacation. If Gabe wants to believe she’s a spoiled rich girl looking for some fun, she can go along with that. After the summer, she’ll never see him again.

They don’t count on running into each other at college. Now Lucy must keep up the prettiness of being a rich girl—and it’s exhausting. She knows she’s falling in love with Gave and she’s scared he feels the same. Will he still care about he discovers the truth?

Earlier this summer, I loved reading the first book in Monica Murphy’s The Rules series. It was fun, it was flirty and had some awesome banter. And the second book in this series, In the Dark, was just as good as the first.

The last thing Gabriel Walker wanted to do the summer before his last year of college was be stuck in a house with his parents. Gabe was counting down the days until the end of summer, but when he noticed the hot girl staying at the house next door, things started looking up. Lucy scored a great summer job: house sitting a house on the beach and spending her days reading by the pool. When Gabe, the hot guy staying next door, comes around and assumes he’s just a spoiled rich girl, Lucy goes along with it. After all, once summer is over it’s not like she’s going to see Gabe again. At least, that’s what should have happened. When they run into each other at school, Gabe and Lucy will have to come to terms with the fact that maybe what they had wasn’t just a summer fling after all.

When I read Monica Murphy’s Fair Game earlier this summer, I didn’t expect to love it as much as I did. I mean, I knew going in that there was a very strong likelihood that I would enjoy the story. It’s New Adult and it’s romance, basically it had my name written all over it. But I quickly fell in love with what I was reading and by the time I finished, I was more than looking forward to reading more. So I was totally excited about In the Dark. And it absolutely didn’t disappoint me. Much like with the first book, I loved that this story was more than just a fluffy and flirty romance. Sure, the romance was fun and I loved every minute of it. But there were also deeper elements to the story, especially with the romance that only made me love it that much more. It’s all hard to explain without diving too much into the details and spoiling things, but just no that with In the Dark you’re getting more than just a fun romance. And I loved the way the romance happened. How it felt like it happened all at once, and then it happened all over again. Have I mentioned that the romance in In the Dark was great? In case it wasn’t obvious let me say it again, the romance and the relationship between Gabe and Lucy was fantastic and I loved it.

I can’t even begin to explain how much I loved Gabe and Lucy. I had gotten glimpses of Gabe in the first book and I’ll be honest and say that he didn’t exactly make a great first impression. But at the same time I had had the same thoughts about Shep and that turned out for the best. And the same thing happened with Gabe. As much as I didn’t think much of him in the first book, from the moment I started reading In the Dark, I really liked him. Sure, there were times when I questioned why he was doing certain things but that didn’t mean I didn’t like him. And I loved Lucy as well. Granted I didn’t always agree with her lying about her family and her background, but at the same time I could understand why she was doing it. Outside of that, I loved Lucy. And it should go without saying that I loved Lucy and Gabe together. I loved their summer relationship, and I loved their relationship once they were together at school. And when unexpected things happened, they were there for each other. Well for the most part, but it worked out in the end and that’s all that really mattered. So moral of the story, I loved Gabe and Lucy.

In case it wasn’t super obvious by now, I absolutely loved Monica Murphy’s In the Dark. This is the kind of book that you start reading and don’t want to put down until you’re finished. Though I’ll be sad to see the end of the Rules series, I still can’t wait to read Tristan’s story in Slow Play.