Review: The Pact by Belle Harper

The Pact by Belle Harper

Series: Rebels of Ridgecrest High #1

Publication date: February 1st, 2023

Pages: 292

Spice: 🔥🔥

Synopsis:

When we were ten we made a pact.

When we were twelve she moved away.

Now she's sixteen and returned home.

Hunter:

We made the pact when we were ten.

It would be the end of our friendships, we said.

We all agreed. Mila was off limits.

I broke the pact when I was twelve...

I won't break it again.

Jace:

Mila was my best friend, my neighbor and first crush.

But she wasn't just mine.

We made a pact to save our friendships.

Only I broke that pact the day she left.

I won't make that mistake again.

Roman:

Mila was my sunshine, my fighter... my heart.

I broke the pact and she still left.

She destroyed me with that first and last kiss.

Now I fight the monsters alone.

I won't let her in again.

Mila:

Jace, Hunter and Roman.

The four of us were best of friends growing up.

The last time I saw them all, I kissed them goodbye.

I broke their pact before I left, thinking I would never return.

All three believe they were my first kiss.

But I will never kiss and tell.

They have made one thing very clear.

The pact still stands.

Available at:

Review:

Mila returns from her 4-year hiatus with her vindictive and neglectful mother once her mother replaces her with a new baby. Mila couldn't be happier with the outcome as she has missed her friends and her father dearly. When she returns she hopes that her longtime friends would greet her with open arms, what she didn't expect was the cold chill that wafted her way when they looked at her. She knew that she had cut them out of her life when she moved away not being able to bear hearing them have a good life without her but she had hoped once she was free of her mother's clutches that everything would return to normal.

But their opinion of her isn't the only thing that changed. She left three scrawny twelve-year-old boys four years ago and returns to three sixteen-year-old Adonises. The comfortable connection they once had was changing and Mila could only embrace it and hope that eventually they would let her back in. However, they have all changed and now there may no longer be space in their lives for their once great love to just prance back into their lives.

Mila has to convince them that now that she is back they can trust her once more, but what is if there is no going back?

The main crux of the story is that Mila moved away because her mother was a vindictive shrew who wanted to take the one thing Mila's dad loved most away from him: Mila. She kept her away from him for four years until all the joy of sticking it to Mila's dad wore off and she threw her back at him wanting to embark on a new life with her new husband and new family. Of course, Mila is more than happy to return to people who actually care about her so it works out well. Now, if the boys knew she didn't have a choice in moving all they can really be salty over is the fact that she ghosted them. Which, fair, that can be frustrating, but to the point where they act as if they hate her? That seems a bit much. It works for the story plotline but seems a bit farfetched to be completely believable.

As with any reverse harem, I always have my favorite. That lies in Roman for this series. He has such a troubled life and I like that Mila is his knight in shining armor. It's a nice change to see the female protagonist willing to fight for one of the males to protect them. Roman seems almost to have an autistic vibe with his aversion to being touched and not being very verbal. Although that could simply be from trauma of an abusive home life. I honestly would love if it were the former though. I feel like autism is kind of under-represented in books and especially in romance books. Which... just kind of endears Roman even more to me. 

This book was fairly middle of the road for me though. The antagonistic events felt a little forced as if they were made to be bigger deals than they should have. I felt the jealousy was very short lived when it was the main focus of the whole plot. And, I also felt that Mila's time in a neglectful environment where she was so depressed she turned to sex, drugs, and alcohol, should have effected her more. She should have come back weary not hopeful and happy. There were holes in the story and the characters that made it hard to really pour myself into the pages like I like to do but it wasn't an unpleasant read overall.