REVIEW: A HURT SO SWEET VOL.1 (Elite of Eden Falls Prep #1) BY BETTI ROSEWOOD

Title: A Hurt so Sweet Vol.1(Elite of Eden Falls Prep #1)

Author: Betti Rosewood

Genre: Romance, Contemporary, New Adult

Publication date: September 2019

Ebook: 231 pages

My Rating: ★★★★

BLURB:

If you can't beat the rich boys...

F*ck them.

Lily Anna Oakes and I share everything.
We have the same billion-dollar name, the same designer clothes, and the same messed-up problems.

But Lily Anna and I will never meet. She died years ago.

This town broke her. I’ll burn it to the ground before I let that happen to me.

In Eden Falls, I’m forced to attend a school for the elite. The Firstborns own this place and they think they own me, too. It’s not long before Dexter, Caspian, Lai, and Julian become the bane of my existence.

There are only two people I’m afraid of – my strict father, and my malevolent fiancé. Unfortunately for me, my husband-to-be is one of the Firstborns ruining my life.

Dexter Booth and I will marry on my birthday to secure our families’ bond.

Every woman in this damn town wants to be Dexter’s toy. Except me.

Dex and his Eden Falls Prep cronies have forced me to give up my body. I know my betrothed wants my mind next.

I play along… But soon, I’ll leave the beautiful jerk behind without the thing he wants most from me.

His heir.

MY REVIEW

OMG, this book was a mind f***k. Knowing it's a bully romance I dived head straight into this one, and booooy was I in for a treat. Since when are high school romances so dark and twisted!? Well.. since Betti Rosewood started writing them.

"Dexter Booth isn’t the kind of boy who gets bored of his toys. He’s the kind of monster who breaks them on purpose."

This was the first book of the Elite of Eden Falls Prep series and the story intrigued me from the beginning. I'm a sucker for bad boys so I have to say I utterly loved Dexter. He is the ultimate bully, she is like royalty in Eden Falls, his father being one of the founding members of this town. He is arrogant, cruel and painfully gorgeous. He treats the heroine badly, he takes pleasure in torturing and humiliating her in front of their colleagues and friends. But there seems to be more to his behavior than beeing a spoiled rich boy. He has a secret confined between the walls of his mansion that nobody knows about.

"I keep waiting for her. Keep glancing at the stairs to steal a glance of the toy that has stolen my thoughts and refuses to let go."

Pandora is also a Firstborn, and important member of their community, but unlike Dexter, she's been away from this town for too long, so nobody gives her the respect she deserves. She is one tough cookie, she learns to adapt to the cruel environment that surrounds her in her father's mansion and at her school. She is feisty and doesn't bow her head to Dexter's nasty behavior. But even so, she still feels a pull towards him, an attraction that she doesn't want to acknowledge at first.

“I can do whatever the hell I wasn’t to you and you’ll keep coming back for more. You really are a glutton for punishment, Pandora.”

The twisted bearing of all the characters in this book made my jaw drop several times. The storyline was suspenseful, with lots of intense scenes, some of them borderline brutal. I had lots of teenage drama and conflict and the plot kept me really invested in knowing more. I would have wanted more details about Pandora's mother, and how the heck Lilly Anna ended up living at the Oakes mansion in the first place!? I have so many questions... plus that cliffhanger... gahhh... I wanted to scream at the end. I can't wait for the next volume to come out. I'm so curious to see what will happen between Pandora and Dexter and I have a theory about his secret and I'm so anxious to see if it's what I think.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.