Review: Sins at St. Joseph's Academy by M.V. Ellis

 

Sins at St. Joseph's Academy by M.V. Ellis

Series: The Fallen #1

Publication date: January 29th, 2021

Pages: 282

Spice: 🌶️🌶️

Synopsis:

St. Joseph's Academy

Prestigious. Religious. Rotten as Hell.

As soon as I set foot in that place, my dream ticket turned into my worst nightmare.

I don't know if I can survive, or even make it out alive.

Because of them.

The Fallen

Beautiful. Brutal. Wicked as sin.

Five guys with the power of ten, and a burning desire to take me down.

They rule the school with cast iron fists, and stone cold hearts.

But the more they push me away, the more our destinies intertwine.

We're thrown together by chance, bound by circumstance, and held by desire.

Our story is one of lies, revenge, blackmail, and blood.

The Fallen won't be stopped, but nor will I.

So in the end, will the mighty be fallen?

Sins at St. Joseph's Academy is a full new adult romance with bully/enemies-to-lovers/love-hate themes, any may contain triggers for some readers. It is not a standalone, but the first in a running series. This is a reverse harem novel, meaning the main character has more than one love interest.

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Review:

I won't lie, I queued up this review to make it a DNF but was pressured by my friend to keep reading. I even flipped a coin to decide whether I should continue on or not. The first quarter of the book was incredibly hard to get through. There was terminology that was fitting for Australian setting but I am really unsure if the setting was meant to be Australian or the author just had a slip. That is another problem I found is that there is either too much detail or not enough. I have no idea what ethnicity any of the characters are nor have a clear image of them in my head. The description of them is very bare bones. It makes me unable to truly involve myself in the story to enjoy it further. On the other hand there was one situation where the FMC stood in the door of the classroom waiting to take a seat for ten full pages. She was too busy describing her life history and the boy she interacted with (which still didn't pain an accurate picture of the guy). I was done after the 24% mark. But, I decided to keep going and I am still not entirely convinced I should have, however there were some intrigue that kept me reading.

I wanted to see how the main characters interacted together at first as they got closer to each other. This was good in some ways but it was hard to really find much redeemable about the male characters. They all just seem to be tools. I don't really think Blake needs any of them. She could probably find someone else who actually is worth her time instead of wasting her time with them. Although I do find Thunder and Tyce to be moderately adorable. So, there were some good points.

Blake was a bit confusing for me. She was shy and demure one minute and then living it up the next. She's crying her eyes out about someone because she was treated like a slut then turns around and sleeps with someone else. I am on the cusp of liking her as I watch her start to come into her own but I hope that she becomes a more firm character and not kind of waffle back and forth.

I plan to read the rest of the series to see how it shapes up and whether I can stick with it but I am worried.