A sexy three book enemies to lovers romance with a dirty dancing twist! Spoiled Princess is what he used to call me.We were an inferno of hate and passion wound up with a dash of chaos.For four years I watched him mow my lawn.For four years I watched my friends make fun of him.For four years I hated myself for wanting him, but even more for the way I treated him.And then I had him.For one night, … him.
And then I had him.
For one night, we put all labels away and I spent the best night of my life in his arms.
Then the next day, with my secret night under lock and key, I looked the other way while my friends shamed him.
But now the jokes on me, because the scrawny lawn boy who I secretly loved from afar is now the director of Hollywood’s most exclusive summer camp.
And I’m on his staff.
Now it’s his turn to punish me.
His turn to make me pay.
His turn to take his revenge after years of humiliation.
He’s no longer a boy you can ridicule.
But a college graduate who can have any woman he wants.
I want him to look at me the way he did that one night we had together, but right now
the look in his eyes tells me he’s going to enjoy having me under him for two straight months.
I don’t know where his hatred ends, his passion begins.
All I know is he wants revenge.
And I’m his lucky target.
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Oh my! Once I started this book I couldn’t put it down. This story goes to show you that things are not always how they seem from outside appearances. At times this was a bit heartbreaking. Feelings of all kinds run rampant between these two. Ray and Marlon seem to always take one step forward and two steps back when they are together. By the end of the book I was dyeing for more of these two, and can’t wait for the next book. *Reviewed for Net Galley.*
Wonderful Storyline about the angst of teenage years bullying and how they turned out as adults. Sometimes it’s not what it seems.
Marlon was the maid’s Foster son he was ridiculed and bullied all through high school and the one person he looked to, to offer a hand didn’t say a word. So hate blossomed. Ray grew up feeling alone and unloved but the one person who made her feel is the person who hates her the most.
As adults can they both wonder if they can get past what happened in youth, it seems that both totally misunderstood the other.
I can’t wait to read the next book in this Series.
Summer Heat by Rachel Van Dyken a five-star read that will have you on the edge of your seat. This is the first novel in the Cruel Summer series and wow, I am so excited for number two!! What an ending on this story, I can’t wait. Never have I wanted to go to summer camp so much, my heart broke at times for Ray but then it also broke a little for Marlon it was such a compelling story. This is one of those stories that you would be sad to miss, and an author I am fast falling for.
Ray and Marlo, she is the popular girl, he is the adopted son of the housekeeper. They got together just to be apart, now back together at an older age, they are both at a drama camp, the chemistry between them is still there, he seeks revenge for all the things in the past. I can’t wait for the next book!
Ray and Marlo have hot chemistry. Ray grew up wealthy. Her parents bought her love. It was a lonely way to grow up. Marlo mowed the grass. He was the one real to her fake existence. Until she turned her back on him when he needed her. Marlo has always wanted the spoiled princess who lived in her tower. Now she’s back in his life and all he can think about is getting revenge.
Summer Heat is a great quick read. It’s not a standalone and ends in a cliffhanger. The writing is good and will suck you in. Told in both Ray and Marlo’s POV.
Reviewed on behalf of Once Upon an Alpha.
Ray and Marlon will pull you in all directions. I feel this is RVD’s best work to date.
So what happens when the one person from your past, you really wanted to forget about – all of a sudden shows up at the Summer camp you are the director at? Well for Marlon – it brings up a lot of anger and maybe some revenge.
Ray and Marlon had been friends since they were little kids. With his foster mom working for Ray’s family, she was always a part of his life. Until High School, things changed. Ray was a popular girl. Dating the captain of the football team. The IT girl. While Marlon was the skinny nerdy kid who had a major crush on Ray. One night. He thought everything changed, until the next day… it seemed everything was back the way it was before.
So when Ray shows up as a camp counselor at the theater camp he’s the director of years later. All he sees is red. And maybe making her life miserable.
I can’t give too much away but know that this book is full of sexual tension and all kinds of yummy angst. Seriously I could not put the book down! It does end on a cliffhanger, so be aware. But luckily for us, we will get the next book fairly quick! Pick up this series! Its a MUST.
Ray and Marlo meet again in summer camp. They did not part on good term and they start on rocky ground. But the chemistry between them is explosive; they are both changed, more mature. The attraction slow escalates toward the end, explodes, and leaves with one big fat cliffhanger.
I volunteered to review an ARC of this book for Netgelly
Loved it! The push and pull between Ray and Marlo is sizzling. Crossed signals, fear, immaturity, unrequited love and unacknowledged chemistry…what a delicious combination! This first installment of the Cruel Summer series left me wanting more. I’m just glad that I can get the following 2 books and I don’t have to wait for a conclusion.
I really enjoyed NA read. Childhood friends, teenage enemies, misunderstandings, mistakes and reconnection. You get a bit of everything in this one. I am definitely intrigued & with that cliffhanger will be grabbing book 2 ASAP.
This book is book 1 in a three part book. It does end in a cliffhanger.
Marlo is a foster kid who was made fun or and teased for…well just about everything including being skinny. He literally fit into the lockers the jocks shoved him into. Four years of taunting is over. His only wish was for someone to stand up for him. At one point he thought that person might be Ray especially after they shared a very private moment in her room during a party. But she never did.
Everything in Ray’s life seems perfect. She lives in a mansion, has fancy cars, designer clothes, and tons of friends. Nothing is as it appears. No one really sees her or knows her except Marlo. Her nanny/maid’s foster son saw her when no one ever did. The night they spent together is something she has cherished for years. If she had s backbone, she would’ve stood up for him the next day when the football players pushed him around. She was scared. She felt bad that she also took his scholarship to his first choice college–an acting scholarship that he needed. She needed it more. Her parents refuse to pay for her education unless she follows the path they set for her.
Finished with schooling, Ray takes the summer to work at an elitist and prestigious acting camp. A camp that producers and agents flock to for talent. Like everything else in Ray’s life, the one person who hates her runs the camp. How is she going to survive the summer?
This story takes the reader on an adventure. It’s emotional and an addictive ride. This is the heart breaking and heart mending story of Ray and Marlon. They are enemies, plain and simple.
Marlon has had a difficult childhood, but he is making his way through, only he has some issues that need to be addressed that they come out when Ray is involved. He is a foster child how mows lawns (including Ray’s families). He feels like he is an outsider (and maybe he his) always looking at something he can’t have, will never have. Ray might live in her “perfect world” but she is just as lost, just as shattered as Marlon. While Marlon didn’t think that Ray is within his reach, she is thinking something complete different. One night together and all these feelings change, just not their situation.
Years later these two meet again as a summer camp and the tension and heat is palpable. Marlon is there, different and yet still the mystery that Ray wants to get caught up in. Ray is determined to get the love she was missing from life from Marlon I just don’t think she quite knows it yet. I enjoyed the sparks between these two in their banter, it is where the heat lies; and I loved the passion these two had for each other’ whether it was “hate” or lust these two sure know how to catch fire. The dynamics of this story are what make it both a romantic second chance story and a must read. I loved that Marlon and Ray has to work at their relationship. That even though there was insta lust the still needed to develop trust and empathy.
This story does on a cliffhanger as it is part one of a three part series, but it was well worth the ending to get this extraordinary enemy to lovers’ story! Filled with tension, passion, heat and lust I would recommend this story to all! I received an ARC via NetGallery and I am leaving my honest review. #NetGallery #SummerHeat
Ray is a rich, beautiful woman. She is in the popular crowd. Her parents just up and leave her to go do whatever and she feels like she has nobody.
Marlo is a sexy man. He had it rough growing up. He was an orphaned at a very young age. He would cut Ray’s family lawn. He was not in the popular crowd, he was bullied in high school and did not have many friends. He just wanted somebody to stand up for him.
It is not easy for either one of them. This book is amazing and you just have to read it to get their story. I didn’t want it to end. I want to know what happens between them.
Highly recommend reading it. Love it.
While working a summer camp for Drama students, Ray thinks it will be an easy time filled with acting, singing and choreography. What she did not expect was for the man in charge to be the same boy she had a hot moment with in high school but shunned after it was over. Can Marlon forgive her teenage antics or will he plot revenge on his adult nemesis? With enjoyable characters and a storyline that had me quickly turning pages this was a great read. I cannot wait to see what comes next.
An iBooks exclusive trilogy, and book 1, Summer Heat, is currently free. Maybe it’s alway free, I’m not sure, but it’s an excellent way to make sure you buy the additional books, and buy them you must, because let’s face it, the author pulls you in with her excellent writing, her addictive storyline, and two characters you just want to lock in a room until they finally realise how truly good for each other they are. Enemies to lovers to….. I’m guessing enemies again after that whopping cliffhanger. I love everything about this book (yep, except for that cliffie), the whole summer camp thing, the dirty dancing vibes (yep, it’s one of my favourite movies), Ray and Marlon have such great chemistry, the sexual tension is just screaming to be released. I loved it.
Summer Heat is a quick read that had me hooked from start to finish. An enemies to… (let’s hope) lovers story, this first book in the trilogy is full of delicious tension. And, it brought me back to summer camp – truly one of my favorite places on earth!
Boy oh boy, does RVD turn up the heat in this first part of her ‘Cruel Summer’ trilogy! That cliffy, that has me eagerly anticipating the next part of the series.
Reading this story felt like I was at camp myself! Honestly it read like it was a movie screening in front of me!
The characters were so believable and with Marlon and Ray both from opposite sides of the tracks, you cannot help but feel their pain and frustrations as to how things went in high school!
Now they have alot of anger and pent up tension to get out from that time long ago and I really saw that Ray hasn’t probably had the best life that Marlon thought she had!
This story was rather poignant to those that have had a rough time in high school and how they deal with things years on when they meet up again at Summer Camp!
I thoroughly enjoyed this first installment and cannot wait for more!!
“like our heart decided that if we couldn’t have one another, they’d choose something just as passionate, something just as wonderful and horrible all at once-hate.”
When I think of Rachel Van Dyken the first thing that comes to mind is Eagle Elite. She is one of my favorite authors and this book reminded me why. She came up with a quick read that pulls you in from the very first page and hold onto you until the end. The story of Marlon and Ray is set up to be a great enemies to lovers romance and I can’t wait to read more.
“One thing was certain. I should have never danced with him in the first place, because now it felt personal. Now it felt like the story of us.”
Marlon and Ray have known each other since High School and let me tell you they were not the best of friends. They were enemies. Ray was the rich girl with all of the friends and the perfect boyfriend. Marlon was the poor boy that got bullied and worked for Ray’s family. They had one night together and then it was back to not knowing each other and it killed Marlon. Now they are grown up and thrown back together. I loved Ray. She was not the normal rich girl that goes through a transformation. Ray has had a hard life that she keeps hidden. She’s more sensitive than anyone can imagine, especially Marlon. Marlon on the other hand was someone I didn’t warm up to. He was kind of an asshole which surprised me because I expected that he was going to be the one I liked. He was judgmental an he couldn’t let go of the past. I mean I understand maybe holding onto it for a little while, maybe, but I just didn’t like how he handled it. I was starting to warm up at the end but we will see if he can redeem himself in the next books.
“I held him between my thighs. I wished for him to stay there. I found my soul in that moment.”
I am really excited about these books. This series reminded me that Rachel Van Dyken has a talent to create storylines that are interesting and characters that are likeable and lovely. The writing was smooth, and it flowed. I really can’t wait for the next ones. It is definitely a quick read which was disappointing, but the next installments will be worth the wait I’m sure.
*5 Stars*
ARC kindly received in exchange for an honest review.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME WITH THAT CLIFFHANGER?
RVD does it again with the first instalment of this series. I was captivated by the characters and their history, and getting to know them in by present. Watching them interact and trying to work out how they felt about each other was awesome.
This is a really fast read and with that ending I CANNOT WAIT for the next instalment to be released.
I really want to dig deeper into the story of Marlo and stay and see where this road will take them both. Things aren’t always as they seem, and I really can’t wait to delve into that some more.
Book two hurry up please!
“I only trusted myself because nobody else in my life had ever been reliable.”
This is the first book in the Cruel Summer Series and you may as well pre-order or download the rest of the series now. You will not want to wait another minute when you turn the last page! I read this book in one sitting…I could not put it down.
“We are all human, we all feel pain, we all have emotions…a shiny house doesn’t mean we automatically have a happy heart.”
This book had me feeling many emotions. I laughed, cried, was heartbroken, sympathetic, angry, fanning myself and hopeful. This book is filled with regret, betrayal, longing, revenge, judgement, heartache, sadness and guilt.
“Those eyes, they haunted me. They made me hate and want both at the same time.”
When you finally think you’ve escaped your past and can pursue your dreams…then your past returns like the Phoenix from the ashes…do you let the past go? Do you finally get your revenge?