Review: The Game by Belle Harper

The Game by Belle Harper

Series: Rebels of Ridgecrest High #3

Publication date: December 31st, 2022

Pages: 196

Spice: 🌶️🌶️

Synopsis:

Hunter

I have a secret. One that will change everything. I made a deal, one I won't back out of. Only time has run out, and they will all know soon enough.

Jace

She forgave me... but it's not as simple as "I'm sorry." I'm used to saying those words and all is forgiven. But this is Mila Hart... nothing's ever gonna be easy with her. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Roman

I made a mess of my life before she came back, and it follows me still. Only now, I'm not alone fighting my demons and I have something worth fighting for.

Mila

Freaking butterflies...

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Review:

Mila has two boys in her corner who she trusts implicitly. But there are two other boys who know nothing of the lies and stories that the three of them have concocted in order to survive. But if she is to keep pursuing the boys who give her butterflies she is going to have to let Asher and Jace in on the secrets. Roman is being blackmailed by a mafia boss and the cover-up of Roman's father's death. If the boys care for Mila as much as they say will they be able to keep their secret?

Add to that the fact that Jace and Asher have made it their mission to become one of Mila's boyfriends. Jace knows he messed up by torturing Mila the way he did when he was angry with her. Using her arch-nemesis to hurt her was the worst thing he could have done. And now, while he is forgiven, he has to earn her trust back. He will forever be an outside until she decides to give him a kiss to signal that he is one of her boys. Asher steps up to help Mila in a very tough situation and in turn ended up defending and protecting her other boys as well. He proved to Mila that he was not just out to keep her safe but also to guard all those who have pieces of her heart. Will Mila finally let Jace and Archer in?

This book was so unbelievably choppy. The issues that had been plaguing them throughout the series just get solved in a matter of a few chapters. The characters and their actions start to not make any sense at all. Like Mila's dad finding out about her multiple boyfriends and grounding her only to un-ground her a little later for no reason what-so-ever. Or even the fact that the father who wanted to have a place in his daughter's life so badly when she returned but then spent so much time away with his girlfriend that they had ZERO time together. I know the parental characters just got in the way of the romance but at least make his reason for disappearing plausible. 

Add to that the copious spelling, grammatical and just sentence structure issues and it was very hard to keep my focus. In one scene there was an entirely different word in place of another during a sex scene which just completely killed the whole mood of the scene for me. I just rolled my eyes, set the book aside and went back to it when I had more patience. 

I didn't like how little this book progressed the story. It literally just threw out all the old antagonistic events and characters and created a whole new one that we don't even discover until the last page because... of course, there has to be a cliffhanger. Probably wise because if there hadn't been I probably would have stopped at this book and not carried on to the next one as I plan to. 

In summary, this could have been better by a lot if the author had put a little more effort into the story or gave it a cursory once over.