Get the first five books in the best-selling YA/NA crossover series!This bundle includes: (1) Pepped Up, (2) All Pepped Up, (3) Pepped Up and Ready, (4) Pep Talks, and (5) Pepped Up Forever.My best friend’s that guy. You know the one. Popular. Quarterback. Trouble. And clueless about my deeper feelings for him. So I’m focused on my other love, running. I want to qualify for cross country … for cross country nationals, and I don’t need to be distracted by Jace Wilder’s latest shenanigans. Good thing there’s a new guy in town. Even better, Ryan Harding is a running star, and it seems I’ve caught his interest.
I can handle long miles and hill sprints, but guys? That’s an entirely different challenge.
* No cliff hangers. While the series should be read in order, each book is a complete story.
This series contains mature content.*
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A new author to me and I new series. I felt this series is fit for a younger audience. I enjoyed most of it but it read quite slow for me and I didn’t enjoy the 5th book. The first story starts with Pepper in highschool. She’s a girl with a crush on the shools star player, Jace but he soon starts dealing and enjoying drugs. He domineering and controlling but his drug usage is his downfall and he basically throws his life. Book 2 is Pepper’s POV. Pepper is a runner and wins the nationals in cross running, and Jace is still in the picture but not an easy person in her life. In Book 3, Pepper is in her senior year at highschool and Jace is at college. Both concentrate at their sports careers. I really don’t care for Jace and the fact he’s still hanging on made me like this book even less. I did like Book 4 though. It is told in Jace’s POV – so go figure. Finally, Jace has pulled his head out and becoming the man he was meant to be. He isn’t happy at college, but he has Pepper and that helps a lot. While Pepper is struggling, Jace knows what he wants and that is Pepper. But he has a lot of groveling to do to win her back. Book 5 is probably my least fav out of the 5 books. It’s told in dual POV’s. Pepper is about to become a senior at college and she made it far. Her running career is strong and she loves college life. Jace, on the other hand feels m0re like he is constantly whining and complaining. I voluntarily received an arc copy of this book from HiddenGems
Book 1
I’ve read great high school romances before and with this being my first book from this author I was excited to read it. It was a good read but I was expecting something in this story to wow me and it didn’t happen. There really wasn’t anything special about this story to make it stand out and some parts of the story were a bit slower than I liked. I enjoyed Pepper and her grandmother Buns, Jace, Ryan and some of the side characters. Buns was one of my favorites; she definitely made the story interesting. Pepper and her childhood friend Jace have shared everything but things are changing in more ways than one. There were times I thought Jace was a bit selfish but there was no doubt he cared about Pepper. I enjoyed the moments they had together, there was no denying their chemistry. Ryan was sweet, caring and supportive, but definitely a bit too understanding about certain things. However, that made me love his character even more and I’m hoping he finds someone for him but who knows, it might still be Katie. The story was good and I do want to read the second book in this series to get the rest of the story, but I think this story will be a one time read for me. Was it worth reading? Yes. Would I give other books from this author a try? Yes.
Book 2
This is a series that must be read in order so if you haven’t read the first book don’t start this one yet. There is no denying how much Jace loves Pep and what she means to him. In this book a blast from the past comes back and although I know Pep is feeling a little protective over Jace, I believe that it’s up to him on how to handle the situation and she should just support him. This story is full of drama, jealousy, revenge and back-stabbing. More secrets also comes to light and I think Pepper is taking it to heart a little too much but at the same time I understand why she could feel that way. Madeline needs to get herself together instead of trying to ruin things between Pep and Jace because Jace no longer wants to be with her. Although this story had a ton on drama, the flow of the story was still slow and I had to fight against skipping pages to get through the story. It wasn’t a bad story, it’s just that I’m finding it so slow but I do still enjoy the characters that I did in the first book. However, since I have the next book in the series I will be reading it but once again this story will be a one time read for me. So, was it worth reading? Yes. Will I read the next book? Yes. Would I recommend it? I would say to give it a try and see if it works for you. It’s not a bad story-line it’s just that this story is missing that something special that would make it great for me. Well that and the pace of it.
Book 3
Another good but slow read. Jace and Pepper’s story continues in this one so I recommend reading this series in order. In this book, Jace starts college and Pep feels a little insecure about his popularity among his peers. Being with Jace have challenges of its own. There are a lot of jealous females and males looking to destroy their relationship. Pepper is using running as her outlet and as she pushes herself harder than ever, that brings challenges of its own. Wes is trying to figure out what’s best for him regarding his future. I’m really enjoying his character with Zoey. Annie has come a long way and seems to be on the right track but I’m wondering how long that will last with her track record. After all, she has a way of disappearing. This story is full of drama and it keeps things interesting to say the least but the flow of the story is killing it for me. Gran is hilarious and I absolutely her. Just like the previous books, this is a good read but it will be a one time read for me. Will I read the next book? Yes. Would I recommend it? I’d say give it a try and see if it works for you. It’s not bad it’s just slow.
Book 4
This is a good series, the flow is just slow. Jace and Pepper story continues in this book so please read this story in order. I was not surprised by what Annie did. Disappointed? Yes, but not surprised at all. It’s sad that she fell off track and her actions affected Jace more than ever. It causes major changes to his and Pep’s relationship. I hated how he hurt Pep but after a while I was over it and wanted her to fake it til she make it. I hated the way she let Jace see her hurt and I wanted her to exact a little revenge. However, she was too good for that but she had great friends to support her, and lets not forget an amazing grandmother. I didn’t hate Jace in this book but I didn’t like his actions either and that goes for how he was with his brother. This was a good one time read for me and I do look forward to reading the next book to get the rest of Jace and Pep’s story.
Book 5
I thought that this would be the final book for Jace and Pep but it’s not. It’s a little disappointing that I couldn’t get an epilogue that shows what they talked about at the end of this book. Five books, and it gave us a HEA. but for me it doesn’t feel like the “complete” ending I was hoping for. Don’t get me wrong, once again this was a good read even if it was slow but I expected more. Pep and Jace are trying to rebuild their friendship but it isn’t so easy after being hurt. The threats keep coming from different directions and Pep always seems to be the one getting hurt. What happened with Clayton wasn’t all that surprising, I knew he had a lot to do with what happened. I was so happy for Buns, she deserved her HEA too. This was a good one time read for me. However, I don’t think I will continue with this series. It wasn’t bad but it isn’t one that I want to continue after reading 5 books and not getting the complete ending I had hoped for. I really wish this would have given me the ending for Pep and Jace and maybe had other books for Wes and Zoe but also have Pep and Jace making appearances in their story. Was it worth reading? Yes. Would I recommend it? I’d say give it a try and see if it works for you.
Overall, this boxset was a good one-time romance read. After reading other high school and college romances there was nothing about these stories that stood out for me. I’ve read better, but with that being said, they weren’t bad stories. I enjoyed the characters and the storyline but I thought that the flow of the story was too slow in every book. There were definitely things I liked and disliked about this set but it was worth giving a try.