Review: Very Wicked Things

May 21, 2014 Kristi Reviews, Teaser 0 ★★★★½

Very Wicked Things

Published on May 11, 2013

Genres: Chick Lit, Contemporary, New Adult, Romance

NOTE: It is recommended you read Very Wicked Beginnings first. (Prequel Novella).

WARNING: This new adult romance is dark with sexual situations and graphic language. Over 18 please. THIS IS NOT YOUNG ADULT.

Ballerina Dovey Beckham is a scholarship student at Briarcrest Academy, determined to prove she's more than just a girl with the wrong pedigree. She does whatever it takes to succeed in her endgame, even if it means surrendering her body but never her heart.

Until the day she meets him, and he rips apart all her well-laid plans. Suddenly, the girl everyone thought unbreakable might just shatter.

Cuba "Hollywood" Hudson is rich, spoiled, and a star football player. With his fast cars and superficial girlfriends, he lives the high-life, hiding his secrets from the world.

Until the day he meets her, and she offers him something he's never tasted...love.

But once in a lifetime kind of love doesn't come easy...especially when dirty money, past sins, and old flames come calling.

Welcome to Briarcrest Academy, where sometimes, only the wicked survive.

Ok, I read Very Bad Things, book one in this series and loved it. I read it almost a year and half ago and I still remember the characters and plot. That tells me it was really good in my book. I was so excited to read this next book that I bumped it up my very LONG TBR list and it didn’t disappoint.

You know you’re reading a good book when you can’t put it down and when you HAVE to, you’re counting the minutes until you can pick it back up. That was this book for me. I became a part of the Briarcrest world and I felt like I was living and breathing Dovey and Cuba’s relationship. It’s hard to categorize this book because there’s a lot that takes place in the pages. There’s angst, of god is there ANGST! Ilsa is a master writer of angst. I was in turmoil waiting for these two to get their HEA. And Ilsa made me wait so long…it was the sweetest torture.

The characters… I love how strong and capable Dovey is. She is one tough cookie with a huge heart. Blood is thicker than water? Not to Dovey and when you become her family, she’ll do anything, has done everything, to keep you safe. Cuba is battling with himself and refuses to believe he deserves love. He punishes himself daily while living a lie every day. Every day he plants a killer smile on his face and acts like the man on campus his reputation claims. But I really think one must be brave and strong to not let that much pain and emotion out… Cuba has a lot of demons he’s battling, and Dovey won’t put up with his fake outer presence.

“Here’s the thing, Cuba. Somedays will eat you alive. They’re promises you make to fool yourself into believing everything will turn out right in the end. Someday, your ship will come in. Someday, you’ll tell me why you’re an asshole. But that someday gets further and further away, until before you know it, it turns into never. Make your someday, now. That’s my motto.”- Dovey

The book begins with Dovey, a poor, from the wrong part of town, girl who has a scholarship to Briarcrest Academy, the elite high school. She is a ballerina who keeps to herself and also lives with an older lady after her mom passes away from a drug overdose. Cuba, the mega hot football star and high school “player” is battling his own demons and lives each day as a facade. The chemistry, the sexual attraction between these two is apparent from the get go and intensifies as the reader is slowly introduced to their past relationship through a set of really well written flashbacks. Not a lot of writers can write flashbacks well in a novel, but the way Ilsa did it and when, gave the reader a clear picture of the love and butterflies these two experienced and then lost.

My body clenched at the images that tumbles into my head. Of me straddling him in the front seat, my tongue tracing the curves of his tattoo. (I mean, hello! That’s hot.)

This book also has a lot of romance. Romance, which is different than sex. While the sex scenes were sexy as hell, it’s the romance between these two… their feelings, emotions, actions, hearts are what made this story romantic to me. Cuba rescues Dovey in small and monumental ways throughout this story. But in the end, I think Dovey rescues Cuba even more.

Almost as we were meant to be, as if we’d known each other in another life and were reconnecting. And I know it was a silly thought, but it stuck with me. Like a dancer who automatically recognizes which toe shoes are hers, my heart sensed him as mine.

My heart ached for these two through most of the book. Both are fighting the feelings they have for each other which only prevents them for fully moving forward in their lives. The demons and realities these two characters must deal with during the book only adds to their depth and character. Both have to make really hard and difficult choices, must live with what they choose, and figure a way to move on… hopefully together. It really blew me away.

“…After bad things happen, it’s up to us how we go on. The sun may be gone,but the stars are still there, waiting, always giving you light.”-Dovey

The only thing that I didn’t like in this wonderful story was that the end felt a bit rushed. I wanted one more chapter between the final chapter and the epilogue. May of been them reconnecting before graduation, graduation in itself, the move out of Ratcliffe…something that solidified Dovey and Cuba as the teenage couple they are… in such an adult situation.

***My one regret was that I was SO excited to read this book, I didn’t read the prequel, Very Wicked Beginnings. I wish I slowed down, savored this amazing couple a little bit more. Do yourself a favor and make sure you read the novella prequel, then this book. ***

4.5 Wickedly Fantastic Stars, I can’t wait for Sebastian’s book… and more Spider too!

Check out the trailer for Very Wicked Things