I've never had a one night stand. I'm studious. I'm the girl everyone can count on for her rock-solid, solemn consistency. 
 Except tonight. Tonight, I'm the girl who is going to sleep with a stranger... 
 Oh boy. 
 So, I'm conflicted on this one. Big time. 
 I don't think the writing is awful. I don't think story is terrible. 
 But, I *DO* think the characters are just dreadful. Horrible. And this really distracted me from the overall story. 
 So, we start out with bad advice from our heroine's slutty best friend. Because, what *should* your BFF recommend for you to do while your long-term boyfriend is out shopping for an engagement ring? 
 You should sleep with a stranger. That had been Simone's advice. One last hurrah before I get married and while I'm still in my twenties. 
 Yeah. That. 
 So, Kasie objects, saying that she could never just go out and have unprotected sex with a complete and utter stranger. Because, of course, she is self-conscious, stunningly beautiful, Ivy League educated, yada yada, etc. 
 And, what does she do? Go out and have unprotected sex with a complete and utter stranger. 
 Now, luckily, these reserved women who magically jump characteristically out of their nature to sex up a stranger always end up miraculously choosing wealthy CEO's. And, don't they always end up in a working situation with them? Yes. 
 One issue I had with THE STRANGER is that we literally just didn't get to know these people before their random sexual excursion. If I'm trying to defend a novel as having value beyond the sex scenes, I need to feel like I'm invested in the plot and the characters *before* they start with the hanky panky. 
 We just didn't get this here. Strike one. 
 And then --- there is Kasie. Ugh. I'm not sure if the reader is intended to see her as a secretly strong, conflicted woman, as a walking contradiction, or as a weak, wishy-washy loser. I tended to lean towards the latter. 
 She's in this long term relationship with this guy, Dave, who is portrayed as stable, thoughtful, and sweet. But then she starts to describe him as a person who is trying to enslave her and prevent her from expressing her new, wild, sexual side. The most disturbing parts, to me, were the numerous sections in which she made excuses for what she was doing -- which was nothing more than deliberate, blatant, repeated CHEATING. 
 For example. 
 Last night Dave lied about never being tempted. Was there more he was lying about? Did his lies free me to explore my possibilities? 
 So, Kasie asks Dave if he is ever tempted to cheat or to ogle beautiful women. He responds in the negative, stating that he only has eyes for Kasie. Now, since Kasie is having wild sex with a stranger, she assumes Dave must be lying too, which justifies her behaviors then, right? 
 YUCK. 
 And then the sex scenes. Ugh, they're just so weird and awkward, which is largely because these two characters are undeveloped strangers to us now. I mean, can you tell me that *this* isn't awkward? 
 'Please,' I say, pulling him closer, disturbing his balance. 'Please take my panties off, Mr. Dade.' 
 WTF?! 
 And then we have Mr. Dade. He definitely has a creeptastic quality to him -- first, because he seems so obsessively hooked on this utter stranger, and second, because he claims to know every single thing about her after the first random romp in the bedroom. He decides that she's a secret sex freak trapped in a bad relationship, longing to be freed by a rich, cocky CEO. 
 And maybe he's right. We don't know her any better than he does, after all. Strike two. 
 And then, there is more awkwardness. Weird analogies. Strange attempts at poetic writing. A strangely placed mentioning of a previous drug overdose-slash-suicide attempt that is just too little too late in the story. 
 Oh, and then there's the little scene at the end with Dave. Now he's a lunatic too? 
 I hate to be so negative --- I just think I'm not the target audience for this book. Check out the positive reviews on here to give yourself a balance, I guess. It may just be me.