Review: Hollow Hearts by B.C. Morgan

Hollow Hearts by B.C. Morgan

Series: The Harkwright Trilogy #1

Publication date: July 23rd, 2020

Pages: 350
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

Synopsis:

Harkwright Academy, the place where dreams can come true.

A three year stay will award you with an education that will rival any college and enough money to aid you in whatever career you choose to take.

I'm applying to give my mom the life she deserves, to fund my sister's medical bills and so I can be sure to have the only thing I truly want.

For my family I will give them my time, my soul and my body, but I will never give them my heart. This place is going to test me and the guys very well could break me, but they won't keep me down forever.

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Review:

Desperate people do desperate things when it comes to their families. Luna is no exception. Her sister is in a hospital with Catatonia and her mother is working as many jobs as she can to afford her sister's care as well as keep a roof over her and her other daughter's head. But they need money and when Luna learns about Harkwright Academy she applies on a whim. She never expected to be accepted but at least applying would make her feel as if she has tried every avenue to save her family. When she is accepted she enters a world of spoiled, demanding boys who use and abuse women under the guise of an academic setting. The girls are there for three years and at the end of those three years they will be rewarded. But during their stay they will be forced to put their own wants and wishes on the backburner as they obey the Harkwright men's ever whim. Luna is innocent and naive to the world of sex and relationships so she would seem to be a sitting duck to the most depraved of the men but somehow the Prince of Harkwright Academy has already set his sights on her. Will the men listen and leave her alone? Will Luna be a target for the rest of the jealous girls? And most of all, can she guard her heart while surrendering everything else?

I thought the book had an interesting premise. An Academy setting that seemed a bit more like a... educational brothel really. The girls were selected based on their abilities and desires to please the Harkwright men in any of their fantasies or wishes. There was some underlying lore that it was meant to find a mate for the men but it really just seemed like a buffet of willing flesh for pretentious men with too much money on their hands.

I kept wanting to see at least one guy in a favorable light but they all seemed rotten to me in some way (save maybe Maddox). I will say that I was rooting most for Aeron. He was a self-medicating playboy but in one part of the book he accidentally hurt Luna and he beat himself up a lot over it. He seems to be the one struggling the most with his feelings for her. I had Emmitt pegged from the beginning which is why I never really let myself like him during any of the interactions that were presented. 

Luna was a lamb in a lion's den and that threw me off a bit. I didn't want to watch her eaten alive by the predators looming around her. But it was nice to see her start to find her voice through everything. She started to become a bit more outspoken than her usual meek demeanor and the men noticed. It was good to see that they appreciated it rather than wanting to tamp it back down.

I was hooked on the story and devoured it in a night. I look forward to reading the next book in the series and seeing where Luna and her boys end up.