Brat Baby Review

Scout’s Report

It’s happened. Emery is finally wanted. By four smoking hot daddies, no less. She’s set for at least half a year, with money and pleasure. Nothing can go wrong! …Right?

Wrong. Emery finally finds out where the men work, and they just happen to be professors at the very college she now attends. Wait, shouldn’t that have come up in the contract?

Emery does not want to take no for an answer when the daddies decide it’s best to cut ties. And now the brat comes out to play, to tempt, to infuriate. Will Emery win them back? Or will this contract be ripped clean in two forever?

Wayfarer’s Log

Brat Baby has a lot more story yet maintains the heat. Although it’s still a very spicy book overall, this one focused the most thus far on plot, and had a lot of fun doing it! I went into it knowing it had to be different somehow, but still expecting it to be very smut-forward. I was pleasantly surprised (don’t get me wrong here, I do love the smut) that it actually carried more emotional weight, more character growth, more worldbuilding, and a plot that didn’t completely rely on the sex scenes. We’re no longer confined to “the dungeon.” Instead, we get to see more of the daily world Emery and the men live in.

Emery really comes into her own in this book. I absolutely loved finally seeing her play the brat we’d been hearing about for two books. Book one Emery felt more like a vessel, book two showed us her artistic side, and book three gives us her don’t-give-a-fuck attitude, which is something to root for. We see how she deals with external conflict now, which more solidly defines her character. Her brat energy gives her agency, her defiance gives her voice, and the vulnerability underneath makes her feel like a real character instead of a vessel.

This book is also where we get to know the daddies so much better. The pacing lets each man have his own time outside of the bedroom, giving us time to really feel them out. We find out that they’re professors, at Emery’s university of course. And if that’s not enough, two of them teach first-year courses in the department of Emery’s major. As the men do their best to keep their distance from their perfect woman, Emery’s taunts and temptations bring out their characters. Derek the math professor—rigid, in control, and reasonable in theory. Hudson the economics professor—sweet, doting, and ready to spoil Emery rotten. Darcy the art professor—kind, gentle, grows on you, and arguably more reasonable than Derek. And Xavier the tech professor—no care for the rules, obsessive, protective, and still mysterious as ever.

Xavier is absolutely still IRL terrifying, but he sure is peak book boyfriend material. That scary-yet-hot tension is what makes him work so well on the page. I won’t give it away, but hands down, he has the sexiest scene in this book. I still think about it sometimes even now. I hope he continues to be Emery’s knight in shining armor (pun intended).

My critique about this book, and why I didn’t rate it quite as high as Good Girl, boils down to the reasoning behind the plot. I didn’t think Derek’s reaction to finding Emery at his school was as level-headed as he’s supposed to be. His continued heel-digging also didn’t measure up logically. It led to some drama, especially toward the end, that packed less of a punch for me because of that illogical run-up. I actually wonder if we only got Derek’s outward image in the first two books, and we were presented with a false sense of who he truly is at his core. If that’s true, it would be pretty clever for his characterization.

Regardless of that slight reduction in enjoyment, I still had a great time reading this one. It kept me hooked and wanting more. I’d argue there are two cliffhangers that boiled my blood and got me fired up to read the next book, which unfortunately I’ve had to wait for. Plus, there’s a burning question I’m sure is in all of our minds—is Darcy finally going to get in the back door in the next one?

Voice of the Bard

I love the voice actors. They do an amazing job of continuing to bring life and depth to the characters. Hearing Xavier in that one scene (IFYKYK) was sizzlin’. With the extra craziness and plot that this book brought, the voices stepped up and did their jobs well. You can listen to this one guilt-free!

Journey’s End

Brat Baby took the plot up a notch while keeping it hot, hot, hot. We see a lot more character development in this book, however imperfect it may be. And we get Emery bratting it up, which I’ve no doubt we were all waiting for. I enjoyed it slightly less due to some unreasonable plotting that took me out of the story a little, but overall it was still a fantastic time. I can’t wait to read Baby Girl come July!

I’d recommend this for:

• Brat and bratty sub dynamics
• Readers who wanted more characterization out of books one and two
• Student-professor dynamics and forbidden love fans
• Anyone who’s been waiting for Xavier to really get his moment
• Reverse harem readers invested in the full group dynamic
• Readers who don’t mind a cliffhanger ending that will make them desperate for book four

Publisher’s Summary

Four professors. One naughty college student. Six months of pleasure on the line.

They left me.
They didn’t even try to fight for me.
They decided that things between us were over before we even had a chance to get started.
Now my body is covered in their marks, my wardrobe is filled with clothes they bought for me, and every time I sit down to sketch, all I can draw is them.
I’m not ready for this to be over. They promised me six months. Six fucking months.
So fuck them, I’m going to get my six months. We have a contract. I’m willing to uphold my side, so they will just have to come to the table.
They’ve met the good girl, now it’s time for the brat to come out and play.

Brat Baby is the third book in the Sugar Life series. It is a high-steam why choose romance with one baby girl trying to win her daddies back and four daddy doms who want what they can’t have.