The Devil You Know

South Bay Players #1

by Veronica Eden

I'm all set for my first semester at college. Dream field of study. Five year plan. Brand new notebooks. But one thing can't come to campus--my V-card. Being a virgin isn't the biggest part of my problem. What I need to prepare for the full college experience is someone to teach me how to be good in bed. I have the perfect tutor in my brother's best friend. Cooper Vale. Hometown heartthrob, sultry bad boy, and my neighbor since we were four. Also available as an eBook and paperback.

Genres: Romance, College, Fake Dating, Friends To Lovers, Contemporary, New Adult, College Romance

Kindle Edition

First published August 12, 2022

About the author

Veronica Eden is a USA Today and International bestselling author of romances with spitfire heroines, irresistible heroes, and edgy twists.

She loves exploring complicated feelings, magical worlds, epic adventures, and the bond of characters that embrace us against the world. She has always been drawn to gruff bad boys, clever villains, and the twisty-turns of a morally gray character. She is a sucker for a deliciously swoony hero with a devastating smirk. When not writing, she can be found soaking up sunshine at the beach, snuggling in a pile with her untamed pack of animals (her husband, dog and cats), and surrounding herself with as many plants as she can get her hands on.

Keep up with Veronica:
Newsletter Sign up ➜ bit.ly/venewsletter
Instagram ➜ instagram.com/veronicaedenauthor
Website ➜ bit.ly/veronicaeden
Amazon ➜ amazon.com/author/veronicaeden
Facebook ➜ facebook.com/veronicaedenauthor
TikTok ➜ tiktok.com/@veronicaedenbooks

Reviews

[. (rip) · Rating 2 out of 5]

ew not them making tiktok their whole personality

[Intel Chicky Reads Romance (Kara Merideth) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Story: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4.5)
Trope: fake relationship
Angst: 😱😱😱
Smexy: 🔥🔥🔥🔥

Super sweet and spicy! Tatum is a super smart girl that leans toward a bit of OCD, lol. Plans her life out. Has goals and studies hard and makes notes on ALL of it. She's been so busy trying to meet her goals that she hasn't had time for a lot of experiences like other girls her age. And she wants to experience it all - that's why she's the girl with the plan. The plan to lose her virginity before college so she can go "prepared" for what's to come. When Tatum goes to Cooper, her brother's best friend and town playboy, he can't believe his luck. He's been crushing on her this entire time and soon comes up with a plan of his own.

Absolutely loved it! This was such a cute and fun read ❤️. Super fast paced with tons of laugh out loud moments. The only thing I didn't like was the whole "if you all would just have an honest conversation, it would make this so much easier" part, lol. Not my favorite trope, but it did lend itself to some angst and comedic moments. Definitely worth picking up - especially if you're a fan of brother's best friend and/or fake relationships!

⛔️ My bookshelves can sometimes contain spoilers

[Yas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Commence Operation: Notebooks, sticky notes, and a lot of spice! [eggplant emoji]

The Devil You Know was such a cute and fun read!
The story was hella spicy, and I’m a sucker for ✨study lessons✨, fake dating, and the Brother’s best friend trope!

Cooper was freaking perfect!
I LOVED that he couldn’t stop kissing her whenever she did literally anything. 😂 The guy was obsessed with Tatum, and I was obsessed with him. And he has a freaking dimple! 😫

Tatum was such a sweetie! I’m not the biggest fan of the virgin heroine trope, but it didn’t bother me here. On the contrary, I actually really liked how Veronica Eden handled that topic.
And her slight OCD tendencies and love for planners made her such a lovable character to me.

And I loved the sticky notes that played a role in their relationship! 🥹

The only thing I disliked was the use of TikTok (The MMC has a TikTok acc and a large following, and they make couple content at one point)
But I loved the rest so much that I tried to blend it out :)

Overall, I really enjoyed this one, and if you’re looking for something spicy, light, and cute to read, check this book out!

🗂Genre: Contemporary Romance
📕Type: Standalone

🏷Tropes:
- Brother’s best friend
- He falls first & Boy obsessed
- ✨study lessons✨ and a lot of “fake“ making out
- Fake dating
- “Playboy” MMC x Virgin FMC
- Pining

⚠️Safety: no cheating, slight OWD (but MMC only has eyes for the FMC)

📖KU: 1st person, Dual POV

🎧Theme song: Watermelon Sugar - Harry Styles

📚If you loved this, check out: Blind Side, The Deal, The Kiss Quotient

___Reviews___
Book 1 (Tatum & Cooper ): The Devil You Know
Novella (Simone and Jackson: The Player You Need

[ApoorvaReads · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars ⭐️

this was low-key quite cute.

[casey · Rating 2 out of 5]

honestly this was cute and all, but i truly could've done without the CONSTANT mentions of tiktok/social media + them putting each other's names in their bios like it's middle school, like pls why 😵‍💫

[Melluvsbooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Safe and sweet. Very little drama. I was kinda bored. Overly pc. Super sanitized romance is dull. 🤷🏼‍♀️

[tane'a · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5⭐️ you know i was having a really good time with this one but then that 3rd act made me put down the book for weeks because i was so irritated

also every time tiktok was mentioned in this book, it killed my spirit

[Andi Valentin · Rating 1 out of 5]

“cream on my dick” was a line in this book, so

[Morgana · Rating 2 out of 5]

this is a good enough book, although it could be 200 pages shorter.

the real question is: WHY DID HE HAVE TO BE A DANCING TIKTOKER

[Büşra · Rating 4 out of 5]

⭐4.5
Fake Date
Friends with Benefits
Spice tutor
Brother's best friend
Spicy 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Dual pov

°°°°°
Evet yok yoktu bu kitapta ve tam olarak kafa dağıtmalık bir oturuşta okunabilecek bir kitap. Öncelikle beklediğimden daha atesliydi. Coop ve dirty talkları 💥 eridik eridik. Ayrıca Tatum'dan etkilendiğini anladığı anda sadece ona odaklanması ve başka kimseye bakmaması..severiz böyle karakterleri🤌
Tatum da oldukça planlı yaşayan ve her şeyi ajandaya geçiren ve oldukça planlı-programlı yaşayan biri ve bende program yapmayı ona göre düzen kurmayı çok severim o yüzden bu özelliğini kendime benzettim. 😂
Kitap beni yormadı hatta kırılma anında baya güldüm jddjsjs yani biraz noluyo dedim ama neyse ki kısa sürmüştü. Tam böyle smutu bol, kafa dağıtmalık kitaplardan biriydi 🤤
Ayrıca Coop'un sürekli Tatum'a kalp şeklinde not bırakması..bu detaya da ölmüşüm.💋

[Yami’s Bookshelf · Rating 5 out of 5]

Veronica Eden has written a Summer worthy beach read with surfing and beach fun times.

Our main characters, Cooper and Tatum, have had the hots for one another since forever. Their only detractor? Tatum’s brother who has put a No Go sign on his sister, knowing what a player Cooper is.

Tatum, on the other hand, wants Cooper to be the one to take her V Card before she leaves to college. She’s a straight laced “A” student with no social life in high school. Can Cooper do this favor for her? You must read this awesome book and find out.

And how can you not love scooper? He’s the ideal Swoonworthy boyfriend who is so in love with Tatum and she didn’t even realize it.

I’m not one to give 5 stars, but this book kept me wanting to read more and more. I finished it in two days. I highly recommend it and I did give it 5 stars since I would recommend my friends to read it.

It has sweet romantic moments as well as tons of spicy, sexy times to end your summer with a bang.

The Devil You Know is a new adult brother's best friend romance with spice tutoring from the swoony surfer boy next door, friends with benefits, and fake dating. It's a lighthearted and sexy  beach read to end your summer with a bang.

[zahraa · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5 ✰ - the devil you know review 💌

- thank you so much veronica eden for the arc!

this is not my first VE book, so i already knew i was going to enjoy this!

This college romance includes the brother’s best friend trope & fake dating!! While I must say I was slightly surprised by how up to date the setting was, it didn’t bother me as much as I had thought it would, initially! It was actually kinda cute to understand and relate to the characters.

As per usual, Veronica Eden’s writing was fast paced & captivating & I not only found myself relating to the characters but also anticipating what was yet to come!

Cooper & Tatum were adorable! I do wish, however that Cooper’s initial interest in her hadn’t been as “sudden”? It felt like after his breakup his interest in Tate had peaked a bit too quickly? But other than that, their development & their overall plot line was really well written & enjoyable overall!

Can’t wait to see what else Veronica Eden has in store!

[Bri · Rating 4 out of 5]

NOW LIVE!
Amazon US * Amazon UK

Cooper & Tatum were pretty cute and I very much enjoyed getting to see them together. Tatum may have been the "good girl" of the group and the inexperienced one but she never came off as naive and I actually liked her character a lot. I thought she was pretty relatable as and it was easy to picture a college prepared teenager that wanted to experience everything her peers were. 
As for Cooper I felt like we got to see the secret side to him that his friends didn't know existed and I thought that was really fun. I liked that we didn't have to dig into some playboy type of character to find his hidden vulnerabilities or his sweet side, instead it was all right there on every page for us to see. It helped the connection he and Tatum shared show and made me love them as a couple. 

The only thing I found a little cringe about this book was the TikTok references. It's completely my own pet-peeve and I'm probably the only one that even feels that way but the social media aspect was very heavy in this book. I can say it wasn't too bad and it did sort of fit with the story, but it's just something I never get into very easily. Only two or so chapters in I had to stop and look up just how much TikTok was going to be mentioned since it had felt like a lot already (22 times, by the way). 

[Brianna · Rating 4 out of 5]

*ARC was provided in exchange for an honest review*

3.5/5 ⭐️
3.25/5 🌶

Tropes:
- brother’s best friend
- friends with benefits
- spice tutor
- neighbors
- fake dating
- friends to lovers
- reformed playboy
- surfer x nerd
- virgin heroine
- beach & college setting

POV: first person - dual

Type: interconnected stand-alone (book one)

Tate has a plan and goal for everything. Whatever she sets out to do, she achieves. There’s only one thing she’s determined to check off, but it’s gonna require the assistance of her brother’s best friend who is willing to lend a hand in exchange for some tutoring of his own.

I enjoyed nearly everything about this! The surf + beach vibes is just what I needed this summer. The school portion of the book did make me slightly anxious about college approaching soon and I did wish the summer portion lasted a bit longer.

The spice was HOT, which is always a plus.

The only thing I could not get with was the social media aspect. Normally modern references such as social media make me cringe. And current day social media such as TikTok and instagram (mainly TikTok) were used HEAVILY in the plot. It’s a personal preference, I just don’t like it. It makes the book not feel timeless. If someone were to read this is the far future they’d probably be confused as if the younger generation were reading about MySpace for example. Again it’s a me thing but that’s the reason for my lowered rating.

Everything else was down right enjoyable. I definitely recommend if you don’t mind social media playing a part in the story!

[Dani (Daniiireads) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tropes:
- brother’s best friend
- fake dating
- forbidden romance
- virgin

RTC

[Jenifer Briggs · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first time reading this author, and since I love brothers best friend, i couldn't wait to start reading!! Plus that cover?! So gorgeous!! And while I did really like their relationship (Coop could really be a swoony motherfucker) this was *heavy* on the millennial generation. Meaning the way they talk, the use of tik tok, their mannerisms -- it was a lot. At some times it was overwhelming and took me out of the story, but I realize that's a *me* problem. Part if it is I don't understand TT, but I think the focus on all that really took away from exploring more of their emotional connection. That being said, I really loved this couple, and I loved how it didn't follow the usual format for this trope. And the sexy scenes were very 🥵🥵🥵🥵

So here we have Tatum, who is about to start her freshman year of college. She spent all of high school focused on her studies, so her social skills aren't on par as people her age. Plus she's a very analytical thinker, but she's not cold by any means. I loved how differently her brain worked, and I loved how much Coop loved it too. So in order to push her boundaries, she enlists the help of Coop to do the one thing she wants crossed off her list more than anything: lose her virginity. But she never expected that her brothers best friend has pined for her all these years, or just how much this arrangement is going to change both of their lives.

Coop has so much depth to him, which you wouldn't see on your first interaction, but basically he's so tired of being seen as a playboy. He doesn't know what he wants to do with his life, and he adores that T has always known, plus he's always had a softness for he's besties little sister, even though he knows he can never have her. So even though he initially rejects her proposal he finds a way they can both each other: he will "tutor" her during the summer so she's ready for dating life, and she will help him narrow down what he wants to do with his life and help him get ready for classes. We all know they are fighting deeper feelings for one another than they are willing to admit, and I loved how much Coop loved Tatum. He never once made her feel anything less than she deserved and never pressured her for more than she could give, even if it hurt him in the process. Plus she really brought out what was always in him, and made everyone else around them see the potential she always saw. They were just such a cute couple!!

Besides my earlier complaints (which like I said, is a very me thing) this was such a sweet brothers best friend romance. I'm hoping we'll get to see a book with T's brother and *her* best friend too! I saw all those sparks flying. *winks*

Although this was my first time reading this author, it won't be my last!!

**I received an ARC of this book and these are my honest opinions **

[Renée · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Devil You Know by Veronica Eden is a story with faking dating, friends with benefits and brothers best friend as just some of the tropes.

Tatum is about to start college and her main goal before then: lose her V-card. But it’s not as simple as that, she also wants someone to teacher her. Enter Cooper. He’s Tatum’s brothers best friend, a little older, her crush and completely off limits.

The emotion, sexual tension and everything in between, is well written and captured with POV’s from both Tatum and Cooper.

This quote is perfect for the story:
“Better the devil you know, especially to proposition to become your tutor between the sheets.”

[Sammie Bow · Rating 3 out of 5]

3⭐️

The first half of this was good then it just didn’t go in the direction I thought, I was kind of hoping for more drama and angst but this was a totally tame read which is still ok. Cooper and Tatum were great together, I just wanted more.

POV: Dual, 1st person.
SERIES or STANDALONE: Standalone.
TROPES: M/F new adult, college, brothers best friend romance.
SIZE: 307 (last page) Kindle pages.

PLOT: 📚📚📚/5
ROMANCE: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️/5
SPICE/STEAM: 🌶🌶🌶/5
DARKNESS/TRIGGERS: N/A

⚠️ My bookshelves can contain spoilers.

[jenna 💘✨ · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.75
i’m sorry it just wasn’t for me 😭

[Sadan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cooper & Tatum

[Christi (christireadsalot) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I recently read this author for the first time and since I loved the hockey romances, I wanted to try more of their books. So I jumped into The Devil You Know. This is a brother’s best friend romance that turns into fake dating with lots of lessons! 👀

Tatum lives her life with multiple checklists, and now she wants to lose her virginity before going to college at the end of summer. And to ensure she’s ready for “the full college experience”, Tatum decides she should practice and have a sexual tutor. She also decides it should be her neighbor, and her brother’s best friend, Cooper!

“Better the devil you know, especially to proposition to become your tutor between the sheets.”

Tatum is super confident and determined, while Cooper is at first hesitant to start anything with her. Her brother warned him away from her and Cooper doesn’t want to risk his friendship. But he’s also super pulled to her and can’t resist for too long. When they get caught kissing, she panics and tells her brother they’re actually dating. So the sexual lessons turn into juggling a fake relationship now too.

This one was okay. It had some fun moments but I honestly felt like it could have been shorter (like a novella) and cut out the fake dating part. It was clear they already were both into one another and the brother’s best friend, lessons romance worked.

[angeliki ༊*·˚ · Rating 4 out of 5]

➳ 3.75 stars. ✰

This book melted my heart it was so much fluff and so many sweet moments <33
Brother’s bestfriend will always get me in my feels. I don’t quite get why they didn’t just start dating before doing the whole fake dating thing tho. They obviously liked each other and i think he said it quite a few times as well …
Anyway another ick was the HARDCORE CRINGE i got whenever they would talk about tiktok and he would make tiktok vlogs 😭😭
Overall very nice little read

edit: I FORGOT TO MENTION THE SMUT HELLOO?? It was honestly way better than i excepted, even tho it wasn’t twisted dark romance shit it still gave me butterflies to the core !!!!

[Michelle Krystel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was given an advance readers copy of this book and have decided to write a voluntary honest review. This is my very first Veronica Eden book and I couldn't put it down, to be honest I didn't want it to end either. I got so invested in these characters and not just main ones. But yes ai love Cooper and Tatum. Some of scenes written were just so damn good. Veronica pulls into her characters world. I can't wait to read a lot more of her books and hopefully there is more to come with these characters.

[mags ♡⋆｡˚❀ · Rating 2 out of 5]

I deserve a refund

I feel like I am entitled to a refund for my kindle unlimited subscription for reading this book.

To be fair, this book started off strong. I was totally here for the spicy tutoring sessions between Cooper and Tatum. Where it lost me was the “fake dating but it’s not fake to Cooper because he’s trying to get Tatum to fall in love with him and Tatum wants it to be real but she doesn’t think Cooper likes her like that” debacle. And I LOVE fake dating, but this one seemed like it was trying to have its cake and eat it too. It was peak 2012 Wattpad cringe.

Speaking of cringe… the writing. I’ve never read a Veronica Eden book before but something tells me these ladies are SORELY out of touch with today’s teenagers. I died a little when Cooper added Tatum’s handle to his Instagram bio (I’m not even touching how often TikTok was mentioned in this book), and then I died a little more when I realised actual teenagers do this - although they’re usually 14 instead of 19.

The only redeeming thing in this book was the spice. It was good - if not incredibly unrealistic for how YOUNG these characters are supposed to be but whatever it’s a story. Spice = good.
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

Look, it’s on KU. If you want to read it, read it. It feels like Veronica Eden is trying to emulate Penelope Douglas or Monica Murphy so idk if you liked the vibe of Punk 57 (I did not) but wished it was a “he falls first best friends brother with no bullying” it might be for you.

[ash (itsashtaylor) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75/5⭐️ (rounded to 4)

This was a super cute, easy to get through read, that I really enjoyed!

This book follows Tatum and Cooper. Tatum is determined to lose her virginity and learn everything she can about sex before starting college. She asks her neighbor/brother’s best friend/town heartthrob to help her by being her sex tutor.

This book was a super cute read. I really loved Cooper, he was so protective of Tatum which was adorable. His character had good depth to him and he was easily a very likeable character. The only thing I didn’t like about him was the way he talked about ‘other’ girls (girls who weren’t Tatum). When it came to Tatum he was basically the perfect guy, but he was constantly judging other girls for wearing makeup or the way they dressed and similar things to this. That part really turned me off from Cooper.

I also liked Tatum as a character and her relationship with Cooper at the beginning. But about halfway through I started to get annoyed with their relationship and Tatum herself. They started out as a friends with benefits sort of situation to teach her to have sex, which quickly turned into fake dating because her brother found out about them. So now they’re “fake” dating in public, sleeping together, but then also pretty much just real dating too so they don’t accidentally “slip up”. There was absolutely nothing fake about it but then the characters continuously talked about having to remember that it’s pretend. On Cooper’s part it made sense, since he was trying to get her to fall in love with him. But on Tatum’s end it just got annoying. He made his feelings EXTREMELY clear and she was just like “he’s just pretending”. It got to the point where it was super annoying (and she was super annoying). By the third act breakup, I was done with their relationship.


All that being said, I still enjoyed the book. It was super easy to get through, quick paced and I couldn’t put it down. Even though I was annoyed with the relationship and characters often, I couldn’t put the book down. Overall, I would definitely still recommend picking this book up if you like contemporary romance with fake dating and brother’s best friend. I will definitely be picking up more from this author!

Thank you to Wildfire Marketing and the author for a copy of this book in exchange for a honest review!

[Kristina · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐️

So good i want to buy the physical copy!

[Amy Gets Reading &#x1f4da; · Rating 5 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🔥🔥🔥🔥

Oh my god this book was so cute!

This book has good spicy, a good story, fake dating, study sessions, brothers best friend, virgin mets playboy ahh I loved it all.

I fell hard for Cooper! He is so sweet, thoughtful, funny and just everything we need in men. He is obsessed with Tatum and honestly I loved how much he loved her. He can’t stop kissing her, watching her everywhere she goes or anything she does! It’s so cute!!!

Tatum is also the sweetest. She is focused on her studies and with going off to college she doesn’t want to be hind socially, so she needs someone she trust to help her! And who bet than her brothers best friend who is also super hot 🥵

It was just a very sweet fast romance read!

[Chiara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have dnf'ed this before but since the author is writing a new book I definitely want to read, I thought I'd give this another shot. And it was kind of meh.

The beginning and the time before Tatum actually goes to college were super spicy and a lot of fun. But then it kind of goes downhill when all the tropes get thrown in there. Now it's not just brother's best friend and friends with benefits, nah, let's add some fake dating into the mix. Sure. Fun times. It felt a little too much and also--where did Coopers sudden TikTok fame come from? That hit me completely out of the blue.

A fun story, but nothing special.

[Kai Ward · Rating 1 out of 5]

The spicy scenes were incredibly written. Truly works of art. The rest of the book was extremely repetitive with lines such as “I miss her.” “I need her.” While this is a fiction book the amount of times this was repeated made it hard to continue reading. Not to mention there were sentences that changed from present tense to past tense and back. Overall this book got a one star for the well written spicy scenes.

[Malicious May · Rating 1 out of 5]

If I knew social media was going to be a big part of their relationship I wouldn’t have bothered with this book. It’s superficial and insincere. Just because everyone is doing it, doesn’t mean it’s a good thing.

That aside, I struggled to get through this book. It’s not badly written, but it’s boring.