We were perfect together. Until we met. MishaI can’t help but smile at the lyrics in her letter. She misses me.In fifth grade, my teacher set us up with pen pals from a different school. Thinking I was a girl, with a name like Misha, the other teacher paired me up with her student, Ryen. My teacher, believing Ryen was a boy like me, agreed.It didn’t take long for us to figure out the mistake. And … agreed.
It didn’t take long for us to figure out the mistake. And in no time at all, we were arguing about everything. The best take-out pizza. Android vs. iPhone. Whether or not Eminem is the greatest rapper ever…
And that was the start. For the next seven years, it was us.
Her letters are always on black paper with silver writing. Sometimes there’s one a week or three in a day, but I need them. She’s the only one who keeps me on track, talks me down, and accepts everything I am.
We only had three rules. No social media, no phone numbers, no pictures. We had a good thing going. Why ruin it?
Until I run across a photo of a girl online. Name’s Ryen, loves Gallo’s pizza, and worships her iPhone. What are the chances?
F*ck it. I need to meet her.
I just don’t expect to hate what I find.
Ryen
He hasn’t written in three months. Something’s wrong. Did he die? Get arrested? Knowing Misha, neither would be a stretch.
Without him around, I’m going crazy. I need to know someone is listening. It’s my own fault. I should’ve gotten his phone number or picture or something.
He could be gone forever.
Or right under my nose, and I wouldn’t even know it.
*Punk 57 is a stand alone New Adult romance. It is suitable for readers 18+.
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Re-Read 08/12/2021 Sticking with same rating. I re-read this to determine if this is my favourite book. I’ve decided while everything I said in my original review is valid, and I would highly recommend this book to any and everyone who asks. It isn’t my GOAT book. It’s a favourite for sure, but not THE.
4.75* (original read 4/6/2018)
I was worried before I picked this up. This author, and this book in particular has been hyped up for me in a big way.
THE HYPE IS REAL, PEOPLE. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.
Are Ryen and Misha perfect? No. Far from it. Is this book perfect? Kinda.
There’s not much I can say without spoiling it, but I’m in LOVE with Penelope Douglas’s writing and I loved this way more than I thought I would. So much so I’m itching to pick up everything she’s written.
No clue why I wait so long to listen to this! Misha & Ryen had a complicated past both together & separately. Little did they know that their worlds would eventually collide. And in typical Penelope Douglas fashion, there was tons of steam. Nice & Hot, just the way I like it! Laurie Catherine Winkel (new to me) & Lee Samuels (a new favorite!) did an excellent job narrating!
Holy smokes! I devoured this book. It was amazing and epic. Definitely in my top favorite books. I’m going to be on such a book funk after this. Penelope Douglas had a way of writing that I just connect with. I can’t get enough of her books! I’m now trying to find a ticket to one of her signing locally to me (which seems impossible to find!) just so I can get a signed copy!!!
I wasn’t sure about this book at first. I liked it but as I got further into the book, it started getting into the bullying portion of the book and I didn’t like it as much. The book got better as I got into it but over all, I didn’t love the book. Bullying isn’t hot to me and I don’t think I will read anymore books like this one. The writing was great though. It kept my attention!
“We were perfect for each other. Until we met.”
Upon reading this book I had only ever read one other book by Penelope Douglas and that was Birthday Girl. I have come to realize that I love high school romance and after reading Punk 57 I just love it even more. This story takes pen pals to a whole new level and I love this level
It was interesting to say atleast.
So Misha and Ryen have been pen pals from 5th std and were from different schools.
with these letters they become a special person in eachother’s lives with who they can share anything and everything with and even though they argue they cant help but just be there for eachother.
They continue writing letters but make a pact to never search for eachother on facebook or anywhere where they could see eachother.
They like the anonymity about it and how they cannout judge eachother based on their looks and this continues all the way until they are in high school.
I have never read anything like this so that was plus and how they were made to be so known yet mysterious to eachother like how Ryen in a way lied to Misha a lot about her life and how when the first time he sees her she is definitely not what he expected her to be….she was in many ways a bully to others and wouldn’t stand up for others and that was one of the many things that Misha hated about her and in a way saw her as a collateral damage in his plan of revenge.
This book is problematic and even though most of the violence is not domestic , it will definitely leave you unsettled.
The second half of the book is when they start engaging in their sexual desires and things are getting better ….oh wait …did i forget to tell you ?
Misha isnt known as Misha to Ryen …..he introduces himself as Masen to her and when she finds out..oh boy ….it definitely is interesting.
This book is a friends to enemies to lovers, problematic love , dark fiction and filled with suspense which i thoroughly enjoyed.
Ratings:-
.5/5
and
/5
Punk 57: .5
Penelope Douglas
“We were perfect together. Until we met.”
I don’t know why it took me so long to read this book when I’ve only heard good things about it. And I completely get why–it is so so good. Penelope Douglas’ writing is simple and flows very easily.
This book talks about the struggle between wanting to be accepted by people in school/society and trying to figure out if that acceptance is even worth it. Forsaking your true feelings/genuine personality for the sake of popularity–is it worth it?
Misha Lare and Ryen Trevarrow have been pen-pals for years and share a one-of-a-kind bond with one another. They’re more than just best friends–they are each other’s sanity and solace during good times and bad.
Ryen makes hating her easy. She’s bratty and popular and nasty. She irked me at some times. It pissed me off that she wouldn’t stand up for kids getting bullied, even when she knew deep down that it was wrong. It pissed me off that she was letting it happen AND adding to it. But, she definitely redeemed herself at the end with her letter and the way she stood up for Manny.
Misha, on the other hand, is probably one of my favorite Penelope Douglas heroes. He’s a rockstar in the making with a passion for music and isn’t afraid of Ryen–or really, anything. He calls her out on her bullshit and I absolutely love him for it. He’s hot, possessive, and oh-so-dreamy.
When Misha suddenly stops writing Ryen, she’s left wondering where her beloved pen pal is. Masen Laurent joins Ryen’s high school and they’re immediately rivals. He makes it a point to keep her in check, all while their sexual tension is off the charts. The story is well-developed and even has a little twist at the end.
I loved seeing Michael, Kai, and Will again! This book is great and I enjoyed it so much. Definitely read it if you haven’t already.
#Punk57 #PenelopeDouglas #MishaLare #RyenTrevarrow
*SPOILERS AHEAD IF YOU HAVEN’T READ YET*
Once again, Penelope Douglas gave us a great book.
Unlike two of her previous books, I did glimpse the synopsis on this one before I started reading. I initially assumed that this was going to be an enemies-turned-lovers book, but I was wrong. While it had a similar feel to it, there was no actual hate between Misha and Ryen, when he was masking himself as Masen. Ryen simply didn’t know that she was falling for Misha; she thought they were two different people.
I know that Misha’s entire reason for inserting himself into Ryen’s school was due to his sister’s death, but I never expected the school principal to be his mother! I simply thought that Trey, douchebag of the year, was sleeping with Annie secretly and she gave him the watch. Boy, how wrong I was on that!
I loved this story. I would have liked to see Misha and Ryen become parents, though. I know she was pregnant in the epilogue, but to see how they interacted with the birth of their son and knowing the name would have been amazing.
4.5/5 I really had fun reading this book. I was surprised at how inspirational and deep this books message would be. I definitely went in to this book expecting only romance but the plot delivered as well. I wish it was steamier but it wasn’t bad. I enjoyed the tension between characters in the beginning as well.
This is a sweet story that made me happy. Misha and Ryen have their flaws but they’re perfect for each other. They’ve been pen pals for seven years and best friends for almost as long. Worried that any change in their relationship could ruin everything, they’ve set strict rules to prevent any contact outside of their letters. They’ve never met, talked on the phone or exchanged photos so social media is also off limits. I can’t imagine the kind of self-control a person would have to possess to not creep social media in a situation like this but it speaks to how serious they are about the relationship. It’s a special thing for both of them and they’re determined make sure nothing upsets the balance of the little world they share.
This has worked for the friends for years until suddenly Misha stops writing without explanation. Ryen misses her friend and she’s a bit lost without him. It turns out she can only be herself with Misha and everyone else in her life gets a façade. As his silence drags on, you can see how the stress wears on her. She misses her friend but her interactions with him were also a critical outlet for Ryen and she’s starting to crack under the pressure.
They happen to meet at a concert but Misha realizes who she is and ends the interaction before she learns his name. That would have been the end of it except that Misha has just transferred to Ryen’s school. He’s on a mission and his reasons for being there have nothing to do with her but she’s certainly a distraction. He’s going by the name Mason and she has no idea this is her missing friend. They immediately clash when Misha learns that Ryan’s nothing like she described herself. In fact, she’s basically the opposite and embodies everything she professed to hate. He’s disgusted to know his best friend is a fraud and her behavior’s awful so he enjoys putting her in her place.
Ryen doesn’t understand why this complete stranger is so compelled to judge and condemn her but she’s really attracted to him even though he pisses her off, or maybe because he does. She doesn’t really know what she wants except that it’s not the life she has so Ryen’s open to anything that makes her feel. Whether the resulting emotions are good or bad doesn’t seem to matter, she just wants to explore herself. The dynamics between them allow her to let down her guard and get to know herself better, which is something she can’t do with anyone else.
Misha is a sweet guy with a sad life and very likeable despite his smart mouth and the way he taunts her. Ryen’s very likeable too, despite her flaws because it’s obvious that the shallow mean-girl she presents to the world is an act. She’s pretty and smart and loving but so insecure that she’s happy to go through life pretending to be a pretentious jerk merely to be accepted by people she doesn’t even like. Being an outcast as a child was so polarizing and painful for her that this is a better alternative and you feel her pain.
They both have a lot of pain for different reasons and suffer alone, struggling with their own identities as teens on top of it all. I was hooked from the start and rooting for this couple all along. I’ve seen criticism of how he treated her and the sex being unrealistic but I disagree completely. They acted their age and that’s how some young adults treat people they can’t or don’t respect. It may be harsh but being a dick to other kids at school isn’t automatically abuse and it’s not automatically misogyny just because he’s criticizing her. Everyone interprets things differently but I think you have to be pretty uptight or have completely forgotten what you were like at 18 to nitpick this story. The sex scenes were relatively vanilla and seemed pretty realistic for young adults. Even inexperienced people can enjoy sex and, in this case, the love and bond they share is evident in their chemistry, even before they realize it.
The supporting characters were great and really added to the story in a lot of ways. There’s even a minor tie-in to the author’s Devil’s Night series, which was fun. There was a lot happening here but Douglas handled it beautifully. The pacing was good and the story was clear without any major plot holes. I loved the characters, the message, their journey and the ending. I loved this book and will definitely read it again in the future, as I do with all of my favorites.
It isn’t often I read a book that takes me completely by surprise and this one did. It wasn’t at all what I thought it would be and I as consumed from start to finish.
I fell hard for this plot and these characters.
I read this because I wanted to design something rockstar and this book definitely left me inspired in a way I didn’t see coming.
Compelling and addictive, Misha tells a story that both hurt and empowers.
Truly a fantastic read.
“We were perfect together. Until we met.”
One of my favorite tropes to read and Pen did it complete justice.
The book tells the story of Misha & Ryen, who became friends through a pen pal initiative between their schools. They decided that they’ll not meet in real life and will continue this friendship through letters. Slowly their bond grew and this continued for 7 years until one day Misha’s letters stopped coming. Ryen is lost without his letters.
The story is filled with so much angst. I loved every moment of it. The undeniable sexual tension is written so beautifully. Pen will make you feel the pain, the longing, the tension of the characters through her words.
These two characters were so beautifully broken. Together, they fit so perfectly. I devoured this book in one sitting and I needed more! More of Misha, more of Ryen and more of the Punk!
Pick this up today! You won’t be disappointed.
This is such an amazing book please give it a try I love how the characters build and you see flaws which makes the book feel so real.
This is another awesome book written by Penelope Douglas. The whole thing was amazing and it kept me guessing until the end!
This was an okay read for me. I really didn’t like either one of the main characters. Ryen always acted fake around everyone. Bullying because she thought it would make her popular. Misha wasn’t much better when he finally met her. Except he bullied her because she was mean to everyone.
Punk 57 is an achingly beautiful exploration of emotions, desire, grief, and deception!!! From the moment l picked this book up I couldn’t put it down.
The writing was perfect, the story addictive and believable, the characters relateble and it didn’t drag at all. a brilliant 5 star read
I love Penelope Douglas and read all her books. She is one of my favorite authors that I know I will read anything she writes without even checking the synopsis. From my experience I can tell you that Penelope Douglas provides an escape from real life by her books. When you start reading one of her books, you get so into it and nothing crosses your mind while reading. So if you need an escape and never read Penelope Douglas, I strongly recommended you to give it a try.
‘Punk 57’ is about two pen pals who are high school students. Because of confusion related to their names, Misha any Ryen paired as pen pals during grade school and after 7 years of writing each other, they became best friends who knows almost everything about one another. Their friendship is genuine, sweet and real. Because they’re both afraid of ruining the friendship they establish through mails, they decide they won’t check each other on social media, exchange phone numbers or pictures.
Misha is caring, hot, popular, who he stands up for what he believes in. He is the lead singer of a band and also writes lyrics and soon he realizes that Ryen is his muse. Even though Ryen is a beautiful, sweet and caring girl, she only shows her bitchy persona to the world. Because of the things she went through in her childhood, she doesn’t want to be different and in order to fit into the popular crowd; she acts as a different person.
Everything comes crashing down one night. In a party that Misha’s band mates throw, he meets Ryen. Because of the uniqueness of her name he knows she is the girl he was exchanging letters for the past seven years. But the Ryen he meets is different than the one from the letters. After the disappointment, Misha faces with a huge tragedy, which will turn his world upside down.
After that tragic night Misha stops writing to Ryen and three months later he enrolls to Ryen’s high school with a different identity. Misha becomes Masen and he has an agenda of his own. Even though, Misha decided to stay away from Ryen, he keeps pushing Ryen in order to see if the girl, who he thought he knew, is somewhere in there. Even they act like they hate each other; the attraction between them is undeniable. Once they give up fighting and act on their feelings, secrets that they kept hidden, starts to come out and they start struggling how to handle them.
There are so many unpredictable things in the story, which will keep you hooked. ‘Punk 57’ is a sweet, sexy, sad and shocking. It is written from dual POV, which gives reader more chance to see the inner struggles of Misha and Ryen. It is also a fast paste story that you won’t be able to stop until you are done with the book (At least that was me, who couldn’t put it down until it was finished). If you still didn’t get a chance to read ‘Punk 57’, I strongly recommend you to start reading right now
Would I recommend this book: Yes.
Would I re-read this book: Definitely.
Would I read future books by this author: Yes.
P.S. To ‘The Corrupt’ fans Misha is Will’s cousin and I just realized that I didn’t write a review about ‘The Corrupt’, which is one of my favorite books, so soon I will re-read and post a review. This is the perfect excuse to re-read, don’t you agree LOL!
“We were perfect for each other. Until we met.”
Sometimes you read a book blurb and the book doesn’t live up to your expectations at all. Then there are those books that the blurb gives you just enough to get you interested and then the book is such more than you expected that you just let it completely consume you. Then when it ends your feelings are a big mumble jumbled mess and you wish you had savored it more. That is this book to a T. Don’t be put off by it being high school because it is so much more!!
/5 /5
TW: Bullying, Explicit Sexual Content, Crude Language.
I just lost my Penelope Douglas virginity! YAY lol
Can’t even tell you how long I have had her books on my TBR and I am so glad I finally made time for one. This was exactly what I needed. I am already tempted at picking up another one of hers.
I was promised smut and romance and she DELIVERED. This managed to be such a FEEL GOOD book! OMG! HEA endings are always a nice surprise. I have to stop lying to myself and pretend I don’t enjoy happy endings. I like torture and suffering during the plot, but please let things end well.
This gave me big netflix teenage movie vibes, the plot was so creative! I was in the feels the whole time, rooting for Misha and Ryen to get their happy ending. Romantic, sexy, exciting, sweet and just a light, easy book to read. If you’re in a reading slump right now, this is the book you should go for. I have read it in less than 12h, I could NOT for the life OF ME put it down, FROM PAGE 1.
You remember the feeling you got the first time you watched 10 things I hate about you? . This is it! This is the book that will bring all those feelings back. You will get nervous, excited, you will swoon and fall in love with Misha. The story is so cute, such a breath of fresh air. You get POV’s from both Ryen and Misha and this is just perfect.
If this is your vibe and you love angtsy, sexy, teenage romance with a happy ending, dive right in. You won’t regret. Also can’t forget to mention the beautiful message behind this love story.
“No one does you better than you. You can’t be replaced. Not everyone will see that, but only you need to.” You will find your tribe
Ugh…. no.
I regret giving this read my time or effort, but I didn’t want to DNF it if I was gonna write a review, that’s the only reason why I didn’t. If any, it has helped me understand that I officially detest bully romance, but I just wished I had known before purchasing this, that’s my complaint. I feel the blurb did not make a good job alerting on this so I feel duped, the title should be Bully 57.
Before I purchase a book, I don’t usually go into many reviews cause I dislike spoilers and prefer to go in blind, BUT I do believe the blurb needs to be honest, and this blurb needs to be rewritten in order to avoid the kind of review I’m gonna leave now.
To me this book is horrendous, it disturbed me, it was painful to read and I couldn’t wait to get it over with. I usually smile when I read books, not even one smile here. I’m honestly concerned about how the heck this has so many raving reviews, and I know I’m obviously in the minority so it may be me, you must be thinking, Hello, red flag!!! but still, even though my opinion is gonna be extremely unpopular, I feel I need to voice what made me dislike this so much.
There are so many things wrong with this book. Here are the reasons why I detest this book:
– Blatant sexism. This book is extremely sexist and that’s just plain awful. Is this really how high school guys treat girls, as “sexual amusement” and how is that supposed to amuse me as a reader?
– I don’t see the romance here, is it romantic that the hero calls the heroine “stupid cunt”? And this is not a one time thing, he guy calls her stupid in every opportunity he gets. He also says “you kinda taste like shit”. How is this cute? Is bullying your crush somehow romantic in the 21st century? Please let me know what I’m missing.
– Normalization of girls demeaning attitudes to other girls. All of the girls here are lying, cheating and talking behind their best friend’s back. True bitches. I didn’t see one true friendship in this book.
– Normalization of “an eye for an eye” attitude. Misha hates Ryen because she is a bully despite the fact he himself is a bully. Misha thinks he is better than everyone else. Apparently because he hates bullies he is entitled to turn himself into a “bully” in order to “bully” the “bully”, which he has no problem achieving. Yeah, a great hero. I felt no sympathy for either one of the main characters and I fail to see love here.
Check this out:
“He reaches for something, and then my scissors from my desk is pointing at my face. I freeze, staring at the tip.”
What do you think of this scene? Please, how is this love? It’s blatantly disturbing.
– Glorification of “aphaholesness”. Misha treated Ryen like shit. Not only did he call her terrible names and humiliated her, but he also stole stuff from her, threatened her, cut off a chunk of her hair, pushed her, blackmailed her, broke into her house on several occasions and slut-shamed her. To me, this is blatant MISTREATMENT AND HARASSMENT. And you know what, Ryen liked it and neither her nor anyone else in the story called him out for his abusive behavior. Misha’s relationship with Ryen is so abusive but this was not recognized in the book, not even one single time!!
– Vulgarization of sex with dubious consent sometimes to top it off. Misha would slut-shame Ryen while or right before they were making out or having sex.
Check this out:
I lick my lips.
And he loses it.
He reaches down, grabs the backs of my thighs and hauls me up, and I wrap my arms and legs around him, letting out a small whimper. Yes.
I part my lips, running them over the lip ring and savoring the feel as he groans and digs his fingers into my thighs. I tighten my legs around him, needing to feel him.
“Bitch,” he whispers.
“Loser.”
Does this really turn on the thousands of readers that gave this book a 5star review? To me, this is wrong and unhealthy. Also, there were several scenes in which Ryen asked Misha to stop or not do something, and he basically said “Screw it, I’m gonna do what I want”. Swoony, isn’t it?
Well, Penelope Douglas, please include the multiple trigger warnings in the blurb. Please, consider it.
I don’t know what to think about this author anymore. I read Birthday Girl and I absolutely LOVED it so I went ahead and got me a couple of more books by her- which I haven’t read yet and I’m considering returning- together with Punk 57. Honestly, I loved the premise of this book when I read the blurb – long time pen pals who happen to end up falling in love with each other through their letter writing over 7 years, but don’t actually like each other when they actually meet, you know it sounds like a hate-to-love romance, a trope I enjoy. It sounded interesting and kind of a unique scenario, and based on the thousands of spectacular reviews, I couldn’t wait to read it myself. Wow…, right? I couldn’t have been more disappointed or disgusted. I went in thinking this was going to be an interesting love story, but man, was I in for big disappointment. The extreme bullying, slut-shaming, pity parties, the insults and abusive behavior…made me sick to my stomach. I don’t think I have ever come across such terribly unlikeable characters and a horrible story in a romance.