Review: The Win by Belle Harper

The Win by Belle Harper

Series: Rebels of Ridgecrest High #4

Publication date: February 28th, 2023

Pages: 220

Spice: N/A

DNF Percentage: 37%

Synopsis:

Game on!

Mila:

You think I'll just lay down and give up.

Think again.

We're here to WIN!

Available at:

Review:

Mila is being framed for murder and the boys are in an uproar not knowing what to do. That is about the amount of the story I got through before I DNF-ed the series. Here are the reasons I chose to DNF finally after already having to struggle a little bit through the series:

First, the grammatical/spelling errors became so frustrating that my immersion in the story was non-existent. I've had words interchanged. I've had words misspelled. I've had grammar misused and punctuation thrown around. I have had random words replacing others so that the entire sentence makes absolutely no sense. The books just recently underwent a cover facelift but really I feel like what should have been done was have an editor go through it with a fine-toothed comb. There are freelance copyeditors that cost pennies and it would make the books at least better in that regard.

Second, the major issues that seem to be life-altering in one chapter are glossed over and forgotten the next. For example: the fact that Brittany and her dad are investigating Mila for murdering Roman's father (spoilers, but if you are reading a review on the 4th book I'd assume you've read the rest). One minute they are sick over the worry of covering it up and the next it's just... poof forgotten because they moved on to a new murder mystery to play out. The same could be said about the Amato rats that blackmailed Roman. Sure, Alessandro "took care of it" but there was nothing more on that? No? Okay. Sure.

Third, the sudden change in sexuality for two of the main characters. I am not a fan of there being relationships within the harems between the guys. If it happens before the harem is in place, that is one thing, but it's another if it happens during the course of the harem's relationship. ESPECIALLY if it is formed without the main female being involved and/or having it be kept a secret. But that isn't even the reason I was so put off by the two guys getting warm and fuzzies for each other. They have never had any close interactions to cause the sudden interest. They have never had any curiosities about other men in their entire lives. This just felt like the author ran out of taboo(esk) ways to keep the sex scenes hot and just completely obliterated two characters. Hell, there was even an interaction with one of the guys and one of the others in the harem and the guy who seemed a little interested in it even said, "nah, not into guys just think the group stuff seems fun". It really feels like that little testing the waters scene was put in there and other readers maybe requested exploration of that so the author complied. But it just felt so artificial that it was the end of my reading journey for me.

I gave this series 4 chances. The first two were very low 3 star ratings, the third was a very low 2 star rating and this one doesn't have a rating at all because I just couldn't continue on. I stopped reading at 37%.

No shade to the author, and I truly did give the series a fair shake, it just was not for me.