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spoissant21's review
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
2.75
amrauthor's review against another edition
4.0
Read my book review of Ruby Vincent’s The Plan, the first book in her Breakbattle Academy series. This is a slow burn reverse harem bully contemporary romance, were a girl pretends to be a boy.
https://www.amrauthor.com/post/the-plan-by-ruby-vincent
https://www.amrauthor.com/post/the-plan-by-ruby-vincent
chachiirose's review against another edition
5.0
well damn
What a beginning, middle and end. This book was insane. I have to say it’s a lot more social order orientated than Evergreen was.
First off let me say I don’t even believe our world is this bad.
The lowest class gets literally nothing in this book.
While the highest get anything and everything.
What the hell kinda school is this? I’m on my way to becoming a teacher and I most certainly wouldn’t put my kids through this.
It shocks me that after everything Adams parents have been through especially Val that they’d even let him go here.
I get having to work for what you want in life but everyone deserves the same opportunities for a quality education without having to kill themselves.
This is worse than entrance exams to college.
I love Zeke aka Zela. I love her friendships with all the boys especially Adam and Derek. Especially after that ending.
Hopefully the other three get their heads outta their asses.
Anyways 100000000000/10
5 ⭐️’s
Here’s some of my favorite quotes from this book
“You’ve summed up Cameron Dupre perfectly. Exceptionally cruel and devious.” ~Adam
“But I don’t complain. I explain why things are not the way they should be. There’s a difference.” ~Derek
“Zeke Manning,” he said clearly. “I challenge you to a battle.” ~Landon
“And what do you want if you win, Manning?”
I flashed Cameron a smile. “I want his chair.”~ Whitaker
“You’re just going to leave?”
The question struck me like tiny daggers. I didn’t want to leave. I came here for him and there was still more I needed to do.
“No,” I said. “I’m just going to win.” ~”Zeke” and Derek
“You didn’t have to do that,” I said to Derek. “Yes, I did.” He picked up his fork and stabbed a green bean. “We’re friends.”
“Good,” I whispered. “This place wouldn’t be the same without you.”
Uncontrollable sobs wracked my body. I couldn’t see their faces through the tears, but they could see me—all of me.
Derek wrapped me tight in the towel. “It’s going to be okay, Zeke.” He lifted me onto his lap and secured me to his chest. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here sooner. I promise they’ll never touch you again.” Derek repeated that to me over and over again as I buried my nose in his chest and cried.
Forget Zela and Zeke, someone else entirely would be coming back to Breakbattle next year... and the Elites better watch out.
What a beginning, middle and end. This book was insane. I have to say it’s a lot more social order orientated than Evergreen was.
First off let me say I don’t even believe our world is this bad.
The lowest class gets literally nothing in this book.
While the highest get anything and everything.
What the hell kinda school is this? I’m on my way to becoming a teacher and I most certainly wouldn’t put my kids through this.
It shocks me that after everything Adams parents have been through especially Val that they’d even let him go here.
I get having to work for what you want in life but everyone deserves the same opportunities for a quality education without having to kill themselves.
This is worse than entrance exams to college.
I love Zeke aka Zela. I love her friendships with all the boys especially Adam and Derek. Especially after that ending.
Hopefully the other three get their heads outta their asses.
Anyways 100000000000/10
5 ⭐️’s
Here’s some of my favorite quotes from this book
“You’ve summed up Cameron Dupre perfectly. Exceptionally cruel and devious.” ~Adam
“But I don’t complain. I explain why things are not the way they should be. There’s a difference.” ~Derek
“Zeke Manning,” he said clearly. “I challenge you to a battle.” ~Landon
“And what do you want if you win, Manning?”
I flashed Cameron a smile. “I want his chair.”~ Whitaker
“You’re just going to leave?”
The question struck me like tiny daggers. I didn’t want to leave. I came here for him and there was still more I needed to do.
“No,” I said. “I’m just going to win.” ~”Zeke” and Derek
“You didn’t have to do that,” I said to Derek. “Yes, I did.” He picked up his fork and stabbed a green bean. “We’re friends.”
“Good,” I whispered. “This place wouldn’t be the same without you.”
Uncontrollable sobs wracked my body. I couldn’t see their faces through the tears, but they could see me—all of me.
Derek wrapped me tight in the towel. “It’s going to be okay, Zeke.” He lifted me onto his lap and secured me to his chest. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here sooner. I promise they’ll never touch you again.” Derek repeated that to me over and over again as I buried my nose in his chest and cried.
Forget Zela and Zeke, someone else entirely would be coming back to Breakbattle next year... and the Elites better watch out.
booksabrewin's review against another edition
2.0
How the mighty have fallen. Zee went from being tapped for the exclusive Elite ranking to walking the halls of the F ranking class with her best friend. Lucky she has Adam because having to deal with the severe lack of privileges and the dumbed down education of the Fs she would have gone crazy. Eventually, even while having been sequestered to the F class the Elites are still out for revenge. They want to make her suffer for betraying them and Zee takes it at first. The Elites start battling her knowing she has no hope of winning to steal what meager possessions she has to her name. Eventually Zee can't take it anymore and she starts studying harder and practicing longer so she can start winning her possessions back. But that is not her ultimate goal. However, her ultimate goal may push the Elites too far and they may retaliate in the worst ways possible. Can Zee stay strong?
If it was possible I liked this book even less than the other. I kept waiting for the heat. The marketing for the series was a Bully High School Reverse Harem. I saw the Bully. I saw the High School. I see no Reverse Harem. I mean, I could see the making of one but the book was so focused on that battle system and harping on how it worked and how Zee was going to manipulate it to get what she wants, it got tedious. The Bullying didn't even come from the potential love interests like most Bully Reverse Harems tend to be. It was from an outside antagonist. This installment really put the romance on the back burner and made it hard to continue reading. There was just soul to the book. If someone read this book without the prequel they'd have no idea what was going on. That's not really good for a first book the series.
That being said, I was very weirded out by Zee's obsession with Derek. I had no idea why she was hot to trot for him other than him being hot. They waffled between affection and almost a familial bond which made it very unclear whether he was going to potentially be a part of the harem later down the road or if he was gonna be a best friend and Adam would become the love interest. I guess that was good to keep readers guessing but...
The Plan should not be read without reading Orientation Week first or the battle system will be completely confusing. Unfortunately, it was more about plot points and less about the romance genre we all want.
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tayraslove's review against another edition
4.0
This was a wonderful book. It didn't seem rushed. This was sweet and steamy, full of romance and passion with great characters that were interesting enough to draw you in.
lunelis's review against another edition
4.0
Before we begin, I wouldn't consider this book #1. This is book #2. [b:Orientation Week|48511152|Orientation Week (Breakbattle Academy #0.5)|Ruby Vincent|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1571558844l/48511152._SY75_.jpg|73826318] makes itself pretty relevant to the story, since this book doesn't adequately introduce what was learned in Orientation Week. Instead, it behaves as if you read that book.
So, keep that in mind: Amazon has the order right, GoodReads does not. You have to read Orientation Week or you'll probably be a bit lost and have missed out on a lot of events.
Also, I went into this series not having read [b:Marked|46146866|Marked (Evergreen Academy #1)|Ruby Vincent|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1559674708l/46146866._SY75_.jpg|71096387]. So far it seems that outside of same universe connections and the therapist, Miss Val, being the heroine from the other series, there's nothing to suggest that the other series is needed to read and enjoy this one.
Anyway, as for this book, it was a pretty good read.
I like that Zela isn't just mindlessly horny towards everyone, she has meaningful relationships outside of the guys who will end up in her harem, and there's a plot that's way more focused on than the romance, which is nice, since it's allowing the relationships to unfold out of more than teenage lust.
The author is still dancing around why it is that Zela's at the school, so I feel like there's a chunk of motivation that's really left dangling because the author not telling us why Dereck is important doesn't really give us much to go on in terms of understanding why Zela is determined to stay at the school, why she's willing to go to such lengths to fight the bullies. We already know that her mom's book about the system being sexist and terrible and what not was just an in for Zela to get to the academy, even if she doesn't agree with the system, she's not passionate about changing it on her own and it is an incidental thing, not a major motivator: as she herself said, she's there for Dereck.
I think perhaps the idea that Zela is there for an education might be a secondary motivator, but, she doesn't seem to be especially invested in fighting to get into higher math classes. You'd think she would be constantly issuing challenges and working her way up from F class to D and so on until she could properly challenge the Elites. Most of what she does seems to be in favor of staying in the school and keeping close to Dereck, which feels paltry because we have no concept, beyond Zela hearing voices, of why that's important.
It also gives me a bad feeling because I'm sure the reason for Zela getting close to Dereck is something inane or irrational--like, it's gonna come out and make me groan, I can just... sense it. I'm hoping I'm wrong but, I just feel like it'll be something like "Two summers ago there was an accident and Dereck was there and he did something relevant therefore I need to get close to him" and I'll just groan because it's a stupid reason for the whole scheme.
The majority of the plot is focused on Cameron wanting to make Zela's life miserable for not falling in line with the Elites and their secret organization, the Network, and Zela fighting back, though from what I can tell, the story will really get started in the next book, since that seems to be where the more typical bully harem romance stuff will start.
I am happy to report that the bullying, right until that final incident, weren't anything especially horrific. Zela loses her belongings in battles and the Elite members bombard her with challenges and the system keeps working more in their favor than in hers, but a lot of the bullying tropes you see in other books of this nature aren't used. I'm not sure if it's because the author is just not interested in those same tired tropes or if because Zela is masquerading as a boy she didn't think the same types of harassment would apply.
The final act is a bit more intense; Zela is ganged up on by several of the Elites she knows--Michael, Cole, Zach, and Landon--as well as a few others, who beat her up in anger after thinking the acts of terror committed against them throughout the year were her doing. Zach, who is the victim of revenge porn, then rips off Zela's wetsuit, revealing her gender. She is panicking and crying and upset and is whisked away by Dereck before anything else happens, and the guys who attacked Zela are super shocked and seem to even realize they went too far by ganging up, but since this is the most intense part of the book, I wanted to mention it.
I liked that we see Adam, who now knows, comforting Zela and confirming that they're still friends. It's nice that Adam doesn't turn on her, but I hope we get some interaction between them and that the author doesn't just, ignore the revelation and act as if Adam wouldn't bat an eye at it.
I also liked that, while we do get a kiss in this book somewhat suddenly, that the author is still treating these things like crushes and not going full speed ahead into insta-love. I just wish I had more reason to feel like Zela should have something with Landon; all the guys who will become Zela's harem don't get a whole lot of time. It's more that Zela was just especially infatuated with Landon over the others, rather than because she's built up more of a relationship with him, so that's why he got in a kiss scene.
I'll be looking into the next book, since I'm interested enough to see where things are headed with it. So far, it's not just another rehashing of the same story, but a different execution of it that I hope allows for some new and interesting things to unfold.
So, keep that in mind: Amazon has the order right, GoodReads does not. You have to read Orientation Week or you'll probably be a bit lost and have missed out on a lot of events.
Also, I went into this series not having read [b:Marked|46146866|Marked (Evergreen Academy #1)|Ruby Vincent|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1559674708l/46146866._SY75_.jpg|71096387]. So far it seems that outside of same universe connections and the therapist, Miss Val, being the heroine from the other series, there's nothing to suggest that the other series is needed to read and enjoy this one.
Anyway, as for this book, it was a pretty good read.
I like that Zela isn't just mindlessly horny towards everyone, she has meaningful relationships outside of the guys who will end up in her harem, and there's a plot that's way more focused on than the romance, which is nice, since it's allowing the relationships to unfold out of more than teenage lust.
The author is still dancing around why it is that Zela's at the school, so I feel like there's a chunk of motivation that's really left dangling because the author not telling us why Dereck is important doesn't really give us much to go on in terms of understanding why Zela is determined to stay at the school, why she's willing to go to such lengths to fight the bullies. We already know that her mom's book about the system being sexist and terrible and what not was just an in for Zela to get to the academy, even if she doesn't agree with the system, she's not passionate about changing it on her own and it is an incidental thing, not a major motivator: as she herself said, she's there for Dereck.
I think perhaps the idea that Zela is there for an education might be a secondary motivator, but, she doesn't seem to be especially invested in fighting to get into higher math classes. You'd think she would be constantly issuing challenges and working her way up from F class to D and so on until she could properly challenge the Elites. Most of what she does seems to be in favor of staying in the school and keeping close to Dereck, which feels paltry because we have no concept, beyond Zela hearing voices, of why that's important.
It also gives me a bad feeling because I'm sure the reason for Zela getting close to Dereck is something inane or irrational--like, it's gonna come out and make me groan, I can just... sense it. I'm hoping I'm wrong but, I just feel like it'll be something like "Two summers ago there was an accident and Dereck was there and he did something relevant therefore I need to get close to him" and I'll just groan because it's a stupid reason for the whole scheme.
The majority of the plot is focused on Cameron wanting to make Zela's life miserable for not falling in line with the Elites and their secret organization, the Network, and Zela fighting back, though from what I can tell, the story will really get started in the next book, since that seems to be where the more typical bully harem romance stuff will start.
I am happy to report that the bullying, right until that final incident, weren't anything especially horrific. Zela loses her belongings in battles and the Elite members bombard her with challenges and the system keeps working more in their favor than in hers, but a lot of the bullying tropes you see in other books of this nature aren't used. I'm not sure if it's because the author is just not interested in those same tired tropes or if because Zela is masquerading as a boy she didn't think the same types of harassment would apply.
The final act is a bit more intense; Zela is ganged up on by several of the Elites she knows--Michael, Cole, Zach, and Landon--as well as a few others, who beat her up in anger after thinking the acts of terror committed against them throughout the year were her doing. Zach, who is the victim of revenge porn, then rips off Zela's wetsuit, revealing her gender. She is panicking and crying and upset and is whisked away by Dereck before anything else happens, and the guys who attacked Zela are super shocked and seem to even realize they went too far by ganging up, but since this is the most intense part of the book, I wanted to mention it.
I liked that we see Adam, who now knows, comforting Zela and confirming that they're still friends. It's nice that Adam doesn't turn on her, but I hope we get some interaction between them and that the author doesn't just, ignore the revelation and act as if Adam wouldn't bat an eye at it.
I also liked that, while we do get a kiss in this book somewhat suddenly, that the author is still treating these things like crushes and not going full speed ahead into insta-love. I just wish I had more reason to feel like Zela should have something with Landon; all the guys who will become Zela's harem don't get a whole lot of time. It's more that Zela was just especially infatuated with Landon over the others, rather than because she's built up more of a relationship with him, so that's why he got in a kiss scene.
I'll be looking into the next book, since I'm interested enough to see where things are headed with it. So far, it's not just another rehashing of the same story, but a different execution of it that I hope allows for some new and interesting things to unfold.
kstarmoon's review
4.0
Great book
Wow... I didn't see the reveal happening like that. I had a hunch it was going to be a frame job. I like the relationship development and excited to see where this goes. We still don't know why she is getting close to Derek... I'm hoping the Elite actually pay in the next book for how they treated her.
Wow... I didn't see the reveal happening like that. I had a hunch it was going to be a frame job. I like the relationship development and excited to see where this goes. We still don't know why she is getting close to Derek... I'm hoping the Elite actually pay in the next book for how they treated her.
innae's review against another edition
4.0
morgensreads's review
4.0
A fun joyride.
I loved watching the story get more intense. It dragged me along on a joyride. I could never guess what was happening next. Unwrapping the mystery was fun and I can’t wait to see what happens next!
I loved watching the story get more intense. It dragged me along on a joyride. I could never guess what was happening next. Unwrapping the mystery was fun and I can’t wait to see what happens next!