Narrators: Angela Goethals and Alexander Cendese Publication Date: November 17, 2020 (e-book), February 2, 2021 (audiobook) Format Read: Audiobook Audiobook Length: 12 hours and 53 minutes Page Length: 492 pages My Rating: 3 / 5 stars Links: Amazon | Audible...
Narrators: Angela Goethals and Alexander Cendese
Publication Date: November 17, 2020 (e-book), February 2, 2021 (audiobook)
Format Read: Audiobook
Audiobook Length: 12 hours and 53 minutes
Page Length: 492 pages
My Rating: 3 / 5 stars
Links: Amazon | Audible | Goodreads
Previous books in this series: Boys of Brayshaw High | Trouble at Brayshaw High | Reign of Brayshaw | Be My Brayshaw
SYNOPSIS
From USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Meagan Brandy comes an all-new romance about a wicked bad boy and the forbidden girl he accidentally falls for.
I had a plan, and it was solid.
Track down what was hidden away and take pleasure in toying with it.
Toying with her.
That plan, it worked like a charm.
Until it didn’t.
Turned out, the feisty little thing I found was far from what I hoped for.
She was different from all I knew and more than I expected.
She was light, and I’m the bastard who led her into darkness.
But this girl… she followed with a smile.
I told her I break pretty things.
She asked me to promise.
—
This is a 126k word standalone novel about two lost souls finding their way.
REVIEW
This was so melodramatic. And long. This book is longer than any of the previous books in this series and almost felt like it was never going to end. Brielle Bishop is a new character in the series and does breathe some needed fresh air into the story because we don’t know much about her except she’s Bass Bishop’s little sister and she has not been living in the same town as the Brayshaws. She lives with her aunt and cousin in a whole other town and for whatever reason, Royce decides it’s time to bring her home to the Brayshaws.
Content notes include violence, sexual assault, authority figure drugging students, mentions of attempted suicide, and mentions of past violent child abuse.
If you read this series on audiobook, you might be a bit confused with the timeline like I was. The author decided to change the timeline when she was writing this book and it’s been kind of fixed in the text version, but not the audio for the end of book 4. Basically, this story moves back a couple months so that when Brielle winds up following Royce back to his town, everyone’s still in their senior year of high school and not near the end of senior year heading into the summer.
Brielle is Bass Bishop’s younger sister, who has been living with their aunt and older cousin, Ciara, instead of following Bass to Brayshaw. Bass is barely in this book because he’s basically been kicked out of town by the Brayshaws by that point. But Brielle doesn’t know that. She thinks that by following Royce, she’ll find her brother too. Brielle is the physical opposite of Bass, so when Royce drops into town, he automatically thinks Ciara is Brielle and dismisses Brielle out of hand. This leads to an…awkward sexy time with the wrong girl. If you’re already here reading the last Brayshaw book, you know the author loves writing characters having sex with tons of people, regardless if they’re the love interest or not. So this should not be a surprise.
I think what’s interesting here is that we find out Royce is actually good friends with Mac, a player on their basketball team. I don’t even think they had all that many interactions in the previous books? But Royce and Mac both go to retrieve Brielle to bring back home…for Royce’s own selfish reasons? Like he gives a reason but I wouldn’t say it’s a good one when Bass isn’t even around too know what Royce did.
Mac basically took over security-type duties after Bass left town and he’s dating Chloe, previously queen bee of the high school and whose dad actually runs security for the Brayshaws. There’s a whole cast of characters at this school, okay? I liked seeing more of Mac and Chloe in this book and kind of wish they had a story of their own, like even just a short or novella if not a full-length one. But I feel like if the author ever wrote a second generation book, they would feature in them too. So I doubt this is the last we’ve see of Chloe and Mac.
Brielle winds up staying at the girls group home and there’s a bit of mystery surrounding her and some mysterious condition that she has. I can’t really speak for how well the rep is handled in this book but it seemed fine (and it’s not a secret from the reader for too long, just a secret from Royce).
There’s a whole secondary plot involving students at the school and something shady a coach is doing, but I’ll admit I followed exactly 0% of it. I had no idea what that whole situation was about, and I still don’t. It’s not THAT important but it is a storyline for the sake of having some sort of drama now that the Gravens are no longer a threat to the Brayshaw name? And now we see the Brayshaws helping out students at the school, and it brings Brielle into the fold. Considering what Brielle does in this book with a car (you’ll know it when it happens), I think she’s more stone cold than Raven and Victoria when the need arises.
There’s a villain character who isn’t a Graven, that makes their way back into this book. I spotted them from a mile away, but it was nice to get some closure on that character because it was kind of vague in previous books what happened to them – like did they just get sent far away out of state, or were they murdered? It was weirdly vague before and now it’s not.
The ending is super melodramatic between Royce and Brielle, in an almost Romeo and Juliet kind of way. They do live. I don’t think that’s a spoiler since you want a romance book to end in a HEA. But I do question their sanity for a chapter there.
Bass has one chapter in this book. Why? I don’t know. But he does. I guess it’s to show he’s good with his little sister being with a Brayshaw who hates his guts? I honestly don’t understand the bad blood Royce has for Bass. But I did enjoy seeing what little we do see of him. Bass shows up with some mysterious blond, rich girl and we don’t even get a name for. My only guess is that she’s the girl who will show up in Bass’ spin-off book as his love interest in Tempting Little Thief.
I know Brielle went back to their old home and their parents don’t live there anymore but did we ever find out what happened to her and Bass’ parents? I feel like that’s a weird thing that’s just not mentioned in this book? They’re just out of the picture.
It’s been mentioned before that Royce has his own issues when it comes to forming attachments and whatnot. And I don’t know. Even after reading this book and chapters even FROM Royce, I feel like I still understand him the least of all the Brayshaws. I don’t necessarily hate him, but I’m not in love with him either. Do I buy him and Brielle’s romance? Not really. More like he found Brielle and just got super attached to her for almost no reason since he can’t have Raven.
But the Brayshaws fall in love and get married young, so I don’t know what I expected. The ending of this book falls in line with the previous books in this series. No one’s on birth control and no one uses condoms. This is an odd series overall that ends in teenage pregnancies and while I know the Brayshaws run this town, nobody bats an eye. There’s a whole other teenage couple that gets pregnant in this book too and I just find it weird. But I guess it does neatly setup for a second generation series of books with the kids who will all be around the same age (even though I’m a hater who hates second gen contemporary books).
I still think Rolland (Maddoc’s bio dad and man who adopted Cap and Royce after their parents died) brings absolutely nothing to the story despite being some head honcho to the scary Brayshaw name. Maybe it has to do with the fact that he’s actually not all that old and has spent 11 years or so in prison and has been made into a very young grandfather in his 30s? But Rolland is still very much a nonentity to me in this series.
The audiobook narration is what it is. Angela Goethals as Brielle is fine. Alexander Cendese is the narrator for Royce, and I don’t know why authors keep choosing him to do narrations because I’ve never been a fan. I’ve actually only listened to him do m/m romance books so this was a first to listen to him do m/f audiobooks and he just can’t do female voices to save his life. Where Charles Carr in the previous book didn’t even attempt to do voices, Alexander Cendese might’ve been better off not attempting to do voices either. He just has a very abrasive narration voice and I will never understand why people keep casting him for romance audiobooks.
Overall, this book was fine and a decent ending to the Brayshaw books. It was nice bringing in Brielle to the story to give some life and fresh eyes to the town, the characters, and the story since she’s an outsider entering the Brayshaw world. Raven, Maddoc, Cap, and Victoria are in this book a lot and it’s interesting to see read about them from Brielle and Royce’s eyes. Based on audiobook hours, this is the longest book in the series and at times it really felt like it. I’m just glad I finished this book and this series, and I’m glad that Bass’ book is already out and I can jump over to that book next!