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Heart Of Stone #1
The Lying Game
3 Reasons Why I’m F*cked:
I am not officially enrolled in this college, so one wrong move could ruin everything.
My abusive dad has tracked me down and is trying to worm his way back into my life.
The college’s hockey God is a raging sociopath with a hard-on for my destruction.
Otherwise… life is great.
I thought running away from my pathetic drunken excuse of a father would help me escape the past.
Then I bumped into Stone.
Sometimes fate is a funny thing, but sometimes she’s just laughing at you.
I’ve bent my own rules to give myself a better chance at life, but Stone has no rules.
He just wants to watch me squirm.
The only thing standing between me and my future is him... but he’s about to learn that I’m not like his other conquests. I won’t play his games.
The Lying Game is a feisty sports college romance with a swoon-worthy HEA. It’s best read after the prequel 'The Games We Play' but can be read as a standalone. This book is an 18+ as there are explicit themes throughout.
I am not officially enrolled in this college, so one wrong move could ruin everything.
My abusive dad has tracked me down and is trying to worm his way back into my life.
The college’s hockey God is a raging sociopath with a hard-on for my destruction.
Otherwise… life is great.
I thought running away from my pathetic drunken excuse of a father would help me escape the past.
Then I bumped into Stone.
Sometimes fate is a funny thing, but sometimes she’s just laughing at you.
I’ve bent my own rules to give myself a better chance at life, but Stone has no rules.
He just wants to watch me squirm.
The only thing standing between me and my future is him... but he’s about to learn that I’m not like his other conquests. I won’t play his games.
The Lying Game is a feisty sports college romance with a swoon-worthy HEA. It’s best read after the prequel 'The Games We Play' but can be read as a standalone. This book is an 18+ as there are explicit themes throughout.
140 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 4, 2022
63 people are currently reading
105 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
February 9, 2022
3.5 stars
"You do something to me...I feel something when I'm with you."
This was an enjoyable push-and-pull sports romance. Raina Walsh and Stone Giles were like oil and water. They didn't gel well but when they did, they were fire! I've got to admit that for the first half of the novel, I found both characters hard to like - they were both brash and combative, and I struggled to find their soft spots. Raina had had a very tough upbringing and she was basically hiding in plain sight at a college, where she wasn't officially a student but attending all the lessons. This also boggled my mind because my question was why?? To what end? Stone was from a wealthy family but he didn't get on with his father. He had a load of anger management issues but drowned them in unhealthy ways. I understood his attraction to Raina because she didn't treat him like a god on campus, like everyone else did. She was a challenge and he loved that she was feisty, even though it drove him crazy.
I liked the direction of the story, but I would have liked to have seen more in-depth development of their characters and their relationship. They seemed to go from zero to sixty pretty quickly, as it was almost glossed over that they were spending time more regularly together. Raina and Stone were both very strong, independent characters with hard shells, so I would have loved to have seen the gradual breaking down of their walls, and softening of their demeanours, and witnessed more of their fall into love.
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-re...
"You do something to me...I feel something when I'm with you."
This was an enjoyable push-and-pull sports romance. Raina Walsh and Stone Giles were like oil and water. They didn't gel well but when they did, they were fire! I've got to admit that for the first half of the novel, I found both characters hard to like - they were both brash and combative, and I struggled to find their soft spots. Raina had had a very tough upbringing and she was basically hiding in plain sight at a college, where she wasn't officially a student but attending all the lessons. This also boggled my mind because my question was why?? To what end? Stone was from a wealthy family but he didn't get on with his father. He had a load of anger management issues but drowned them in unhealthy ways. I understood his attraction to Raina because she didn't treat him like a god on campus, like everyone else did. She was a challenge and he loved that she was feisty, even though it drove him crazy.
I liked the direction of the story, but I would have liked to have seen more in-depth development of their characters and their relationship. They seemed to go from zero to sixty pretty quickly, as it was almost glossed over that they were spending time more regularly together. Raina and Stone were both very strong, independent characters with hard shells, so I would have loved to have seen the gradual breaking down of their walls, and softening of their demeanours, and witnessed more of their fall into love.
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-re...
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October 13, 2025DNF 30%. It didn't really occur to me how insane an idea it was for the h to "attend" college without being enrolled in it until I actually started the book and then I just really couldn't get past it. The resources and effort it had to have taken would have been better spent faking a degree and getting a real job. Not to mention, there was no real purpose to her doing what she was doing. She didn't seem like someone who just loved to learn, she kept saying she was doing it to get a good job, but "stalking college classes" doesn't really look good on a resume. An undergrad degree isn't really going to teach you anything that's going to directly apply to a career, you mainly go for the piece of paper, which she has no idea how she's actually going to get. In addition to that malarkey, the MC'S somehow sounded like the exact same people, Impotent rage was their whole personality. The h was leaning so hard into the whole "i'M dIFfrENt" thing while the H was textbook Jerk Jock, it was painful. Combined with amateurish writing that was cringe worthy, I couldn't make it any further. I finally bested the sunk cost fallacy and got out before I wasted any more time.
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February 5, 2022🎁 FREE on Amazon today (2/5/2022)! 🎁
February 2, 2022
Congratulations on your first published book and thank you for choosing me to be apart of your ARC team.
So, I read The Lying Game last night. Once I finally sat down and dove in I couldn’t stop. Stayed up well past my bedtime just to see how it ended.
Sooo my comments & “review”
This book completely brings two lost souls together. It makes you see that there is still light through all the darkness.
Raina is head strong. Stone is cold and an asshole. I was so intrigued with how she literally snuck her way into college to better her future even though she knew she wasn’t going to obtain her degree. There was a point I truly thought her dad would “win” - I can’t get over how quickly Stone fell in love with Raina and how despite all her history with men in her life, how she opened her heart to love Stone back.
I feel that there could be so much more to their story. The epilogue just wasn’t enough for me. I wanted more, so with that I gave this book a solid ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Looking forward to more of your stories and adventures in the future.
So, I read The Lying Game last night. Once I finally sat down and dove in I couldn’t stop. Stayed up well past my bedtime just to see how it ended.
Sooo my comments & “review”
This book completely brings two lost souls together. It makes you see that there is still light through all the darkness.
Raina is head strong. Stone is cold and an asshole. I was so intrigued with how she literally snuck her way into college to better her future even though she knew she wasn’t going to obtain her degree. There was a point I truly thought her dad would “win” - I can’t get over how quickly Stone fell in love with Raina and how despite all her history with men in her life, how she opened her heart to love Stone back.
I feel that there could be so much more to their story. The epilogue just wasn’t enough for me. I wanted more, so with that I gave this book a solid ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Looking forward to more of your stories and adventures in the future.
April 18, 2022
3.5 stars
I received and ARC of this book and was looking forward to reading it. Overall it was quite an enjoyable book. It was well written and was edited with minor typos. I don't usually read bully romances and was actually unaware this was one (until I saw that the prequel was considered one). While both H and h were antiheros (which I think was the aim) it didn't seem that bullyish - but then again I don't have a yardstick to measure that sub-genre by. The book moved at a good pace and events unfolded without feeling rushed. The author did a good job of showing how the main characters were such enemies (as opposed to many who don't).
There were a few things I didn't like and a few things that bothered me. I just wasn't invested in the characters. I really didn't give 2 hoots about Stone or Raine. They just didn't grab me and engage me - which made the book less interesting. I'm not sure why. Maybe because Raine's way of attending college was so odd - there are other ways to attend college even if you have no money. And there was no background about that so I couldn't get a sense of why she had to do things this way. And Stone just came across as entitled despite hints that there was more to him. And we really didn't get any understanding of his character - why he was the way he was - yes he had a crappy childhood but so do many folks. There was just no depth shown to him. I also didn't get why they fell for each other. Yeah there was lust and they fought, but how does that translate to love. There were 2 other plot lines that bothered me. One was regarding how h got back at H about the flyers. Why didn't she use that method to make herself legit? Made no sense to me. And the big thing I had an issue with was the reveal she had at the end. I wasn't bothered about the moral aspect of it (though the hypocrisy was interesting), but rather that she potentially put Stone in danger by doing what she did. How did she know he wouldn't give it to friends, use it himself etc. That really bugged me.
Overall though it was a solid read despite my issues above. I finished it in one go. I liked the growth of the characters and the author did a good job with that. I think most people would really enjoy this book.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
I received and ARC of this book and was looking forward to reading it. Overall it was quite an enjoyable book. It was well written and was edited with minor typos. I don't usually read bully romances and was actually unaware this was one (until I saw that the prequel was considered one). While both H and h were antiheros (which I think was the aim) it didn't seem that bullyish - but then again I don't have a yardstick to measure that sub-genre by. The book moved at a good pace and events unfolded without feeling rushed. The author did a good job of showing how the main characters were such enemies (as opposed to many who don't).
There were a few things I didn't like and a few things that bothered me. I just wasn't invested in the characters. I really didn't give 2 hoots about Stone or Raine. They just didn't grab me and engage me - which made the book less interesting. I'm not sure why. Maybe because Raine's way of attending college was so odd - there are other ways to attend college even if you have no money. And there was no background about that so I couldn't get a sense of why she had to do things this way. And Stone just came across as entitled despite hints that there was more to him. And we really didn't get any understanding of his character - why he was the way he was - yes he had a crappy childhood but so do many folks. There was just no depth shown to him. I also didn't get why they fell for each other. Yeah there was lust and they fought, but how does that translate to love. There were 2 other plot lines that bothered me. One was regarding how h got back at H about the flyers. Why didn't she use that method to make herself legit? Made no sense to me. And the big thing I had an issue with was the reveal she had at the end. I wasn't bothered about the moral aspect of it (though the hypocrisy was interesting), but rather that she potentially put Stone in danger by doing what she did. How did she know he wouldn't give it to friends, use it himself etc. That really bugged me.
Overall though it was a solid read despite my issues above. I finished it in one go. I liked the growth of the characters and the author did a good job with that. I think most people would really enjoy this book.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
February 9, 2022
I so felt for Raina in this story but to be honest, both Raina and Stone are not always likeable characters as they don't always treat each other or even others right. However, there is something about this story that drew me in and made me keep reading. There is definite chemistry between these two, and you want to root for them that they will work out. This romance was dark, intense and entertaining.
I received a free advanced review copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving my fair and honest opinion.
I received a free advanced review copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving my fair and honest opinion.
March 2, 2022
Ok, so I didn't hate this book. However a lot of it made absolutely no sense. First, why would you go to these classes, take tests and have it count for nothing. Makes no sense. There are ways to get into college, legitimate ways, even for underprivileged kids. Second, how did her "drunk" father find her, but a university full of professional people didn't realize a thing. Third, she felt so guilty about getting his ass jumped, but then goes right back to ruining his life. There were a lot of these little things that irked me, but the final was the pill switch. She could have killed Stone....how did she know what he would do with those exact pills. I love fiction, but there were some huge stretches in this one. I do however think you pulled off their chemistry though, and that's what helped me finish this book.
January 31, 2022
Beautiful Angsty college romance about Stone the hot shot ice hockey player and Raina the neglected daughter of a drunk father who just wants to better herself at college. Stone is absolutely arrogant, but you can't help but love him! A very enjoyable - and hot 🔥 read and I cant wait for more books by Brooke! 💙
February 9, 2022
I love a good bully romance. What was nice about this one was Raina wasn't a total pushover she fought Stone with a vengeance. The character chemistry was super hot. The story sucked me in from the beginning. This was a quick very enjoyable read.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
April 19, 2022
Raina is trying to get through life the best way she can and lying is what is doing it for her. She is living her best lies until Stone. Stone does not like that she is standing up to him and won't back down. But when he learns that someone else is out to get her, everything changes. Can he make her disfunction functional so that they can have a crazy relationship.
January 2, 2023
Last book I started and finished in ‘22. This was a quick easy read. A little bully but didn’t go to extreme and was passed on to romantic pretty fast. Strong female. Both main characters had issues but I liked how they came together. Trigger warning for people who don’t want to read about domestic abuse or drug overdose.
March 19, 2022
Had to deduct a star for the ending. Did they stay together after he was drafted. What happens next. That is not my idea of a HEA
May 3, 2022
It’s not a bad book. It’s on the shorter side so to me the plot felt rushed and there were a ton of plot twists that felt forced to me.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews