Goals:Finish senior year by flying under the radar.Maintain 4.0 GPATry not to kill bossNo boys. Period.*Definitely don’t fall for Braden DiMarco’s charms… How hard can it be?Stella Bellemore is about as interested in love as she is contracting the plague. She’s seen what can happen. At least once a week someone is getting dumped at the café she works at. And there might have been a not so … might have been a not so little incident freshman year that almost destroyed her. That’s why she’s made a pact with herself to abstain from boys until she’s graduates college.
But the evil universe has other plans.
Her simple life of school, work, and her mother is about to be turned on its head when she’s forced into tutoring Braden DiMarco, resident serial dater and best friend to her ex-boyfriend AKA the devil himself.
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The characters are easy to empathize with and interesting. I enjoyed seeing the world through Stella’s eyes. Though her self-esteem is falters because of the people around her, she still has the strength to care about herself and not crumble under their criticism.
There is some language and situations that may not be appropriate for everyone. I recommend that parents read this book before sharing it with their children.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
This is a cute YA that covers school bullying and heart ache. Unfortunately Stella’s bully is her ex boy friend. When Stella has to tutor he ex’s best friend her whole outlook takes a turn. Will this be another bad experience for Stella to chalk up.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
High school is hard and even more so when your ex-boyfriend turns into your bully. Stella doesn’t believe in love any more thanks to this and just wants to finish school with a high GPA. Having to tutor one of her ex’s friends feels like punishment but he turns out to be not so bad.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
This is a tough YA novel for me to review – some areas I really enjoyed and others I wasn’t that interested in. Stella is full of snark and is a bit jaded when it comes to boys. Something horrible happened her Freshman year of high school that turned her off dating and the verbal bullying made me really feel for her. The author does a great job of showing how trauma from high school can really affect one’s self esteem, trust, and the ability to form romantic relationships. However, I didn’t exactly like nor dislike her as a character. I found a lot of her snarky comments to be humorous, but she was consistently rude towards Braden which annoyed me. I understand that the author was trying to show that she didn’t trust that Braden was sincere, but it was a bit redundant. I honestly couldn’t figure out why Braden liked her. As for Braden, I really liked him. He was kind, caring, and really seemed to “see” Stella underneath that hard exterior. I also couldn’t figure out why he was friends with Stella’s horrible ex, Jesse, given how he still belittles her on a daily basis. Because of Stella, I really had trouble getting through parts of the book, but I kept reading because I really wanted to know what happened Freshman year. As for secondary characters, the author did a great job of making Jesse and Michelle into villains. I also liked Stella’s friend Zari. She also did an amazing job of showing just how much bullying can affect ones self-esteem, relationships, etc. I gave this book 3 stars as I liked Braden, the characters were well developed, and I like the author’s writing style. I received this book for free and I voluntarily leave this review.