An edgy, angsty, addictive YA/NA crossover series from L. A. Cotton, author of the Chastity Falls series. Sometimes wrong feels so right… When seventeen-year-old Eloise Stone finds herself halfway across the world, moving into her uncle’s pool house, she expects things to be … awkward. She doesn’t expect to come face-to-face with the boy from last summer. The boy that made her feel things … The boy that made her feel things she’d never felt before. But a year is a long time, and Lo isn’t the girl she was then. Besides, they’re family now.
It’s weird.
Maverick Prince acts as if he doesn’t remember her, treating Lo like nothing more than an annoying younger sister, and not in a ‘he cares’ way, just in a ‘he’s an arsehole’ way. One thing’s for sure, he isn’t just dangerous for her sanity–he’s hazardous for her heart.
Lo thought moving to Wicked Bay was the worst of her problems, but as life begins to unravel around her, she’s going to find out it’s only the beginning…
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The Wicked Bay Series is recommended for readers aged 17+ due to mature themes, language and content.
Reading Order
Wicked Beginnings
Wicked Rules
Wicked Lies (can be read as a standalone)
Wicked Games
Wicked Hearts (can be read as a standalone)
Wicked Surprise (an optional novella)
Wicked Promises (coming summer 2019)
Wicked Forever (coming late 2019)
more
This is my first book by this author, and I am sooo addicted!!! This is the first book in the Wicked Bay Series and it starts off great. It has so much angsty romance and high school drama. Maverick is the dark, troubled guy who Lo (Eloise) falls for. He’s actually her STEP- cousin….yes, I said STEP! The side characters are great too. All well written, with really great dialogue and great character development.
The story reminded me of Erin Watt’s The Royals, and Siobhan Davis’ The Kennedy Boys. Of course, not exactly, it has its own unique story. But we shall see as the series goes on. I’m excited to continue on!! I highly recommend it!!
I should also note that I listened to this on audible. It’s narrated by Luiza Westwood, she is fabulous!! I loved the audible!!
Well this is a first for me with L.A. Cotton, and WOW this book was amazing.. I so can’t wait for the next book to this roller coaster romance.
Lo is a wonderful loving girl that is shy and wants to keep to herself.. Lo very mad at her Dad for moving them across country’s to start a new life.
Lo had visit her cousins the summer before and spent time with her cousins and Uncle.. During the summer Lo had seen this boy on the beach at a party and seen that he needed a friend. As Lo gets close she feels emotions with this boy and finds wants to spend time with him.. but after her last night their the boy ditched her and left thinking would be for the best.
Maverick is a stepbrother to Lo cousins and has feelings for Lo but when they first meet they didn’t know about the families, Maverick doesn’t meet with Lo on her last night in the states because he feels he is saving her.. when Lo comes back a year later to live their after losing her mom and brother in a accident and she lived.. Maverick finds his feelings hard to let go. As Maverick wants Lo I’m his life but keeps fighting the feelings..
This story was had for me to put down and so can’t wait for the next book to the series. This book will keep you on a roller coaster high. The writer LA Cotton wrote the book with the emotions coming off the pages and you can feel the anger and emotions rolling off of everyone in the book..
This is a fantastic start to a new angsty YA romance series! We meet Eloise as she moves to Wicked Bay where she meets Maverick who is actually her step-cousin. This usually would make things impossible but fate has other ideas for these two as they feel drawn to one another. Full of lots of characters that the reader can get attached to while also focusing on the romance that is building. Makes for a fantastic read that fans of the genre are sure to enjoy. I really liked it so I give it 4/5 stars.
All that I love in a YA/young adult novel- LA Cotton does it like no other. While the premises of this story feels familiar- the young girl moves away to live with relatives and finds herself in a new world of teen angst, elite antics, and high school drama- the story still feels so fresh and engaging. I love how LA Cotton tackles coming of age- especially this story with it’s forbidden step-cousin angle. We have all that I love about the overly dramatic, young love high school genre- cliques, high school antics, gobs of angst, jealousy and misunderstandings, and all the young love swoony butterflies. LA also treats us to a heroine we can really get behind. Lo has such a gravitas for someone her age- she’s been through a lot, but she’s resilient and so spirited. I loved the dynamics LA creates in her chemistry with our hero Maverick- the perfect teenage hero that pushes all our buttons as he has his own baggage. And we have interesting family dynamics, secrets, and an ambiguous ending that gives us much more to explore. Circling the story is an interesting secondary cast that play off our main characters well- and keep the drama high. Looking forward to book 2!
Jesus, fix me!
This was a hell of a roller-coaster ride of emotions.
Hurt, betrayal, defiance, love, and the chemistry between Lo and Maverick…
Kyle was definitely one of my favourite characters.
I recommend this story if you wanted to read something in between light and heavy, witty, and funny.
A great start to a new series, and possibly the start of my new reading obsession.
This book is the perfect combination between sexy, hilarious, steamy, emotional and angst. A story where One Tree Hill meets Friday Night Lights and with a twist of The O.C, and that made this girl so happy.
As always, L.A Cotton writing is absolutely amazing, and on point, I really liked how the characters were built. The action was not rushed, everything seemed so natural, and I really liked the attention that L.A. Cotton gave to all the details: the plot, the scenery, everything.
Eloise Stone, is strong, beautiful and kind. She went through hell, literally hell, and yet she continues to have a beautiful and kind soul.
After losing half of her family in a horrible accident, and barely escaping with her life, she has to leave the only home she ever knew in England, and move with her father to the States, in her uncle house.
She is sassy, brave, loyal and strong. She has an amazing energy, always looking out for those close to her. Love doesn’t come easy to her, because she is afraid of getting hurt, of losing someone close to her again, but when she love, she does it hard.
Maverick Prince, this boy has so much anger and demons bottled up inside him. He spend most of his life building walls around him, never letting anybody come to close to him, but the moment Eloise steps foot in his house, he knows he is in a lot of trouble. Because she sees past his walls, she sees the real him, and he can’t resist her.
I love how protective of Eloise he is, and how he tries to be around even when he tries his best to keep his distance from her.
I really liked the chemistry between Maverick and Eloise, how they act like the cat and the mouse, but the attraction between them is undeniable, even though they don’t want to acknowledge it. They gravitated towards the other, always seeking each others presence.
Beside the main characters, another character that I absolutely loved and adored was Kyle. He is my baby and he must be protected at all costs because he is to precious. I really loved his character, he is so funny, easy-going,
The way he took Eloise under his wing, took care of her and their beautiful friendship. How great he is with those around him, especially his family. I hope from the bottom of my heart that he gets his own story and book. I am so ready for more of him.
I loved the ending, especially how Maverick stood up for Eloise, finally accepting the truth and allowing himself to feel, to live and to love. I am looking forward to see how their story continues in the following book.
And I’m hooked. I don’t know what took me so long to start LA Cotton’s Wicked Bay series but I’m glad I finally did. Maverick and Lo are perfect for each other. I love how both their brokenness just makes them fit perfectly together. But the angst just for them to be together… ahh! So much hot and cold and push and pull from Maverick’s end. It just seems there are so many secrets floating around the Stone-Prince family. I need to know it all. Bring on book 2.
I highly recommend Wicked Beginnings it is the first book in the Wicked Bay series. I loved it! I could not put it down. This book pulls you in and the characters keep you on your toes. This book was an emotional rollercoaster for me. Seeing how Lo, Maverick and everyone else navigate High School will keep you wondering what is going to happen next. I am diving right into book two. I can’t wait to see what happens next. I received an ARC copy of this book to leave my honest review of it.
This is the first book I read of LA Cotton but it definitely won’t be my last. The style reminded me of Tijan’s books, which I absolutely love. This was so angsty and I absolutely loved it! The push and pull of Lo and Maverick’s relationship keep me on the hook. The story is told in Lo’s POV so we could really understand everything that she was going through, from moving to a new country and moving in with relatively unknown family to her feelings about suffering a huge tragedy while navigating romance.
It was hard to understand why Maverick kept pushing Lo away but she doesn’t let that stop her from pursuing the secrets that are being kept from her. I’ve been sucked into this series and I’m not mad about it!
Maverick & Lo Oh my freaking hell This book is as always so so good by L.A. Cotton.She write the best YA/NA .And she doesn’t disappoint me in the least with this book also.
Maverick was so so hot like super hot * dreamy sigh * . Lo my baby Lo I loved her so much.Ahh you can say I love them both so so much.
The angsty , steaminess , chemistry oh my THE CHEMISTRY l.a. cotton writes character so so well and always the chemistry between character blow me away like my heart couldn’t stop pounding.
I love my bad boy & my baby Lo definitely recommending this beauty by L.A. Cotton.
Lo Stone has just experienced something that no child should, she has just lost her mother and a sibling in an accident and if that isn’t disruptive enough now her father is moving her across the country to be closer to family that she doesn’t really know. Sure she’s met them, but they come from an untouchable world she doesn’t understand or want to be attached to. But as much as she wants to avoid them and their privileged world she constantly finds herself being drawn into it…
Wicked Beginnings introduces us to a young woman who has just faced an unimaginable tragedy and now her life is being completely uprooted. When her father informs her they are moving to America to stay with family her world shatters, she has to give up the only home she’s known, and leave all her friends and memories behind. When she arrives in the states she realizes she is completely out of her element, she has never lived the way her family does or had the wealth they have. It’s evident that it is going to take some time to get use to their world, especially when not all of them are so welcoming. Just when things start to feel mildly comfortable for her someone decides to jack with her world all over again. This poor girl has found more drama than she can handle. Not to mention caught the eye of the devil himself, her step-cousin Maverick has appointed himself her keeper, and she can’t seem to shake him. I cannot wait to continue her story and see where it takes me next! Highly recommend this one, it’s down right addictive!
I requested an advanced copy of this title and I am voluntarily leaving my honest and unbiased opinion.
This is the second book I have read by this author and I’m not sure how I feel about it. While I loved Lo, I couldn’t really stand Maverick. He felt extremely childish to me and out of his depth. I loved the overall storyline and side characters and I found myself continuing for them. I hope he grows on me for book two!
I read all the books in the series (so far) and this is by far my favorite book
The story was well written and I really felt Lo she has been through a lot and is still a strong and independent woman !
I strongly recommend this book for people who love a good high school enemies to lovers romance
Thank you Lianne for writing this awesome book!
4 stars for Wicked Beginnings by LA Cotton. This is book 1 in the Wicked Bay series. This is also my first book by LA Cotton. Wicked Beginnings starts off with Eloise/Lo having to pack up and move from Surrey to America after the loss she just suffered. Her and her father are moving in with her Uncle Gentry, his wife, his wife’s two children and then her uncle’s two children. She was just there thirteen months ago when she meets this boy on the beach who she instantly felt a connection with, but he left her there with out a second thought. Soon Lo will come face to face with the boy from the beach, but he isn’t the person she thought he was. Lo has to learn to live with everything new in her life. Being in America was supposed to be a fresh start but is it really.
“It’s home now, Lo. You don’t have to get used to it; you just have to embrace it.”
Maverick is the king of the school, gorgeous, bad boy and her step cousin. He seems to instantly hate her, but she isn’t sure why. I don’t even know what to say about this book. I loved the characters, and Kyle is an awesome side character. This is an emotion journey for Lo and for Maverick. My only issue was that there were times when Lo would stand up for herself and then there were times, she let people walk all over her. However, this book was a good emotional journey. I felt for all the characters in this story. They all have something going on in their lives. This is a book that will pull you in and take you on a ride until the very end.
“People say time is a healer. But it’s a lie. Time doesn’t heal, it just masks. Sure, there are days when the pain is less, when it seems that things aren’t so bad, but scratch underneath the surface and the grief is still there. Raw and real. It isn’t a wound to fix. A hole to fill.”
I had such high hopes for this book, but it fell a little flat for me. It was still a decent read, but I was just hoping for more.
Lo was back and forth throughout the book. Sometimes she would stand up for herself and other times, she was a doormat letting everyone in her life control the outcomes. There was so much going on in her life and this book only hits the tip of the iceberg when it comes to revealing information. I am sure the secrets will be revealed in book 2, but right now, I am not sure if I even want to read it.
The story is told from Lo’s POV and so it is hard to feel a connection between her and Maverick when they rarely have any scenes together. Most of the book is spent with her ignoring her. This lack of connection makes it hard to determine whether you truly like the characters and want to see them succeed.
Overall, it was an ok read. I am very curious about some secrets and the other characters in the book, especially Kyle. He was the highlight of this book and made it that much more enjoyable.
I received this book from ‘Quirky Blind Date With a Book’ group on facebook. It was supposed to be a secret but I couldn’t help investigating to find out.
I’ve never read this author before, but I’m a new fan now.
This was a young adult romance set in high school, but don’t let that put you off if you’re not a fan.
This is a fresh beginning for Lo, a 17 yr old girl who lost half her family in an accident. The teen angst of fitting in and jealous girls played a big role in this story. I found Maverick frustrating at times, there had to be more to his story, so it kept me glued to my kindle.
I enjoyed the book immensely and glad I’m not a teenager in this day and age. The characters were real and interesting and I’m looking forward to more stories in their lives.
I highly recommend this book and I need to go and look this author up now.
#2017
I received this book as a “super secret book blind date” within the facebook group “Quirky Blind Date With A Book”. This means I didn’t knew the title nor the author while reading it. Even though it was tempting doing my research while reading, I decided to do it after finishing in favor of my reading experience. It truly is some experience reading a book knowing nothing, not the blurb nor anything else.
It was obvious right from the beginning that this is some YA novel and honestly I groaned a little inwardly, because I haven’t read one in a while. But soon I had to rethink my feelings toward this book because my heart was breaking constantly.
Wicked Beginnings is not a book where the love story or the love/hate relationship between Lo and Maverick is in the spotlight. For me it’s the heartbreaking loss Lo has to go through and the fact that she felt betrayed by her own father finding out the things she does. It almost killed me. Loosing a parent or my sibling is one of my biggest fear, so the Lo loosing her mother and brother in an accident and how she tried dealing with it and the consequences squeezed my heart every time it was brought up. On top of this, she learned things about/from her father who everyone would have felt betrayed. And if fate wasn’t cruel enough, she had to find out that the boy from last years summer, she fell in love with, was her step-cousin who wants nothing to do with her.
So yes, this YA story is a heartbreaking one. And even though my eyes watered from time to time, I had a great time reading it. I hardly could put it down. I started in the morning on my way to work and I finished it after arriving home from work.
I loved Lo and how she tried to push herself through all obstacles life threw at her. How she learned to keep herself up and opened up to new family and friends. In spite of everything she went through and outgrew herself, she was still a 17 year old girl with the heart and mind at the right places.
I loved her new friends and cousins, despite of Macey and Maverick because their demeanor was simply not tolerable and I still need to figure out what their problem is.
And the only thing, I couldn’t give 5 stars is the fact that I didn’t feel the chemistry between Maverick and Lo. It’s undeniable that there is something between them, I just didn’t feel/see the sparks as I would have liked.
Wicked Beginnings leaves us with an open ending. It’s not a real kind of cliffhanger, but there are so many questions unanswered and I see so much potential for the future story of Lo’s life, that’ I really hope a second book will arrive soon!
Because Lo’s healing just begun …
“And Maverick was the storm threatening to wreck me”
“Because sometimes, no matter how wrong you knew something to be, it was impossible to ignore how right it felt.”
Well what can I say I love YA and I love the angst, the mean girls, the hot broody popular guy, and I love a big gesture and this book had it all and I loved every second of it.
To me this was YA at it’s best and I loved the story I loved how there was so many characters intertwined. This story was exciting and angsty and had me turning the page and pretty much read it in one sitting. I really did love that it really all came together at the end not at 50% but we were kept hanging until the very end.
I really loved Lo’s character she had been through a lot and took the wrong road which led to her and her father moving countries which she thought was for a fresh start but that was not the only reason. I must admit I really didn’t like Lo’s father and he annoyed me as much as he annoyed Lo.
Maverick was interesting and I think my interest is still hanging in there as we really don’t know why he is so closed off and what has happened in his life. I felt for him but wanted to punch him in the face but that means I was in the story and absolutely loved the book and it gave me all the feels
I laughed, cried, got angry, and got the feels which is what want from the books I read. If your a Ya fan this is a must read and won’t be disappointed loved loved it. Big 5 stars from me .
One of the best book hanger over I’ve had in a long time. I just couldn’t put the book down. All the characters were intriguing and I just wanted to know what the hell was going on with each of them. I even wanted to know Macey’s story, why she’s the way she is, and half the time I wanted to slap her. I can’t wait to see what’s next.
I swear…every time his woman puts pen to paper she gets fucking better and better!
Every bloody time me she knocks it outta the park!!
Wicked Beginnings is going to take you back baby….back to a time of YA dominance, with secrecy, love, lust and drama!!
This series is going to slay!!
It’s everything you could hope to read in a YA book.
With enough maturity and brilliant writing this book and series is going to appeal to all ages of readers!
I will be counting the days for the next instalments!
LA Cotton – you have outdone yourself because this book held me captive from front to back cover…devoured in one sitting this book was a perfect balance and of young angst with adult topics!
5 plus stars and then another shitload more!!!