.png)
Series: Stonehaven Academy #1
Publication date: May 21st, 2021
Pages: 266
Spice: ⛔
Synopsis:
There's one rule at Stonehaven Academy: know your place.
Poor girls like me aren't supposed to fight back.
I'm supposed to keep my mouth shut.
And let them do whatever they want to me.
Bryce, Justin, Pierce, and Wyatt are the kings of Stonehaven Academy.
The four of them spent all summer tormenting me.
All summer trying to break me.
I thought I'd never have to see them again.
Until the father I never knew forced me back into their world.
Now, I have to attend the same prep academy as my tormentors.
A place where I can't escape their rich perfect faces.
Where I'm surrounded by their rock hard bodies.
They made it clear to me on day one:
I'm on their turf. And I'll have to play by their rules.
They want to destroy me.
But I won't make it easy.
And when I'm done, I'll make them understand:
I'm not in here with them.
They're in here with me.
Hateful Lies is the 1st book of the 4-book Stonehaven Academy series. It is meant to be read as part of a series, not a standalone, and contains a cliffhanger. A dark high school RH bully romance that contains triggers for sensitive readers.
Available at:
Review:
Astrid was used to having to pinch pennies and make ends meet on a limited budget. When money was tight during her job at the university cafeteria, she would fight in the Pit as a kickboxer. She was pretty good, too. She would rake in the money with a single fight... that was until the rich decided to go slumming and start wriggling their way into the operations at the Pit. Add to that the fact that a father Astrid never knew suddenly comes back into her life and demands she be sent to a prestigious upper echelon high school for her final year. In exchange for her compliance he is willing to send her mother to rehab to kick her painkiller habit once and for all. Astrid has no choice. She needs her mother to get help and she hopes that the upper tier education will provide scholarships for her to continue her education.
Once Astrid starts at school she realizes that this school was nothing like her old one. There is a hierarchy and there are rich kid rules that she didn't seem to get the handbook for. There is also four boys who have tormented her all summer at her old job now being some of her classmates. The four boys have made it their mission to make her as miserable as she possibly can be. They don't know who her father is and so don't feel she is owed any form of respect. Astrid can only hold on and hope that she can weather their abuse and make it out alive.
Astrid is such a mixed bag of a character. She portrays herself as this badass fighter girl with muscles and a thirst for violence. But when she enters Stonehaven and is confronted with her four bullies she becomes a pushover. She doesn't fight back. She doesn't seek revenge. She lets them do what they wish and just rolls over and takes it. I detest weak characters and Astrid was the weakest I have ever seen. She was too busy trying to figure out who her daddy dearest was and then whining over how little he gives her to live off of. I understand she is in a slightly more upscale establishment that requires a bit more funding but she barely had enough to pay rent before and she was fine, now she doesn't have the $500 for a school project and all she can do is pout?
Usually in bully romances I can see the good lurking under the boys. There is a reason for them being asses and there is always a glimmer of goodness that they let out in small percentages to show that they are not past saving. These boys... nothing about them was likeable. I didn't want a single one of them. They all were snobs and egotistical bullies who got off on tormenting Astrid not to teach her any sort of lesson, but just because she let them do it. This book was truly a bully story. There was no romance to it.
On a last note... if you are looking for smut, this isn't for you. The "sex scenes" were borderline fade-to-black and, honestly, the characters were all so detestable that I was grossed out reading about them getting together in any form. This book was definitely not for me. It was probably the worst one I have read for the year. I wouldn't recommend it. However... this is just one opinion. If you are curious, read it for yourself and see if you feel the same.
