BULLY
Series: Fall Away #1
Genre: New Adult Romance
Author: Penelope Douglas
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Penelope Douglas delivers an unforgettable New Adult romance that toes the fine line between love and hate…
My name is Tate. He doesn’t call me that, though. He’ll barely refer to me at all, and he’ll hardly ever speak to me.
But he still won’t leave me alone.
We were best friends once. Then he turned on me and made it his mission to ruin my life. I’ve been humiliated, shut out, and gossiped about all through high school. His pranks and rumors got worse as time wore on. I even went to Europe for a year, just to avoid him.
But I’m done hiding from him now, and there’s no way I’ll allow him to ruin another year. He might not have changed, but I have.
It’s time to fight back.
When one brave young woman stands up to her best friend Jared, now tormenter, the consequences go beyond anything either of them ever would have imagined…
I had loved Jared once, but now I knew, without a doubt, that “my Jared” was gone.
God. This book. I mean, THIS BOOK. Words fail me to describe just how much I loved this. I’ve had this in my kindle for what feels like ages since I got it as a freebie way back in 2013. I’ve seen it making the rounds on Goodreads and for some reason I still hadn’t read it. If I can kick my own ass for not reading this sooner, I would, because this book? This book reminded me about all the reasons why I fell in love with New Adult romance to begin with. And I’m not talking about the manufactured angst, stupid decisions, at at times gratuitous sex scenes. No. I’m talking that all-encompassing feeling, just the right amount of gut-wrenching angst, you hate but love the hero, and you want to high five the heroine kind of read. It was like it was custom written just for me.
Jared will be a hero that every reader will love to hate. I sure as hell did. But as much as I wanted to hate him, I can’t deny that I was always wondering what was buried right below the surface to make him act the way he did because you just knew there had to be something. I have to say that Penelope Douglas did a phenomenal job with character development and that’s what made the book as good as it was. The characters were multi-faceted and strongly developed. You get to know both of them as the story progresses and you also begin to understand both of them that much more.
What truly made this book for me was Tate. She wasn’t your typical NA heroine. This is a girl that had a backbone but didn’t take it overboard. She wasn’t intentionally cruel or flippant, she stood up for herself and she owned it. She was comfortable in her own skin and it was the perfect balance to the Jared’s mercurial moods.
I can’t remember the last time a book kept me up all night, completely incapable of setting it down for even a second because I needed to know what happened next. I was sucked in from just the first chapter and read this in one sitting. This is exactly the kind of angst that I’m starving for. Imperfectly perfect, rage inducing and yet flawless. That probably doesn’t even make sense, but if you’re an angst whore like me, you’ll know what I mean. My absolute favorite trope is the enemies-to-lovers, hate/lust thing and Bully delivers that in spades. While there were parts I wanted more from, I still can’t rate it down for that simply because this book absolutely enthralled me. So much so, that I couldn’t even bat an eyelash at any minor quibbles it may have had.
Simply put, it was amazing. Just amazing. This is a book that I recommend to any lovers of New Adult romance. I have found myself a new author to obsess over and my only regret is not reading this fantastic book sooner.
Tomorrow comes never.
Until you.
THE SERIES
Click directly on book covers for buy links!
Fall Away #1
Fall Away #1.5
Fall Away #2
Fall Away #3
Fall Away #4
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