Trickery

I have mixed feelings about this book. I will say I don't know if it's appropriate for a YA audience. There are a lot of F-bombs being dropped through the book.
I did find I really liked the main character. I found her internal and external dialog entertaining and funny. This is a very creative story. I haven't read anything like it in the past. I did find a lot of the events bizarre and some of the emotions the main character seems to experience seem really shallow and twisted. I liked that those that seemed to be the villains end up being the heroes at the end.

Do you know how hard it is to find legit reverse harems that don't make you cringe or want to pull your hair out for whatever reason? And this was so DAMN GOOD! It had some awesome characters: a great female friendship, a colorful (literally could not keep the colors straight-hair, eyes, personality) group of guys, and a pretty awesome female lead. This book was pretty hilarious with Willa's antics and dialogue. The world-building was enticing and was easy to picture because the writing was enthralling and nicely descriptive. I wasn't sure at first what type (if any) reverse harem this was going to be, but the authors did a great job splitting Willa's screen time with each guy. I would classify this as a YA RH because there weren't any sexy times (though lots of nude moments by the female lead which I loved because her personality is funny, fatalistic and just all around awesome.) I usually like to go for more smexy reads when it comes to RHs but I really enjoyed this one. It reminded me how “innocent” reads really build up the tension between the characters a bit better. It also made me remember how I felt when I was reading C.L. Stone's Academy books, which are honestly tough to match.

I'm so happy this book ended the way it did, but I guess I should say relieved. I was expecting the dreaded cliffhanger while I was reading the book since the title is referencing one of the guys and this is just book one but I should have given it more credit. It ended very well and I can't wait to read the next in the series.

Okay, only now coming back to review this after I've finally finished the series and gotta say this series starts off so strong. There are funny moments, amazing moments, and I just loved it, but as the series goes on I got tired of it.

Definitely worth trying out.

A full series review will be on Pain, book 5.