St. Alderville: United : Review

St. Alderville: United: A Reverse Harem High School Bully Romance by M. J. McKinlay

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Lately I have been going on a rant about RH and bully love stories. They have all been so repetitive, until now. This book blew me the freak away. It was sexy; it was daring, and it kept your attention. I love all the characters in the book, but as always in RHs I have a favorite.
Aria is a great female lead. She has endured a lot in her life and all she wants is an opportunity to better herself. She gets accepted into a program by the state to attend a prestigious high school with great connections. It would mean college, a good job, better yet a future for Aria. There she befriends another student, Sierra, who is in a similar predicament such as herself. Sierra is more shy and timid, where Aria is not. That is where the boys come in.

Blaze, Jed, and Thor. The kings, the heirs, and the owners of the entire town. The richest of the rich, the powerful-est of the powerful, and the most arrogant. The torment and abuse the girls from the state program. They make sure you know that you don’t belong. Aria is the only one who has ever stood up to them. She fights back with the same ammo they try to use on her and the sexual tension is at an all-time high. Her goal is to steal their hearts and split the trio apart. Her plan almost worked, but she got to greedy and she made a mistake.

I am so ready for book two. This is what was missing in the other books. There is no heir returning home, there is no damsel in distress, or falling for her tormentors. Well, she does kind of fall for them, but she keeps her head in the game long enough to pull through and not fall completely for their bull crap. I have never been so excited for a sequel as I am for this one.

If you can get pass the poor editing, then you will love this book.



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Contemporary Young Adult Books Are Becoming Repetitive And Here Are 3 Book Examples

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I feel like many people will not like what I have to say in this blog and that is ok. My opinions are my own and I am not trying to force them on anyone else, but this is a topic I need to rant about. So without further ado, here we go.

The young adult genre is losing its appeal for me, specially reverse harems. Lately, every book I read is the same. The story line is borderline identical. The books are great and I love reading them and I love the authors, but what I don’t love to read is a different version of the same story repeatedly. Amazon Kindle has a lot of up-and-coming books available for pre-order similar in title, and the story line is almost a carbon-copy of another book.

The reverse harem bully stories are getting a tad bit out of hand. Book after book I am reading the same thing over and repeatedly and it’s sickening. The books are great reads and highly addictive, but again I have read it a thousand times before. Three to four guys are the kings of their school and/or town. A new girl moves in and has a run in with the kings/bad boys. They are hell bent on tormenting and turning the whole school against the girl. Suddenly something happens and they accept the new girl into their circle and guess the fuck what she eagerly joins. It‘s the eagerness that really puts me off. They have all but killed you for months on end and suddenly they want to place nice and you fall in line, the fuck? Oh, it gets better. Most of the time, the niceness is an act or a lead up for the big guns.

Reverse harem bully stories are addictive. They have become my guilty pleasure and they remind you of trashy reality tv; it‘s so bad it’s good. Here a few books by authors I absolutely love that are great reads, but damn near identical storylines.

Savage Royals by Callie Rose
Filthy Rich Boys by C.M. Stunich
Broken Wings by Jaymin Eve and Tate James

These books have been amazing reads, and I have fallen for most of the characters. I just don't like how all three books have almost identical storylines. Callie Rose and Tate James are new authors for me and I love their style, it's just this someone has told this story many times before. Jaymon Eve and C.M. Stunich are authors I know and love and their artistry shows in everything they right, but again I have heard this story before.

I guess what I am trying to say is for reverse harem can we get a little more creative.  I am sure there are a ton of ways to do an RH book without the typical bully/prep school line. On that note, this is just my opinion, until next time...