In Maywood Heights, stars burn bright. They fall even harder.
They call them the Court, an elite boys club who rule Windsor Preparatory Academy like gods among men. And, of course, they're led by Hercules himself.
Royal Prinze-yes, that's actually his name--walks around both the school and the town like he owns them. His affiliation to the prestigious Court only gives him more clout. These boys do anything they want. They take anything they want, and they f*ck anything they want... in that order.
Then there's me.
I came to Maywood Heights to live with my virtually indifferent father because my sister went AWOL. She chose to stay with him after our parents' divorce when we were kids, and I haven't seen or heard from her since summer began. The last thing I imagined when enrolling at her school was that she'd be connected to a group like the Court, and boys like Royal. She's nothing like them and so much better than Royal and his elitist attitude...
So, why then are they saying he's her best friend?
Eden O’Neill is an Amazon top 10 bestselling romance author known for sweeping readers off their feet with dark romance, fire-emoji-level spice, and a whole lot of angsty feelings. Eden inspires audiences to embrace their desires without shame—whether they want to fulfill them through fiction…or otherwise.
She teases over 100,000 followers on Tiktok and Instagram every week with her sassy (and ultra spicy) videos that pack an emotional punch. Her debut dark romance series featuring a found family spanning multiple generations has sold over 85,000 ebooks and paperbacks and continues to tantalize readers with passionate stories about morally gray heroes and the heroines who have no problem breaking them.
When Eden is not penning spicy reads, she can be found at Disney World with her favorite human and a vegan beignet. She’s also a dog mom of one good corgi and another one who’s doing her best.
As an 8 year old, December decided that actually she wasn't going to move away from California with her father and sister, but she was going to stay with her aunt. Her mother's dead, and not leaving the memories behind is her priority.
I'm more inclined to the view that children are involved in family consultation, but not decision making. But I'm also fully aware and fully annoyed by fictional fathers who are impossibly bad at caring for their own children, so: fine.
December grows up poor and her sister grows up rich, and its not really worth getting into. It's like if this was sort of the Parent Trap but the parents (or guardian) decided it was ok for one kid to be poor, and the protagonists know about each other and aren't identical twins. And while one of them goes to live the other's life, the other is just gone. And there's no possible romance or rekindling of feelings between the adults.
So not really at all like Parent Trap, I don't know why I brought it up.
When her sister disappears, December moves across country to live with her Dad, in the hopes that her sister will come home. She starts school at her sister's posh school where everyone is very rich and there's this secret society known as the Court. It's boys. And dads, but that's not important. The boys wear a gorilla ring and have special (non-magical) powers and a clubhouse mansion or frat house. They don't have to pay for the booze, and there are 20 dogs?
Girls can gain auxiliary power through a committed long-term relationship with a Court boy. They get a necklace and are referred to as Court Kept, and vomit this book should be all about tearing down this oppressive elitist system that is toxic lady-frenemy and also bad for the environment probably.
Instead, this book is about December's adoption of a random puppy and hiding it from her dad while making friends and ho girl enemies at the new school and having very little chemistry with the power sexy boy who helps her with pet care basics, like dog food and escaping a burning building.
The power sexy boy is Royal, and he's ok. I mean I'm now conditioned for hero boys to be beyond filthy to the heroine and he's not. Or at least not yet. He's a bastion of the oppressive elitist system, but he was also December's sister's best friend, so potentially helpful in resolving THAT mystery, but good luck if as a reader you're hoping for any plot suspense. Or for sense.
I mean seriously: the puppy. It just shows up. A pure bred lab, and no one is looking for it, and December doesn't think maybe she should try to find its owner? A chocolate Labrador puppy currently sells for $2k - $4k on Gumtree, and while that's Australian money and breeder prices you cannot tell me that in the US puppy finders keepers is normal pet rules.
The heroine's fitness as a pet owner is borderline at best, and her fitness to participate in her own plot is entirely too low. The book suffers from the need to maintain the fiction that the sister has disappeared but is not missing. It's a waste of time. The heroine is not a mystery heroine. Her approach to life is to show up and wait. Why is this a thing? Can't young people participate in their own stories any more, or at least ask some questions?
This book was a joke and I laughed my ass off while reading it. The characters had no chemistry and everything was so rushed between them. This dude who’s name is Royal, don’t even tell me about it, it’s the personification of a mood change. Literally went from ‘I hate you, stay away from me’ to kissing her. Also when he told her ‘this is over, I’m done’ I couldn’t take it anymore and burst out laugh cause the only thing they did was just fuck and barely interacted. Anyways, I did like him tho, he’s funny. I give him that. And December, I also cannot believe that’s her name, was tolerable. I’m actually surprised because I should’ve hated this, but I didn’t. I’m not continuing this series cause I really don’t care about that cliffhanger, but it was a fun read.
"They The Pretty Stars" is the story of December, Royal Prinze and the Court boys.
I was enjoying the sequel series, hence I decided to read the prequel too. The story is about the heroine moving to Maywood Heights, back with her father after her sister goes missing. There's a lot of flashbacks to the past, with her trying to reach her sister, her interactions with the Court boys, a cute dog named Hershey and a heartbreaking cliffhanger. I wouldnt call this a romance per say, but a YA dramedy.
Even though I do not usually like this genre, I enjoyed it!
I really, really wanted to like this book. I tried, but for me it just fell flat. It didnt grab me at all and I found myself trying my hardest just to get through it. The heroine was boring. I feel like she was trying to be this badass but it didnt ever happen. The only thing i really found a little interesting was waiting to find out what happened to her sister. I think that was what pushed me to finish it. I hate to write this review but I did receive an ARC of this book and i wanted to leave an honest review.
this book was so so bad and i have good reasons why.
1) it talks about her dog hershey the entire time. the summary of the book should’ve just mentioned the dog instead of the love interest because it’s as important as Royal. i’m not even joking
2) love interest and mc had no chemistry/connection
4/5 ✰ - they the pretty stars by eden o’neill + cliffhanger ending (series)
AH. i’m so happy to be back in the court world !! i initially started this universe with dorian & sloane, so i was rlly excited to read about d’s parents and they did NOT disappoint!
after her sister disappears, december moves back home, in attempt to find her, and starts at windsor academy. much to her surprise, she finds out her sister was best friends with the captain of the lacrosse team, royal prinze. despite the off putting first encounter, feelings start developing & soon december is wrapped up in the court.
this was such a short and quick read but with that cliffhanger ending, i will be SPRINTING to that second book!
december & royal’s relationship could be considered an extremely fast paced, BUT it was developed so smoothly and naturally, that i didn’t mind it at all! in fact, i loved it! there were so many times, as i was reading this that royal reminded me of d & i shook my head “like father, like son” these prinze boys have me in a chokehold.
december was such an enjoyable character! i loved her love for hershey, and how passionate and caring she is for those around her, but also won’t be walked all over!
even though i had known where this series was going (because i read court legacy first), i was still incredibly shocked with that ending?? and i can’t wait to continue 🫶
This is my first book by Eden O'Neill and all I have to say is WOW!! This story intrigued me from the very beginning and I couldn't put this book down! I needed to know what was going to happen next, where did Paige go, does Em go back to her aunts, is Royal hiding something? All of these questions and after this cliffhanger it left me with many more!
December leaves LA to stay with her dad in hopes that her sister Paige would come back. December and Paige may not live everyday with each other but they were best of friends. Em wants answers about her sister and learns a lot about her. Being on the Court's radar was not part of the plan, but once Royal Prinze caught her eye things start to change.
This book is full of twists and turns that you don't know who to believe or whats going to happen next. Eden O'Neill wrote a phenomenal story that is gripping and mysterious and now I am dying for book 2 to find out what happens next. This book is worth the read!
The names of most of the characters are weird as fuck and so is the whole concept of the book, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. The ending didn’t surprise me at all, I knew that was going to happen from the beginning. Still, I do really need to stop reading books from random Instagram ads and shit and read a real book for once.
This year, part of my reading goal was to clean up my kindle which means reading books that have been sitting there for a while, like this freebie They the Pretty Stars by Eden O'Neill. This interested me of course as love my bullymances and school fiction. In this book, our main female lead December aka Ember is heading to live with her dad as her sister Paige has disappeared and she hopes that by being there, she can help save her sister just like Paige saved her when she went through a hard time. The sisters have always been there for each other in their toughest times. This time though, things are strained as Paige asked for space and now Ember has arrived and things are off. Her dad treats her like she is a burden and deserved what she went through and in her new school, she is in Paige's shadow as Paige's little sister. The difference though was Paige was everything Ember wasn't from stunning, athletic, and a lesbian. When Ember starts school, she learns that Paige's best friend was Royal Prinze who is head of "the Court" and the most popular guy in school. Now if Ember is going to discover what happened to her sister, she has to get in with the Court for answers. Can Ember infiltrate the Court and befriend them as Paige did? They the Pretty Stars ends on a pretty big cliffhanger that leaves readers going OMFG and needing Book #2 in a heartbeat.
“Why would I know about him?” I asked, purposely severing his connection with me and talking to Birdie. She frowned in my direction. “Royal Prinze?” she questioned, to which I shrugged. She tilted her head. “He’s only your sister’s best friend.”
December comes to Maywood Heights to live with her virtually indifferent father because her sister went AWOL. And the events following will rock your world.
December will get under your skin, she's amazing. I loved her. The boys are just as amazing. This is one of those stories that slowly creeps up on you, and when it does, letting go isn't an option.
The cliff isn't mind blowing, it's almost expected. But it's just what you need to not stop thinking about this book and you'll kind of wish the next book was already out.
This one was pretty hard to rate. I wanted to give it 3 stars because overall it was really hard to get into unless it was scenes with Royal and Em which are the love interests. Then it became a 4 because there was a bit more being let out into the open about 150 pages in. I especially loved when the Royal boys all officially allowed Em to feel like she belonged somewhere.
HOWEVER, this is book 1 to a series so I will keep it at a 4 star review because seeing as it started slow but ended good.. it might just pull an ACOTAR on me and completely drown me in the story the next 3 books.
I’m excited to see where this storyline takes me.. especially with that ending.
This was better than I expected, and surprisingly not that spicy lol. Why did I think it was gonna be crazy? Nonetheless I got vibes from a million kisses in your lifetime and immediately had to read it. THE PLOT TWIST? Did not expect that, I guess that’s why there’s 3 books.
Only thing that was a let down was I was hoping for a little more slow burn, but it didn’t make it any less entertaining
This was my first read by this author, and I have to say, it was great. I really enjoyed it. I was sucked in to the story from the first chapter. The characters were intense. I can’t wait to read more of this series.
4.25⭐️ Now this book I really enjoyed! There is a mystery aspect, but then is romance which I loved! Also this book ends on a big cliffhanger, so I need to read the next one and see what happens!
The best thing about this book is that it’s short. And the mystery is kind of intriguing. Unfortunately, those are the only good things I can say about it. To be fair, I’m not the target audience. However my issues aren’t about it being a YA romance. They’re about the failure of the story to deliver on its potential. You can see what the author is trying to achieve but it falls far short of the goal. It’s too bad because the outline of a potentially decent story is the but the execution is lacking. The angst isn’t quite there. The “bully” isn’t a bully at all and is actually a pretty nice guy. The author tries to build tension but the writing is too weak to make it work. I won’t be continuing with this series.
It was very different than what I expected. The edits that I have seen made me believe that I would need to push through my dislike for bullying and dark themes set in high school. However, unless I missed it this didn't give me any of that. I will say I saw a cliffhanger coming but it does make me want to know more. I hope the next book gives deeper character development though.
Im rounding this to 3 starts as i think its the genre i adore thats giving it the extra 5.....
Its moreish and i want to carry it on... But characters feel a bit unrealistic... there is no stopping to question things, December just takes everything in her stride as it is....
My sister goes missing i would interrogate everyone who was friends with her.... December seems more concerned about fitting in and her puppy.... the only real reason i think she remembers her sister, is her messages to her....
Still i love a bully Romance so.... a middle score
I enjoyed this story. They The Pretty Stars is an enemies to lovers, light bully, young adult romance that was so engrossing it held my interest from start to finish. I loved the mystery of Paige, I loved the blossoming romance and chemistry between Royal and December, and I loved the gang of friends they both had. There was secrets, lies, family drama and puppies. As this was the 1st book in a four part series it ends in a cliff hanger and I can't wait to find out what happens next. This was an excellent start to the High Court series and I would highly recommend it. The audiobook version was narrated by Kasi Hollowell who did a fantastic job with the narration. Her voice was clear and understandable and she gave the characters their own voice and personality. It was a pleasure listening to her narrate this novel. Pink Flamingo Productions
They The Pretty Stars by Eden O’Neill is an enemies to lovers high school romance that I listened to on audio narrated by Kasi Hollowell.
The book does come with a Warning: This enemies-to-lovers high-school romance contains some dark themes and light bullying.
This is the first book of Eden’s that I have read and it definitely won’t be my last. I was hooked from the very first chapter and couldn’t wait to see what was going to happen next. I loved the chemistry between Royal and December. The book does end on a cliffhanger but that wasn’t a surprise since it’s the first book in a four book series. I can’t wait for the next book in the series Illusions That May to be released on audible so I can get more of their story.
Kasi did an amazing job on the narration. I look forward to listening to more of her work in the future.
I would highly recommend this series if you love enemies to lovers romance.
It’s about time I read the Court High books by Eden O’Neill and I absolutely loved book 1! I started reading the Court Legacy series a couple years ago and I love love love those books so much it was time for me to jump into these. The Court High books are about the parents of our favorite boys (and girls) from the Legacy series. This one, was about Royal and December and I knew I would love it! This book is an enemies (ish) to lovers, dark romance that leaves on a cliff hanger.
If you’ve already read the Legacy series you find out then what really happened to Paige, December’s sister. However, this book is leading up to that and what happened to her when they were all still in high school and it continues in book 2. I can’t wait to read it! Happy reading all.
I'm not sure if this was edited or not because I felt like I needed a red pen while reading. The setup and characters were super underdeveloped, and nothing that happened really made sense to me. If my sister went missing, I'd call the police?? Even if she has run off before, you'd think her family would make more of an effort. Also, her best friend who supposedly runs the town isn't able to do anything? The characters also go through complete 180's with no apparent lead up, which makes it hard to connect with and understand them. Speaking of connection, December and Royal (smh at the names) have literally no connection or reason for being together. They didn't even go looking for her sister together, which would have made sense. This book has so much potential.
they were so cute stawp ☹️ THE CLIFFHANGER?!?!!? not okay. not fun. not cool. not nice. i was expecting that but it hurt. also the emails and texts that december sent to paige felt like hell. the emotions i felt good GOD.