Redwood Rebels #1
Bully Romance/Contemporary/Dark
256 Pages
Published 12th November 2020
Purchase from | Fiction & Friction | Booktopia | Book Depository | Fishpond AU* | Amazon AU | Amazon US | Amazon UK |
Trigger Warnings: Sexual Abuse, Sexual Assault, DubCon
My rating: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
When Marni accidentally overhears something that she shouldn’t have, she finds herself in a game of cat and mouse with the four rebels who rule Redwood. She is the mouse, and they are the cats, and they have her right where they want her. As they stop at nothing to make sure she does everything they say, she begins to realise that there’s more than meets the eye with the four men, and with the secret that she overheard. As she follows the white rabbit down the hole, she has to fight to find the truth, and not lose herself in the process. These men are dangerous, and she can’t stay away.
I got big into Bully romance this year, and I was super keen to read this one. Especially because I’m pretty sure Rachel Leigh is going to be at BABE2023 next year, which I’m attending, and excited as hell about. And while there was nothing inherently wrong with this story, I think I was reading it at the wrong time. This rating was definitely a “it’s not you, it’s me” moment. I started reading this book just before I had a heap of stuff happen in my personal life which threw me for six, so it was very hard to be able to become immersed in the story and lose myself in it.
The story opens at a party, where Marni our FMC is attempting to make her way back downstairs so that she doesn’t get caught having eavesdropped on a conversation that she really shouldn’t have heard. I like that the story jumped right into things, there wasn’t a lot of setup it was just a throw it all in from the start, so there weren’t any dull moments which were great. I did find this style of writing to be a little polarising at first because it felt like I should have already known the characters, but I was just learning about them as we went along, but after a while that feeling went away and it was fine. The story is told through alternating POVs from Marni and Talon, I do enjoy a good multiple POV story, especially if it’s just alternating between two of the main characters, I find that sometimes when there’s too many it all becomes a jumble and I have no idea who is who. The story itself was well written, there’s a mystery here which is great, and I didn’t pick anything out before it’s time, that also maybe have been because my heart and mind weren’t really in the reading zone while going through this one. I did end up having to force myself to pick it up again after not reading it for a while, but I’ll admit, that last 25% of the book, I’m not sure if it’s because I was in a different headspace or what, but that really grabbed me and drew me in. I was invested by the end, and I’m keen to see what happens next.
The characters were well written, I do love the Bully Romance genre, but I do find it difficult to see the main characters as adults when they’re still in high school, yet acting as adults. I try to suspend belief as much as I can because I do really enjoy the genre, but sometimes it can be a bit hard. I did enjoy the character of Talon and I love that there’s so many different layers to him than you first think, he’s a character that I feel will really flesh out as the series progresses as there’s so much more to him than just the bad boy arsehole exterior. I enjoyed Marni’s character, she’s also got a lot of depth to her and so many things that we can explore as the story develops, I feel like all of the main players in this series are all very deep characters with huge stories to tell and I’m really hoping that we get to explore all of them as the series progresses. I dislike Zade ( I think that’s his name, it’s been a while..) but I feel like his character is SO interesting, especially with the revelations that happened at the end of this one. I’m keen for him to redeem himself to me, but it’s not going to be easy, he’s a pretty dark character.
I’m going to keep this one short and sweet, this was a decent read that I feel I picked up at the wrong time. To be honest, I don’t think I would have been able to enjoy any book to it’s full potential at the time, so while this one didn’t grab me as much as I hoped it would, it had a promising set up with interesting characters full of stories. Once I finished it, I am keen to continue with the series as things were developing and there’s a lot of questions still to be answered. If you like the bully romance genre and you can suspend disbelief when it comes to the adult situations and worlds that the teenage characters find themselves in, as well as the knowledge that they have about how to hide a body…then give it a crack. It won’t disappoint.
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