Skyler is a romance novel reader first and foremost. Her books feature strong heroines who sometimes make their heroes cry, but only because they deserve it. After all, if romance isn’t angsty, is it even worth it?
I loved some of the author's older books, so I even subscribed to Kindle unlimited just to read this one.
Sadly the plot, the characters, the dialogs, everything was too childish. Maybe in my 30s I am too old for this, and I should be more careful about the setting of what I read. The MMC was so immature, he was insufferable and what the author tried to portray as love, clearly was just a crush plus obsession. The FMC wasn't much better, and they both have the emotional intelligence of a teenager.
I'm obsessed with this book, y'all. Writing it has been pure pleasure. I loved the idea of writing a combination of the bully trope with a Pride & Prejudice spin, where she misreads his intentions and he just wants her to love him.
He's so cocky and arrogant (hence the title) and she's the spirited, feisty girl who he wants but can't have. It's delightful.
Usually, I love this author's books but this one was extremely boring in my opinion. I hated the FMC and the MMC; I feel like the story would have been better written in two timelines, them in high school and then in college.
The plot was entirely predictable, and they kept repeating over and over what they had told us before - If I read the word 'whirlwind' one more time, I swear I'd kill someone - and then I felt like some plot points were discarded. The FMC did something to "get revenge" on the MMC, and the rest of the book was about her feeling stupidly worthless and guilty, when the MMC had intentions of using her and discarding her to "get her out of his system," but since he's in love, this never really becomes part of the plot.
Likewise, if this is the first book you read by the author, I swear to God that the others are much more fun and addictive and you have to give it a chance.
These MCs were immature throughout the whole book. (Possible spoilers ahead) I think the bones of the plot were unusual and could have really been a great story, but it got bogged down and became clunky. There were things that made no sense.
So 6 years previously, H dated h’s BFF, Harper. One day, H and h had a private talk, where h let her guard down and admitted she liked to write dirty fanfic. H went back and told Harper, then Harper blasted it all over the school. 🙄 End of that friendship.
So, now they’re all at the same college. H’s relationship with Harper is always so back and forth. One minute they date, the next they break up. Typical college behavior
h is the nerdy, overweight girl who writes dirty fanfic. She has major trust issues. h and Harper are no longer friends. h hates H. h keeps mentioning how H bullied her, but most of the things were very mild. Mostly, it was just H sharing her secret about the fanfic.
There’s some goofy college thing where H is involved in some type of bachelor reality show. 10 girls enter, and he picks one to be his homecoming date and they also win 10k.
This year, somebody has put up h to be a contestant. She is not happy but decides to go along with it to pay H back for all the years bullying her. Well, it’s H who put h up for this contest. He has plans to win her over, while she has plans to ruin him. 🤪
Let’s me state again- these two are painfully immature H will spend the majority of the book lying to h. He lies about stuff that he didn’t even need to. h will spend the majority of the book lying to H and being in her head about how insecure she is. Her poor BFF, Cole, is stuck in the middle of this nasty mess. She basically treats Cole like crap. I loved how h apologized to Cole at the end and he’s like “yeah, I don’t think we can be friends anymore”
What gets me- It’s revealed H has LOVED h for 6 years. Huh? He was even in love with her when he was dating Harper? Ouch.
Then we have the setup by Harper by pretending she slept with H. So….after h believes H had just slept with Harper, h decides to go over there and hate shag him??? Wut the fk? Eek 😱 Even though we know he didn’t sleep with Harper, h does believe he did. Why would you want to sleep with a guy who supposedly just had smex with another woman?
I’m sorry, but I would have a BIG problem with my bf hanging around in his dorm room with his ex. 🤷♀️ especially if she’s my ex BFF. Now…..I did like that Harper admitted she set the whole thing up and I’m glad h decided NOT to be friends with her.
The biggest issue I had with this book other than the immaturity of the MCs- it was the chemistry between the MCs. There was none. At least none that would explain why these two were attracted to each other.
Finally, I feel the other 9 contestants got totally ripped off. H already KNEW h was going to win this money from the start. The other contestants were scammed. Boooooo
Man I really wanted to love this but I just could not get into at all, I’m shocked that I even stuck it out and finished it.
I love pride and prejudice but the constant comparison was just annoying and cringe.
The story itself felt rushed and incomplete… like I was trying to piece things together that probably should’ve been in a prologue, I felt like I jumped into the middle of the story at the beginning. Not a fan of any of the characters they felt poorly written and try hard.
An instagram ad got me on this one when I couldn't sleep at night & needed a palette cleanser. I kind of thought she'd stand on her choices, but she backpedaled faster than expected & forgave a whole lot of lies. Still, it served its purpose.
Well, I got through chapter 4 but I couldn’t finish it. The trope isn’t a bad one but the story was familiar enough that I was accurately predicting what came next. There wasn’t enough to keep me invested and the FMC had such low self-esteem that she played right into the MMC’s plan. The guy brutally humiliated her and she still has the hots for him. Maybe it’s just me being irritated doormat FMC’s, but I was really looking forward a new take on a familiar trope.
dnfd at 40% so I keep seeing the social media post for this book and decided to give it a try. I see it with originally released a few years ago but then updated in February so I don't know if it has been edited or if it was just moved from the Galatea platform to amazon platform or if anything in the store he has actually changed.
so the story does come off pretty juvenile I would expect this behavior from freshman and sophomore year of high school. the book is also pretty repetitive. some of the book is very overexplained and then other parts feel like there's no explanation for what's going on.
spoilers below. the FMC writes fanfiction. she used to be friends with this girl named Harper who has a brother named Nick. she started dating the MMC and then pulled away from her friendship with the fmc. Harper's father was a drug addict to ended up passing away. during freshman year in college the MMC spoke to the FMC and she thought that he wanted to talk to her about Harper. the next day Harper read part of her fanfiction to the courtyard. the MMC chose that college because the FMC went there. now present day the school has some sort of dating competition where the prom King goes on a few dates and then chooses someone and they get a $10,000 scholarship. he entered the FMC and makes us his excuse that he wants to win Harper back because they broke up for the 18th time a while back and the story doesn't make a whole lot of sense but you later find out that he broke up with Harper a while ago and they're just friends. there's also the side plot where the MMC makes a bet with all his friends to see you can sleep with her first I guess. somewhere in the store you find out the MMC is obsessed with her and he wants to sleep with her for a few months and he thinks his obsession will go away but then he's also all over the place. this all happens within the first 40% of the book and then I DNFd.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
This is not the month for me apparently. I usually do not DNF a book, but the month of April is young, and I’m on book two of a pattern of DNF, a new hobby to squelch my crippling boredom, and Arrogant King came in second. I tried; I did. I was reading a college setting book and I had to mentally remind myself that these characters were not in junior high fiddling their diddle in a public restroom. It read like a High School production of Grease, during Spring break. Imagine the smell of stale cigarettes and head lice in the drama room pleading not to have to brush out the wigs. The MMC Tristan was ‘meh’ in comparison to some other MMC’s. I believe the author was going for an MMC that had ASPD. But then I started to doubt that by the way he was written. His thoughts, actions, motivations. Granted the author themself doesn’t suffer the diagnosis; it’s obvious, but neither do a lot of other authors that portray this disorder in their MMC’s. It’s not an easy portrayal of a disorder that is elusive to knowledge but still with a bit of research one can at least get some things semi correct. Which is why I started to convince myself that I may have been wrong in my initial thoughts. However, dialog a character specifically made states the MMC is exactly that. I believe the word they used was ‘sociopath.” So, I could no longer give the benefit of the doubt of what the author was trying to portray Tristan. I tried to make it to 100 pages as a self-punishment for anything anyone has ever thought I had done horrific in my life, but I couldn’t. This book became my Hell by page 80, and I found myself begging for iced water while suffering from insomnia deciding if I should get up from staring at the ceiling and start editing, jumping from one hell into another.
This was fun to read, but very juvenile, the characters acted like teenagers in high school. The Pride & Prejudice references were fun at first and sweet on the extended epilogue, but there were too many of them at random moments, that made the characters and dialogs cringy.
Amy was a very unlikable character, she was very immature and flacky, one moment she hated him and was determined to embarrass him and get revenge, and the other she was completely falling for him, and couldn't seem to make up her mind. I know he was kind of mean to her in the past, but during this book, in present time, he was very sweet and trying his hardest to win her over, and she was just completely blind to it, to the point that it was frustrating.
The side characters were nice, and I did enjoy some parts of it.
Miss the mark for me…maybe suitable for a young adult
I’m giving this one 2 stars, and honestly, I probably should have DNF’d it.
I found the story pretty boring overall, and it was hard to stay engaged. The biggest issue for me was the characters. They’re supposed to be in college, but they acted much younger—more like elementary or middle school level behavior—which made it difficult to take the story seriously.
The dialogue and interactions just didn’t feel mature enough for the setting, and it pulled me out of the story repeatedly. I kept hoping it would improve, but it never really did.
That said, I could see this possibly working for a much younger audience, maybe someone just getting into romance or new adult books. But for me, it just didn’t land.
Overall, this wasn’t for my age group, and I wouldn’t recommend it.
With a frequency bordering upon the tiresome, Pride and Prejudice appeared no fewer than seventeen times within the pages of this novel, as though the mere repetition of a respected title might confer upon the work some borrowed distinction. One cannot help but suspect that Miss Jane Austen herself, had she been obliged to peruse such a production, would have pronounced it the most lamentable species of literary nonsense. In this judgment, I find myself entirely inclined to concur. There are, it must be admitted, a fortunate few among authors whose talents are so commanding that they may dispense with the steadying hand of an editor. The present writer, however, cannot reasonably be counted among that enviable number.
Initially I was enjoying this until the story opened up. I did not understand why Tristan the male lead had harboured strong feelings for Amy for literally years. But all he ever did was make fun of her one time in particular was quite cruel. He was the campus king while she was the nerdy girl. He dated her best friend Harper for months they were an off on again couple. But he had plenty of other girls, that was implied. Knowing his only real interest was Amy confused me. That being said this book slowly descended into what I can only describe as a cringe fest. Not my favourite
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I finished it in one day, the plot was good it kept me wanting to read more. The only thing I didn’t like was that it was a misunderstanding that was causing Amy to do what she did. Like hello everyone is telling you that Tristin wouldn’t do that but u let your pride get in the way and believed your old BFF then ask him if it’s true know what a bitch she was 🙄
Your luck that this man loved you for so many years and let it go. I’m impressed that he loved her for so long and it took him forever to come to terms that what he felt was love. At the end it worked out for them and they got the happy ending.
Honestly I was obsessed with this one. I couldn’t put it down and lost sleep because of it. I loved the pace and how the author was all about their interactions than just the side characters. I’ve read a lot of books where they focus too much on the side characters and it can get boring.
I will say this is more of a HFN which is disappointing and I wished there was more chapters on them actually together. And I want to know what happened with Harper…did Tristan drop Harper as a friend? I hope so because how awkward of a relationship once he got with Amy.
Tristan is really controlling and up tight. He wants Amy, but goes about it in a way that generates so much mistrust. He's hot and cold. He's forward and deceptive.
Amy is no better. She's looking for the humiliation that's coming. Between both of their mistrust and lying, It's a wonder they ever get together.
As the weeks go by, the lies and mistrust deepen, the refusal of them both to show vulnerability puts them in jeopardy of ever being together.
Thankfully, all the lies surface, the hard truth revealed, and they realize that true love requires them to be vulnerable with each other.
The MMC was obviously in love, but the author didn’t think to make him more of a morally grey character (or darker) as he obviously stalked her and had a ton of photos of her.
The only smut scene was where the FMC was pissed and wanted to get revenge on him… it was dumb and immature too. If you’re going to write smut, make it more mature, in my opinion.
I felt like I was reading about high school kids, not college.
I pretty much skimmed through the last half of the book just to get to the end. 1 star.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Omg!!!! This was such an incredible read i absolutely enjoyed it. I definitely fell in love these characters especially the Fmc I saw so much of myself as a curvy plus-size girlie who really struggles with being body positive ,it was to great to have character so relatable that I was pulled into this story. Honestly it kept reminding me of the move She's All That which is such good movie. This was so well written I loved it. cant wait to read more of this amazing Authors books.
If you like those rom-com movies from the 90s early 2000s you’ll probably love this book
📖: Arrogant King | Skylar Mason
⭐️⭐️⭐️.5|🌶️
This was very much like a 90s early 2000s rom-com movie. You have the self proclaimed nerdy girl, the king of school/jock, an ex best friend, and the new best friend. He’s obsessed and she doesn’t believe it. She thinks he’s just trying to embarrass her so she comes up with a revenge plan but they fall for each other anyway. Then it gets messy. I won’t go into more details because I don’t want to spoil it.
It felt very nostalgic and although predictable, it was like those comfy trashy TV shows you can’t look away from and have to know what happens. I wasn’t a fan of the repetitiveness. There was a few times I thought I accidentally flipped back a page or two because it felt like I was reading the same thing again.
Overall is a good light rom-com read with a nostalgic feel and very minimal spice.
What a great story! Tristan is absolutely an arrogant ass but when he shows his heart it’s beyond beautiful. And Amy was such a force to be reckoned with. Her plan for revenge was pure evil and genius mixed together but of course she caught feelings and once they finally talked through everything, it was obvious nothing would ever stand in their way again.
If you love a good college romance then definitely check this out.
Hard pass, Tristen was a weird character. I couldn't understand how he supposedly always obssessed over Amy since high school yet he dated her ex best friend off and on for years. Him wanting to date her to get her out of his system then All of a sudden he does a 180 about his feelings. Sorry but no. The story line did not flow, too much fluff to make it interesting. This book was hard to finish.
I had to keep reminding myself that these characters were only 21. At times they seemed too mature and then every time the miscommunication (or no communication) trope reared its ugly head I was like ah yes they’re babies.
BUT start a book where that starts with the line “Writing Jane Austen erotic fan-fiction is the best way to spend a Friday night. It’s not a universally acknowledged truth, but it should be” will have me fully seated for all 300 pages.