***4.5 ‘Vanilla’ Stars***
I’ll admit that I’m not a huge fan of bully romances. I’ll read them if they are by my one click authors, but most of the time I just pass them by. But this one, this one caught my attention. Actually, it was the last two sentences that hooked me and I decided to give it a go with no real expectations, just the hope that I would enjoy it in the end. Well, I more than enjoyed it. I went down the rabbit hole and didn’t want to come out and was quite disappointed when there were no more words to read.
I ADORED Allie. ADORED the girl. She is that down to earth girl who is comfortable in her own skin. Her world has gone sideways in a big way, but she takes it in stride and does what needs to be done to keep her head high. Roman. Okay. Here’s the thing with Roman. In a lot of ways he is the big bad, he made my eyes hurt from all the rolling he caused and the urge to reach out and Gibbs smack was strong ~ oh so strong ~ and yet, it was hard not to fall in love with him, because he is loyal and protective to those he calls his own.
Allie and Roman’s journey to their HEA was a fun one. It was filled with a bunch of eye rolling, growling and a few “Oh No He/She Didn’t” moments, but there was also a bunch of laugh out loud moments, swoon worthy ones and a good dose of heat because Allie and Roman just flowed for me. They had that chemistry that jumped off the page and had me wanting more, but they were also equals in a lot of ways. Roman may have been BMOC, but Allie didn’t bow down, so the balance of power between them was pretty even. Now the big fucking sinkhole in their journey was a massive one in every way and I was totally Team Allie ~ 100%, no questions asked ~ but I gotta say that once Rome figured his shit out, thanks to his friends ~ the boy did good and I loved where things were with them at the end of the book.
This is my first read by the author, and I thoroughly enjoyed the ride. The writing was engaging, pacing good and the dual first person POV done very well. There are triggers in this book ~ big ones ~ and the author does make note of it before the books starts, but I felt that they were handled well and from what I can gather will be issues that play out as the series progresses, so there are some things left up in the air when the book ends.
Now, as you know, I’m a sucker for well written secondary characters and this baby is filled with them. I adored Dominique, Emilo, Aaron, Kasey and Julio. They totally kicked ass. I loved that while Dom and Emilio were totally Roman’s boys, they also thought for themselves ~ it wasn’t just bro code all the way. Aaron ended up being a sweetheart and Julio was just everything! And Kasey, well, I’m definitely looking forward to seeing where the series takes her.
~ Copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley & voluntarily reviewed ~
