I wanted to like this because I love Havoc, but this was a mess. I understand that this is its own story, so going in, I didn’t expect the Havoc boys 2.0. But I did think it was reasonable to expect a coherent story and relationships that are worth caring about.
One issue right off the bat is that in RH books, it works much better if the guys are already a close knit group. This is one where the guys start as strangers. Another issue is that their personalities are lacking. Bohnes feels like a pale imitation of Cal from Havoc, and I’m insulted for Cal that this boy who is basically “What if Hot Topic was a person?” has stolen some of his traits. Alexi and Widow are both pale imitations of Oscar, and the last guy has a plot straight out of a soap opera, with an evil twin. I wish I was joking.
The relationships involve a lot of Scarlett thirsting after them while they seem uninterested, which makes her look pathetic. Bohnes is the only one chasing her, but they barely talk and she even refers to them as "basically strangers.” So it’s hard for the reader to feel a connection there.
Scarlett feels like a combination of Bernie from Havoc and Gidget from Stunich's MC series, but she's less compelling than either of them. We meet Scarlett when she’s already at the top of her game, a queen at Prescott High. So, that automatically puts the reader at an emotional distance from her, since we didn’t go on the journey of her rise WITH her. It also makes her arrogance off putting.
There’s nothing wrong with a main character who's already at the top. In theory, that’s a fresh departure from the countless books where the heroine starts out powerless. But if she already has all this power, then there are no stakes. The author has to include a reason for the reader to feel invested in her journey! The fact that she’s name dropped in Havoc isn’t enough on its own.
This book tries to have stakes, but the incoherent plot is all over the place. There's a vague threat from an Evil Developer that’s straight out of a Hallmark movie, car racing, an evil twin plot, and a plot with one of Scarlett’s friends, Lemon, who's acting foolish. This friendship plot with Lemon is dead in the water, since the reader never saw Scarlett and Lemon when they were on good terms. We’re only seeing Lemon be horrible, so when Scarlett is having Feelings about Lemon, it’s hard to care. We’re given no reason to be invested in the Lemon drama that takes up a huge chunk of this book.
More than anything else, this is a book that feels like it started in the wrong place. It’s not Scarlett's origin story, since she’s already a queen in Prescott when it begins. It’s not a revenge story. (We’re told that Scarlett got revenge in the past for an incident that killed some family members, why didn’t this story start there?!) It’s not a love story. (The guys are too cold and weird — in an unsexy way). It’s not a “how will this downtrodden girl survive her environment?” story, since she’s doing well for herself. It’s kind of trying to be a “save the town” story, but that lacks drama, since we know that Prescott will still look the same a few years later in the Havoc books. There's no clear reason why we’re jumping into Scarlett’s life at this particular moment, when her story is just…nothing much.
I can get past a book having a messy plot if it gives me characters worth loving (see: the Havoc series!) and I can get over bland characters if the plot is great. But if the plot is a mess AND the characters are more of a series of outfit descriptions than people with personalities, then what is the point?