The Lovely Books: bully

Published: August 27, 2020

Publisher: Self-pub

Genre: YA Contemporary Romance

Source: E-ARC

Rating: 4 stars

See what other reviewers and readers are saying HERE!

Blurb:
Nine days have passed since Hayden got into an accident and fell into a coma. Nine days of hoping for a miracle that would allow him to wake up. Nine long, endless days.

Half of me is conquered by despair, while the other half clings to the hope that he will recover soon. I refuse to let fear and doubt overcome me. Hayden is dark and complicated, but as the days pass, I’m more determined to fight for him despite the hurdles in our way.

I have to believe that there won’t be serious consequences once he wakes up. I have to believe that we will overcome all obstacles and become stronger together.

After all, we may be both damaged, but we’re each other’s salvation.

Review:
“So no matter how down I get, no matter how strong the pain is, no matter how long it takes, I’ll always keep fighting to be a better guy. For me. For you. For us.”

An emotional end to a wonderful couple. Luckily, this won’t be the last we see of Hayden and Sarah. Two beautiful souls doing their best to navigate this thing we call life. Hayden and Sarah are finally together and working their way to being together for the long haul. Of course, the pathway to true love isn’t always an easy one.

That being said, they work as a team now and I loved how Sarah was compassionate And empathized with Hayden and his feelings. It shows great strength and maturity to be able to love someone who others may find difficult to love.

One of my favorite thing about the series is the secondary characters who all get their own stories. It’s amazing seeing them from a different point of view. Not realizing that there’s so much more than meets the eye. It just goes to show we never know what people are dealing with deep down inside.

“That’s who you are, and l love you with all your flaws. I want to be with you during all your highs and lows. That’s what love is.”

If you haven’t done so already, start reading the first book, Bullied. Fall in love with the writing and all its characters. It’s intense and beautiful. Vera Hollins writes such a heartfelt, deep and meaningful book about what it means to love.

*Thank you to the author for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Buy the book:
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Amazon UK
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Review of Book 1 Bullied.
Review of Book 2 Pained.

About the author:
Vera Micic now writes as Vera Hollins.

Check out her new profile to stay up to date with her new and upcoming books: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

Publisher: Self-pub

Published: August 27, 2019

Genre: Young Adult-dark themes

Source: e-ARC

Rating: 5 stars

Goodreads

Blurb:

I have always been bullied and trapped in darkness. I hoped life would get better when I moved to my mother's hometown, but it only got worse because it was there that I met my unrequited crush, Hayden Black.

He despised me from day one, and even more when I became best friends with his twin, Kayden. Kayden gave light to my life, but my happiness with him lasted only until one night two years ago.

That night Kayden died because of me.

Half of me died with him. The other half was left to bleed, suffering Hayden's and his friends' constant bullying.

Now I must endure one more year before I can finally escape them and go to college. This year has to be different.

Either I will become stronger, or they will finally break me into nothing.

Warning: This book contains mature and sensitive themes such as abuse, violence, and offensive language. It includes situations that may be triggering for some readers, so caution is advised.

Review:

Wow. This was deep and depressing. If the cover is anything to go by, trust me when I say that this isn’t your typical bully romance—it’s dark. After reading this, I think I need a break from books. It was...a lot. Almost like a rollercoaster that kept jerking me all over the place. Not fun but something I couldn’t stay away from even if I tried.

Readers, please take the trigger warning seriously. I’m going to be first to admit that I LOVE bully romances. This is NOT a romance, in my humble opinion. So if that’s what you’re looking for, this ain’t it. There is actual bullying going on. And not the occasional prank or some hero making the heroine feel bad type thing. Such as pretending to like the heroine and then humiliating her. This is much darker. Hayden, actually hurts the heroine, Sarah. She gets physically, emotionally, and verbally abused—consistently throughout the whole book. All the way until the very end. The hero isn’t a hero. Although, I felt for his character and feel oddly connected to him. Especially after all the revelation.

Sarah is weak. There’s no other way to put it. She fights back occasionally but for the most part she’s constantly scared and trembles a lot. So many times I wanted her to just fight back with all her might. But she didn’t. Instead she endured the pain and humiliation her classmates put her through. I have a hard time believing a school would be so callous as to ignore students being hazed the way they were. The way Sarah was. It’s despicable.

I couldn’t help but think of how volatile and abusive the hero was. It wasn’t romantic in the least. (Not that I think that’s romantic. But I like the occasional alpha possessive H every now and then) And I kept thinking about how I would never recommend this to young ladies because this isn’t how love is supposed to be. So I feel like the author did well in that regard. Showing us how the terrible cycle of staying with an abusive man that says he’s changed can happen. And sometimes how it starts.

I know this book won’t be for many people. And I get it. There were some difficult subjects to read about. Which is why I feel like I need to go watch something less dramatic and sad. Because yes, I cried at the end. It was too devastating.

I would like to say that I think towards the end the heroine did show a teensy bit more backbone. I look forward to her character growth in the next book!

*Thank you to the author for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Buy links:

Amazon US: http://amzn.to/2Le80Nj

Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/2MZxnVh

Amazon CA: http://amzn.to/2FnyOqj

Amazon AU: http://amzn.to/2Kww525

Amazon All Stores (BR, IN, ES, FR and more): http://bit.ly/AmazonMarketplaces

Apple, B&N, Kobo and more stores: http://books2read.com/u/3891d6

About the Author:

Vera Micic now writes as Vera Hollins.

Check out her new profile to stay up to date with her new and upcoming books: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

Website