Devils' Day Party by C.M. Stunich
Publication date: May 1st, 2020
Pages: 536
Synopsis (according to Goodreads):
I crashed my shitty yellow VW Beetle into Calix's Aston Martin.
To be fair, he deserved it.
But Calix and his friends, Barron and Raz, they don't see it that way.
Not that it matters.
They've bullied me for years, and I've never known why.
At least today, they have something real to be pissed about.
All of which would be fine, if today was a normal day.
But it's not. It's far from normal.
My mantra has always been: this too, shall pass.
But not today.
Not the worst day of my life.
Hot bullies, busted cars, and pain.
Somebody kill me now.
Available at:
Free in Kindle Unlimited!!
Review:
I hadn't realized that C.M. Stunich was the author of one of my favorite rockstar reads to date until I was drawing up the buy links for my review. Talk about a blown mind! If I had known this fact going into the book I may have gone into it without an open mind and a healthy dash of bias. I am glad I wasn't aware until just now. It makes me that much more glad I picked up this book from Kindle Unlimited.
Karma has been the butt of the joke since she first starting going to the high school for socialite misfits. She wasn't brought up with money, she had lesbian hippie parents, and she lived in a trailer park instead of the student dorms most of her misfit classmates were shipped off to when they found themselves in too much trouble for their famous parents to be bothered with. It only got worse when she gave into the love confession of the king of the Knight Crew and handed her virginity to him only to have him claim it was all a joke. Her heart was broken and she has been fighting to stay sane since she became the pariah of her high school. Her only saving grace is her heavily pregnant friend April and her sassy pansexual buddy, Luke. But even with them at her side she hated the Knight Crew and their constant torment. So when she saw Calix at a gas station looking miserable she broke. How dare he be miserable! He has it all! She crashed her Beetle into his Aston Martin and woke up to his angry glares and his friends' usual cruel words. They vowed to make her life miserable and they succeeded... over... and over again. The day was on a constant loop that she couldn't break. All she could do was change small things in the timeline to make the day less torture and more meaningful. It was in those loops she really got to know her tormentors and the feelings she had for them individually and as a whole. She also was tasked with trying to find out who leaked a sex tape of her time with Calix and how to prevent a fellow student's suicide. But can she ever get out of her Groundhog Day existence or is she destined to constantly relive the same day?
Oh my God. This book was fabulous. I loved getting to see behind the masks of the bullies she dealt with and learn more about them and why they treated Karma the way they did. Raz was the one I really felt I would never bond with. He was the harshest of the group and was almost as demonic as his contact lenses wanted him to appear. It was interesting to learn why he was that way and while I don't think he should have treated Karma as bad as he did for that reason, I could understand it a bit.
Barron was my all-time favorite. He was mean to Karma but only in a very soft way. He was never physically harmful and he rarely even called her names that I can remember. He was stoic and even seemed a bit protective of her even before we got to know him personally in one of Karma's many re-dos. I loved that him and Karma had a common interest in Art. It really was a good foundation for their bond once they got past their bullshit.
Calix was the meh-est for me. He was just such a whiner. He was so worried about outward appearances that he tormented a girl he "loved" just to save face. Why? Because his friends, his schoolmates, and/or his parents wouldn't approve? That's such a cop-out. And even on the days he shared with Karma I was struggling not to roll my eyes. Hard to believe I favored sadistic Raz over him.
This book was one of the best reverse harem books I have ever read. I could not put it down even to eat (I ate when I finished, promise). It was beautifully written and had just this small air of mystery tied into a great story of redemption and forgiveness.
Devils' Day Party will knock your socks off and make even the most adventurous harlot clutch her pearls in it's delicious debauchery.
