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4.07 AVERAGE
4.07 AVERAGE
Holy hotness I picked this book up back in July read the 1st chapter then let it sit. I finally picked it back up an boy am I glad I did that cliffhanger was shocking!!! I’m so glad I have all the books in the series lol! I love banter between Cam & Abby!
This book is an emotional rollercoaster. There r so many ups and downs and talk about twist. This book is so far from predictable.
Abby Is one tough chick, she doesn't take crap from anyone. She's been put thru the ringer and life just keeps from her curve balls.
This book captivated me from the very start and hooked me. I didn't wanna put it down.
Abby Is one tough chick, she doesn't take crap from anyone. She's been put thru the ringer and life just keeps from her curve balls.
This book captivated me from the very start and hooked me. I didn't wanna put it down.
This book was so good and that ending!!! I need the second book like yesterday. Full review coming soon.
Cruel Intentions is a novel set in high school, though its themes and content are not high school age appropriate. Trigger warnings for sexual assault, attempted rape, rape, physical and mental abuse.
Cruel Intentions is a bully romance. I’m not usually a fan of bully romances, so I was hoping Davis would change my mind. Unfortunately, she did not.
Cruel Intentions follows Abby as she navigates the treacherous water that is coming from a founding family of her town. Her future has been decided for her based on the needs of her father and his company. There are rules to be followed and everyone knows the consequences when those rules are broken until new players show up.
As I mentioned previously, Cruel Intentions does not shy away from its content like other novels with a similar storylines (The Royals by Erin Watt for example). The scenes are graphic and gut-wrenching at some points. This makes the stakes the characters are contending with more real and the situations more sinister.
Abby and the main love interest, Cam, have a complicated and fraught connection. It’s apparent from the beginning of the novel that this relationship will be dark, complex, and disturbing. Both Abby and Cam bring a lot of baggage to the relationship, so it’s only natural that their connection be difficult. Had Davis not steered into the darker aspects of their connection, their relationship wouldn’t feel genuine or earned. What I enjoyed most about this pairing were the glimpses of a healthy relationship that peak through. These moments are far and few between, but they make an impact.
There are so many twists and turns in the last half of the novel that I had a hard time keeping up. Some of the reveals land perfectly while others needed more groundwork to justify their importance.
Overall, Cruel Intentions is an intense bully romance that will keep you glued to the pages as Davis sets up a twisted social society and the secrets that support it.
***I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book
Cruel Intentions is a bully romance. I’m not usually a fan of bully romances, so I was hoping Davis would change my mind. Unfortunately, she did not.
Cruel Intentions follows Abby as she navigates the treacherous water that is coming from a founding family of her town. Her future has been decided for her based on the needs of her father and his company. There are rules to be followed and everyone knows the consequences when those rules are broken until new players show up.
As I mentioned previously, Cruel Intentions does not shy away from its content like other novels with a similar storylines (The Royals by Erin Watt for example). The scenes are graphic and gut-wrenching at some points. This makes the stakes the characters are contending with more real and the situations more sinister.
Abby and the main love interest, Cam, have a complicated and fraught connection. It’s apparent from the beginning of the novel that this relationship will be dark, complex, and disturbing. Both Abby and Cam bring a lot of baggage to the relationship, so it’s only natural that their connection be difficult. Had Davis not steered into the darker aspects of their connection, their relationship wouldn’t feel genuine or earned. What I enjoyed most about this pairing were the glimpses of a healthy relationship that peak through. These moments are far and few between, but they make an impact.
There are so many twists and turns in the last half of the novel that I had a hard time keeping up. Some of the reveals land perfectly while others needed more groundwork to justify their importance.
Overall, Cruel Intentions is an intense bully romance that will keep you glued to the pages as Davis sets up a twisted social society and the secrets that support it.
***I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book
The current trend – obsession, even – in romance really confuses me. In my mind, bullying does not result in love. It does not matter how people try to justify this, my personal experience has made it impossible to put the two aspects together in my mind. I have physical and emotional scars from years of bullying, to this day it still influences my thoughts and decisions, and I cannot imagine how I could have ever fallen for a bully.
In fact, when I stop and think about it I can come up with the moment that most bully romances would have turned into the moment where my feelings changed. There was one time, when I was sitting in the reception covered in blood following another incident in which I was badly injured and one of the guys who’d been bullying me walked by. He hadn’t been there at the time of the injury, but when he walked by, he stopped and looked at me. I was a mess and he came over and helped me clean up the blood from my face and helped remove the stones from my hair. In the books, this is where my heart would have turned to mush. Instead, I was terrified he was going to do something else to me.
I was terrified he was going to do something else to me, that he was there to gloat. Even when he made it clear he did not agree with what had happened, I did not believe him. I viewed it as some twisted part of the game they were playing – after all, similar things had happened before – and I was on edge the entire time. In retrospect I can see it was a turning point for him – he was never involved in any of the later injuries I received, and he made a point of checking on me when they were really bad – but during the rest of my time at school I continued to be fearful of what he would do as I did not believe it to be a real change.
I understand how easy it is to confuse emotions, I understand the science of misplaced attraction, but I find it impossible to believe someone can do a complete one-eighty towards someone responsible for so much pain in their life. It’s years later and my scars have not healed. The physical scars are faded and I lie about how I received some of them, unwilling to share the true stories behind the scars. The other physical injuries are mostly a thing of the past (although the time they destroyed my ankle will be a constant reminder of the things that happened to me, as I’ve ended up in hospital as a result of the injury almost yearly since the event). The emotional scars will never heal, as to this day I do not trust people when they are nice to me and there is the constant worry of what they’re planning to do to me.
Despite all of this, Siobhan Davis is an author I’ll always read. She has a way of convincing me to try new things and usually has me falling in love with things I did not expect to love. The fact the Kyler arc of the Kennedy Boys series is considered a bully romance had me believing the Rydeville High Elite series would wow me in the same way. After all, I do not consider the Kyler arc a bully romance. Sure, he was an a-hole, but it was not a typical case of bullying. Thus, I was eager for Cruel Intentions.
Throughout Cruel Intentions my feelings were mixed. There were times when I enjoyed the story, times when I was indifferent to the story, and times where I was finding it difficult to get into the story. Despite my feelings towards the bully romance trend, my issue was not in that. My issue was in how the book seemed to be trying too hard. Things were taken to extremes and focused upon trying to create a shock effect, which took away from the story unfolding. Things were dramatic and over the top, and I could not get on board with these things. It just wasn’t doing anything for me.
However, when things were focused upon moving the story forward I was enjoying myself. There was plenty to come together, and it was interesting to watch the way things unfolded. Only, these aspects did not remain. We regularly returned to being overly dramatic and I was pulled back towards my indifferent state. Add in the fact I did not feel the romance between the two characters – we were constantly told there was chemistry between them rather than being shown the depth of the chemistry between them – and I was surprised by Cruel Intentions.
It had the potential to be another winner from Siobhan Davis, another book capable of changing my mind, yet it didn’t do what I had hoped. I was addicted, as I always am with the author’s work, but it was lacking in the things that usually leave me obsessed with a Siobhan Davis novel. I wanted more depth for the romance, not more depth in the overly dramatic elite story. Sure, the elite storyline was important – but I got tired of watching excess drama play out, especially with how I wanted the main storyline to progress and develop.
Don’t get me wrong, this was addictive, it simply wasn’t all I’d hoped it would be. It’s a three-point-five-star rating rather than the high rating Siobhan Davis usually pulls from me, but it certainly has me wanting to see what comes next. I’m not desperate in the way I have been with other Siobhan Davis cliff-hangers, but I’m certainly curious.
I know I’m in the minority with this one, as everyone else seems to have been wowed, but I expected more from this than I was given. My fingers are crossed book two gives me the usual Siobhan Davis feels.
In fact, when I stop and think about it I can come up with the moment that most bully romances would have turned into the moment where my feelings changed. There was one time, when I was sitting in the reception covered in blood following another incident in which I was badly injured and one of the guys who’d been bullying me walked by. He hadn’t been there at the time of the injury, but when he walked by, he stopped and looked at me. I was a mess and he came over and helped me clean up the blood from my face and helped remove the stones from my hair. In the books, this is where my heart would have turned to mush. Instead, I was terrified he was going to do something else to me.
I was terrified he was going to do something else to me, that he was there to gloat. Even when he made it clear he did not agree with what had happened, I did not believe him. I viewed it as some twisted part of the game they were playing – after all, similar things had happened before – and I was on edge the entire time. In retrospect I can see it was a turning point for him – he was never involved in any of the later injuries I received, and he made a point of checking on me when they were really bad – but during the rest of my time at school I continued to be fearful of what he would do as I did not believe it to be a real change.
I understand how easy it is to confuse emotions, I understand the science of misplaced attraction, but I find it impossible to believe someone can do a complete one-eighty towards someone responsible for so much pain in their life. It’s years later and my scars have not healed. The physical scars are faded and I lie about how I received some of them, unwilling to share the true stories behind the scars. The other physical injuries are mostly a thing of the past (although the time they destroyed my ankle will be a constant reminder of the things that happened to me, as I’ve ended up in hospital as a result of the injury almost yearly since the event). The emotional scars will never heal, as to this day I do not trust people when they are nice to me and there is the constant worry of what they’re planning to do to me.
Despite all of this, Siobhan Davis is an author I’ll always read. She has a way of convincing me to try new things and usually has me falling in love with things I did not expect to love. The fact the Kyler arc of the Kennedy Boys series is considered a bully romance had me believing the Rydeville High Elite series would wow me in the same way. After all, I do not consider the Kyler arc a bully romance. Sure, he was an a-hole, but it was not a typical case of bullying. Thus, I was eager for Cruel Intentions.
Throughout Cruel Intentions my feelings were mixed. There were times when I enjoyed the story, times when I was indifferent to the story, and times where I was finding it difficult to get into the story. Despite my feelings towards the bully romance trend, my issue was not in that. My issue was in how the book seemed to be trying too hard. Things were taken to extremes and focused upon trying to create a shock effect, which took away from the story unfolding. Things were dramatic and over the top, and I could not get on board with these things. It just wasn’t doing anything for me.
However, when things were focused upon moving the story forward I was enjoying myself. There was plenty to come together, and it was interesting to watch the way things unfolded. Only, these aspects did not remain. We regularly returned to being overly dramatic and I was pulled back towards my indifferent state. Add in the fact I did not feel the romance between the two characters – we were constantly told there was chemistry between them rather than being shown the depth of the chemistry between them – and I was surprised by Cruel Intentions.
It had the potential to be another winner from Siobhan Davis, another book capable of changing my mind, yet it didn’t do what I had hoped. I was addicted, as I always am with the author’s work, but it was lacking in the things that usually leave me obsessed with a Siobhan Davis novel. I wanted more depth for the romance, not more depth in the overly dramatic elite story. Sure, the elite storyline was important – but I got tired of watching excess drama play out, especially with how I wanted the main storyline to progress and develop.
Don’t get me wrong, this was addictive, it simply wasn’t all I’d hoped it would be. It’s a three-point-five-star rating rather than the high rating Siobhan Davis usually pulls from me, but it certainly has me wanting to see what comes next. I’m not desperate in the way I have been with other Siobhan Davis cliff-hangers, but I’m certainly curious.
I know I’m in the minority with this one, as everyone else seems to have been wowed, but I expected more from this than I was given. My fingers are crossed book two gives me the usual Siobhan Davis feels.
This book does not start off with any happy feelings but rather some very dark thoughts. Those that are trying to deal with their own demons may want to tread lightly when reading this book. Even though this is a story of high school students, in no way is this book for teens and young adults.
Abigail “Abby” Hearst-Manning knows where her place is in the pecking order. Her family is far from normal. I’m not into shows like 90210, Pretty Little Liars, or any of the other teen series currently out there but if I knew that our author wrote the screenplay and these characters were the stars than I would quickly become a fan. She’s very good at creating complex characters. Their agendas aren’t squeaky clean and neither are they.
Originally, I thought this would be more about us against them. It was turning out to be more of a man-hater woman-hater type of story as well as a family mystery. I did like how Abby could take care of herself but there’s always two sides to a coin and her other side shows how she shrinks in stature around certain people.
It’s hard to sympathize with her but it’s also hard not to. This story certainly had me hoping that the young people in our schools would not behave this way but in today’s world it’s not too hard to believe there might be some out there somewhere. As I got to know Abby, one young lady did come to mind. After watching part of her life play out in the news and in court it wasn’t hard to have her take a staring role.
There are so many twists and turns with this story. Our author is very good at guiding our way so that you won’t feel lost. This becomes a problem when we seem to hit a dead end. It just means that I will have to prepare myself to see where she guides us in Twisted Betrayal.
I was not compensated nor was I required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
Abigail “Abby” Hearst-Manning knows where her place is in the pecking order. Her family is far from normal. I’m not into shows like 90210, Pretty Little Liars, or any of the other teen series currently out there but if I knew that our author wrote the screenplay and these characters were the stars than I would quickly become a fan. She’s very good at creating complex characters. Their agendas aren’t squeaky clean and neither are they.
Originally, I thought this would be more about us against them. It was turning out to be more of a man-hater woman-hater type of story as well as a family mystery. I did like how Abby could take care of herself but there’s always two sides to a coin and her other side shows how she shrinks in stature around certain people.
It’s hard to sympathize with her but it’s also hard not to. This story certainly had me hoping that the young people in our schools would not behave this way but in today’s world it’s not too hard to believe there might be some out there somewhere. As I got to know Abby, one young lady did come to mind. After watching part of her life play out in the news and in court it wasn’t hard to have her take a staring role.
There are so many twists and turns with this story. Our author is very good at guiding our way so that you won’t feel lost. This becomes a problem when we seem to hit a dead end. It just means that I will have to prepare myself to see where she guides us in Twisted Betrayal.
I was not compensated nor was I required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
WHEW what a ride! Not your average high school bully romance. I’m getting hints of Revenge (TV show) in this, but it’s definitely more twisted. It took me a minute to get into the flow, but once I did I was hooked.
Major trigger warnings: kidnap, sexual assault, domestic abuse
Major trigger warnings: kidnap, sexual assault, domestic abuse
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder
Moderate: Pregnancy
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Rape
the drama
Damn, that ending thoughhhh, I did kinda see that whole doctors appointment result coming though to be honest... but damn, I can’t wait to see where this goes
The characters are so good, but there are a few I’m still confused about, like,,, who’s Christian?? Lmao
Overall, fantastic, soap opera level drama. I’m here for it.
Damn, that ending thoughhhh, I did kinda see that whole doctors appointment result coming though to be honest... but damn, I can’t wait to see where this goes
The characters are so good, but there are a few I’m still confused about, like,,, who’s Christian?? Lmao
Overall, fantastic, soap opera level drama. I’m here for it.
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes