Friday, February 5, 2016

Book Review: Bully by Penelope Douglas

Bully (Fall Away #1)
By Penelope Douglas 
Release Date: February 18, 2014
Source: Publisher
My name is Tate. He doesn't call me that, though. He would never refer to me so informally, if he referred to me at all. No, he'll barely even speak to me.

But he still won't leave me alone.

We were best friends once. Then he turned on me and made it his mission to ruin my life. I've been humiliated, shut out, and gossiped about all through high school. His pranks and rumors got more sadistic as time wore on, and I made myself sick trying to stay out of his way. I even went to France for a year, just to avoid him.

But I'm done hiding from him now, and there's no way in hell I'll allow him to ruin my senior year. He might not have changed, but I have. It's time to fight back. 

I'm not going to let him bully me anymore.




I am no stranger to Penelope Douglas's books. I have loved every book in the Fall Away series that I've read and, typical me, I have read books 2 and 3, but completely skipped over book 1. Seeing Tate and Jared so in love in the later books in the series, I was eager to finally read their story in Bully. 

Tate and Jared used to be best friends. They shared each other's secrets, pains, and dreams. The summer they were fourteen, though, Jared completely turns and spends his life tormenting Tate, driving everyone, especially guys, away from her. Tate has taken it for years, but when she returns home from a year in france for her senior year, Tate decides to take a stand and give Jared some of his own medicine. The more Tate pushes. the more she sees beneath Jared's angry demeanor and into the boy she used to know. 

Freaking Jared and Tate. I have no idea how I could have skipped over their book because it was SO GOOD. At first, I wasn't sure I would completely believe a book about a girl who fell for her bully, but Jared is so broken and just needs someone to tell him everything would be okay. He has had such a rough life, much rougher than Tate could even imagine. I was dying to figure out what had happened to him and for him to finally open up to Tate. Even though Tate hated Jared for making her life miserable. there was an undeniable chemistry that was driving her insane. The tension was off the charts and I could not stop reading until they finally, FINALLY, got together. And then I kept on reading until the end. 

Tate definitely grew throughout the course of this book and I loved seeing her go from the victim to a strong survivor. While she did give in a little too much to her anger and became the bully in some situations, I loved how much she stood up to Jared. Her retaliation was just awesome and I never knew how Jared would react to the latest thing she did. Oh, and she raced a car! I love any books that have car racing in them and while Jared was super hot behind the wheel of his car, I loved when Tate took a shot at it. Every moment Tate and Jared were together was supercharged with chemistry and tension that just sucked me into the story and refused to let me go. 

If you can't tell, I loved this book and hate myself for taking this long to read it. I am already planning on diving into book 1.5 soon (Until You), which I believe is this book from Jared's point of view. I'm already freaking out over how amazing it's going to be. I definitely recommend Penelope's Fall Away series if you want some amazing characters, intense emotions, and seriously hot chemistry.




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