Everyone warned me to stay away from the Devils, but it’s not easy when one of them is going to become family… Desperation sends me and my mom to the prestigious university of Verona Falls. My mom is due to marry the dean—not because she wants to, but because we have no choice. That’s when I meet the dean’s son, Domenic, and his friends, Kirill and Valentino.The three of them make up the Devils—the most feared group at Verona Falls—and they intend to make my life hell. They call me ‘Duchess’, but it’s with a sneer. I’m poor and they’re not. They hate that I refuse to bow to them. They might think they can make my life not worth living, but they don’t know my secrets. My life has already been harder than they have any idea about. They control me and get under my skin, but I have to keep quiet or I’ll ruin everything. I’ve become their obsession…and they plan to destroy me. But they don’t know what I’m capable of.
Marissa Farrar is a multi-published romance and fantasy author. She was born in Devon, England, loves to travel and has lived in both Australia and Spain. She now resides in the countryside with her husband, three children, a crazy Spanish dog, two rescue cats and six hens. She has a degree in Zoology, but her true love has always been writing.
Marissa is the author of sixteen novels, including the dark vampire ‘Serenity’ series. Her short stories have been accepted for a number of anthologies including, Their Dark Masters, Red Skies Press, Masters of Horror: Damned If You Don’t, Triskaideka Books; and 2013: The Aftermath, Pill Hill Press.
If you want to know more about Marissa, then please visit her website at www.marissa-farrar.blogspot.com. You can also find her at her facebook page, www.facebook.com/marissa.farrar.author or follow her on twitter @marissafarrar. She loves to hear from readers and can be emailed at marissafarrar@hotmail.co.uk.
OMG, this was so fucking bad. Everything about this book was so beyond ridiculous, immature, cringe, ick to the max. I don’t know why the writer gave the leading male characters the most weird and creepy kinks ever. None of them were hot and none of them were really believable. They just came across as creepy icky frat Bros. And the story didn’t make any sense there was no real progression in it at all. Her best friend was just the most random thing ever was basically everything in the book. It was just so weird.
This is a truly fucked up, reverse harem, dark/bully romance novel, the first in a the series. It ends on quite the cliff hanger. And it was awesome. Please make sure you read the trigger warnings before you read it. The full list of warnings is on the author's website. Mackenzie and her mom are on the run after Mackenzie defends herself from an ex-boyfriend. They find themselves at Verona Falls University, a college for mafia sons/daughters. Domenic is going to be her new step brother, since her mom has made a deal with the dean for protection in exchange for marriage. Domenic is a part of a group known as "The Devils" and all three of them are their own levels of fucked up. Despite her best efforts (she really doesn't try that hard), she finds herself the center of their attention and falling for each of them. Despite their connection, Dom still wants Mackenzie and her mom gone. He commits the ultimate betrayal, exposing her mom for past sins, and causing Mackenzie's illness to flare up. It was a fantastically well written (for a dark romance college scene book) and I can't wait to see what fucked up thing happens next, I downloaded the next book immediately. I'm a sucker for a good dark romance. The spice is legit too, like a 3/5 with some kinks thrown in there as well. Smut and a why choose bully romance? Obviously I couldn't resist.
So, earlier in the book, it's brought up how smart Mackenzie is and how she's done in her classes at her previous college. But she can't be that smart ... because it took her 70% of this book to figure out she was attending a Mafia college. Seriously, there are so many signs that point to it being that, and Mackenzie just thinks that it's an unorthodox school? Jesus Christ.
I'm not entirely sure why the author keeps Mackenzie's epilepsy as a secret until she has a seizure pretty far into the book. She continually refers to it as her "illness" or "getting sick." I understand that it's a secret to those around her since it's a weakness (in her mind; I personally don't think of it as a weakness) for anyone besides her mom to see that. I just felt like it was a weird choice, especially because the reader does find out before the characters in the book. Dunno why it bothered me so much, but it was something I was thinking about after her first seizure.
If she hates these guys as much as she claims, I'm really not sure the reasoning behind continually falling into bed with all of them. She goes on and on and describes in great detail on she can't stand them and how much she loathes them and then *BAM* falls onto a dick. And repeats the cycle with each of the devils. I suppose you can hate someone and still fuck them ... but maybe not as frequently or with as much gusto as Mackenzie does and still not recognize that you just have feelings for someone. But I'm sure she'll have that revelation at some point in either this book or one of the others in the series. And then after she finally sleeps with Dom her thoughts are, "maybe I'm as fucked up as him?" Yes. Yes you are as fucked up. Not even really a question.
I cannot stress this enough. There NEEDS to be ANAL PREP before an anal VIRGIN takes a dick up her ass for the first time. All they did was a small amount of prep that was immediately followed by her first ever DP encounter. And then they tell her to "just relax" and it will be easier. So fucking unrealistic. They would have ripped her in half. Take the time to do anal right ... prep is key! I do get that it's a fictional novel, but even fiction has it's freaking limits.
If dark romances are your jam, definitely try this one out. It's got a ton of great tropes - mafia, why choose, college, illness, & bully romance. I'm sure I'm probably missing some. But it was great and I enjoyed it; I recommend!
I'm dealing with conflicting feelings right now. Sure, I devoured this in one sitting. Yes, everyone is batshit crazy and has weird kinks. And yes, I will be diving into the next book because that was one hell of a cliffhanger. I mean, I totally thought it was going to end that way, but still!
SYNOPSIS (of Trilogy): The series opens with the FC thinking she has killed her professer lover and she and her mother fleeing to Verona Falls Academy to hide and where her mother has agreed to marry the dean. The Academy is a school for the children of powerful criminals. The MCs are the “devils” and at the top of the academy hierarchy. The trilogy covers the FC’s relationship with the MCs as they bully her, fall for her and make her theirs amid a backdrop of kidnapping and stalker threats.
Personally I found this trilogy badly written and edited and the content just nasty. Not sexy or hot just twisted, sick and nasty. (Prepare for a bit of a rant) What is wrong with authors, especially female authors? This is not a romance by any stretch. This is basically bad kinky porn with a very basic bit of story joining the sex scenes together. There’s no character development or depth and the characters are all one dimensional. They’re all “broken and damaged” because, of course they are. Apart from possibly Kirill, there is no real reason for any of them to act the way they do. But then, these authors aren’t interested in actually writing a story or a romance, they just want to write porn.
The kink is just grim with the MCs treating the FC like a toy (and not in a hot way) and doing what they want with and to her. Pretty much anything goes from using foreign objects to others watching to getting off while kidnapped and watched by the kidnappers. Of course the FC laps this bad treatment up because, again, apparently this is how authors show empowerment in women.
I genuinely shudder at the fact that young women will read this kind of thing and actually think that this is normal or something to which they should aspire as opposed to being treated with respect and being strong.
In summary, don’t read this, don’t support authors who write this kind of anti feminist trash.
Enemies to lovers? I guess.. Dark? Not really.. a bit boring but still binged, lowkey wish it were just *more*, the plotwists and cliffhangers weren’t really all that, i was just expecting something more morbid.
"this won't happen again" is this woman's favourite sentence to remove meaning from.
She repeatedly makes dumb decisions you cannot find any reason for, getting upset and seeking out men who horrifically degraded her 24 hours ago etc. Definition of "noooo I hate youuuu and never want to see you againnnn HEHE JUST KIDDING"
Then they do something nasty and she's like OMG I CAN'T BELIEVE I THOUGHT YOU WOULDN'T DO THAT and then that repeats 48 times.
The ending was satisfying and I am going to read the next one mostly out of wanting to know how shits gunna work out, but Jesus Christ is she dumb and also treats her only friend like CRAP. Friend expresses concern saying they are not nice men and she gets MAD saying all that stereotypical abused woman shit like THEY HAVE FEELINGS AND YOU DON'T KNOW THEM I have no idea how she hasn't been dropped as a friend.
It's been a while since a MC has annoyed me so much with being dumb.
Starts slow but then it shift into something so good! It begins to draw you in until you can’t put it down and the cliff at the end. These characters are well written and the story is so interesting… a definite must read!
I had a hard time getting into this book or caring about these people at first but I did get there. I started to be interested in the dynamic of the guys and also her friendship with the girl she meets. But then the dang book ends on a cliff hanger!!! These kind of books arnt supposed to be ongoing series! They are supposed to be like stand alone book in a series not all one story line. So I did remove a whole star for that because I was just getting invested/interested and then it has no payoff. I removed a second star because the main charter was truly a despicable friend to the one girl trying to connect with her and watch out for her. But it was an easy fun read till that happened.
4 STARS Ooo, the boys realised how badly they fucked up, even is Mackenzie also fucked up their situationship as well. I really need to see how they are going to amend this now, so after seeing Wimps I’ll start the next part of Dom, Killir and Valentino’s story!
Wow okay. So I figured this would end on a rather twisted note but I did not expect what actually happened!!! I think I'll be jumping into the second book. RIGHT. NOW.
It’s not shocking to me that I read this book first before all the other ones that I had lined up. A ver, es un tanto dark…. It’s kind of twisted… but it has one of my favorite tropes: reverse harem (no me escondo, me encanta), a pesar de no tener mucha spice teniendo en cuenta los tropes, la que hubo fue top notch y ni tan detallada de esas que ya te hartas y prefieres saltartelas.
Yo suelo tener mucha contradicción con estos libros, o básicamente cuestiono mi doble moral porque por un lado estoy tipo ojalá les pase un camión por arriba, go to hell y por otro lado… yasss kings take whatever you want. I need therapy and Mackenzie also needs therapy.
Overall I liked the book, it was a short read so it was good for my permanent slump (i don’t get how i can always be in the mood for this kind of readings when i literally don’t want to read anything at all), i do think there were parts that could have been written or expressed a little bit better, like it went in circles and kept coming back, also fuck that cliffhanger seriously.
I'm really not sure what to make of it. It's an odd book, the characters are OK but a little flat, the storyline is OK. It's not a bad book, but neither is it a good book. It's OK is all I can really say.
5 out of 5 recommend. So much build up and angst. Could not put this down. Love how twisted pretty much all the characters are in their own way. Author does a great job portraying the internal debates of the characters without monologuing.
I binge-read this in just a few hours—it completely pulled me in. Mackenzie’s story grabbed me from the start and didn’t let go. The romance, drama, and tension were all so well done, and the characters felt real and engaging.
By the end, I expected the Devils to make a different move, but the twist made sense—and finally answered the question I had the whole time about what happened to her father and how it shaped her situation. Starting the next one!
This was a bit slow minus the murder and th3 fleeing but with the guys you could reallh feel the hatred
Not sure how i feel abour camile in their world nobody is that friendly it is makimg me suspicious and her mum definately knows more than she is letting on i want to know howmshe kmow Natanile and will we find out whomkilled doms mum
Trigger warning: ⚠️ I will be talking about details of potential triggering things. ⚠️
I’ve decided anything that has to do with the mafia/mob is just not my cup of tea. There’s always more drama than a soap opera and it makes me cringe trying to read it. To the point where I skimmed almost the entire book hoping it would get better, but alas I just didn’t like it.
Some things just don’t add up or make sense. And it seems the theme in this book (and every mob/mafia romance) is that women are nothing and men rule the world. Oh and of course someone from “outside” always “thinks she’s better than us”. 🙄(projecting much)
The part where Dom says “daddy” while he cuts himself is not even remotely a turn on. Then he calls her sis while screwing her… bleh. Nope, it’s gross.
This book has like nearly every trigger out there. It’s just too much to keep me interested. It’s like a mishmash of everything thrown into words for shock factor and makes it hard to follow or truly care about. I honestly only kept going just to see how they reacted when she inevitably had a seizure in front of them. I will say, the plot twist at the end was a surprise… but it really was already too much at that point and had me rolling my eyes more.
This is a mafia/dark romance/reverse harem/stepbrother romance/enemies to lovers/secret society (kinda)/bully romance mishmash with a bunch of triggering subjects sprinkled in.
This was absolutely amazing! I went into the book half blind (i stopped reading TW and CW long ago) the only thing i knew was that it was written by my favourite duo and it was college bully RH romance. And damn did it deliver! But truth be told please do read the TW!
I’m still reeling from that cliffhanger, but i’m hoping next books come out soon and i can enjoy them very very soon!
The story follows Mackenzie after some unfortunate choices her mom and her move to Verona Falls, as her mom has to marry the dean of the university and that’s where Mackenzie meets the devils (one of them is her soon to be step brother). There are sparks between them, but there’s also hatred because neither Dom (stepbro) nor Mackenzie want her to be there. And so the struggle for who will make each others life hell starts! But while Mackenzie has no clue what school she’s going in kr what are the new rules it is the boys playground and they dictate all the rules!
I loved the push and pull between all the characters. And the angst, so much angsts, the enemies to lovers was so good here! And the spice! Each boy gets his time with her and they also have group scenes and damn if it wasn’t epic!
There are secrets to uncover, characters to fall in love with and hate, and so many twists that you’ll be in for a wild ride!