Bad Guys Need Love Too

Adorable Psychos #2

by Isabel Jordan

Sometimes a bad guy is exactly the kind of hero you need…

No one sends a mafia hitman after a florist. That’s what Lark Shaw had always assumed.

Oh, how wrong she’d been. Almost dead wrong.

Thankfully, Ren Solace showed up in all his grumpy, tattooed, disturbingly hot glory to whisk her away to safety when she needed him most. In fact, his timing was a little too good.

Probably because he’d apparently been stalking her. For years.

Turns out he’s also a hacker with a genius-level IQ and an impressive criminal resume. And he wants to use his considerable, um, assets to protect her.

Now, Lark’s in forced proximity with her entirely too sexy savior, trying to figure out how she offended the mafia and evade an assassin.

This should be the scariest thing she’s ever faced. But the messy, complicated feelings she’s developing for Ren?

For some reason, those are way scarier…

Bad Guys Need Love Too, book 2 in the Adorable Psychos series, is a light, spicy, hilarious contemporary rom com that can be read as a standalone. It features a cinnamon roll stalker, a heroine who is stronger than she realizes, a multi-lingual dog (long story), plus all the snarky, witty banter and grumpy/sunshine yummy goodness you’ll ever need. Download today for criminally good romantic escapism.

Genres: Romance, Forced Proximity

268 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 10, 2025

About the author

The normal:

Isabel Jordan writes because it’s the only profession that allows her to express her natural sarcasm and not be fired. She is a paranormal and contemporary romance author. Isabel lives in the US with her husband, her son son, a neurotic Shepherd mix and a ginormous Great Dane mix named Jerkface. (Don't feel bad for Jerkface. He really is a jerk.)

The weird:

Now that the normal stuff is out of the way, here’s some weird-but-true facts that would never come up in polite conversation. Isabel Jordan:

1. Is terrified of butterflies (don’t judge…it’s a real phobia called lepidopterophobia)
2. Is a lover of all things ironic (hence the butterfly on the first edition cover of Semi-Charmed)
3. Is obsessed with Supernatural, Game of Thrones, and Dog Whisperer.
4. Hates coffee. Drinks a Diet Mountain Dew every morning.
5. Will argue to the death that Pretty in Pink ended all wrong. (Seriously, she ends up with the guy who was embarrassed to be seen with her and not the nice guy who loved her all along? That would never fly in the world of romance novels.)
6. Would eat Mexican food every day, if given the choice.
7. Reads two books a week in varied genres.
8. Refers to her Kindle as “the precious”.
9. Thinks puppy breath is one of the best smells in the world.
10. Is a social media idgit. (Her husband had to explain to her last week what the point of Twitter was. She’s still a little fuzzy on what Instagram and Pinterest do.)
11. Kicks ass at Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.
12. Stole her tagline idea from her son. Her tagline idea was, “Never wrong, not quite right.” She liked her son’s idea better.
13. Breaks one vacuum cleaner a year because she ignores standard maintenance procedures (Really, you’re supposed to empty the canister every time you vacuum? Does that seem excessive to anyone else?)
14. Is still mad at the WB network for cancelling Angel in 2004.
15. Can’t find her way from her bed to her bathroom without her glasses, but refused eye surgery, even when someone else offered to pay. (They lost her at “eye flap”. Seriously, look it up. Scary stuff.)

Reviews

[Bronwyn · Rating 1 out of 5]

This truly felt too similar to book one. The major difference was that book one felt fresh, funny and was really good. This one felt flat and wasn’t funny. Considering it’s a “rom-com”, that was utterly disappointing. I felt absolutely no connection between Lark and Ren. They were one dimensional characters. For the most part, I was bored out of my mind and am surprised that I didn’t DNF. What kept me reading? The fact that Tenley, book one’s FMC, made frequent appearances and I like her a lot. (The only star goes completely to Tenley.)

If I had to read about how dehydrated Lark was one more time, or about how things are “in romance novels” again, I probably would’ve thrown my kobo across the room. Everything was so repetitive!! Just as it was in the first book, there were 2 chapters of sex that I had to skim over. Why have sex scenes last that long? That was the MCs’ entire connection. Sex. The ending was absolutely ridiculous — even more so than the first book. The epilogue was all telling and absolutely no showing. 🥱 🥱🥱

I’d recommend the first book, Criminals Need Love Too, but not this one. CNLT was funny enough to let the fact that it was so zany slide, and Tenley and Knox were likable and their banter was fun. I don’t have it in me to read the next book. I’m done.

[Dubious Lover · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked this one in the beginning, but it fell apart by the end.

Love an overprotective criminal MMC with no social skills and a sweetheart FMC who sees the good in him. Their background and Ren's need to protect those who were good to him was cute.

The way things wrapped up was super fast and really cheesy, though, and the epilogue was terrible. I don't need pages of info dump of everything that happened to the characters. I was seriously groaning and complaining out loud as I read it.

I had been assuming Nico's story would be next (I was right) and planning to read it until he epilogue. I just can't get over the notion of him eliminating guns and drugs from the mafia and them magically making 12x as much money instantly afterwards. 🙄😮‍💨

[Christine Ernest · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another winner

Isabel Jordan has the knack of engaging the reader straight off. Her characters are likeable (mostly) and the story and snark are wonderful. I have read all her books and recommend every one of them

[Macey (spoilers!) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent premise, but a really fast-paced storyline. They went from half-kidnapping to fucking in a couple of days. And falling in love in a couple more. It wasn't really a complete trainwreck, but it could be to some readers.

There were elements in the story that seemed to reel interest from the readers (e.g. her lottery winnings, her parents) that either ended up being uninteresting or forgotten immediately right after it was mentioned. Or some elements that you would think were essential to know about, but weren't mentioned (e.g. wtf does he do as a job before nico hired him).

Also needs an editor, or at the very least a very thorough rechecking before the author submitted this for publishing. There were a lot of phrases that I think are either typos or misused (maybe the author is not a native english speaker?) like "dually noted" and "since of justice".

Not to be rude, but the book reminded me of some of the more well-written Wattpad books that would include a decent storyline and writing but you can see that the author might be a minor with good writing skills or not a native english speaker.

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice 🌶🌶
Banter 🤣🤣🤣
Dual POV
💜 Rom-com
💜 Stalker MMC
💜 Cinnamon roll MMC
💜 Grumpy sunshine
💜 Good girl/ morally grey guy
💜 Instalove
💜 Ages 32/34
💜 He's gone for her
💜 He has a tattoo for her
💜 Multilingual guard dog named Dammit George
💜 No 3rd act break up
💜 HEA

This is the exact book I needed to calm my restless mood. I couldn't figure out what to read so I clicked on it since I enjoyed the first one so much. I enjoy Isabel's writing style. It's fresh and fun. It is the perfect palette cleanser. Funny, spicy, low angst. Having it based around the mystery of who put out a hit on the FMC who's a total sweetheart made for an entertaining read.

I enjoyed reading about a cinnamon roll stalker. Ren felt like the best of both contemporary and dark romance. He stalked her for years because he wanted to provide safety and comfort from afar all because she befriended him for a day when they were children and saved his life. It's touching to consider that the only individuals Ren truly cares about are three women who profoundly impacted his childhood, given his rugged and gruff demeanor as a grown man. The level of loyalty and sweetness in this man!! *Swoon* While he was a criminal himself with loose morals, he could not fathom the idea of hurting Lark or having her come to any harm (physical or emotional). He was willing to sacrifice anything and everything to keep her happy and safe and what woman doesn't want to feel happy and safe?

Lark recognizes her people-pleasing ways have limited her in life (especially with her fiancé) and it was so lovely to read about a man whose sole focus was to constantly empower her and give her room to find her voice. This is by no means, a deep book, but it's always great to read about a strong man encouraging his woman to be strong at his side or while he guards her back. Also, kudos to addressing that it's ok to not be super ambitious and want a career and that a job you enjoy is enough and worthy too.

It was great seeing more of Tenley too. I loved her in her storyline (book 1) and it was neat getting to see her again through another woman's perspective. I hope we get to see Tenley and Lark team up again in the future!

This book is worth the read if you enjoy romance, wit, and low-angst drama.

[Kitty Maeral · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read : January 2025
Rating : 4 Stars

It was fun and I liked it.
This is book 2 in the series and I read this before picking up book 1 but that didn't detract from the story in my opinion.

It felt pretty low stakes even though some subjects brought up in the book were a bit darker.
Ren's a stalker, but like not a dangerous one , at least not to Lark, our fmc and flower shop employee.

Because Ren's kept his eyes on Lark since really long ago he catches wind of the hit out on her and manages to prevent it and whisks her to safety where they slowly start to get to actually know each other while also trying to figure out who put out the hit on Lark.

The mmc Ren has a hilariously named dog "Dammit George" , which is the funniest dog name I've seen in a book to date and it's also a cutiepatootie.

I'm a sucker for a cute/funny/crazy animal sidekick that's written with a bit of personality.
I will read others in the series since this was such good easy fun.

[gabriela]

both books in this series mention john wick (which i love); the main character being annoyed with investing in too many tv shows that aren't renewed after only one season; and the guy saying "i love you" first followed by them explaining they don't expect the fmc to reciprocate/say it back right away.
didn't finish this one because the protagonists here are very boring (unlike the first book, which has a very likeable fmc imho) -- the stalker is written as a "respectful" stalker, he only stalks her with good intentions and i found that disappointing, like nooo, please make him dirty, awful, terrible, i don't care, i want to see these characters dealing and overcoming the real conflict of invasion of privacy. i know it's supposed to be humorous, but come on... also, there are these suggestions of safe words and even rope!! but the smut is all very lackluster and vanilla, why do these author always do this bro please leave bdsm alone if you're not going to commit

[Amber · Rating 3 out of 5]

two adults that talk and act like 2 horny teenagers. Straight up insta-lust. The first half was stronger than the last half, at which point it felt like everything got watered down. For instance, there is a Mafia but they don't deal in women, guns, or drugs. that feels so watered down that I'm not sure they're really even Mafia anymore. but whatever. Ren and Lark are supposed to be smart, but in all honestly, they don't read that way.


I wouldnt say this is bad, it has its funny moments. it's not breaking the mould, and I don't think it has to in order to be entertaining. still would say this is average.

[Linda Calizo · Rating 5 out of 5]

love the series

I started with the third book first and had to read the other two, the third remains my favorite. All three have all the ingredients of humor, intrigue, suspense, heat, romance and found family. We all have some kind of baggage, some lighter than others. Life experiences gives you more understanding if you’re willing to learn from it and also be observant, it’s what the three major characters have in common with their respective partners being on the lighter side of the baggage department.

[Ikwi Bookreviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very cute, fast-paced, and silly. There's a good amount of spice for such a short and lighthearted read, and I was all for it. Tenley from Book 1, the coolest woman alive, has a big role in this story, too, which I thought was great. Lark is a gorgeous, bubbly florist heroine and Ren is her longtime benevolent stalker slash guardian angel. So why would anyone want to kill Lark? The resolution of the mystery was silly, too, and I fully expect Nico to star in Book 3: Mobsters Need Love Too. 😁

[NYC reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Only read if you liked the first book in the series and wanted more of Ren. It is a standalone but the most interesting character is Tenley, who was the lead from book 1. Plot was pretty silly and unrealistic but low angst and HEA.

[Courtney · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.9 stars! Really really cute! Perfect palate cleanser escapism book! It had good spice, excellent characters, a good plot and a little funnies and honestly, a relatively not dark ending to say the whole premise! Super enjoyed it and looking forward to the next one in this series!!

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another excellent read

## Super cute read. Loved both hero and heroine. I loved watching Lark grow into a strong, capable woman. The hero Ren was amazing as well. Their chemistry was undeniable for sure. Book 1 remains my favorite. I will definitely be reading this series again.

[Sofia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gostei do conceito do livro, leitura leve e engraçada por isso dou 3,5⭐️.

Tempo de leitura: 2h

[Bea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok this one was easy and fun :)

[Holly · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5⭐️

[Ditchwater Sal · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Sorhija · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like the first fun and cute :)

[Kanto]

He raised a brow : “Let me hack into the mainframe”, as she rolled her eyes, the corner of her mouth turning up

[Christy]

I liked it! Definitely a stand alone if you needed that info

[JewelsyGoolsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars